CULTURAL QA05-2021-19 Being a compilation there may be errors
Q1 How did the marriage between Draupadi and the 5 Pandavabrothers work? A1 The Xennial Thu, 20 May,2021 Polyandry is not very common inSanskrit literature. While itwas common for a man to have multiple wives, a woman having multiple husbands was rare. TheMahabharata remains a rare exception in this matter. The birth of Draupadi can be traced back to her father Drupada’s defeatat the hands of his future son-in-law, Arjuna who was tasked by his teacherDrona to humiliate him. Following the defeat, Drupada performed a sacrifice toobtain a blessing so he could seek revenge. From the fire emergedDhrishtadyumna, a strapping young warrior and Draupadi, a woman so beautiful that the reputation of herbeauty preceded her. It is said that Draupadi was the most beautifulwoman of the age, one with a dark complexion, curly hair and her body emanated the fragrance of ablue lotus. Drupada’s intention was to marry Draupadi off to Arjuna but on hearing ofhis death in the palace fire, he decides to hold a swayamvara or a competition.To win Draupadi’s hand, the men had to lift and string a bow and fire an arrow to pierce the eye of agolden fish by only looking at its reflection in the water. Several princes participated in the challenge but no one could lift thebow let alone string it or fire an arrow. It is believed that when Karna rose up to thechallenge, he was shot down since he was a low-born. At the end, though, the task was accomplished by a young brahmin who infact was Arjuna in disguise. After their assassination attempt, Arjuna and thePandavas had gone into hiding letting the world believe that they were dead. The entire assembly rose up inoffence that the hand of a princess was won by a brahmin. Still in disguise, Arjuna and Bhima defendthemselves and Draupadi and make their way out of the palace. As Arjuna arrives at the hut where they were staying, he asking his mother to come outto see what he’d ‘found’. Still inside the hut, Kunti unthinkingly asksArjuna to share whatever it was that he’d found with his brothers. Yudhishthira rationalists this by pointing out that a woman so beautifulwould drive a wedge between the five of them. And so, in order to follow his mother’s orders andbrother’s suggestion, Arjuna agrees for Draupadi to be married to all five ofthem. This then brings them to the question of how such an unusual marriagewould work. So they agree that Draupadiwould be with each of them for a year and during this time no one butthe one brother to whom she was married would lust after her. It was also decided that nobrother but the one to whom she was married would ever enter her chambersduring that year. That is how Draupadi’s marriage to the five brothers worked for theirentire lifetime and she bore them a son each Q2 What is the incredible story of how the Pandavasescaped an assassination attempt? A2 The Xennial 12 May 2021 Hastinapur may have been the largest and the most powerful kingdom in theland but it remained marred by succession crisis for three consecutivegenerations. The first crisis came whenVichitravirya died without an heir. This was resolved by Vyasa impregnating hiswidows, Ambika and Ambalika. Cave No-23 - Pandu Lena or popularly known as Pandava Caves are ancientcaves dating second century A.D. This group of 24 caves located near Nashik onnorth face of a hill called Trirasmi which is about 8 Km from Nashik city onNashik-Mumbai Highway (NH-3), India. These caves were carved during the reign of Satavahana and Kshaharatas orKshatrapas. Cave No-23 is oneof the most beautifully carved caves from this group. This cave out shinesothers in size, planning and architectural grandeur and sculpturalembellishment. Cave No-23 - Pandu Lena or popularly known as Pandava's Caves are ancientcaves dating second century A.D. Cave No-23 is one of the most beautifullycarved caves from this group. This cave out shines others in size, planning andarchitectural grandeur and sculptural embellishment. The second crisis came when itwas time to crown the two sons. Traditionally, the throne should have gone to Dhritarashtrasince he was the older of the two. However, by virtue of him being blind, he is passed over for theable-bodied Pandu. Dhritarashtra is bitter about this but has no choice but to respect the decision ofBhishma and the council of Brahmins who decide on these matters. The ultimate crisis – and the one that leads to the bloody war at Kurukshetra – happenswhen Kunti returns to Hastinapur with the five Pandavas. Even though Dhritarashtra has several years before his vanvass orretirement, rules demand that a crown prince be named. Yet again, Bhishma andthe council of ministers, this time with an added player of Vidura to the mix,rule that Pandu’s sonYudhishthira be named the crown prince. This leads to a lot ofdiscontentment in Dhritarashtra’s family. Not only is the blind king upset atnot having his