Ashwatthama the War Machine

Ashwatthama-The War Machine is a play which stands against war and the warmongers and speaks for disarmament. It is a lifeless, deathless emblem of martyred chivalry.The calamitous battle at Kurukshetra leading to the victory of the Pandavas left back Duryodhana with his illegal ‘Urubhanga’ and his unaccepted defeat. At this situation Duryodhana immortalized Ashwatthama as the new commander of the dead Kouravas. Here Ashwatthama is not merely traced as an epic character, but as the protagonist he is the representative of every soldier created by the system, the rulers, and the higher strata. Even a pawn in the battle of chess, can be realated to these soldiers led by the murderous instinct, misguided by the idealism of ‘Zihad’, or ‘Fanaticism’