The Death of Bhma and the Lament of Gag (MBh 13.

153-154)
James L. Fitzgerald (Brown University)
The Death of the Mighty Kuru Patriarch and the Lament of his Mother, the River Gag

Before looking at the death of Bhma, the celibate patriarch (the irony is deliberate)
of the Kurus and destroyer of enemies, I give you just a quick reminder of his
beginning. In the list of the partial incarnations that forms part of one the Mahbhratas
inner frames, we read this of Bhmas origin (in the translation of van Buitenen):

tem avarajo bhma kurm abhayakara /matimn vedavid vgm

atrupakakayakara /1.61.69/
Their [that is, the Vasus] youngest [namely Dyaus, the Sky, the Day]
became Bhma, the safeguard of the Kurus, wise knower of the Veda,
eloquent, destroyer of his foes.1
After being mortally wounded by Arjuna in the battle, Bhmas deathbed sermon to
Yudhihira and his retinue while Bhma awaited his chosen moment of death may be
the longest such sermon on record, as Hans van Buitenen quipped in his introduction to
the first volume of his translation of the Mahbhrata. 2 But Bhma did die eventually,
and the account of his death at the very end of the Mahbhratas thirteenth book is
interesting in several ways. Using yoga in a process very similar to that used by Droa
just before Dhadyumna lopped off his head on the fifteenth day of the war3and
discussed from the point of view of its presentation of yoga by Peter Schreiner,4 a
discussion I leave by the side for nowBhma (I now translate or closely paraphrase
the Sanskrit text) stabilized his mind (or soul (tman)] in the Holding-Meditations of
yoga technique (dhra-s); and his life breaths, which were now completely bottled up
within his body(saniruddha), rose upwards within him.5 Then a miracle occurred in

See J.A.B. van Buitenen, Mahbhrata vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973): 153.
See van Buitenen, Mahbhrata 1: xxiii.
3 Peter Schreiner has described and discussed the death of Droa from the point of view of its presentation of yoga in
"Yoga: Lebenshilfe Oder Sterbetechnik?" Being focused upon Bhmas persona in the MBh, I do not here take up
any of the interesting issues of yoga these episodes present.
4 Peter Schreiner, Yoga:-:Lebenshilfe Oder Sterbetechnik?, Umwelt & Gesundheit, no. 34 (1988): 1218.
5 My text here translates, paraphrases, expands, and adapts MBh 13.154.2-7: dhraym sa ctmna dhrasu
1
2

yathkramam / tasyordhvam agaman pr saniruddh mahtmana /2/ idam caryam sc ca madhye te

mahtmanm / yad yan mucati gtr sa atanusutas tad / tat tad vialya bhavati yogayuktasya tasya vai
/3/ kaena prekat te vialya so bhavat tad / ta drv vismit sarve vsudevapurogam / saha tair

The Death of Bhma and the Lament of Gag (MBh 13.153-154)

James L. Fitzgerald (Brown University)
the midst of those exalted men (mahtman-s): As Bhma engaged in yoga and
successively let go of different limbs of his body, each released limb healedit became
free of the arrows and arrow-wounds that had caused him great suffering since his fall
on the tenth day of the war. His whole body healed in a moment as Ka Vsudeva
and Vysa and other sages looked on and were amazed. Then Bhmas soul (tman),
completely obstructed in all the stations of its normal operation (the senses and the

manas-mind), split through the top of his head, left his body like a giant meteor, rose up
into the sky, and disappeared in a moment. Thus did ntanava (Bhma the son of
atanu), that king among the tiger-kings, that family-supporting scion6 of the
Bharatas, rejoin his proper realm.
The Pavas and Vidura then prepared Bhmas body and the pyre for cremation,
performed the Vedic offering for a departed ancestor (pitmedha), had oblations made
and Smans sung over the body, and then burned it. The whole party then proceeded
to the river Gag for the pouring of the funeral libation in the river and an interesting
encounter with Bhmas mother, the river Gag herself.
But before turning to Gag and her grief over Bhmas demise, I want to note a
fact of some importance that is only occasionally observed in the text:7 namely when
moving between Hstinapura, which is on the Gag (the river that is Bhmas mother),
and Kuruketra, which is on the Yamun, one must cross the Yamun. As many
students of the Mahbhrata know, Bhmas fateful stepmother, Satyavat, was a
woman of the Yamun, and there is at least a small note of poetic justice in the funeral

munibhi sarvais tad vysdibhir nrpa /4/ saniruddhas tu tentm sarvev yataneu vai / jagma bhittv
mrdhna divam abhyutpapta ca /5/ maholkeva ca bhmasya mrdhadej jandhipa / nisrtykam viya
kaenntaradhyata /6/ eva sa nrpardla nrpa tanavas tad / samayujyata lokai svair bharatn
kulodvaha /7/
This not uncommon phrase, bharatn kulodvaha, has special connotations when applied to Bhma. The verb
ud-vah has, in addition to its general meanings of bear up, lift up, elevate, and so on, the special sense to take or
6

lead away (a bride from her parents house). As many know, Bhmas bringing three brides back for his step-brother
Vicitravrya, is one of the defining acts of his life and career in the MBh.
7 For example, at MBh 15.30.16, when the Pavas went out from the capital to visit their mother and elders who
had retired to the forest. On the way, Yudhihira went down to Kuruketra, crossing the River Yamun. . .

The Death of Bhma and the Lament of Gag (MBh 13.153-154)

James L. Fitzgerald (Brown University)
partys having to cross the Yamun as they make their way across the Doab to the
Gag for the final act of Bhmas story.8
When the party reached the Gag and was joined by some of the inhabitants of
Hstinapura, Bhmas mother, the river herself, rose up from her waters and lamented
her son in these words.9
A perfect master of the ways kings act, and richly endowed with wisdom and noble
birth; dutiful caretaker of his Kuru elders; devoted to his father; scrupulously true to his
vow (20)that mighty man whom Rma Jmadagnya once failed to conquer with his
marvelous weapons has now been killed by ikhain! (21) Kings, my heart must now
be hard as a rock that it does not split, now that I do not see my dear son. (22) She
recounts his deed in seizing the princesses of the Kis, and returns again, dirge-like, to
his having been killed by ikhain. And yet again she returns to his battle with Rma,
and is amazed that ikhain killed Bhma who had pressed Rma so easily. Ka
then offered her solace by assuring her that her son, an illustrious Vasu become
human only because of a curse had reached the highest level of attainment through

yoga (param siddhi). (27-28) Ka goes on to tell her that Bhma has gone to heaven
and rejoined the Vasus at a time of his own choosing. Otherwise no one could have put
him down in battle, not even Indra, not even all the Gods attacking in concert (30-32)
But most importantly, he informs her that it was Arjuna, doing his duty as a katriya, and
not ikhain, who had cut Bhma down in the battle. (29) The River Goddess then
descended back into her own waters (sva vry avatatra) (33) and, given leave by
her, everyone left. (34) Thus the thirteenth book and the long post-war instructional
pacification of the new king, the earth, and all listening to the account of the great
Bhrata war is finally over. There was irony, perhaps even jealousy, in these words of
Bhmas mother, something to be borne in mind when reflecting upon Bhmas other
relationships with females.

This assertion is not is not completely true; Bhma was one of the dead brought down in the Gag by Vysa to
visit with Dhtarra, Gndhr, Kunt, and the Pavas in MBh 15.40.
9 MBh 13.154.18-34, translated and paraphrased.
8