Navarasas - Veera Poem by Shankaran Kutty

(Veera is bravery. Bravery on the warfront is a classic case. It symbolises manliness.)

He lay there dead, in the battlefield
As the evening sun was setting
He was bravest of all who had been killed
He stopped his side from losing

All of sixteen he had been
When called upon today
But he was the bravest the world has seen
That, he had proved this day

The brave little lad, Lord Krishna’s nephew
Abhimanyu was his name
As the son of the Partha, Subhadreya
He had made his fame

He fought the entire Kaurava army
As Susharma lured Arjuna away.
Karna, Kripa, Drona, Duryodhana
He kept them all at bay.

He picked each one and defeated them
As the Kuru leaders watched in awe
A deer trapped in a pride they thought
But in him a mighty tusker they saw

If they took him on fair they soon did see
This battle they will not win
For the brave lad was killing their men
And their army he was drawing thin

So in an act which heaped nothing but shame
They shot his bow from behind
He continued with a sword, this treachery
Not for a moment did he mind.

They shot that too and like a pack
Of bloody hyenas closed in
But the lad picked up a chariot wheel
Easily he won’t let them win

He swirled the wheel all around
As arrows flew in fast
Fair battle, on the field that day
Was an unknown thing of past

And brave he fell, as from each arrow wound
Profusely, he bled
Dushashana’s son, ended the warrior’s life
With a fatal blow to his head

Of all the warriors who won or lost
In the great Mahabharata war
In matter of bravery, this little kid
Was the peak, without any par.