ABSTRACT
The katriyas fight the kuruketra war gladly (6.17:8; 8.27:93; 9.22:23). What better place to have 1,660,020,000 warriors killed in battle?5 duryodhana attains heaven despite losing (9.63; 18.1); and Gndhr, seeing her brother akuni’s corpse, tartly remarks that although his exploits have caused his destruction and that of her sons, he will go to heaven (11.24:24-7). kuru’s deal with indra may be implied, but elsewhere it seems that katriyas dying nobly in battle attain heaven irrespective of where they die.6
