Here we come again with an unknown fact from the great indian epic, Mahabharata. This is about the brother of Pandu and Dhritrashtra, who was knowledgeable and wise, the great Vidura.
Few people know that Vidura, the chief minister of Dhritrashtra was an incarnation of Dharma. There is an interesting story behind this. Dharma was cursed by a sage so Vidura incarnated on the earth.
Vidura in Mahabharata
Sage Mandavya was deep in meditation and he was mistaken as a chief of robbers by a king and was punished too. When the king realized the mistake, he came and asked for forgiveness. At that point of time, the Sage questioned Dharmaraj that what was his fault.
Lord Dharma, who knew the great power of the sage, replied in all humility: “O sage, you have tortured birds and bees. Are you not aware that all deeds, good or bad, however small, inevitably produce their results, good or evil?” Sage Mandavya was surprised and inquired that when did he commit the sin? Dharma said that when he was a little child.
Hearing this, Sage Mandavya cursed Dharma that he would be born as mortal as his punishment far outweighs the misdeed he did.
Lord Dharma who was thus cursed by the sage Mandavya incarnated as Vidura and was born of the servant-maid of Ambalika, the wife of Vichitravirya.
This story shows that Vidura was the incarnation of Dharma. The great men of the world regarded Vidura as a sage who was unparalleled in his knowledge of dharma, sastras and statesmanship and was totally devoid of attachment and anger.
Vidura – chief counsellor of Dhritrashtra
He was appointed by Bhishma, while he was still in his teens, as the chief counsellor of king Dhritarashtra. Vyasa has said that no one in the three worlds could equal Vidura in virtue and knowledge.
We know that Shakuni was the person who masterminded the ascendancy of Duryodhana by beating Pandavas in gambling. What we don’t know that he was imprisoned by his own nephew, Duryodhana. His father and brothers have sacrificed their life, so Shakuni could survive. Read this unknown and interesting strory.
Shakuni in Mahabharata
Shakuni – The gambler, whose wishes were obeyed by the dice was the brother of Gandhari. There is a story that the dice he used was made out of bones of his father, Subala’s thighs. His sister, Gandhari had some problem in her astrological chart according to that her second husband only will survive.
Shakuni the Gambler
To rectify this situation, Gandhari was first married to a goat and then the animal was killed, so strictly speaking, she became a widow before marrying Dhritharashtra. When Duryodhana took charge of the Hastinapura, he was lambasted by Bhima that he is son of a widow.
Shakuni defeating Yudhishthira
Angered with this insult, he came to know about the story, attacked Gandhar province and imprisoned his 100 uncles including Shakuni. He arranged to provide one handful of rice for all of them to eat everyday. It was decided by the Subala, the father that Shakuni will eat the food given and survive to destroy Kauravas.
Shakuni’s brilliance
There is also an other story about how his father assessed the intelligence of his sons to select the most brilliant one. He asked his sons who were all in the prison to insert a thread through a bone so that who is succesful can eat the fistful of rice and survive to take revenge.
All the sons attempted and failed but Shakuni emerged victorious. He managed to tie a speck of rice to one end of a thread and fed it to an ant which took the thread through the hole of the bone. Shakuni survived. He was asked to eat the flesh of his own father which he did and created set of dice from his bones. After all of them died and only Shakuni was left,he was allowed out of prison on Gandhari’s insistence.
Note: This story is not found in original Mahabharata written by Vedavyasa
What happened to Pandavas after the Mahabharata war? It was nothing like Shri Ram ruled Ayodhya after defeating Ravana. But this era was more of Lord Krishna, rather than of Pandavas.
Gandhari’s curse and end of Yadavas
At the end of Mahabharata war, in the Mausala Parva of the epic Mahabharata, Gandhari curses Shri Krishna. This chapter begins with the visit of Lord Krishna to Gandhari. In a fit of grief over the death of her sons and the soldiers of her kingdom, Gandhari curses Krishna with the death of all Yadavas in a manner similar to the death of her sons. She blames Krishna for his inaction and believes that he could have stopped the war if he wanted to. Krishna explains how he had tried many times to mediate peace, how Duryodhana refused even a point of land when all that the Pandavas had expected was five small villages, and how Duryodhana and his uncle had tried many times to destroy the Pandavas. However, the lord also explains that he believes that the Yadavas would be destroyed by internal strife and conflict if left unchecked, so he thanks Gandhari for solving his dilemma and accepts the curse as a blessing.
Shri Krishna’s achilles heel
Hunter Jara and Shri Krishna
In this chapter, death of Shri Krishna is detailed by a hunter Jara. Jara accidentally shoots Krishna in the heel , which he confuses with a deer while Krishna is meditating. Shri Krishna consoles Jara and enters a nearby temple where the deity within him is seen, and so he merges with the image of Lord Vishnu.
