Rumour as a strategy during war - lesson from Mahabharata
Most of us are aware of the incident from 15th day of the Kurukshetra war, when Pandava used rumour to bring down Drona, who became unhinged due to his repeated failure to capture Yudhishthira despite all his efforts and started firing divine weapons at common soldiers. Pandava army could not stop the Acharya and had to be creative. So they used rumour to counter Drona. Everyone was familiar with Drona's love for his son, Ashwatthama. Bhima killed an elephant named Ashwatthama and spread the news that Ashwatthama is dead. When the rumour reached Drona, he decided to validate it with the source he trusted the most, Yudhishthira. When Yudhishthira validated the rumour Drona decided to drop his weapons. His soul left his body while Dhrishtadyumna fulfilled his oath by beheading the preceptor. This was not the first incident though when rumour was used to defeat key warriors. There were two warriors named Hansa and Dimbhak in Jarasandha's army, who could not be killed. Both brothers had immense love for each other and could not live without each other. Shrikrishna used rumour to counter these two enemy warriors. He spread a rumour that Hansa has been killed. When Dimbhak heard this rumour, he immersed himself in the Yamuna to be with his brother. When Hansa found out about his brother's death, he too decided to join his brother in the same way. Thus Shrikrishna neutralized these undefeatable enemy warriors using rumour as war strategy.