The first installment of the post covered the general details of family lineage of the main characters involved in the epic battle. This post however intends to throw light on some lesser known but who had a great role in the outcome of war. Thus begins part 2.
In many stories told, many films made there are a bunch of characters and the success of the story depends upon how well each character is handled. As a center to the storyline, we are supposed to have a protagonist and antagonist, but we also need the supporting characters on both sides to make the events really happen. It is more like a catalyst in a chemical reaction which does not have any chemical impact on the end product but surely helps accelerating or slowing down the rate of reaction.
Considering all these in mind, if there is one story that records the details of its character to the minutest detail, it has to be Mahabharata. It is however limitation of human brain, that on a long run we remember the main characters, but tends to forget some of the key players, without them story would not have been possible. This post will cover some of the similar characters from Mahabharata.
1) Shikhandi
We discussed in last post that Bheeshma abducted 3 sisters Amba, Ambika and Ambalika to be married to his younger brother. The two agreed to get married but Amba didn’t as she was in love with a Prince who was defeated at Swayamvara by Bheeshma. Bheeshma realized his mistake and sent her back to his lover. The prince however rejected Amba as she was abducted by Bheeshma. Heartbroken Amba returned to Bheeshma and asked him to marry her in order to save her from disgrace. Bheeshma however tied by his vow of lifelong celibacy rejected her.
Enraged Amba cursed Bheeshma that a woman will be the reason for his downfall. Amba is reborn in King Drupada’s family as Shikhandini who later by offering prayer to Shiva is turned to a male named Shikhandi.
When Kurukshetra war broke out, being bound by his duties Bheeshma had to take Kaurava’s side. Bheeshma was an undefeatable warrior and continued to massacre Pandava Army. Seeing this Krishna asked Shikhandi to fight with Bheeshma. As a true warrior, Bheeshma could not raise arms on a woman and was shot by Arjun hiding behind Shikhandi.
2) Ashwathama
Now this one had an important role to play in the war. Ashwathama was son of Dronacharya, the teacher who taught Kauravas and Pandavas the art of war. Ashwathama also learnt with the royal princes and was an able warrior himself. Dronacharya taught Arjun the art of invoking and calling back of the most dangerous weapon, the Brahmastra, Ashwathama on the other hand was taught only to invoke it and the art of withdrawing the same was not taught to him. In this context he was similar to Abhimanyu, who knew only the way to enter a wheel shaped war formation known as Chkravyuha but didn’t know how to get out of it.
In the battle Dronacharya fought on behalf of Kauravas bound by his duties towards the state. It was impossible to defeat Dronacharya in the battle and he continued to slay the Pandava army. In order to take Dronacharya off guard, Krishna asked Bheema to kill an elephant in Kaurava army which had a same name Ashwathama and announce that real Ashwathama was killed in battle. Dronacharya came to Yudhisthira to confirm the news during battle. Krishna knew Yudhisthira will never tell a lie, so when he was saying the part which mentioned the elephant, Krishna blew his conch thus muting the conversation. Dronacharya saddened by the death of his son put down his bow and arrow and was shot by Drishtadyumna (Draupadi’s brother).
On the final day of battle Ashwathama was one of the few warriors that survived, in order to avenge the death of Kauravas and his father, he raided the Pandava camp at night when Panadava and Krishna were away and slayed all the remaining warriors with help of Kripacharya and Kritavarma. Ashwathama killed the five sons of Draupadi who were sleeping, thinking them to be Pandavas. Later due to this act of cowardice Ashwathama was cursed to live till the end of the world and suffer with diseases like leprosy. Aswathama is one of the 7 chiranjeevis, the one who lives forever.
3) Barbarika
Barbarika was son of Ghatotkacha and grandson of Bheema. He had made a promise to his mother that he will always fight for the losing side. Barbarika also had 3 infallible arrows received from Shiva which can individually mark and hit targets and finally will return to his quiver. Krishna aware of the fact asked Barbarika to choose a side, to which he replied he will always favour the weak side in the battle. In such a case he would have to keep shifting his selection of side throughout the war and none of the side will actually win. To avoid this dead lock Krishna asked for his head and Barbarika without questioning decapitated his head. Barbarika though wanted to witness the epic battle and on his request Krishna placed his head on top of a hill. Barbarika is thus one of four people who saw Krishna’s Vishwaroopa, others being Arjun, Sanjay and Hanuman.
At the end of battle remaining warriors argued that they were responsible for winning the Great War, to sort out the confusion Krishna took everyone to Barbarika and asked for his opinion to which Barbarika replied that the place from where I was seeing the battle nobody did anything it was Krishna all the way who did everything.
There are innumerable characters that we can list here apart from the one discussed, there is however one thing that you must have noticed the word in bold. Yes the one, Krishna.
