MYTHOLOGY - MAHABHARATHA

Once saint Vishwamitra was performing severe sacrifices to gain power over heaven and earth. Lord Indra got terrified by this and sent beautiful apsara Menaka to earth o distract him. Vishwamitra got distracted and finally married Menaka. They gave birth to the beautiful Shankuntala. Menaka went back after her mission and Vishwamitra went to exile after leaving his daughter with saint Kanva. She grew up to be a noble and beautiful lady. One day King Dushyanta came to their ashram and he fell in love with Shakuntala and married her. He gave her a ring and told her not to lose it. He then returned to his palace and told her he will come back soon. But he got busy in his daily affairs and he forgot about her. Shakuntala got worried about her husband and went to his palace to meet him. On the way will she was traveling in a boat the dropped the ring he gave her and it was eaten by a fish. When she reached the palace the king could not recognize her. After a lot of pleading she finally returned. She went back to the ashram and gave birth to Bharata who was very mighty and brave. In the meantime a fisherman got the ring from the fish and gave it to the King. On seeing the ring the King understood his mistake and got Shankuntala and Bharata to the palace. Bharata took over the kingdom after his father. He ruled the kingdom well. He was followed by the Kurus who ruled over the capital city of Hastinapur. The kings ruled very well and there was always peace and posperity in the kingdom. King Shantanu was one of the descendants. He once went hunting to the forest and fell in love with a fisherman’s daughter Satyavati. He wanted to marry her. But he already had a son Bhishma. She agreed to marry Him only if Bhishma agreed that he will not sit on the throne and that he will never marry. Bhishma agreed to this and Shantanu and Satyavati got married.

The queen gave birth to two sons named Chitrangad and Vichitravirya. Chitrangad died at an early age and Vichitravirya had three wives all who did not have any children. Finally a sage gave them fruits out of which the first two wives gave birth to Dhritarashtra and Pandu and the third wife gave the fruit to her maid who gave gave birth to Vidura. Dhritarashtra was blind so Pandu ruled the kingdom and Vidura became Prime minister. Pandu married Kunti and Dhritarashtra Ghandari. Pandu had five sons Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna,Nakul and Sahadeva. . Dhritarashtra had 100 sons and daughters. The eldest was Duryodhana .The second eldest was Dushasana. Dushala was their only sister.

Kunti had before marriage through austere sacrifices got the power from the Sun god that she can give birth to a child whenever she wanted without any physical contact. She tries to use her powers and gave birth to Karana. But she soon realized that keeping him would be a taboo in society and she put him in a basket and put him in the river.

In the meanwhile Pandu died and Dhritarashtra became the king of Hastinapur.

The children grew up and went to the ashram of Dronacharya for their training. Dronacharya was in particular very fond of Arjuna and this created jealousy in the mind of Duryodhana and his brothers.

In the nearby village of the ashram there was a sutra by the name Eklavya. He was very talented at archery and his guru was Dronacharya. But being of lower caste he could not take lessons from Dronacharya he made a model of him and practiced in front of the model. One day Dronacharya with Arjuna passed by his ashram and happened to see his immense talent. Dronacharya wanted Arjuna to be the best archer in the world and he could see Eklavya was better than him. So he asked him for right thumb as guru dakshina which Eklavya happily gave to him.

Once in the kingdom of Hastinapur there was a show of bravery and archery going on in which all the hastinapur prince were participating. Karana also arrived there and he wanted to compete with Arjuna. But Dronacahrya knew that Karana was better than Arjuna and he refused to let him compete saying that he was of low caste. Duryodhana on that said he will make Karana the king of King of Anga Province and henceforth Karana became Duryodhana’s friend. Now the issue came up of who will be the next king. Everybody wanted Yudhisthira to be the next king but Gandari and her brother Shakuni wanted Duryodhana to be the next King. Shakuni and Duryodhana repeatedly tried to kill the pandavas. In nearby town of Varnavata, a grand exhibition used to be arranged every year. This time, Duryodhana and Shakuni persuaded Dhritarashtra to send Pandavas to Varnavata. Duryodhana decided that they will make a palace of lac there and set in on fire when the Pandavas are asleep. But the Pandavas secretly came to know of this and they made a tunnel underneath and escaped without the Kauravas coming to know of anything. Kunti was scared that this might happen again and so she asked the Pandavas to stay in the forest for some time. There Bhima met the demon Hidimbi and married her on one condition that he will leave her after they have a son. Thus was born Ghatotkacha. The Pandavas also met Krishna who from now on became their friend. In meantime they came to know that Draupati was getting married. She had said that She would wed the prince who would pierce the eye of the rotating wooden fish by looking at its reflection. Karana first tried his hand at it but he was refused saying that he was of low caste. Finally Arjuna succeeded and he married Draupati. When he returned home they told their mother see what we have got for you. The mother thought it was some food and she told them to share it among their brothers. They could not disobey their mother so they had to share their wife among the five brothers and Draupati became Panchali.

Arjuna arrived in Dwarka and on advice of Krishna married his sister Subhadra. This was done by Krishna deliberately as his brother Balrama wanted her to get married to Duryodhana, which Krishna was against. Arjuna and Subhadra gave birth to the mighty Abhimanyu.

Krishna, Bhishma and Vidhur convinced Dhritarashtra to call the Pandavas back and to give them half the empire. Against the wishes of Duryodhana and Shakuni Indraprasta was given to the Pandavas. The kingdom flourished under them and became even mightier than Hastinapur. This made Duryodhana and Shakuni jealous and they decided to lead the Pandavas into a game of dice which Shakuni was very skillful at. Shakuni had a magical dice that went by his command.The game started with Duryodhana on one side with uncle Shakuni, and Dushasana and Yudhisthira and his four brothers on the other site. Shakuni kept cheating and winning and Yudhisthira lost reason and staked his jewels , money , kingdom and lost everything. He put himself and all his four brothers at stake and lost. Finally he put Draupati at stake. Now too he lost and Duryodhana ordered Dushasana to disrobe the lady. But with the help of Lord Krishna whenever a yard was pulled a double yard was added back . Finally Dhritarashtra ashamed at the behavior of his son and brother-in-law declared the proceeds of the game null and void. Shakuni again invited Panadavas to fight. This time he said “O Yudhisthira, in this only game whosoever loses will relinquish his kingdom and go to forest exile for twelve years with additional one year of living incognito. If detected in the last year, again exile of twelve years will ensue." Hence the Pandavas with Draupati left for the forest and Duryodhana became king of Hastinapur and Indraprasta.

In the forest Lord Krishna came to know about the Pandavas and accompanied them to the forest. The question of daily food was solved by the gift from Sun God of a "special vessel" given to Draupadi. The vessel would be filled by desired food once a day. However, after it was used one time in a day, it could be filled only the next day. So on they passed their time in exile. They finally decided that Duryodhana is not going to give them their kingdom back and hence they thought war was the only solution. So Arjuna headed towards the Himalayas and he though the will get powerful weapons from the Gods. Shiva gave him the powerful divine missile Pashupat.

One day when all the brothers had gone hunting King Jayadratha of Sindhu province (brother-in-law of Duryodhana) saw Draupati and tried to abduct her. But the Pandavas saw this and Bhima immediately attacked Jayadratha but Yudhisthira stopped him saying that this would make their cousin sister widow. But Arjuna vowed he will kill him in the battlefield.

Their twelve years passed in exile. When the Pandavas returned and asked Duryodhana for their share of the kingdom Duryodhana refused. Arjuna and Bhima convinced Yudhisthira that they should wage a war. Arjuna went to Lord Krishna to help him. But Duryodhana reached before him and Krishna asked him what does he want Him or his army. Duryodhana asked for his army and Krishna was on the Pandavas side. Krishna tried to convince Dhritarashtra a lot to call off the war but his love for his child had blinded him. Kunti knew that Karna was more powerful than Arjuna and she told Karna the real story of how he was her son. She pleaded to Karna to fight on the side of the Pandavas. But Karna refused saying he was loyal to Duryodhana. Finally he told her that her position will not change because even if Arjuna dies she will have five sons (he meant himself). Lord Indra knew how generous Karna was. So he took the disguise of a saint and asked Karna to give him his kavacha and kundala given to him by his father. Karna gave it to him and this made him a little weak.

