The Mahabharata is
an Ithihasa wherein Vyasa, the story-teller himself has a role. The story is of
cousins - Pandavas and Kauravas, in the Kurukshetra War for
the throne of Hasthinapura. Dictated by Vyasa and written by Ganesha. With
100,000 verses, it is the longest epic poem ever written. It was composed in
the 4th century BCE or earlier. The Bhagavad Gita within
Mahabharata is one of the most important texts not only of the Indian
literature but also of the World literature.
Shantanu, the king
of Hastinapur, was married to River Ganges, had a son Devavrata who was
supposed to be Shantanu's heir. But, Shantanu fell in love with Satyavati and
her father in order to agree for the marriage insisted the king that
Satyavati's son and descendants would inherit the throne, Shantanu declined to
do so. Devavrata, after knowing about
this, vowed to renounce the throne and to remain celibate throughout his life
(thus known as Bheeshma) and asked Satyavati for his father. Pleased Shantanu
granted Bheeshma the boon to select the time of his own death.
Vichitravirya, son
of Shantanu and Satyavati was enthroned. Bheeshma abducted the three princesses
of a neighboring 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 after, childless.
Satyavati summoned
her son (born to the great sage Parashara 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.
Since Dhritarashtra
was 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 kingdom to elder brother to look after the state affairs, and retired to the
forests with his two wives for some time. A few years later Kunti returned with
her five little boys, after the death 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. 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 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
rising popularity with the citizens was extremely distasteful to Duryodhana. He
plotted to get rid of the Pandavas. This he did by making his father send the
Pandavas and Kunti off to a nearby town on the pretext of a fair; the 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 of this fact by their other uncle, Vidura, and had a
counter plan ready; they dug an escape tunnel underneath their chambers and
escaped.
This is how the
Mahabharata PLOT was created. Following weeks we will see the continuation.
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