The story

Krishna had promised not to fight. When he gave Duryodhana his army and gave himself to Arjuna, the terms were plain: he would be on one side, unarmed, taking no part in the battle. He would drive Arjuna's chariot, and that was all.

On the third day of the war, Duryodhana went to Bhishma and accused him of going easy on the Pandavas. If you never meant to fight them, he said, you should have told me at the start. Bhishma laughed, his eyes rolling in anger. He had told Duryodhana many times that the Pandavas could not be beaten. But whatever an old man could still do, he said, he would do that afternoon, in front of everyone.

He did it. The text keeps returning to one image of him: his bow drawn so constantly that it was only ever seen as a circle. The Pandava ranks broke. Krishna reined in the chariot and told Arjuna that the moment he had longed for had come. In the assembly of kings you swore you would kill Bhishma and Drona and all who fought you, Krishna reminded him; make it true. Arjuna said, drive toward Bhishma.

Arjuna cut Bhishma's bow in two, and when he strung another, cut that too. Bhishma praised him for it. Well done, son of Pandu, he called out; I am pleased with you; fight me. And then he went on filling the air with arrows, and Arjuna went on fighting gently. The text gives the reason without hiding it: out of reverence for Bhishma, Arjuna did not know what to do. Krishna watched Bhishma scorch the Pandava army like the sun and thought that Bhishma could destroy gods and demons in a single day. If Arjuna would not carry the load, Krishna would kill Bhishma himself.

He let go the reins, jumped down from the chariot, and took up the cakra. The word means both wheel and discus, and the text uses both senses at once: it calls the weapon a rathanga, a chariot's limb, and also Sudarshana, the discus of Vishnu, sharp-rimmed and bright as the rising sun. He ran at Bhishma on foot. The earth shook under his steps; his yellow garment streamed out behind him like a dark cloud wrapped in lightning. All creatures cried out, the text says, thinking the end of the Kurus had come.

Bhishma did not move. Standing in his chariot with bow and arrows in his hands, he called to Krishna: Come, come, lord of the gods, refuge of the world. Homage to you who carry the bow and the discus. Throw me down from this chariot. To be killed by you is good in this world and the next. Your coming at me honours me in all three worlds.

Arjuna leapt down and caught him by both arms. Krishna kept going, dragging Arjuna the way a gale drags a tree. Arjuna dug his feet in and, at the tenth step, held him. He bowed and begged him to put away his anger: you are the Pandavas' refuge, he said. He swore by his sons and his brothers that he would not abandon the work he had promised. Krishna, pleased, climbed back into the chariot, took up the reins, and blew his conch.

Six days later it happened again, and the text tells it in almost the same words. On the ninth day Bhishma was a fire in dry forest. Fourteen thousand great chariot-warriors of the Chedis, Kashis and Karushas went down before him. Pandava soldiers threw off their armour and ran with their hair loose. Once more Krishna told Arjuna that his time had come. This time Arjuna answered with his eyes on the ground, like a man unwilling. A kingdom won by killing those who should not be killed, with hell to follow, or the hardships of the forest: which of these was good? But he said: drive on. Once more he cut Bhishma's bows, once more Bhishma praised him, and once more he fought softly.

This time Krishna jumped down with nothing in his hand but his driver's whip, his own arms his only weapon, roaring like a lion. The Kaurava soldiers fled, shouting that Bhishma was killed. Bhishma calmly drew his great bow and welcomed him again: Come, lotus-eyed one, god of gods; bring me down today. Arjuna ran after Krishna, seized him, and once more stopped him at the tenth step. This time his words were sharper. Do not make your word false, he said. You said you would not fight. People will call you a liar. This burden is mine, and I will kill Bhishma. He swore it by their friendship. Krishna said nothing at all, and climbed back into the chariot, still angry.

Later tellings add that Bhishma had sworn to make Krishna break his vow, and that the charge was Krishna's way of granting it; the constituted text has no such oath. What it has is the two welcomes. Each time the most dangerous man on the field sees Krishna coming to kill him, he does not raise his bow against him. He bows.

The episode shows the knot the war has tied by its ninth night. Bhishma cannot be beaten while he stands, Arjuna cannot bring himself to beat him, and Krishna will not be allowed to do it for him. That night the Pandavas go, unarmed, to the enemy's commander to ask him how he can be killed.

Who appears, and what it argues

• Krishna — Cousin, envoy and charioteer — the one who shapes the war's course without ever lifting a weapon in it.
• Arjuna — The archer the whole war is arranged around, who arrives at its opening unable to lift his bow because of who is standing on the other side.
• Bhishma — The grand-uncle whose vow of celibacy was meant to secure the succession and instead left it disputed for three generations.
• Duryodhana — The eldest Kaurava, who never disputes that the kingdom is contested and never concedes that this makes the Pandavas' claim equal to his.
• Theme: The binding vow
• Theme: Divine counsel
• Theme: The impossible choice

Elsewhere in this parva

• Krishna's counsel to Arjuna — Arjuna asks to be driven between the two armies, sees his own family waiting on both sides, and puts down his bow.
• The bed of arrows — The Pandavas ask Bhishma how to kill him, he tells them, and he falls on a bed of arrows that never lets him touch the ground

Questions to explore

• Did Krishna break his vow not to take up arms in the war?
• Why does Arjuna fight Bhishma so gently?
• Why does Bhishma welcome Krishna instead of defending himself?