The DronaParva, or the Book of Drona, is the seventh of eighteen books of the Indian epicMahabharata. Drona Parva traditionally has 8 sub-books and 204 chapters. The critical edition of Drona Parva has 8 sub-books and 173 chapters. Drona Parva describes the appointment of Drona as commander-in-chief of the Kaurava alliance, on the 11th day of the Kurukshetra War, the next four days of battles, and his death on the 15th day of the 18-day war. The parva recites how the war became more brutal with each passing day, how agreed rules of a just war began to be ignored by both sides as loved ones on each side were slain, how the war extended into the night, and how millions of more soldiers and major characters of the story - Abhimanyu, Jayadratha, Drona, Ghatotkacha - died during the war.
Structure and chapters
This Parva traditionally has 8 sub-parvas and 204 adhyayas. The following are the sub-parvas: The Kaurava commander-in-chief Dronacharya planned to divert Arjuna and Krishna away to chase an army of the samsaptakhas whom Arjuna defeated that very day. The Kaurava army was grouped into the giant discus formation, which caused great loss for the Pandavas. If the formation continued till end of that day, the pandavas would have no army by sunset. The only two people on the Pandava army who completely knew about how to enter and break this formation were Arjuna and Krishna, who were away. Abhimanyu's story came to prominence when he entered the powerful Chakravyuhabattle formation of the Kaurava army. Abhimanyu claimed that he could decimate the entire Kaurava army. Abhimanyu was trained in all types of warfare by Lord Krishna and Balrama themselves, and later by Pradyumna. Abhimanyu learnt the art of breaking into the Chakravyuha when he was in Subhadra's womb. It was then Arjuna was narrating the art of breaking into Chakravyuha to Subhadra. But he did not know how to destroy the formation once he was inside, as Subhadra fell asleep while listening to the story and could learn only half of the technique. This is the reason why he was only able to enter and break but not come out of the Chakravyuha. As soon as Abhimanyu entered the formation, Jayadrath, the ruler of Sindh blocked the other Pandavas, so that Abhimanyu was left alone. Inside the Chakravyuha, the trapped Abhimanyu went on a killing rampage, intending on carrying out the original strategy by himself and killing tens of thousands of Kaurava soldiers. Abhimanyu killed many prominent heroes including Duryodhana's son Lakshmana, Shalya's sons Rukmanagaa and Rukmanaratha, younger brothers of Karna, and many advisers of Karna, Rukmaratha, Kritavarma's son Matrikavata, Shrutanjaya, Ashavketu, Chandraketu, Mahavega, Suvarcha, Suryabhasa, Kalakeya, Vasatiya, and rathas from the Brahma-Vasatiyas and Kekayas, King of Kosala - King Brihadbala, King of Amvashtas and his son and many others. Abhimanyu defeated the mighty warriors of Kauravas side including Duryodhana, Dushasana, Kritvarma, Shalya, Drona, Kripa and Karna. No Kaurava warrior could escape his arrows. Abhimanyu killed all the remaining foster brothers of Karna due to which Karna became angry and attacked Abhimanyu but Abhimanyu defeated Karna easily. Abhimanyu refused to kill Karna because he knew that his father had taken oath to kill Karna. Abhimanyu defeated Karna 4 times in the war. It is said that Karna flew away from Abhimanyu. In this way, Abhimanyu defeated all the warriors. Duryodhana became so threatened that Abhimanyu could break Chakravyuha easily. Hence, a strategy was formed and a joint attack on Abhimanyu followed. On Duryodhana's advice, Karna broke Abhimanyu's bow from behind since it was impossible to face armed Abhimanyu. Kripa killed his two chariot-drivers, and Kritavarma killed his horses; Abhimanyu took up a sword and a shield and killed many foot soldiers with his sword. But later, Ashwatthama and Karna disarmed him. Then Abhimanyu took a chariot wheel and fought on with that. He still managed to kill several warriors. At last many Kaurava car warriors stabbed Abhimanyu from all sides leading to the death. Warriors included Duryodhana, Dushyasana, Shakuni, Karna, Vrishasena, Banasena, Bhurishrava, Vikarna, Durjaya. Sage Vyasa comes with new stories to tell Yudhishthira. He tells him to not suffer and become stupified by calamities, brave heroes ascend to heaven at death, death takes all, this law is incapable of being transgressed.
English translations
Drona Parva was composed in Sanskrit. Several translations of the book in English are available. Two translations from the 19th century, now in public domain, are those by Kisari Mohan Ganguli and Manmatha Nath Dutt. The translations vary with each translator's interpretations. Clay Sanskrit Library has published a 15 volume set of the Mahabharata which includes a translation of Drona Parva by Vaughan Pilikian. This translation is modern and uses an old manuscript of the Epic. The translation does not remove verses and chapters now widely believed to be spurious and smuggled into the Epic in 1st or 2nd millennium AD. Debroy, in 2011, notes that updated critical edition of Drona Parva, after removing verses and chapters generally accepted so far as spurious and inserted with prejudice, has 8 sub-books, 173 adhyayas and 8,069 shlokas. He has published a translated version of the critical edition of Drona Parva in Volume 6 of his series.
