The Hidden Romances of the Mahabharata

Mahabharat is full of love stories. It was not only about battle between good and evil.  Mahabharat was lot more than this. We find examples of revenges as well. But you might get surprised seeing the incidents of love. Yes, you heard me right. There are numerous incidents of love as in the great epic of Mahabharat .  Read on.

Ganga and Shantanu

King Shantanu was the emperor of Hastinapur, a descendent of King Bharat. He was a powerful monarch and ruled his people with truth, justice and love. In his realm none were sick or poor or without food. All were employed.  One day, Shantanu was riding his chariot along the banks of the Ganga river when he chanced to see a stunningly beautiful maiden sitting on the riverbank. She was dressed in white silk robes and had lustrous black hair and creamy skin. Her eyes were dark and liquid and fathomless. He was fallen in love with her immediately and proposed for an union. Ganga accepted on one condition and that condition proved to be a heart wrenching one for Shantanu. Bhishma Pitamah was born out of this wedlock.

ganga-shantanu-mahabharat-indian-mythology-story
Ganga and Shantanu – Mahabharat – In
dian mythology

Shri Krishna and his 16,108 wives

Out of 16,108 16000 waited not many years but they reincarnated to get married to Shri Krishna. The Supreme Lord can make everyone happy because he is the only one with the power to love everyone in the way they want to be loved. Others may tell us that they love us but we never really believe them. But Krishna, who we cannot see with our material eyes, loves us and we know it, even if he never tells us. That’s the power of the love of Krishna.

Draupadi and Pandavas 

Draupadi  got married to all five Pandava brothers. She had to maintain commitment towards each of her husband. Not only that, all brothers had to trust Draupadi to do the justice. All six of them went through the adversity of life like living in exile. But, Draupadi always trusted them.

Draupadi could have 14 husbands instead of five

Gandhari and Dhritarashtra

After Vichitravirya’s death, his mother Satyavati sent for her first born, Ved Vyasa. According to his mother’s wishes, he visited both the wives of Vichitravirya to grant them a son with his yogic powers. When Vyasa visited Ambika (Sister of Amba), she saw his dreadful and forbidding appearance with burning eyes. Frightened, she kept her eyes closed. Hence, Dhritarashtra, her son, was born blind. Ved Vyasa was the person, who wrote Mahabharat.

The love story of Gandhari and Dhritarashtra started after their marriage. Gandhari, on meeting him and realizing that he was blind, decided to deny herself the pleasure of sight that her husband could never relish. She blindfolded herself voluntarily for her whole married life.

Arjuna and Uloopi

Uloopi was Naga princess and she abducted Arjuna when she fell in love with him. She later convinced him for an alliance as the rules of celibacy applied to him with a relationship with Draupadi and not with other women. She later gave him a boon that he cannot be harmed in water.

Note: Arjuna was on an exile of one year during when this happened.

Rukmani and  Shri Krishna

Shri Krishna, the reincarnation of Lord Vishnu, abducted Rukmani to marry her against the will of her family. Technically this was not an abduction, as she was in love with Shri Krishna and requested him to marry her.

Arjuna and Chitrangada

Chitrangada was the princess of Manipur. It was on the banks of the river Kaveri that Arjuna visited the kingdom of Manipur, whose king was Chitravahana. He had a very beautiful daughter named Chitrangada, with whom Arjuna fell immediately in love. When Arjuna asked for her hand, her father put forth a condition that their child must be brought up in Manipur and should succeed the throne. Arjuna agreed. After their son Babruvahana was born, Arjuna went back to join his brothers at Indraprastha, leaving behind his wife and son.  After the death of Chitravahana, Babruvahana became the ruler of Manipur. Later, after the Mahabharat war, Arjuna was defeated by his son, Babruvahana.

Arjuna and Subhadra

Arjuna and Subhadra’s brother Gada, have taken training together under Drona. During his exile of one year, when Arjuna reached Dwarka, he was invited at Subhadra’s place and both have fallen in love with each other. Arjuna married Subhadra, half sister of Shri Krishna. Shri Krishna has advised Arjuna to abduct Subhadra, and this was an acceptable behaviour of a Kshatriya. Even Shri Krishna did the same with Rukmani. Though Balram was not happy with this, Shri Krishna persuaded him to accept this alliance. When Subhadra reached Draupadi,  she did not disclose the alliance with her. After an hour or so, when Draupadi was comfortable and happy with her, she told her about the marriage and Draupadi accepted her.

