Samskhepa Mahabharatam – Introduction
Mahabharatam authored by the supreme Vedavyasa Maharishi hailed rightfully as the fifth Veda is a priceless treasure house of ancient wisdom that has an amazing and boundless story value in addition to a detailed exposition of our ancient culture, heritage, ethos, dharma, raja niti, archery, war, philosophy, spirituality, description of celestials, rishis, kings, society and so on.
It is always a daunting challenge to present the great epic Mahabharatam with 18 awesome parvas in an abridged form because of the massive depth and width of the various stories and substories. It is proposed to present the entire gamut of Mahabharatam in a concise story form in 18 parts in a Series titled “Samskhepa Mahabharatam.”
Dhrutarashtra
The King Vichitravirya died without children to forward the royal legacy. Deeply pained, Satyavati commanded her son Vyasa to beget children from Ambika and Ambalika to continue the thread of the royal lineage. The sage Vyasa had no option but to come to Hastinapura for fulfilling his mother’s order.
When the sage appeared in an unpleasant, old form with matted hairs, Ambika did not like to see his face and closed her eyes. Owing to this act of closing her eyes, she got a blind son. He was ‘Dhrutarashtra’.
Paandu
The next day, when Ambalika saw the sage in an unattractive form, she turned so pale. As a result, she gave birth to a son with white patches on the body. He was a ‘Paandu’.
Vidura
On the third day by the direction of Satyavati, her maid-servant Parishrami and sage Vyasa, blessed with a son. He was ‘Vidura’. Owing to the curse of the sage Mandavya, Lord Yama was born as ‘Vidura’. All were happy as they had three sons to care for the kingdom.
The sage Vyasa went to the forest to continue his penance. Bhishma looked after Dhrutarashtra, Paandu and Vidura with great love and affection. He taught them all forms of ‘Dharma Shastras,’ ‘raja niti,’ the Vedic scriptures and ‘dhanur vidya’. They were trained in all forms of martial arts including archery, mace fighting and so on.
Specialized coaching was given on elephant riding and horse riding to use skillfully in warfare. Over a while, Dhrutarashtra emerged as the strongest of the three and Paandu evolved into a great archer.
The youngest brother Vidura was sagacious and ‘satvik’ by nature with amazing and insightful knowledge in ‘Niti Shastras.’ All the three brothers were amiable and affectionate. Being the eldest brother, Dhrutarashtra was given due respect by both Paandu and Vidura.
Amba tried to take revenge on Bhishma as she loved Bhisma. She wanted to take revenge on Bhishma. She lived a life of utter frustration and despair. She led a life of great austerity. She won a garland of refreshing lotus from Lord Kartikeya with a benediction that whoever wore that divine garland would turn into an enemy of Bhishma. She approached many kings to help her but none came forward to fight against the mighty Bhishma.
She approached Drupada, the king of Paanchala who also refused to fight against Bhishma. She then kept the garland hung on the gate of the palace of Drupada and left with utter dejection. As advised by some sages, she finally approached Lord Parasurama and sought his help. When Parasurama offered to make Salva agree to marry her, Amba said that she was no longer interested in marriage and her only wish was that she wanted Bhishma to be subdued and killed.
Accordingly, Parasurama fought with Bhishma for a long time and finally conceded that he could not win Bhishma. Amba got dejected and went straight to the Himalayas and did rigorous penance propitiating the Supreme Mahadeva. Pleased by her austerities, Lord Shiva appeared before her and granted her a boon that she would kill Bhishma in her next birth.
Amba did not want to wait any more. She jumped into the burning pyre and immolated herself. Amba was born as the daughter of king ‘Drupada in her next birth’.
All along the divine garland was hanging on the gate of the palace of Drupada as no one dared to touch it because of Bhishma. As a young girl, she wore that divine garland. On knowing this, Drupada drove her out of his palace. The young girl did severe penance in the forest and turned into a male warrior known as ‘Sikhandi’.
The three brothers Dhrutarashtra, Paandu and Vidura were brought up very well in a cultured manner suitable for a royal place. Paandu was made the king of Hastinapura. As they grew up and attained marriageable age, Bhishma got Dhrutarashtra wedded to ‘Gandhari’. Paandu married ‘Kunti’ in her ‘Swayamvara.’ Vidura married ‘Sulabha’.
Gandhari was the beloved daughter of Subala, the king of Gandhara. She was very beautiful. Initially, Subala was not interested in giving his beloved daughter to a blind person. Later on, he was convinced that this royal alliance with Hastinapur would bring him great respect and royal credibility.
To respect the words of her father, Gandhari consented to marry Dhrutarashtra. She took a piece of cloth and tied it around her eyes so that she could not see the physical world outside. Only through her ears, she could understand what was happening around her. She was brought to Hastinapura by her brother Sakuni. Bhishma blessed the marriage of Dhrutarashtra with Gandhari. Both of them led a happy married life.
Kunti was the first-born daughter of King Shurasena of the Yadava clan and the sister of Vasudeva whose son was Lord Krishna. Kunti’s original name was Pritha. As Kuntibhoja had no children, he adopted Pritha as his beloved daughter. Given this, Pritha came to be known as Kunti. She used to serve the respectful Brahmanas and sages who came to the kingdom of Kuntibhoja. Once the sage Durvasa came to meet Kuntibhoja.
Knowing that Durvasa might get angry any time even on trivial matters, Kuntibhoja deputed Kunti to serve Durvasa with great care. Accordingly, Kunti devotionally served Durvasa and meticulously fulfilled all his needs. She specially cooked for Durvasa at very short notice and earned his appreciation. Immensely pleased by Kunti’s humility and dedication, Durvasa gave a ‘mantra’ to Kunti and said that whichever deity she wished to propitiate she could do so and that particular deity would appear before her and also bless her with a child.
After the departure of Durvasa, Kunti was curious to test the power of the ‘mantra.’ She chanted the .mantra’ invoking Lord Surya. Captured by the ‘mantra, Lord Surya appeared before Kunti and blessed that a son would be born to her. When Kunti got worried about this, Lord Surya said that even though a son was born, her virginity would not be affected.
Later on, Kunti gave birth in secrecy to a shimmering son with two Kundalas and a Kavacha protecting his chest. Kunti Devi put the newborn in a wooden box with her clothing inside. She took the box and floated it in the river Yamuna. This box was picked up by a charioteer named ‘Adiratha’. He and his wife ‘Radha’ brought the child up as their beloved son. The child was known as ‘Karna’.
Kunti – King Paandu
Kuntibhoja conducted the ‘Swayamvara’ of Kunti grandly. Kunti chose King Paandu of Hastinapura as her husband. Paandu took Kunti to Hastinapura with all royal reception. Later, Paandu also married the beautiful Madri, the daughter of the king of Madra and the sister of Shalya.
Dhrutarashtra, Paandu and Vidura lived a happy life while Bhishma continued his commitment to protect and guide the kingdom of Hastinapura.
For All parts of this series, click here