Shri Krishna and the hunter
Crowning of Parikshit and Pandavas leaving for their journey to heaven
After Shri Krishna (the onset of Kali Yuga), Pandavas lost their interest in worldly matters. They crowned Parikshit (Arjuna’s grandson) and leave for a pilgrimage to various places in India before moving towards heaven.
After the great battle of Kurukshetra, the Pandavas started ruling the kingdom of Hastinapur. They meanwhile decided to renounce everything and proceed for Pilgrimage. In the Mahabharata, an apt description of the five Pandavas leaving for the Himalayas is found. They went clad only in rags and retired to the Himalaya and climbed towards heaven in their bodily form. A stray dog also accompanied them during their travels. Unfortunately while on the journey, one by one, each Pandava and Draupadi met their end however leaving Yudhishtira and the stray dog.
Death of Draupadi and other Pandavas
As each one stumbled, Yudhishtira gave the rest the reason for their fall. Draupadi was partial to Arjuna, whereas Nakula and Sahadeva were proud of their looks, whereas Bhima and Arjuna were proud of their strength and archery skills, respectively. Yudhishtira did not stumble as he was the only virtuous and righteous person.
Yudhisthira and Dharmaraj
Dharmaraja and Yudhisthira
Finally the dog who travelled with Yudhishtira revealed himself to be the god Yama or Yama Dharmaraja.
The God took Yudhishtira to the underworld where he found his siblings and wife. Yama explained Yudhishtira about a test which he had succeeded and took him back to heaven. According to Yama it was necessary to expose Yudhishtira to the underworld for the one lie which he had said during his entire life in the battle field of Kurukshetra. The five Pandava brothers thus came face to face with their doom.
Prior to the incident of their retirement to heaven, five brothers and Draupadi once had to face a similar situation where apparently end of Pandavas was revealed. The event demonstrates a situation that killed all the Pandava brothers except Yudhishtira. While drinking water from a lake. The virtuous Pandava was promised by the Yaksha if he would answer each of his questions. Gradually Yudhishtira satisfied the Yaksha and acknowledging his wisdom the Yaksha helped in reviving the dead Pandavas .
Death of Parikshit
After the end of the Pandavas and their final retirement to heaven, Arjuna’s grandson Parikshita came of age after ruling Hastinapur for quite a long time also faced an eventual end as he was bitten by a snake.
Raja Parikshit , Sage and snake
Janamejaya, Parikshita’s son was ferocious and decided to perform a snake sacrifice,in order to destroy the snakes. With an end of Pandavas a curtain was drawn to a significant chapter in Mahabharata.
As we know, every character in the Mahabharata is found to be serving a purpose, for the fulfillment of bigger goal, victory of Truth over falsehood. Here we find a controversial character who ultimately became the cause of Bhishma’s downfall. But wait, we will find good reasons for that.
Shikhandi – Arjuna
The unknown story of Shikhandi from Mahanharata
Shikandi is a character in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharat. The son of Drupada, he fought in the Kurukshetra war on the side of the Pandavas.
He had been born in an earlier lifetime as a woman named Amba, who was rejected by Bhishma for marriage. Feeling deeply humiliated and wanting revenge, Amba carried out great prayers and penance with the desire to be the cause of Bhishma’s death. She even went to Parshurama for help. There is another story that Parshurama and Bhishma fought for long periods, and Bhishma could not be defeated by his guru.
Amba then takes upon herself to kill Bhishma. She performs lots of penances. Pleased with this, Shiva grants her the boon that she will attain this goal in her next life. He elaborates that she will born to King Drupad first as a woman but then later will change to be a man. Saying this he disappears. As soon as he disappears, Amba jumps into the fire to kill herself so that she can take rebirth soon.
Amba was then reborn as Shikhandini at Panchal to King Drupad. She was the third sibling of Dhrishtdyumna and Draupadi.
From her birth, a Divine voice told her father to raise her as a son. So Shikhandini was raised like a man, trained in warfare and eventually married. On her wedding night, her wife insulted her on finding out the truth. Contemplating suicide, she fled Panchala, but was saved by a Yaksha who exchanged his sex with her. Shikhandi came back a man and had a happy married life with his wife and had children too. After his death, his masculinity was transferred back to the Yaksha.
In the battle of Kurukshetra, Bhishma recognised him as Amba reborn, and not wanting to fight ‘a woman’, lowered his weapons. Knowing that Bhishma would react thus to Shikhandi, Arjuna hid behind Shikhandi and attacked Bhishma with a devastating volley of arrows. Thus, only with Shikhandi’s help could Arjuna deal a death blow to Bhishma, who had been virtually invincible until then. Shikhandi was finally killed by Ashwatthama on the eighteenth day of Mahabharata war.
