Arjuna's Vow and Jayadratha's End

Grief-stricken, Arjuna heard the whole story and rose to his feet. He made a terrible vow: 'Before sunset tomorrow I will kill Jayadratha. If I fail, I will enter the fire myself.' He twanged the Gandiva, and Krishna blew the Panchajanya conch.

Hearing this, Jayadratha was terrified and wanted to flee. Duryodhana and Drona reassured him. The next day Drona arranged the army so that Jayadratha stayed at the very back, hidden behind huge numbers of soldiers and great warriors.

On the fourteenth day Arjuna began cutting through the formation. The horses grew tired and thirsty, so Arjuna made a pool in the earth with his arrows and built a shelter of arrows to guard them, while Krishna watered the horses in the middle of the battlefield. Still, the day was ending and Jayadratha was far away.

As the popular telling goes, Krishna then hid the sun with his divine power. It looked as if the sun had set. The Kauravas shouted with joy, and Jayadratha himself came out to watch Arjuna walk into the fire.

Krishna said, 'Arjuna, the sun has not set. There is Jayadratha!' Arjuna's arrow cut off Jayadratha's head. At Krishna's word, Arjuna carried that head on his arrows far away into the lap of his father Vriddhakshatra, who had a boon that whoever made Jayadratha's head fall to the earth would have his own head shatter.