Hidimba and Bhima

Bheema was the son of Kunti. Hidimba was the man eater. She fell in love with Bheema and that
changed every thing for her. After marriage they lived together only for limited period of time, then Bheema left as he have to. Hidimba gave birth to the Great Ghatotkacha and takes care of him alone without regretting anything. Later, Ghatotkacha played an important role in Mahabharat war, as Karna had to use the weapon Ekaghni to kill him, thus saving the life of Arjuna.

Satyavati and Rishi Parashar

Parashar was the well known and respected sage who had acquired many yogic powers through devotion. Satyavati, the daughter of a fisherman, Dashraja, used to take people across the river Yamuna in her boat. One day, she was taking Rishi Parashar in the boat. The sage, smitten by her charm, expressed the desire to make love with her. He told her that she was destined to give birth to a great person from this liaison. Satyavati placed three conditions before him:

No one on shore could see what they were doing.  So, Parashar created an artificial mist around them. Her virginity would remain intact. Parashar assured that after she gave birth she would become a virgin again. She wanted the fishy smell that came from her body to be replaced by an intoxicating fragrance. Parashara said that a divine aroma would emanate out of her, which could be sensed for a distance of nine miles. She gave birth to Ved Vyas, the author of Mahabharat.

Satyavati and Shantanu

The fragrance of Satyavati attracted Shantanu to her. He followed it to its source and found Satyavati sitting in her boat. He stepped in and asked Satyavati to row him across the river. When he reached the other bank he asked her to ferry him back. This continued till dusk that day and continued daily for quite some time. Finally Shantanu asked Satyavati to marry him. Satyavati said that she was willing, but would be bound by her father Dashraj’s decision. It turned out that her father has ambitious plans for her and Shantanu was not able to satisfy them. The son of Ganga and Shantanu, made things easier for him and took some vows because of them he was called as Bhsihma.

shantanu-satyavati-mahabharat-indian-mythology
Shantanu and Satyavati – Mahabharat – Indian mythology story

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Love stories from Mahabharata

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Nisha Rawat
Nisha Rawat
12 years ago

Nice collection of love stories from Mahabharat. Really liked them!

Laxmi Saraswati
12 years ago

Neatly compiled stories from Mahabharat.

Nisha Rawat
Nisha Rawat
12 years ago

Beautiful article – Never thought that this could be an aspect from Mahabharat, an interesting one!

Neil Ravi
11 years ago

thanks I wanted this story and i got it.

Neha Odak
Neha Odak
11 years ago

can u please post story of karna n vrushali?

Neha Odak
Neha Odak
11 years ago

awesome work done but can u please post karna n vrushali's story? I m not getting it from anywhere.

Ripudamanactor Rankawat
Ripudamanactor Rankawat
11 years ago

good

b.gupta
b.gupta
9 years ago

why panchali ,drupadi , ganga , bhooma devi , sita , and other devies and other good peoples were always and again and again insulted ,why crueilities and insult happened and why peoples became so bad and wrong to insult ladies ,

Was kunti and kunti’s humans and other souls were real cuilprits ? , in the 2012 ,13 ,2014 were beaten and killed very badlly by the gods like bharama , guru bhiraspati ,dakshina moorti , two goddess might be ganga and draupadi and other gods like may be ram ,krishna , and others

Were putana , who tried to kill krishna by making drink milk and other women ,like holika and other womens and others were culprits or were became the cuplprits of wrong and bad traditions or bad karmas of karmas or some other traditions

Why krishna ,rama ,shiva and others mahans elder peoples were good peoples and indras and others peoples were bad
crores and crores have been destroyed and are being buried alive under earths , throughwn into hells and made landless ,
why others peoles could not become good humans and good peoples

who were those peoples , which has been and being killed ,destroyieded ,
whose generations were , why were bad peoples , were really bad , why
could not became good peoples ,