Kavach and Kundal are significant in terms of Indian mythology or to be specific, Mahabharata epic.
These were the insurance for Karna, the tragic hero from Mahabharata, as he was impenetrable from any weapon, as long as he was wearing them.
It happens that Karna was born to Kunti as a divine intervention from Surya, the Sun god. He was born with Kavach and Kundal of him. Kavach refers to body armour and Kundal are the ear-rings.
So basically, he was born with an added advantage over anyone. So in the epic of Mahabharata, when he decided to fight with Duryodhana, he was unknowingly giving him a massive advantage. The consequence of this could have resulted in Duryodhana winning the war.
Karna born with Kavach and Kundal
How this could have happened? After all, we hear every time that truth always prevails. So, heavens have other designs. Like in every story, where the evil is so strong, there is invariably a small chink in armour, a small opening which is exploited by good forces. Like Ravana was vulnerable to humans, Lord Vishnu also found a way to neutralize Hiranyakashyap.
So what was his achilles heel? Being a good person, it is equally difficult to defeat him by wrong means. Indian gods, especially Indra have always descended to not so sporting means, when it comes to their advantage. This time again, he finds a way, and rather exploits a virtue in Karna.
Karna was famous for his benevolence. And he never returned anyone when someone requested him. So Indra, this time, disguises himself as a brahmin, and asks for his Kavach and Kundal.
Karna didn’t hesitate for a moment and took out Kavach and Kundal which were never separated from his body and handed over his advantage to Indra, and eventually to Arjuna and Pandavas.
Shakuni’s character cannot be underestimated in the context of Mahabharata. He has been a highly intelligent person and a brave warrior. He had been a matermind to lot of plots to help Duryodhana gain upper hand on Pandavas. The most notorious and damage inflicting was the game of dice.
Pandavas losing the game of dice to Shakuni
There are lot of therories which say why he left his own kingdom (gandhar) and was living at Hastinapur. One theory says that he was appalled because of his sister was forcefully married to a blind prince and he decided to take the revenge. But I doubt, as his actions were directed towards only one thing, welfare of Duryodhana.
He played many clever tricks like building the house of Lac, sending the dangerous saint Durvasas to the forest, waging war on the kingdom that hosted the Pandavas secretly (so that their hide out was exposed before end of stipulated one year and they were forced to start the exile de novo), etc etc All perfect designs befitting royal strategy of high order.
His Grandest act
Shakuni’s grandest act in mahabharata was inviting Yudhisthira to the game of dice and ensuring that he lost everything to Duryodhana. The plan was very beautiful, and it would have ensured the kingdom to Duryodhana, had they have been able to identify the place of hiding of Pandavas agyaatvaas. The condition was such that Pandavas had to spend twelve years in forest and one year in hiding and if they were discovered during the year, they have to repeat the cycle. Pandavas hid themselves well in kingdom of Virata during the year.
Shakuni defeating Yudhishthira
It is said that the dice which were used in the game of dice were made from his father’s bones and they obeyed him. He was killed by Sahdev in the war of mahabharata.
His father was Subala, who also had 100 sons. Youngest of them was Shakuni.
Indian mythology and Greek mythology – Similarities between gods and characters
The achilles heel is a phrase borrowed from greek mythology which denotes an area of weakness. Achilles was a great fighter who was washed with water of river styx to become invincible. His mother, Thetis held him by his heel and dipped him into the river. His heel was not washed by the water of magical river and that area remained vulnerable and ultimately was cause of his death when a poisonous arrow lodged in his heel.
Shri Krishna and the hunter
In indian mythology, the great epic mahabharat has a similar story. Duryodhana, the elder son of kauravas, was summoned by his mother Gandhari as she wanted him to become invincible. He was supposed to appear naked before his mother, so that wherever Gandhari gaze fell, his body became invincible. But Shri Krishna has different plans, and he convinced Durodhana to wear a loin cloth as it would not look good for a son to appear naked in front of his mother. Later in Mahabharat war, this weakness around his thighs enabled Bheem/Bhima to kill Duryodhana.
We see that in Mahabharata, that many great warriors have weaknesses exploited which led to their downfall. Drona’s weakness for his son Ashwaththama, Karna weakness from his teacher Parshuram to forget his skills when he needed them most. But in Duryodhana’s case, it was Shri Krishna’s masterstroke which made Duryodhana vulnerable.
