The dead Kauravas come back to life

The dead Kauravas come back to life

The dead Kauravas come back to life

The war at Kurukshetra wiped out almost all of the Kauravas. Yudhishthira mentions the number of survivors and says that one billion, 660 million and 20,000 men died at Kurukshetra while 240,165 survived.  Those who died here were not just the Kaurava princes but kings and princes of various clans from all over Bharatavarsha.

However, the Pandavas do meet their relatives who were killed in the war fighting for them, their cousins who fought against them and the others who died at Kurukshetra. This takes place after the old blind king Dhritarashtra leaves for the forest, 15 years after the war.

Dhritarashtra, along with Vidura, with Gandhari and Kunti, are living in the ashrama of the king Satayupa on the banks of Bhagirathi. The Pandavas are deeply aggrieved thinking about this, especially about their mother who has chosen a difficult life in the forest. They decide to visit the trio in the forest, leaving Yuyutsu in charge of the kingdom. They stay there for a month and towards the end of the month, Rishi Vedavyasa arrives.

Seeing that all of them are still grieving for their loved ones lost in the war, Vyasa brings them back with his ascetic powers for one night. All of the dead warriors emerge from the Bhagirathi and mingle with the surviving Pandavas. 
The enmity is forgotten and the cousins embrace each other. At the end of the day, the dead warriors all return into the Bhagirathi to go back to the worlds they came from.  The womenfolk who wish to, accompany their husbands.