Were rama and ravana were
enemy ? , if i am not wrong rama shakti and murgan and veerbhadra are
same avatars .(savarupnaga , ravana sister and sita might had been the close
relative) .
which peoples would had some wrong and intercaste marrages . intercaste marrages would had been the cause of quarrels there would had been great conspirancies to kill the peoples. which were from the westren and south westron parts of himayalas .in many stories of dakasa prajapati story also many wrong and multy wifes and mishappenigs happened . ( peoples which had to make lifes good and better , used the criminals ,enemities and wrong ideas and methods for spoiling and destroying the lifes )

Culprits and cruel peoples , who had done cruelities
on brahma and saraswati , and ganga and sita , ahiyilia , draupdi and on
many goddesses and gods ,and on good peoples ,

crores and crores of peoples are being killed ,destryoed in such a way no one can find out , and given different shapes and made to bad brains and minds ,
genetical deshaped and disorded to lusty and bad brains and bad minds .
are made from single soul to multy humans souls to suffer and painful
creatures to never become humans and buried alive under earth and even
killed into stomaches and made to toilets and throughn into hells like
toilets

{my views , which i found some what truth )my views may or may not be acceptable truth.}

Many ramayanas are there , like valmiki ,vashist ,kamb, ramanujan ,ramayanaa are few of many other versons of ramayana ,
what is the meaning of ramayana found ,– ramayana = ram +ayan ( ayan meaning came ) ,

according
to some stories ahyilyia was cursed by gotham rishi , Ahalya was
converted to stone ,As for Ahalya, Gautama granted her the boon that she
would be brought back to human form by the touch of the feet of Lord
Rama .
so rama avatar would had been made (incarnated) ,thus how many ramas would had been created ,

would gotham rishi would be knowing about rama avatar ?

like
ramayana so many ahilya versons are there ,( like in a verson , ganga
tells to gautam , it is mid night not the bath time go to home and see
some thing would have been wrong ) .

how many Ahilyas storeies
would had been made and how many gautams would had been made and how
many ahilyas lifes would had been spoiled ,how many indras would had
been made and how many girls/boys souls would had been made to sit in
hen or cock and make sound (cock crow) .thus how many would had been
made culprits ,sinners ,bad brains ,bad habituals of bad acts and bad
karma .
and those cuilprits , sinners are/would had been made to quarrel and killed in the wars of ramanyana .?

mahabharta
, would had took placed for the revenges and the cruelties happened on
ladies ( like savarupnakha ,sita ) . to show the cruelities ,gamblings
were played and sarees were made to removed

like ramayana vishvamitra story would have many versons and vishvamitras

mahabharata
would had been happened for revenges of ramayana and ramayana would had
been happened for ahiylia and what would be reason behind ahiliyia
insult was conspirancies or any ones evil idea .

really how many
would had been real culptits and how many would had been created and how
many would had been victims of vengences and eneyminities and how many
peoples souls would had been killed

killed peoples would had been
given births to different parents , differnt mothers ,different fathers
, and thus differnt marrages would had taken places in past birth some
ones mothers would had been wife of some another person .and some wrong
and illigal methods and would had been used like rapes for the birth and
for enemities and revenges .
thus quarrels would had been on increasing ,and peoples and souls became culprits and victims .
according
to one of the satguru video in the past arround 18 millions years 1.8
crores years ago and one of the papa ji ( h.l. punja ) video , arround
80 millilons years ,8 crores years ago some incarnations had took placed
and some wrong things and wrong marrages and wrong interchanged
childrens were given births by the other not by their husbands .
like this millions and millions peoples are accused .

( peoples which had to make lifes good and better , used the criminals
,and wrong ideas and methods for spoiling and destroying the lifes )

More than 99 % of peoples, gods ,souls had been inocents ,had not been
victims . if polatictics , conspirancies , crimanilites ,some wrong
traditions and some wrong rules of few from the ancient times would had
not been made.

why the wrong and mishappenings happened and
happenings from the very ancient times , why peoples went wrong for
wrong marrages wrong acts
Why the gods , devatas , peoples and
humans became wrong of bad wisdoms and wrong acts and bad karmas ,crores
and crores of peoples ,were all the peoples were bad .why became bad
instead of becoming good humans and peoples

for examples of very few , link given below–copy & paste
1/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2doBdnY8H8E

2/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OByGdKO4814Why