Vrihadkshatra

Vrihadkshatra had a warrior rank of Maharathi. Other names: Vrihatkshatra. Affiliation: Pandava. The Kekaya brothers (six each) who fought the Kurukshetra War, on the side of Pandavas as well as on the side of Kauravas, belonged to the next generation of Kekaya’s royal family. The foremost of them was Vrihatkshatra, the eldest of the brothers who sided with the Pandavas. He was described as a king of Kekaya. He had a son named Visoka, who also fought in Kurukshetra War.

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“Then Drona, O king, excited with wrath sped at him five and ten shafts whetted on stone and equipped with wings of gold. The prince of the Kekayas, however, cheerfully cut off every one of those shafts shot by Drona, and which resembled angry snakes of virulent poison, with five shafts of his own. Beholding that lightness of hand displayed by him that bull among Brahmanas, then, sped at him eight straight shafts. Seeing those shafts shot from Drona’s bow, swiftly coursing towards him, Vrihatkshatra in that battle resisted them with as many sharp shafts of his. Beholding that exceedingly difficult feat achieved by Vrihatkshatra, thy troops, O king, were filled with amazement. Then Drona, O monarch, applauding Vrihatkshatra, invoked into existence the irresistible and celestial weapon called Brahma in that battle. The prince of the Kekayas, seeing it shot by Drona in battle, baffled that Brahma weapon, O monarch, by a Brahma weapon of his own. After that weapon had been thus baffled, Vrihatkshatra, O Bharata, pierced the Brahmana with sixty shafts whetted on stone and equipped with wings of gold. Then Drona, that foremost of men, pierced the prince of the Kekayas with a powerful shaft which, penetrating through the latter’s armour, (passed through his body and) entered the earth. As a black cobra, O best of kings, pierces through an ant-hill, even so did that shafts enter the earth, having pierced through the body of the Kekaya prince in that battle. Deeply pierced, O monarch, with the shafts of Drona, the prince of the Kekayas, filled with rage, and rolling his beautiful eyes, pierced Drona with seventy arrows whetted on stone and equipped with wings of gold. And with another arrow he greatly afflicted Drona’s charioteer in this very vitals. Pierced by Vrihatkshatra, O sire, with arrows, Drona shot showers of keen shafts at the car of the Prince of the Kekayas. Depriving the mighty car-warrior, Vrihatkshatra, of his coolness, Drona then, with fourwinged arrows, slew the four steeds of the former. With another arrow he felled Vrihatkshatra’s charioteer from his niche in the car. And felling on the earth, with two other arrows, his enemy’s standard and umbrella, that bull among Brahmanas, with a third shaft well-shot from his bow, pierced Vrihatkshatra himself in the chest. Thereupon, the latter, thus struck in the chest, fell down from his car.” – The Mahabharata, Book 7: Drona Parva: Jayadratha-Vadha Parva: Section CXXIV