BHARATVARSH

CATEGORIES OF WARRIORS

Hello and welcome !

Today we will clearing a misconception about the category of warriors.

You would've have read the category of warriors like this -

Maha-Maharathi
↑
Atimaharathi
↑
Maharathi
↑
Atirathi
↑
Rathi

But this is actually not accurate at all. There is no such category as Maha-Maharathi or Atimaharathi mentioned in Vedas or any Shashtras.

Now you will be thinking Meghnad was an Atimaharathi, actually no. This term is a recent fabrication, some say it we was made by Wikipedia.

So what is the actual categories of warrior ? This -

Atirathi
↑
Maharathi
↑
Rathi

Yes. Atirathi warrior comes above Maharathi warriors. This is mentioned in the footnotes of BORI CE as well.

So you see, Maharathi can take on 10,000 warriors, Atirathi can take on 60,000 warriors making this category as the most superior.

This superiority is so mentioned in the case of Abhimanyu, who was an Atirathi, and is described as 'greater than a Maharatha'

So who were the Atirathis in Mahabharat ? Basically Star Plus Mahabharat mei jinko Maharathi bola gaya hai woh sab 😂

Bhism, Dron and Kripacharya

Among Pandavas and Kauravas, Arjun was the first one to become Atirathi. He become one in Gurukul only.

After him Bheem became Atirathi and then the rest of the Pandavas. So all 5 brothers were Atirathi.

This is described everywhere, even in Ratha-Atiratha-Samkhya Parva by Bhism.

Duryodhan is said to be a Atirathi.

Kritvarma, Shalya and Ashwathama were also Atirathis.

Karn is described as an Atirathi only in Virat War. I found only one reference of him being Atirathi in the entire text.

If there is more then do share, I found this one only.

But in Ratha-Atiratha-Samkhya parva Bhism says that Karn is half a rathi, an Ardh-rathi, because he was reckless.

This has happened with Vikarn also, at one place he was described as an Atirathi and then he was placed as a rathi along with the rest of his brothers excluding Duryodhan by Bhism.

So I have one theory for this. Maybe the categorisation of warriors was done on recency bias.

What is recency bias ? A bias that favours recent events over historic ones.

I think the categorisation of the warriors could be done based on how they performed in their last battle. Meaning you're just as good as the last war you fought.

So which war happened before Kurukshetra ? Virat war. And we know how badly each one of the warriors were defeated besides Bhism, Dron and Kripa (even though they were defeated, they fought nicely and consistently)

And because of Karn's extraordinarily poor performance due to him underestimating the enemy which is a reckless behaviour, he might've been reduced to the position of an Ardh-rathi.

This is my theory, not a fact. But it makes sense, because recency bias would keep the list updated. Like a warrior can be Atirathi in the beginning but what if his performance deteroirates over time, he then is not worthy of holding the title Atirathi.

There is a con to this, you cannot always perform your best every time. Sometimes you perform poorly, but that doesn't make you incompetent when you have a history of good performances.

But again categorisation of warriors based on the recent wars they fought is a good way to keep the list updated if recency bias was used.

There are also other factors that were included in categorisation like boons, curses, divine weapons, etc anything that will affect your performance in a good or a bad way.

This is why Arjun was regarded as the most superior warrior in the Kurukshetra by Bhism, Dron, Kripacharya and Ashwathama because he obtained most powerful of weapons through his austerities and also because his sarthi was Shri Krishna.

And to those who say that it was cheating that Krishna saved Arjun many times, let me tell you it was not.

A sarthi's job was not just to ride the chariot but also to protect the one mounted on it. That's why Sarthis were educated in weaponry and warfare, especially Vyuh formations. Being a Sarthi was not an easy job.

Thus Shri Krishna saving Arjun was him just performing his duty of being his Sarthi. And this also one of the reasons why Draupadi as Sairendhari suggests Uttar to take Arjun (Brihannalla) as his Sarthi during Virat war.

Because he as a Sarthi could fight to save Uttar's life when situation arises but Arjun fought the entire war himself, that's a different story.

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Hope I cleared some misconceptions.