Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata, Part A

Vyasa and Ganesha

Vyasa is the author of the Mahabharata and arranged the Vedas.A god tells him that Ganesha would write the story for him. 

Ganesha agreed on the term that his pen does not stop writing.

Vyasa's birth: 

His father is human and his mother is a fish and he has a twin sister named Satyavati who smelled like fish. They were caught by a fisherman. He told the king (Uparichara) who took his son but left his daughter with the fishermen. 

She is courted by King Shantanu and agrees to love him under some conditions:

• She must remain a virgin
• The smell of fish needs to go away

King Shantanu and Ganga

Painting of King Shantanu, Ganga, and Devavrata
by B.P Banjeree 1923

Image Source: Wikipedia

• First wife

• Ganga agreed to be the mother of 7 boys who are Vasus

• A brahmin named Vasistha cursed them to be human because they interrupted his meditation 

• She made a condition that they give some of their powers to her  eighth son. 

Vasistha  with his wife Arundhati and Kamadhenu cow
Image Source; Wikipedia

Ganga meets her husband and agrees to marry him under the condition:

• He doesn't question her actions
• He doesn't insult her
• She's allowed to do whatever she wants

She will have to go away forever if these conditions are broken .

Ganga drowned her 7 children (the Vasus). Her husband breaks his promise and insults her because he couldn't watch her drown anymore children. She leaves her son with him. 

King Shantanu stops Ganga from drowning Devavtra
Image Source: Wikipedia

Satyavati

• Mother of Chitrangada  and Vichitravirya and Vyasa

• Second wife of King Shantanu

Her father would not allow her to get married until King Shantanu agreed to allow Vyasa to be king. Shantanu refused because the throne is supposed to go to Devavrata (Ganga's son).

Devavrata's Vow

• Ganga and King Shantanu's son 
• Later known as Bhishma

He visits Satyavati's father and vows not to accept the throne, get married, or have kids so that the fisherman will allow her to get married to his father.

A god and apsara called him "Bhishma" which means "Terrible" because of the vow he made but they dropped flowers on his head which can symbolize something good. 

The flowers can be a sign of good karma.

Chitrangada became king but got killed by the king of Gandhari three years later for for waging war.  

Satyavati's other son became king but was too young to rule the kingdom

• Devavrata ran the kingdom for a few years. 

Devavrata technically broke his promise but he also made sure to put make his brother king as soon as he was old enough.  

A story can be made about him breaking his promise but because he gave up his rightful place as king and helped his father marry Satyavati, he can get a pass because of his good karma.

Bhishma at the Swayamvara

• Shantanu dies and his half-brother is king now

• Bhishma was looking for a woman to marry his brother

• A competition between 3 sisters is created. They are princesses of Benares.

1.  Amba

• On the day of the wedding, she reveals to Bhishma that she already likes someone and it would be unfair to marry someone else

This can be considered good karma because she prevented several people from being hurt by admitting  the truth.

• She gets rejected by her lover & blames Bhishma
• She fasts for several days until Shiva appears
• Requests Bhishma be defeated
• Shiva tells her she will be reincarnated as a man and will battle Bhishma 
•  She sets up her own funeral and dies 

She also will get bad karma but her good deed will make karma go easy on her.

2. Ambika
3. Ambalika

Dhritarashtra and Pandu

Bhishma's younger brother is now married but he dies before he has kids. Vyasa is made king.

• Him and Ambika have a blind son because she closed her eyes with horror at Vyasa's appearance

• Dhritarashtra




• Ambalika son is born pale because she was pale at the sight of Vyasa

• Pandu
• Became king 

• He has a son with Ambika's servant

• Vidura
• Dharmas incarnation

Kunti and Her Son

• Pandu's wife

• Krishna's aunt (Vasudeva's sister)

• Mother of Karna

• Father is Surya
• Abandoned in a river 
• Adopted by Radha and Adhiratha

Kunti was granted a wish to have any god's child and out of curiosity she accidently had Karna.

This can be an example of bad karma. The quote "curiosity killed the cat" fits the situation. She failed to take responsibility for her actions and abandoned her son.

Sons of Pandu

Pandu was hunting for deer and accidentally killed a Brahmin and his wife that were disguised as deers  He is cursed to be killed by one of his wives while having intercourse so Pandu becomes celibate.

He didn't have kids of his own but his wives had sons with different gods.  There were 5 sons.

1. Yudhishthira - Dharma's son
2. Bhima - Vayu's son
3. Arjuna - Indra's son 

After he dies the wives argue about who should die with him and Madri wins. She was also Pandu's favorite wife. Kunti was his first wife.

Gandhari and Dhritarashtra

• Husband and wife
• 100 sons
• Duryodhana - oldest
• Evil

Pandavas and Kauravas

Pandu's brother blind brother takes in his family after his death and raises his sons and Pandu's sons who become enemies when they get older.

The Kauravas were jealous of the Pandavas

• Duryodhana kills his cousin Bhima by poisoning his food and throwing his body into the Ganges
• Bhima comes back to life and has super strength

• His father makes Yudhishthira, his cousin, the king because he was the oldest out of all of them.
• He lies to his father about how the Pandavas want to overthrow Dhritarashtra and he believes him 

• He schemes to build the palace out of wood and then burn it all and kill the Pandavas and Kunti.

Vidura learns about the plan and warns the Pandavas. They fake their death by escaping through and underground tunnel and go back to live in the wilderness again.

This story could be turned into a comedy where Duryodhana keeps trying to kill Bhima but fails each time. 

Drona - Example of Bad Karma

• Pandavas and Kauravas guru
• Created by a nymph; doesn't have a mom
• Ex-best friends with Drupada
• Drupada thought he was better than Drona after he became king

Eklayva

• Wanted Drona to be his guru but got rejected because he was a different caste
• Drona asks him to cut his thumb since Arjuna was his favorite 
• Leader 

Karna

• Kunti & Surya's son
• Arjuna's brother
• Duryodhana's friend 
• Adoptive father is a farmer 

• Bhima makes fun of him 

The brothers do not know they are related.

Drona's Revenge

He manipulates the princes into fighting Drupada. The Kauravas go to fight first but lose. The Pandavas defeat the kingdom. 

It looks like Drona was bias between the cousins and trained the Pandavas better since the Kauravas were related to his enemy. 

After Drupada is defeated Drona asks to be his friend and for half of the kingdom which Drupada agrees to. Drupada has a secret agenda and plans to get his kingdom back. 

The Pandavas waged war against neighboring kingdoms and took over those territories.

A great example of karma throughout this part of PDE is how both Satyavi's sons died which ended their royal line. The throne was meant to Bhishma's all along. He had took keep taking over for them. 

Bibliography

Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition