Tales from Mahabharatha

By Vaishnavi,

D/O Dr. Vishwanath Dixit

INTRODUCTION

Usually, the Mahabharatha is said to be known as the battle of Kurukshetra between the Kauravas and the Pandavas.

But the real story originates in the mind of The Great Sage Vedavyasa who also segregated the 4 vedas.

He performed a Penance which pleased Lord Brahma who appeared before him and gave the sage a choice of choosing any boon that he wanted. The wise sage asked Brahma to grant him a boon that would allow him to be the composer of the greatest epic.

Lord Brahma granted the boon and disappeared. After the whole epic had been composed, Sage Vyasa asked Brahma to suggest a writer who would be able to write the whole epic.

Brahma suggested that only Lord Ganesha would be able to do this work.

So Vyasa began another Penance to please Lord Ganesha. When the Lord appeared before him, Vyasa explained the whole situation and asked Lord Ganesha to write the epic.

Ganesha agreed, but on one condition. He said that Vyasa should be able to dictate the epic without giving a single pause, and Vyasa agreed. And so when the Ganesha's pen broke down, he removed one of his elephant teeth and used that as a pen. That is the reason he is also known as Ekadanta ( the one with a single tooth ).

Story-1

The Chandravamshis

The Chandravamshis or the descendants of the moon were a large part of history. The great Pandavas also belonged to this dynasty.

Tara, goddess of stars was the wife of Brihaspathi the guru of the devas. Brihaspathi performed several yagnas to ensure the victory of the devastated against the Asuras however, to perform the Yaga the presence of Tara was needed.

Brihaspathi had no love for Tara and because of this Chandra and Tara had fallen in love.

Upon hearing the matter, Brihaspathi was enraged and demanded that Tara come back to him. Tara however refused. The matter was taken to the King of the Devas, Indra. In a dilemma, Indra was to choose between Tara should go back to the love of her life where she felt deserved,

Or come back to her husband who showed no affection to her and ensure the victory of The Devas and do the world a favor.

After multiple discussions, Devendra suggested that it would be best for Tara to return to her husband to save the world from the grave danger of it falling into the hands of the Asuras.

Tara returned, a few months passed after the incident and they found out That Tara was bearing a child. Chandra and Brihaspathi demanded to know the father of the Child but to no avail. In the end, when the unborn child itself demanded to know the father. Tara revealed that the child she was carrying was Chandra's child. Enraged Brihaspathi cursed the unborn child that it would be born to be a transgender

( Nor male or female ) . Tara begged him to take back the curse.

But No one could take back their words once said, Realising his mistake, Brihaspathi suggested that they go to Lord Shiva for a solution. Lord Shiva upon hearing the situation, altered the curse and said that he would be a male by day and female by night. Soon a child was born to Tara and was named Buddh. The descendants of Buddh the son of Chandra came to be known as the Chandravamshis.

Story-2

Shantanu's Curse

Shantanu the Ancestor of the Kuru clan, father of the great MahaMahima Bhishma was a just King.

In his past life too, he was a great, strong, and honest King so, when he died he arrived at heaven where he was delightfully welcomed in the court of Devendra. While all of them were consuming Sōma ( Liquor ) And enjoying the company of an Apsara, Ganga, The King fell in love with the Apsara and she too seemed to like his attention. Observing this Lord Indra cursed the King and Ganga that they would be born on earth as humans and only when Ganga's 8 sons are killed then and only then would she be able to go back to heaven. Ganga being an Apsara had all memories of the Curse and decided to take the form of a river, while the King being only a mortal being had no memory of his previous birth he was born to the great Rajarshi King Parasara in the Puru Clan. Meanwhile, 7 Deva brothers were passing by an ashram one of them had a wife. When the wife desired Kamadhenu, the sacred cow her husband tried to steal the cow, the sage cursed all 8 of them shall have to go through one life as a mortal on earth. Upon hearing those terrifying words of the sage, they went to Mother Ganga to seek protection, Ganga agreed and Told them that they would be born as her sons and that she would end their mortal lives as soon as they took birth as a result of Indra's Curse. This is the reason killed her first 7 sons but Shantanu stopped her at the last one hence Pitmaha Bhishma had to go through a painful and lengthy life on earth

Story-3

The Death of Krishna

After the great Mahabharatha war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Krishna, Yudhishtir, Bheem, Arjun, Nakul, Sahadev, Draupadi, Suchandra, And Uttara arrived at Hastinapur for the coronation of Yudhishtir. Upon arriving, Yudhishtir first asked for forgiveness for killing their cousins. Dhritrashtra however argued that until the exact person who killed his sons apologizes to him, he will not forgive them. Bheem being the person who killed the 100 Kaurava Brothers went forward, not knowing the king's True intentions. Krishna quietly stopped Bheem and pushed a Mannequin ahead as soon as it came closer, Dhritrashtra put his arms around it and crushed it into pieces. Knowing his mistake Dhritrashtra broke into tears thinking that the Mannequin was Bheem, Krishna consoled Him. And the day of the coronation began. All that was left to do was to crown Yudhishtir. Dhritrashtra gave that honor to his beloved brother Vidur. But Vidur politely refused and suggested that this honor be given to Lord Krishna. Enraged upon hearing this Gandhari cursed Krishna. In this war, due to the infighting among the brothers, the entire clan of Kuru was annihilated, and in the same manner, the Yadava clan would disappear into the sea, and the City of Dwarka would be Submerged.

A few years passed after the War, and Krishna's son Samba and his friends decided to play a prank on a sage meditating nearby. Samba dressed up as a pregnant woman went to the sage with his friends, and asked the sage if the baby would be a boy or a girl. The sage, with his yogic powers, learned of the prank and was enraged he cursed Samba that an Iron rod would be born to him and that would be the end of the Yadavas. Samba and his friends threw the iron rod into the sea when a fish ate it and when the fisherman caught the fish and cut it open he was surprised to find an iron piece inside, he threw it on the sand where it started growing into plants.

One day all of the royals were enjoying time on the beach making fun of each other when they started arguing with each other and also fighting. When they couldn't find any weapons in sight, they used the plants that were near them, which seemed to have the power of an iron, eventually killing themselves. Unable to watch this terrible sight, Balarama returned to Vaikunta, Vishnu's Abode as Adi Sesha. Krishna informed his charioteer to inform Arjun to bring all women and children to safety and went walking deep into the woods until he was tired he sat down under a tree to rest. Meanwhile, A hunter named Jara was hunting some birds and assumed that the foot of Krishna was a bird and shot it immediately. When he went to see who it was, he was astonished and began asking for forgiveness for this grave sin committed by him. But Krishna however did not blame him as this incident was a result of a curse and a promise made by him in his previous life.

In the Ramayana, when Sugreeva asked for help in defeating Vali, Sri Rama hid behind a tree and shot an arrow at Vali. When Vali argued about this in his last moments Rama promised that I would shoot an arrow from behind, You shoot an arrow at me from in front of me in your next birth .

Also when the Kauravas and the Pandavas were gathering Armies. Ekalavya decided to join the Kauravas' side when Krishna suggested that he stay put as he was a hunter and his dharma was to find food in the wild. And when Ekalavya didn't listen, Krishna quietly killed Ekalavya and fled from the scene. When Ekalavya's wife found the body of her husband she was terrified and cursed that whoever had killed my husband and fled like a bird shall die like a bird and thus trained her son, Jara to hunt birds. And so Lord Krishna ended his Avatar on earth

Story-4

The Snake Sacrifice

When the Pandavas demanded at least 1 part of land Dhritrashtra gave them Khandavaprastha, according to Shakuni's Suggestion. All of them present in the court that the land was occupied by the Serpents including Takahak. Respecting their uncle's decision The Pandavas started their journey towards Khandavaprastha. The Citizens of Hastinapur loved their prince Yudhishtir because of the justice given him and refused to stay in Hastinapur while their prince was away. So One by one all Citizens began leaving their homes while Shakuni and Duryodhan hatched yet another plan to stop the Citizens from moving forward. They closed the city's gate as all of them struggled to go through. Meanwhile, at Khandavaprastha The Pandavas were facing a few problems with Takshak. When Arjun burnt the forest where the Serpents were living, Takshak enraged by this, sent all Serpents to kill the Citizens. So, to solve this problem Arjun prayed to his father. His Father reasoned with his son that he would regrow the Forest and let the Serpents live while in return the Serpents would give life to the dead Citizens and that would have a large City built outside the forest by the great Vishwakarma. Arjun agreed but Takshak was still not satisfied. He was angry because the land was handed over to him by Lord Indra himself and was promised the protection of the serpents But there was nothing he could do about it. So Takshak agreed and also vowed to take revenge and kill at least 1 descendant of Arjun. Thus, the city of Indraprastha was built

Years into the future after the Mahabharatha war, It was the reign of The Great King Parikshit son of Abhimanyu and Uttara. One day the King went on a hunt to the forests. He was very thirsty so he stopped at a Hermitage to ask for water. He saw a sage meditating he went over to the sage and asked for water. Deep I'm meditation, the sage did not respond. Assuming that the sage was disrespecting him, Parikshit picked up a dead snake lying on the road and wrapped it around the sage's neck. A few students who had witnessed the incident cursed the King that he would die of a snake bite. Worried Parikshit crowned his oldest son, Janamejaya as his successor distanced himself from his family, and locked himself. After a few days, Parikshit grabbed an apple to eat on which there was a small worm that transformed into a large snake. It was Takshak. He bit the king and fled the scene. Learning the truth about the death of his father, For Revenge, King Janamejaya ordered a Snake Sacrifice to kill all serpents. As soon as the yaga started, Snakes started pouring into the flames when Takshak wrapped himself around Vasuki's sister. During the yaga there appeared a half-snake, half-human who stopped the yaga by retelling the story of Indraprastha and the vow of Takshak's Revenge and also the curse of the deceased King.

Janamejaya soon realized his mistake and apologized.