We see that how fascinating and similar above stories are, and to take it further, Shri Krishna tenure at earth ended in the same way achilles died, by a poisonous arrow in lodged in his heel, this was due to a curse by Gandhari. Gandhari cursed him after the war of mahabharat that after thirty six years of the war he and his clan will be finished.
Are we seeing copy here, but the bigger question is, who copied whom?
There is an interesting side story in Mahabharata about Babhruvahana who was even more skilled to his father, Arjuna. He succesfully stopped the Pandavas quest of performing Ashwamedha. This story may be treated as similar to Luv Kush stopping Rama from performing Ashwamedha yagya.
Here is the detailed story of Babruvahana.
Birth of Babruvahana
During exile, Arjuna travelled the length and breadth of India. His wanderings took him to ancient Manipura, an almost mystic kingdom renowned for its natural beauty. There, he met Chitrāngadā, the daughter of the king of Manipura, and was moved to seek her hand in marriage. Her father demurred on the plea that, according to the matrilineal customs of his people, the children born of Chitrāngadā were heir to Manipura; he could not allow his heirs to be taken away from Manipur by their father. Arjuna promised that he would take away neither his wife Chitrāngadā nor any children borne by her from Manipura and wed the princess. Babruvahana, was soon born to the couple and later succeeded his grandfather as king of Manipura.
Ashwamedha yagya by Yudhishthira
Long after the battle of Kurukshetra, Yudhishtira decides to conduct the Aswamedha Yaga. The yaga horse enters the dominion of Manipur, with the horse intended for the Aswamedha, there was a battle between Arjuna and King Babhruvahana, and the latter killed his father with an arrow. Repenting of his deed, he determined to kill himself, but he obtained from his stepmother, the Naga princess Uloopi, a gem which restored Arjuna to life. He returned with his father to Hastinapura.
Babruvahana vs Arjuna
Arjuna’s death in the battle is also attributed to the curse of the Ashta-Vasus. The Vasus, enraged by Arjuna’s deceptive tactic of using Shikandi as a shield to kill Bhishma (an incarnation of one of the eight Vasus), curse Arjuna that he would be slain by his own son. This curse comes to pass during the battle between Arjuna and Babruvahana.
Babruvahana also killed Karna’s son Vrishaketu in the battle. Vrishaketu had accompanied Arjuna in the Ashwamedha Yagna and was consequently killed. Later krishna revived Vrishaketu.
One of the most knowledgeable characters of Mahabharata, who alongwith Chanakya, is coined as the father of politics. Vidurneeti is still referred in india in matter of Governance. It is said that God Dharma himself took birth in the form of Vidura. In the whole of Mahabharata, Vidura’s is the voice of reason and wisdom.
Vidura
Birth and earlier life of Vidura
Vidura was half-brother to Dhritarashtra and Pandu. He was a son of a maid-servant who served the queens of Hastinapura, Ambika and Ambalika. In some accounts, he was an incarnation of Yama or Dharma Raja, who was cursed by the sage, Mandavya, for imposing punishment on him that exceed the sin.
Both queens were married to King Vichitravirya of Hastinapur, who died childless. Vichitravirya’s mother Satyavati was anxious to ensure that the royal line was carried on. She called upon her other son Vyasa, to go to the beds of the two queens to father children. Vyasa was a hermit, and came to the palace, unkempt as he was. He went to Ambika who closed her eyes when she saw him, and to Ambalika who became pale. Hence the children they bore were blind and weak.
When Satyavati asked Vyasa to go to Ambika’s bed again, to ensure that there would be children, she placed her maid-servant instead in her bed. The maid-servant was not frightened. Hence her son was not born flawed like his half-brothers. Thus, Vidura was born who was raised as brother of Dhritarashtra and Pandu.
With his half-brothers he was raised and educated by Bhishma, whom they called father. As he had no royal blood, he was never considered for, or had any chance of obtaining the throne of the kingdom. He served his brothers as a minister.
Helping the Pandavas
After Krishna, he was the most trusted advisor to the Pandavas and had warned them repeatedly about Duryodhana’s plots. In particular, he warned the Pandavas from Duryodhana’s plan to burn them alive in a house of wax he had made for them. He was known for speaking the truth and for his intelligence.
Vidura against the war
Vidura is famous also for being a true devotee of Lord Krishna. When the latter visited Hastinapura as a peace emissary of the Pandavas, he shunned Duryodhana’s offer to stay in his stately guest house, instead choosing the humble dwellings of Vidura.
In protest against the Mahabharata war, Vidura resigned from the post of minister.
After the great battle, he helped Yudhishthira when he became ruler. Later, he accompanied Dhritarashtra, and his sisters-in-law Gandhari, and Kunti, when they left on their last journey to the forest. He died before his companions, on the banks of the Ganga.
