As Karna lay dying in the mud, Krishna decided to test his famed generosity. Disguising himself as an old brahmin, Krishna knelt beside Karna and said, "Before you die, please give me a gift, I beg you."

Karna didn't know what he could give, but then he remembered: his two gold teeth. He pulled out the teeth and offered them to the brahmin.

"You are indeed the most generous man of this age," the brahmin said, and then Krishna manifested his divine form.

"Thank you, Lord," said Karna as he closed his eyes.

That was the last sight Karna saw.

After Karna's death, Duryodhana appointed King Shalya as supreme commander.

"Only you can kill Shalya," Krishna told Yudhishthira. "Inside him is a demon that feeds on aggression, which means the only way to defeat him is to confront him with love and respect. You alone are capable of this."

So Yudhishthira confronted Shalya on the battlefield with love in his heart, not hatred or anger, thus rendering Shalya's demon powerless. Doing his duty, Yudhishthira then killed Shalya with a single spear-thrust. "Forgive me," he said, weeping, for Shalya was the brother of Madri, uncle to his brothers Nakula and Sahadeva.

"Shalya is dead!" Ashwatthama told Duryodhana. "Yudhishthira killed him. Let me be your commander now. I can still destroy the Pandavas!"

"But there is no army left to command," groaned Duryodhana.

Meanwhile, Sahadeva and Nakula were battling the last of the Gandharan soldiers. Sahadeva had killed Uluka, Shakuni's son, and Shakuni then attacked Sahadeva, shattering Sahadeva's chariot. Sahadeva leaped to the ground, grabbed an axe, and smashed it into Shakuni's skull as he shouted, "Draupadi is avenged at last!"

When Duryodhana learned that his uncle Shakuni was dead, he ran away in despair.

He could see the war was lost.

Of Gandhari's hundred sons, only Duryodhana was left. He used a mantra to disappear under the waters of a lake, but Yudhishthira detected him.

"You can't hide, Duryodhana!" he shouted.

"I'm not hiding," Duryodhana replied. "I'm cooling my inner fire. The world is yours now: take it all, everything! You have won!"

"Very generous!" replied Yudhishthira. "But earlier, you would not give us our half of the kingdom, nor five villages, nor even a needlepoint of land."

Duryodhana emerged from the water, wielding his mace. "I'm still here, and I will fight you all," he shouted angrily, "one by one."

"Did you fight Abhimanyu one by one?" Yudhishthira said to Duryodhana. "No, you attacked like a pack of wolves. But we respect dharma. We agree to single combat. If you die, you'll have heaven; if you live, you'll have your kingdom."

Duryodhana challenged Bhima first, and they fought. As he had vowed, Bhima smashed Duryodhana's thigh and then danced in joy around his fallen victim.

"Enough!" said Yudhishthira. "He's still our cousin, and a prince."

"But he'll die soon," said Krishna. "It's time to go."

"I shall attain heaven," groaned Duryodhana. "Take the earth, if that is what you want."

Balarama had refused to choose a side in the war. He had taught Duryodhana and Bhima the art of mace-fighting, and he loved them both. So when Bhima shattered Duryodhana's thigh with his mace, Duryodhana cried out, "That's against all the rules! Balarama, my guru, see what Bhima has done to me! To me, who was always your favorite!"

Instantly, Balarama appeared and lifted up his plow to kill Bhima, but Krishna intervened. "Stop, my brother!" he said. "Bhima has only fulfilled the vow he took when Duryodhana taunted Draupadi by slapping his thigh. All is as it must be."

As Duryodhana lay dying on the battlefield, they brought his young son, Durjaya, to see him. The little boy ran to his father and went to sit on his lap, but his father had to push him away.

"The Pandavas have broken my thigh," he said to Durjaya. He then caressed the boy's hair and said, "They are the victors, my son, my Durjaya. You must serve them now, the Pandavas; they are your uncles. I commend you to their protection because I am leaving soon. Very soon."

And Duryodhana wept as he thought of all he would leave behind.

The war had lasted eighteen days when the Pandavas declared victory over the Kauravas. Draupadi greeted her husbands as they returned from the battlefield, draping them with garlands of triumph: Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva.

"Come, Krishna!" Draupadi said, turning to Krishna who was still standing on Arjuna's chariot. "I made a garland for you too!"

Krishna smiled; then, as he dismounted, the chariot burst into flames.

"Drona had actually destroyed the chariot days ago with a fire-missile," he explained.

Thus the Pandavas realized that their victory was all thanks to Krishna: his power had saved them again and again.

After the war was over, soldiers in the Pandava camp began arguing about who had won the most glory. "Arjuna!" said some. "No, Bhima!" said others. Finally, as the argument grew more heated, Krishna said, "Let's ask the head."

He meant the head of Barbarika, who had watched the whole war.

They gathered around the head, repeating the claims for the various warriors.

"Arjuna? Bhima?" said the head in surprise. "I saw no warrior but Krishna. Everywhere his Sudarshana-Chakra flew through the air, cutting the unrighteous to pieces, and their blood spilled upon the earth like the tongue of Kali."

Over a billion soldiers died in the war.

On the Pandava side, a few thousand survived.

On the Kaurava side, there were three survivors: Drona's son, Ashwatthama; Ashwatthama's uncle, Kripa; and Kritavarma, a Yadava commander, plus Duryodhana, who lay dying beside the lake where the Pandavas had left him.

The three survivors knelt beside Duryodhana, and they listened to the sounds of rejoicing in the Pandava camp.

Ashwatthama still refused to admit defeat. "I will kill the Pandavas yet!" he vowed.

Duryodhana nodded, unable to resist the force of Ashwatthama's rage. "Do it," he said. "Kill them if you can."