There may be number of characters but there is only one axis of rotation, the one.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Mahabharata : A superficial study -- Part 1
I was born on 6th of October 1984, and consider myself fortunate as many other people who have witnessed a series of inventions, technological developments and scientific accomplishments. I consider my generation more fortunate because it has seen the transition in Television as a medium of entertainment. As a child I was fascinated with the two Epics that were telecast during my childhood, the Ramayana by Ramanand Sagar and Mahabharata by B.R. Chopra. To be honest as a child I liked Ramayana more due to the fact it had a simple storyline, well written characters and above all superb graphic fight sequences. Mahabharata always appeared to be confusing to me, on one hand I could identify the good guys and bad guys of the lot but I was never able to keep track of so many things happening so fast.
But as I aged, Mahabharata once again became center of curiosity for me. The study of this epic in itself an epic task and hats off to historians and experts who have devoted their life for this cause. Not only the prime story, but the underlying psyche and motivation of the whole episode are worth studying. As I am not qualified enough to take this as a subject of discussion, I will restrict myself to a very superficial study of the subject. The intent of this post is to make readers aware of basic premise of Mahabharata; the greatest epic world has ever studied.
Now for the many people who know and a few who do not know, the events of Mahabharata take place between the descendants of Kuru clan. Thus anyone battling for the throne of Hastinapur, the then capital of kingdom Bharat should be of Kuru’s lineage in order to have the legal right to the throne. On this very basic premise let us start the analysis of Mahabharata.
1:
The story basically starts with King Shantanu who was the descendant of Kuru Clan and king of Hastinapur. He fell in love with Ganga (yups the River) and had a son ‘Devvrata (Bheeshm)’ from her. The father son duo never met until he became a young boy as Ganga took her away with herself. Shantanu later married Satyavati daughter of a fisherman, who took promise from the king that the son of Shantanu and Satyavati will rule the kingdom. In order to fulfill his father’s wish Devvrata aka Bheeshm vowed for lifelong celibacy.
Twist in the tale: Satyavati had bore another child before her marriage to sage Parashar. The name of Child was ‘Vyasa’
2:
Satyavati had two sons from Shantanu, Vichitravirya and Chitrangada. Chitrangada died early and Vichitravirya were later sworn in as King. Bheeshma abducted three sisters from a Swayamvara to be married to his brother as the kingdom was not invited for the ceremony. Two sisters Ambika and Ambalika married Vichitravirya.
Now the real problem occurred, Vichitravirya died before a new generation of Kuru Clan could be born. Bheeshma has sworn to lifelong celibacy, so Satyavati asked Vyasa to father the next generation of Kuru Clan. As a result Pandu and Dhritrashtra were born to ambika and Ambalika.
This is the first breakage in the Kuru family tree as Vyasa is not of Kuru lineage.
3:
Pandu married Kunti and Madri, while Dhritrashtra married Gandhari.
Pandu due to an earlier sin cannot father a child. So Kunti who had power to invoke Gods, called Indra, Vayu and Yama(Dharma) to father their child. She shared the same spell with Madri and she had twins Nakul and Sahdev from Ashwini Kumar twins.
Dhritrashtra on the other hand had 100 children including Suyodhan and Susashan. (I bet no one knows name of other 98) and a girl named Dussala.
The above 3 points present the basic Mahabharata family structure, and by the end of it you would have realized that neither the Pandavas nor the Kauravas belonged to original Kuru Clan, but more to Vyasa’s lineage. The Pandavas infact were demigods as they were born of human and god.
The whole battle was fought to establish Pandavas as worthy ruler of Hastinapur with Krishna taking the side of righteous Pandavas.
The battle resulted in a mass destruction and bloodshed finally establishing the Pandava’s as rulers and the most interesting fact the whole episode was drafted by Vyasa.
But as I aged, Mahabharata once again became center of curiosity for me. The study of this epic in itself an epic task and hats off to historians and experts who have devoted their life for this cause. Not only the prime story, but the underlying psyche and motivation of the whole episode are worth studying. As I am not qualified enough to take this as a subject of discussion, I will restrict myself to a very superficial study of the subject. The intent of this post is to make readers aware of basic premise of Mahabharata; the greatest epic world has ever studied.
Now for the many people who know and a few who do not know, the events of Mahabharata take place between the descendants of Kuru clan. Thus anyone battling for the throne of Hastinapur, the then capital of kingdom Bharat should be of Kuru’s lineage in order to have the legal right to the throne. On this very basic premise let us start the analysis of Mahabharata.
