Who was the greatest warrior, Arjuna or Bhisma
Who was the greatest warrior, Arjuna or Bhisma
An apple to apple comparison is impossible. Arjuna was favorite grandchild of Bhisma and they loved each other a lot.
On 9th day night Krishna claimed Arjuna was not killing Bhisma intentionally and in similar way Duryodhana used to accuse Bhisma of not killing Arjuna intentionally.
Without going in to much details, I would give a basic flaw in Bhisma’s characteristic. If we analyze the 10th day battle we can see that Bhisma took Sikhandi very lightly. He was ignoring Sikhandi’s attack and concentrating on others.
Now One might say that he him self gave the idea of placing Sikhandi before Arjuna to kill him but fact is Bhisma had issues with Sikhandi and that was known to both side and given the number of strategist Pandavas had it was not impossible to come out with the strategy Bhisma told Yudisthira on 9th day.
It was very clever thought strategy to ask Bhisma to put the ball in his court. Does he continue to fight to block Pandavas from their right? Does he want to kill them? Does he want his favorite grandchild to kill him?
He knew Arjuna loved him and won’t fight with him openly which he did spell out to Duryodhana before the battle. But at the same time he considered Arjuna as his equal and only person who has ability to bring him down. Therefore he just gave official advice or approval to Pandavas to bail out from such situation and take it to it’s logical conclusion.
The problem started when Arjuna refused to do that and thought if Bhisma ignores Sikhandi then he would alone be able to kill Bhisma and therefore protecting Sikhandi would be enough.
But that didn’t happened. Sikhandi and Arjuna were on separate chariot and fighting separately although Sikhandi was leading the battle. It was stated that on 10th day every one attacked him and yet he survived all attacks. It was that which prompted Krishna to ask Arjuna to pin Bhisma down.
What Arjuna did on that was a marvelous thing - he made a surprising attack on Bhisma from an angle where opposition won’t be able identify whether it was Arjuna shooting or not. Most likely people of Kouravas believed it was Sikhandi who was shooting at Bhisma. The initial ignorance of Bhisma costed him the entire battle - Arjuna broke his bow. Arjuna technically never allowed Bhisma to pick up a new bow, string it and shoot. He technically broke all of Bhisma’s bows and simultaneously pierced him. It was the pain or impact of the arrows which made Bhisma realized the arrows were coming from Arjuna and not from Sikhandi. But that was much late and Bhisma’s all bows were broken. His helper Dusshashana fought brilliantly on that day to protect Bhisma but he was also defeated by Arjuna and made completely weaponless and helpless. Kouravas were technically blocked and unable to reach out to their commander to help.
As I said earlier that apple to apple comparison is tough and there would be multiple thing to point out on both side. One might say Arjuna had Gandiva bow, Krishna as charioteer or two exhaustible quiver. The problem is when you are in battle ground, your absolute power only counts - what you have and what you don’t. Bhisma also had the boons of his father (for those who believed in boons) and the training provided by Parasurama.
On a psychological aspect Bhisma’s ignorance towards Sikhandi was his psychological weakness which couldn’t be corrected at all. Arjuna had many psychological flaws - his fear of sin or his love or respect for relatives who were fighting for Kouravas or his unwillingness to put up his best against the likes of Bhisma or Drona should be counted as weakness in battle ground.
But that he himself chose Krishna as his charioteer to guide him and Arjuna’s ability to listen to Krishna and correct himself allowed him to overcome the flaws to a certain extent and this is where Bhisma, Drona or any other warriors of Kouravas failed immensely. Arjuna took the steps he needed and that mattered.
So over all Arjuna was the best. He was fighting a right battle for which he had in fact debated with Krishna a lot. He had the proven merit, ability and knowledge, resources and a great spiritual power to sustain the likes of Kurushetra battle.
It’s performance on the battle ground that only counts and not the merit on the paper and it’s important that one chose a right battle and take the required preparation.
An apple to apple comparison is impossible. Arjuna was favorite grandchild of Bhisma and they loved each other a lot.
On 9th day night Krishna claimed Arjuna was not killing Bhisma intentionally and in similar way Duryodhana used to accuse Bhisma of not killing Arjuna intentionally.
Without going in to much details, I would give a basic flaw in Bhisma’s characteristic. If we analyze the 10th day battle we can see that Bhisma took Sikhandi very lightly. He was ignoring Sikhandi’s attack and concentrating on others.
Now One might say that he him self gave the idea of placing Sikhandi before Arjuna to kill him but fact is Bhisma had issues with Sikhandi and that was known to both side and given the number of strategist Pandavas had it was not impossible to come out with the strategy Bhisma told Yudisthira on 9th day.
It was very clever thought strategy to ask Bhisma to put the ball in his court. Does he continue to fight to block Pandavas from their right? Does he want to kill them? Does he want his favorite grandchild to kill him?
He knew Arjuna loved him and won’t fight with him openly which he did spell out to Duryodhana before the battle. But at the same time he considered Arjuna as his equal and only person who has ability to bring him down. Therefore he just gave official advice or approval to Pandavas to bail out from such situation and take it to it’s logical conclusion.
The problem started when Arjuna refused to do that and thought if Bhisma ignores Sikhandi then he would alone be able to kill Bhisma and therefore protecting Sikhandi would be enough.
But that didn’t happened. Sikhandi and Arjuna were on separate chariot and fighting separately although Sikhandi was leading the battle. It was stated that on 10th day every one attacked him and yet he survived all attacks. It was that which prompted Krishna to ask Arjuna to pin Bhisma down.
What Arjuna did on that was a marvelous thing - he made a surprising attack on Bhisma from an angle where opposition won’t be able identify whether it was Arjuna shooting or not. Most likely people of Kouravas believed it was Sikhandi who was shooting at Bhisma. The initial ignorance of Bhisma costed him the entire battle - Arjuna broke his bow. Arjuna technically never allowed Bhisma to pick up a new bow, string it and shoot. He technically broke all of Bhisma’s bows and simultaneously pierced him. It was the pain or impact of the arrows which made Bhisma realized the arrows were coming from Arjuna and not from Sikhandi. But that was much late and Bhisma’s all bows were broken. His helper Dusshashana fought brilliantly on that day to protect Bhisma but he was also defeated by Arjuna and made completely weaponless and helpless. Kouravas were technically blocked and unable to reach out to their commander to help.
As I said earlier that apple to apple comparison is tough and there would be multiple thing to point out on both side. One might say Arjuna had Gandiva bow, Krishna as charioteer or two exhaustible quiver. The problem is when you are in battle ground, your absolute power only counts - what you have and what you don’t. Bhisma also had the boons of his father (for those who believed in boons) and the training provided by Parasurama.
On a psychological aspect Bhisma’s ignorance towards Sikhandi was his psychological weakness which couldn’t be corrected at all. Arjuna had many psychological flaws - his fear of sin or his love or respect for relatives who were fighting for Kouravas or his unwillingness to put up his best against the likes of Bhisma or Drona should be counted as weakness in battle ground.
But that he himself chose Krishna as his charioteer to guide him and Arjuna’s ability to listen to Krishna and correct himself allowed him to overcome the flaws to a certain extent and this is where Bhisma, Drona or any other warriors of Kouravas failed immensely. Arjuna took the steps he needed and that mattered.
So over all Arjuna was the best. He was fighting a right battle for which he had in fact debated with Krishna a lot. He had the proven merit, ability and knowledge, resources and a great spiritual power to sustain the likes of Kurushetra battle.
It’s performance on the battle ground that only counts and not the merit on the paper and it’s important that one chose a right battle and take the required preparation.
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