The war started and the rules of the war were made. War would be fought from dawn to dusk. Injured and helpless who has lost his weapon would not be attacked. Fight would be between equals, a charioteer would engage the other charioteer only and not pedestrian soldier. No one should attack anyone from behind. At sunset everyone would return to his respective camp. The injured would be treated by the physicians. The fellow from one camp would be allowed to visit other camp without hesitation.

On the side of Kauravas Bhishma was to lead the front. Besides, Dronacharya, Duryodhana, Jayadratha, and many more would fight against Pandavas. Karna would be out of picture till Bhishma was alive and leading the Kauravas.

On Pandavas side Sri Krishna became the charioteer of Arjuna. Besides five brothers, king Virata, Abhimanyu - son of Arjuna --, Ghatotkacha - son of Bhima from Hidambi, brother of Draupadi, and many more joined the forces.

When the war began Arjuna got devastated that he had to fight his brothers and relatives in the battlefield. But Krishna got him to his senses and told him about the Gita. Arjuna got up on his feet and started fighting. A lot of soldiers on both sides died. On the third day Duryodhana got angry at Bhishma and told him that he was not fighting properly. Bhishma infuriated at this started attacking the Pandava soldiers with a lot of force. Krishna told Arjuna to attack Bhishma and he showered arrows at his uncle. Even Lord Krishna got up and took the wheel of the nearby chariot to attack Bhishma and he broke he vow not to fight in the battlefield. Bhishma dropped his arms and told Krishna that he would be obliged to die from him. Krishna was reminded of his vow and he threw down his chariot . Sunset set in and the Pandavas decided to bring the eunuch Shikandi to fight against Bhishma (as Bhishma had vowed not to fight against him). On the fourth day as Shikandi was about to attack Bhishma, the latter threw down his weapon. Arjuna attacked him with arrows and Bhishma fell down and he looked as if he was lying on a bed of arrows. Arjuna put arrows to support his neck. Bhishma had the powers to take death whenever he wanted. Bhishma told Krishna to take him to a calm and peaceful place where he could breathe his last. Now Karna came into the picture.

Krishna told Pandavas to play a gimmick. Dronacharya’s son’s name was Ashwathama and so was the name of an elephant. They killed the elephant and spread the rumor that Ashwathama was dead. Dronacharya was upset and asked Yudhisthira that was Ashwathama dead. Yudhisthira told him yes, but he does not know if it was his son or an elephant. Dronacharya was too upset to hear the later part. He gets so upset and is easily killed. When Ashwathama came to know what was done to his father he decided to use his Brahmastra to kill Arjuna. Krishna now reminded Bhima of his son Ghatotkacha who could change his form. The nest day when Aswathama was trying to attack Arjuna Ghatotkacha created a lot of havoc in the army and finally Karna killed him. Now started a battle between Karna and Arjuna. Karna was definitely more powerful than Arjuna. But as bad lick has it the wheel of Karna’s chariot got jammed and he died in the hands of Arjuna. After the death of such mighty warriors Duryodhana arranged the army in a charkra form. Abhimanyu knew how to enter it but he did not know how to get back. He entered the charka and attacked mercilessly by all warriors and he breathed his last. The Pnadavas got infuriated at this. Arjuna vowed to kill Jayadratha by evening next day or else give his body up in the burning flames. Jayadratha the next day was surrounded by soldiers that he had almost become invisible. The suddenly during early dusk the skies became dark because of total eclipse of the sun on that day at that hour and not because it was evening! As Jayadratha was looking in merriment, the eclipse ended and the sun came out. Jayadratha was visible and Arjuna killed him. And finally Duryodhana and his other brothers were killed . The war was won the Pnadavas. The Pandavas finally renounced their kingdom and headed toward heaven. A dog accompanied them.On the way Draupati, Nakul and sahadeva, Bhima and Arjuna died. Only Yudhisthira and the dog reached heaven. On reaching heaven the dog took up his form of Dharma and Lord Indra told “O Yudhisthira the people in coming generations for time immemorial will praise and remember you as the most righteous person ever born. Come let us enjoy the heavenly bliss."