The Pandava camp was in turmoil. Bhishma had to be killed ... but how? Draupadi had insisted that she stay in the war camp because she wanted to her husbands to constantly see her untied tresses and be reminded of their vows. Krishna, who was Arjun's charioteer in the war, took her to Bhishma's tent and asked her to pay obeisance to the grandsire without disclosing her identity. When she did so, Bhishma blessed her with the customary greeting, "May you never become a widow." Draupadi then lifted the veil from her face. Bhishma realised that this was a ruse perpetrated by Krishna. He said to Draupadi, "Tell Krishna, that I will not raise arms against a woman, even if she was a woman in her previous birth and is a man now." Krishna knew that Shikhandi, Draupadi's elder brother, was the princess Amba in his previous birth. Amba had been insulted by Bhishma and had sworn to take revenge. On the tenth day of the war Shikhandi rode in Arjun's chariot and accosted Bhishma. Bhishma refused to fight. Arjun then riddled Bhishma's body with arrows.
But soon the Pandavas received a shock. Abhimanyu, the son of Arjun and Subhadra, was killed. Draupadi loved Abhimanyu more than her sons and for the first time since she was humiliated in the court of Hastinapur she felt a twinge of doubt that the course of revenge she was pursuing was the right one. But then the tempo of the war picked up. Her father, Drupad, was killed by his archrival Drona. On the same day her younger brother Drishtdyumna killed Drona in revenge. Bhim tore open Dushasan's chest and applied a handful of blood on Draupadi's open tresses. The man who had dragged her along the passages of the palace was dead. It was only then that Draupadi washed and combed her hair in over thirteen years. Arjun slew Karna thus fulfilling his pledge. Finally Bhim crushed Duryodhana's thighs with his mace, the very thighs on which Duryodhana wanted Draupadi to sit. The Pandavas had won the war but the price was not yet fully paid.
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