Mah\u0101bh\u0101rat, literally meaning the great Bh\u0101rata, is a grand narration about the nation and civilization, which is now known as India. It was then a nation ruled by king Bh\u0101rata and his descendants.
\ndharme c\u0101rthe ca k\u0101me ca mok\u015be ca bharatar\u015babha I
\nyadihasti tadanyatra yannehasti na tatkvachit II
\n~ Mah\u0101bh\u0101rat, \u0100di Parva 56.33 ~<\/p>\n
\u2018O Scion of Bharat race, whatever dharma (righteousness), artha (economic growth), k\u0101ma (pleasure) and mok\u1e63a (liberation) exist in this text is found elsewhere, but what is not found in this text does not exist elsewhere.\u2019<\/p>\n
Look into your life! Your whole life is nothing but the Mah\u0101bh\u0101rat War. The Mah\u0101bhar\u0101t should be read again and again to understand the intricacies of life, the complications of life, and the ability to handle life.<\/p>\n
The true story of this perfectly recorded epic is about two warring clans, Kauravas and P\u0101n\u1e0davas, closely related to one another. Dh\u1e5btar\u0101\u1e63\u1e6dra, the blind king of Hastin\u0101pur and father of the 100 Kaurava brothers was the brother of P\u0101n\u1e0du, whose children were the five P\u0101n\u1e0dava princes. It is a tale of strife between cousins and ultimately between dh\u0101rmic and adh\u0101rmic, righteous and unrighteous civilizations.<\/p>\n
Since Dh\u1e5btar\u0101\u1e63\u1e6dra was blind, P\u0101n\u1e0du was made the king of Hastin\u0101pura. P\u0101n\u1e0du was cursed by a sage that he would die if he ever entered into a physical relationship with his wives. He therefore had no children. Vy\u0101sa says that all the five P\u0101n\u1e0dava children were born to their mothers Kunt\u012b and M\u0101dri through the blessing of divine beings. P\u0101n\u1e0du handed over the kingdom and his children to his blind brother Dh\u1e5btar\u0101\u1e63\u1e6dra and retired to meditate in the forest.<\/p>\n
Kunt\u012b, who is the embodiment of tapas, spiritual penance, had received a boon when she was still a young unmarried adolescent, that she could summon any divine power at will to father a child. Before she married, she tested her boon. The Sun god, S\u016brya appeared before her. Kar\u1e47a was born to her as a result. In fear of social reprisals, she cast the newborn away in a river. Yudhi\u1e63\u1e6dra, Bh\u012bma and Arjuna were born to Kunt\u012b after her marriage by invocation of her powers, and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva were born to M\u0101dri, the second wife of P\u0101n\u1e0du.<\/p>\n
Yudhi\u1e63\u1e6dra was born to Kunt\u012b as a result of her being blessed by Yama, the god of death, dharma and justice, Bh\u012bma by V\u0101yu, the god of wind, and Arjuna by Indra, god of all the divine beings. Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngest P\u0101n\u1e0dava twins, were born to M\u0101dri, through the Divine A\u015bvini twins.<\/p>\n
Dh\u1e5btar\u0101\u1e63\u1e6dra had a hundred sons through his wife G\u0101ndh\u0101r\u012b. The eldest of these Kaurava princes was Duryodhana. Duryodhana felt no love for his five P\u0101n\u1e0dava cousins. He made many unsuccessful attempts, along with his brother Du\u015b\u015b\u0101sana, to kill the P\u0101n\u1e0dava brothers. Kunt\u012b\u2019s eldest son Kar\u1e47a, whom she had cast away at birth, was found and brought up by a chariot driver in the palace, and by a strange twist of fate, joined hands with Duryodhana.<\/p>\n
Dh\u1e5btar\u0101\u1e63\u1e6dra gave Yudhi\u1e63\u1e6dra one half of the Kuru kingdom on his coming of age, since the P\u0101n\u1e0dava prince was the rightful heir to the throne that his father P\u0101n\u1e0du had vacated. Yudhi\u1e63\u1e6dra ruled from his new capital Indraprastha, along with his brothers Bh\u012bma, Arjuna, Nakula and
\nSahadeva. Arjuna won the hand of princess Draupad\u012b, daughter of the king of P\u0101\u00f1c\u0101la, in a svaya\u1e41vara, a marital contest in which princes fought for the hand of a fair damsel. In fulfillment of their mother Kunt\u012b\u2019s desire that the brothers share everything equally, Draupad\u012b became the wife of all five P\u0101n\u1e0dava brothers.<\/p>\n
Duryodhana persuaded Yudhi\u1e63\u1e6dra to join a gambling session, where his cunning uncle \u015aakun\u012b defeated the P\u0101n\u1e0dava king. Yudhi\u1e63\u1e6dra lost all that he owned\u2014his kingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself, to Duryodhana. Du\u015b\u015b\u0101sana shamed Draupad\u012b in public by trying to disrobe her. The P\u0101n\u1e0dava brothers and Draupad\u012b were forced to go into exile for fourteen years, with the condition that in the last year they should live incognito or ajy\u0101ta v\u0101sa.<\/p>\n
To be continued…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mah\u0101bh\u0101rat, literally meaning the great Bh\u0101rata, is a grand narration about the nation and civilization, which is now known as India. It was then a nation ruled by king Bh\u0101rata and his descendants. dharme c\u0101rthe ca k\u0101me ca mok\u015be ca bharatar\u015babha I yadihasti tadanyatra yannehasti na tatkvachit II ~ Mah\u0101bh\u0101rat, \u0100di Parva 56.33 ~ \u2018O […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1980],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}