1:
The story basically starts with King Shantanu who was the descendant of Kuru Clan and king of Hastinapur. He fell in love with Ganga (yups the River) and had a son ‘Devvrata (Bheeshm)’ from her. The father son duo never met until he became a young boy as Ganga took her away with herself. Shantanu later married Satyavati daughter of a fisherman, who took promise from the king that the son of Shantanu and Satyavati will rule the kingdom. In order to fulfill his father’s wish Devvrata aka Bheeshm vowed for lifelong celibacy.
Twist in the tale: Satyavati had bore another child before her marriage to sage Parashar. The name of Child was ‘Vyasa’
2:
Satyavati had two sons from Shantanu, Vichitravirya and Chitrangada. Chitrangada died early and Vichitravirya were later sworn in as King. Bheeshma abducted three sisters from a Swayamvara to be married to his brother as the kingdom was not invited for the ceremony. Two sisters Ambika and Ambalika married Vichitravirya.
Now the real problem occurred, Vichitravirya died before a new generation of Kuru Clan could be born. Bheeshma has sworn to lifelong celibacy, so Satyavati asked Vyasa to father the next generation of Kuru Clan. As a result Pandu and Dhritrashtra were born to ambika and Ambalika.
This is the first breakage in the Kuru family tree as Vyasa is not of Kuru lineage.
3:
Pandu married Kunti and Madri, while Dhritrashtra married Gandhari.
Pandu due to an earlier sin cannot father a child. So Kunti who had power to invoke Gods, called Indra, Vayu and Yama(Dharma) to father their child. She shared the same spell with Madri and she had twins Nakul and Sahdev from Ashwini Kumar twins.
Dhritrashtra on the other hand had 100 children including Suyodhan and Susashan. (I bet no one knows name of other 98) and a girl named Dussala.
The above 3 points present the basic Mahabharata family structure, and by the end of it you would have realized that neither the Pandavas nor the Kauravas belonged to original Kuru Clan, but more to Vyasa’s lineage. The Pandavas infact were demigods as they were born of human and god.
The whole battle was fought to establish Pandavas as worthy ruler of Hastinapur with Krishna taking the side of righteous Pandavas.
The battle resulted in a mass destruction and bloodshed finally establishing the Pandava’s as rulers and the most interesting fact the whole episode was drafted by Vyasa.
Are we really Independent?
India and the Indians are 4 nights away from celebrating their 65th Anniversary of Independence. It has been a success story written over a period of 65 years which saw India as a nation rising from nothing to something. During this period nation fought wars, lost some won some, went through a phase or two of crisis, but finally emerged as a nation which the remaining world recognize to an extent. The wars fought during these 65 years have been both, with external forces as well as with the internal ones. To an extent, we have been able to come out looking graceful in the external conflicts but what puts India as a nation on back foot are the internal issues.
There have been many instances in fact, be it National Emergency during Indira Gandhi’s tenure, issues like reservation, communalism, regionalism, terrorism, corruption and the list is endless.
For a nation with such a diverse demographics and culture, some of the above issues are bound to exist, but what is really questionable is the stance of the ruling community towards these issues and the public opinion on the same.
If we have to discuss on the individual issues, the post will not have an end, thus to limit the content of the post we will be restricting ourselves on few basic points. These are so basic that in constitution of world’s largest democracy these are termed as ‘FUNDAMENTAL’. Article 19 of Indian constitution speaks about something which we commonly refer to freedom of speech and action. There might be restrictions on the various actions we perform in social environment, but the very basic or better suited Fundamental right is the freedom to express oneself in a free environment.
Ask yourself a question, are we really Independent to do so. It is really shameful that in an Independent state a citizen has to think many times before actually saying anything he believes. A free citizen of the country today fears about saying anything as it might anger the minority, under privileged, or protected section of society. He cannot say anything in favor or against any issue or he would be targeted as anti national. No independent views can be shared as it might bring in the rage of a section that thinks it is inappropriate.
It is not really difficult to cite examples for this, but will surely be a tedious process. Just think a little that how many times in life we share our true feelings in everyday life. Speak what we actually believe, not thinking what will be its implications, without any fear that what other people will think or act on your statements. These questions need an answer not from others, but from the conscience, our own conscience.
We all know the answers to these questions and it is not our fault because we have been raised this way.
Next time when you express yourself honestly without any fear, wish yourself a
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY. :)
There have been many instances in fact, be it National Emergency during Indira Gandhi’s tenure, issues like reservation, communalism, regionalism, terrorism, corruption and the list is endless.
For a nation with such a diverse demographics and culture, some of the above issues are bound to exist, but what is really questionable is the stance of the ruling community towards these issues and the public opinion on the same.
