Mahabharata PLOT

 Mahabharata PLOT

The Mahabharata is an Ithihasa wherein Vyasa, the story-teller himself has a role. The story is of cousins the Pandavas and Kauravas, in the Kurukshetra War for the throne of Hasthinapura. Krishna-Dwaipayan Vyasa dictated the verses and Ganesha wrote them down. At 100,000 verses, it is the longest epic poem ever written, composed in the 4th century BCE or earlier. The Bhagavad Gita within Mahabharata is one of the most important texts not only of ancient Indian but of the World Literature.

Shantanu, the king of Hastinapur, was married to River Ganges, had a son Devavrata when had grown up became the prince, Shantanu fell in love with Satyavati. Satyavati’s father to agree for the marriage insisted the king that Satyavati's son and descendants would inherit the throne, Shantanu declined to do so.  Devavrata, on coming to know of the matter, vowed to renounce the throne and to remain celibate throughout his life (thus known as Bheeshma) and took Satyavati for his father. Shantanu was so pleased, granted Bheeshma choosing the time of his own death.

Vichitravirya, son of Shantanu and Satyavati was enthroned. Bheeshma abducted the three princesses of a neighbouring kingdom and brought them over to Hastinapur to be wedded to Vichitravirya. The eldest of these princesses declared that she was in love with someone else, so she was let go; the two other princesses were married to Vichitravirya who died soon afterwards, childless.

Satyavati summoned her son (born to the great sage Parashar before her marriage to Shantanu) Vyasa to impregnate the two queens. By the Niyog custom, the two queens each had a son of Vyasa: to the elder queen - Dhritarashtra, and to the younger – pale son Pandu. To a maid of these queens was born a son of Vyasa - Vidura. Bheeshma brought up these three boys with great care and made them great : Dhritarashtra - the strongest of all princes in the country, Pandu - extremely skilled in warfare and archery, and Vidura – expert in all the branches of learning, politics, and statesmanship.

Dhritarashtra being the blind; Pandu was crowned. Bheeshma negotiated Dhritarashtra's marriage with Gandhari, and Pandu's with Kunti and Madri. Pandu was a great king, but left the it to elder brother to look after the state affairs, and retired to the forests with his two wives for some time off. A few years later, Kunti returned with her were five little boys, and the bodies of Pandu and Madri.  The five boys were the sons of Pandu, born to his two wives through the Niyog custom from gods: the eldest was born of Dharma, the second of Vayu, the third of Indra, and the youngest - twins - of the Ashvins. In the meanwhile, Dhritarashtra and Gandhari too had 100 sons and one daughter.  

All of the 105 princes were entrusted to the care of a teacher : Kripa at first and later to Drona. Drona's school at Hastinapur also had Karna, of the Suta clan. It was here that hostilities developed between the sons of Dhritarashtra (Kauravas) and the sons of Pandu (Pandavas). Duryodhana and Bheem had a fight, Karna - uninvited as he was not a Kuru prince - challenged Arjuna, was insulted on account of his non-royal birth, and was crowned king of a vassal state on the spot by Duryodhana. Questions began to be raised about Dhritarashtra occupying the throne, since he was supposed to be holding the crown for king Pandu. To keep peace in the realm, Dhritarashtra declared the eldest Pandava, Yudhishthira, as the crown prince and heir apparent.

Yudhishthira's as King rising popularity with the citizens was extremely distasteful to Duryodhana. He plotted to get rid of the Pandavas. This he did by getting his father to send the Pandavas and Kunti off to a nearby town on the pretext of a fair; to stay in that town was built by an agent of Duryodhana; the palace was made entirely of inflammable materials since the plan was to burn down the palace. The Pandavas, however, were alerted to this fact by their other uncle, Vidura, and had a counter plan ready; they dug an escape tunnel underneath their chambers and made escape.

This is how and where the Mahabharata PLOT is created. Next we shall see Pandavas with Panchali in Forest and Virat.

191111 – 2019 November 11

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