If we have to discuss on the individual issues, the post will not have an end, thus to limit the content of the post we will be restricting ourselves on few basic points. These are so basic that in constitution of world’s largest democracy these are termed as ‘FUNDAMENTAL’. Article 19 of Indian constitution speaks about something which we commonly refer to freedom of speech and action. There might be restrictions on the various actions we perform in social environment, but the very basic or better suited Fundamental right is the freedom to express oneself in a free environment.
Ask yourself a question, are we really Independent to do so. It is really shameful that in an Independent state a citizen has to think many times before actually saying anything he believes. A free citizen of the country today fears about saying anything as it might anger the minority, under privileged, or protected section of society. He cannot say anything in favor or against any issue or he would be targeted as anti national. No independent views can be shared as it might bring in the rage of a section that thinks it is inappropriate.
It is not really difficult to cite examples for this, but will surely be a tedious process. Just think a little that how many times in life we share our true feelings in everyday life. Speak what we actually believe, not thinking what will be its implications, without any fear that what other people will think or act on your statements. These questions need an answer not from others, but from the conscience, our own conscience.
We all know the answers to these questions and it is not our fault because we have been raised this way.
Next time when you express yourself honestly without any fear, wish yourself a
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY. :)
Are we really Independent?
India and the Indians are 4 nights away from celebrating their 65th Anniversary of Independence. It has been a success story written over a period of 65 years which saw India as a nation rising from nothing to something. During this period nation fought wars, lost some won some, went through a phase or two of crisis, but finally emerged as a nation which the remaining world recognize to an extent. The wars fought during these 65 years have been both, with external forces as well as with the internal ones. To an extent, we have been able to come out looking graceful in the external conflicts but what puts India as a nation on back foot are the internal issues.
There have been many instances in fact, be it National Emergency during Indira Gandhi’s tenure, issues like reservation, communalism, regionalism, terrorism, corruption and the list is endless.
For a nation with such a diverse demographics and culture, some of the above issues are bound to exist, but what is really questionable is the stance of the ruling community towards these issues and the public opinion on the same.
If we have to discuss on the individual issues, the post will not have an end, thus to limit the content of the post we will be restricting ourselves on few basic points. These are so basic that in constitution of world’s largest democracy these are termed as ‘FUNDAMENTAL’. Article 19 of Indian constitution speaks about something which we commonly refer to freedom of speech and action. There might be restrictions on the various actions we perform in social environment, but the very basic or better suited Fundamental right is the freedom to express oneself in a free environment.
Ask yourself a question, are we really Independent to do so. It is really shameful that in an Independent state a citizen has to think many times before actually saying anything he believes. A free citizen of the country today fears about saying anything as it might anger the minority, under privileged, or protected section of society. He cannot say anything in favor or against any issue or he would be targeted as anti national. No independent views can be shared as it might bring in the rage of a section that thinks it is inappropriate.
It is not really difficult to cite examples for this, but will surely be a tedious process. Just think a little that how many times in life we share our true feelings in everyday life. Speak what we actually believe, not thinking what will be its implications, without any fear that what other people will think or act on your statements. These questions need an answer not from others, but from the conscience, our own conscience.
We all know the answers to these questions and it is not our fault because we have been raised this way.
Next time when you express yourself honestly without any fear, wish yourself a
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY. :)
There have been many instances in fact, be it National Emergency during Indira Gandhi’s tenure, issues like reservation, communalism, regionalism, terrorism, corruption and the list is endless.
For a nation with such a diverse demographics and culture, some of the above issues are bound to exist, but what is really questionable is the stance of the ruling community towards these issues and the public opinion on the same.
If we have to discuss on the individual issues, the post will not have an end, thus to limit the content of the post we will be restricting ourselves on few basic points. These are so basic that in constitution of world’s largest democracy these are termed as ‘FUNDAMENTAL’. Article 19 of Indian constitution speaks about something which we commonly refer to freedom of speech and action. There might be restrictions on the various actions we perform in social environment, but the very basic or better suited Fundamental right is the freedom to express oneself in a free environment.
Ask yourself a question, are we really Independent to do so. It is really shameful that in an Independent state a citizen has to think many times before actually saying anything he believes. A free citizen of the country today fears about saying anything as it might anger the minority, under privileged, or protected section of society. He cannot say anything in favor or against any issue or he would be targeted as anti national. No independent views can be shared as it might bring in the rage of a section that thinks it is inappropriate.
It is not really difficult to cite examples for this, but will surely be a tedious process. Just think a little that how many times in life we share our true feelings in everyday life. Speak what we actually believe, not thinking what will be its implications, without any fear that what other people will think or act on your statements. These questions need an answer not from others, but from the conscience, our own conscience.
We all know the answers to these questions and it is not our fault because we have been raised this way.
Next time when you express yourself honestly without any fear, wish yourself a
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY. :)
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