firstborn Duryodhana on the throne, the young Duryodhana isinfuriated himself as he feels entitled to the throne. In any case, Yudhishthira isnamed crown prince and Duryodhana starts plotting his revenge. His initial plan is to assassinate all the fivebrothers but in a manner that would make it look like an accident. So he hires the services of an architect called Purochana,who is also a minister in his father’s cabinet and a protégé of Duryodhana’suncle Shakuni. Purochana comes up with theidea of building a highly inflammable palace in Varanavat where the Pandava princes were due for a visit.However, the plan leaks to Vidura who on the day of their arrival warnsYudhishthira of the sinisterplan in the form of a verse recited in a language that Duryodhana doesn’tunderstand. In the meanwhile, Viduraalso dispatches for the assistance of the Pandavas, a miner who single-handedlydigs a long underground passage that starts at the palace and ends near theriver Ganga. It takes nearly six months for the passage to becomplete. Throughout this entire time, Purochana is lurking in the shadows in thehope of finding an appropriate moment to set fire to the palace but fails tofind one as Bhima would beawake all night. So he tries to poison the grains but also fails becauseVidura sends mice into the palace and Yudhishthira realises the plot becausethe mice end up dead after eating the grain. Finally, on the day of theirescape, the Pandavas invite a Nishada woman and her five sons for a feast. In some accounts it is believed that they’rePurochana’s wife and sons. During the feast, they Pandavas get everyone intoxicated and then setthe palace on fire themselves just before escaping from the secret tunnel. At the Ganges, a boatman sent by Vidura rows them to safety from wherethey go into hiding for a period of time. The only other person who is aware of the Pandavas beingalive is Bhishma to whom Vidura reports the entire incident. Duryodhana and Dhritarashtra mourn but are secretly happy and the formeris made the crown prince. Q3 Did the Kauravas and Pandavas fight for the same side? A3 The Xennial4 May 2021 Seethis fascinating story For most part, the story of Mahabharata is one that leads up to the inevitableKurukshetra war. While that forms the primary plot of the epic, there are hundreds ofother subplots that branch away from the main storyline. One such plot is that ofDrupada and Drona. Long before he became the king of Panchala he was a student at theashrama of Drona’s father, the sage Bharadwaja. During their time there, thetwo boys bonded and became very good friends. They’re so close that Drupada, a prince, promises Dronahalf his kingdom on the completion of his education. Years pass and the two boys go their own separate paths. While Drupadagoes on to become a king, Drona goes on to learn the art of war from variousgurus in the land, including the dreaded Parshurama. Despite his vastknowledge, however, Dronacontinues to remain impoverished mostly because he chooses to not pursuematerial benefits. However, on an occasion, hewitnesses a group of young boys feeding his son Ashwatthama a mixture of flourand water instead of milk. Ashwatthama, never having had milk before, doesn’tknow any better. Seeingthis, makes something snap within Drona who decides to go to his old friend andtake him up on the offer he’d made all those years ago. Drupada, instead of living upto his promise, humiliates the impoverished Drona and drives him out of his court. An infuriated Drona walks awaypromising revenge. As he wanders about plottinghis next move, he comes across a group of young boys who’ve lost theirball in a well. Using blades of grass, Drona pulls out the ball and hands it tothe jubilant group. As it happens, the boys turnout to be Kuru princes and they report about this man to their granduncleBhishma, who deduces that it could be Drona, for who else was capable of such a feat? The brahmin issent for and hired as a teacher for all Kuru princes. Years pass and Drona continuesto live in the comfort of Hastinapur enjoying the perks that come with being the teacher of the princes. However, throughit all, he doesn’t forget his humiliation and waits for a chance to strike ablow. That moment comes at the end of the princes’ education. As was the tradition, the princesask Drona what his gurudakshina or fees would be. As a teacher of the princes of the greatestkingdom in the land, Drona could have asked for rubies, diamonds, gold, land,cattle, anything his heart desired and it would have been given to him on aplatter. Instead, heasks from Drupada to be bound and brought before him. And thus begins a battle between the Kuru princes and the singularDrupada. Even though, very little ismentioned of Drupada in the epic, it is very clear that he isn’t someone to be messed with. This is thelesson that the Kaurava princes learn when they take him on in battle. Themighty king defeats the princes and drives them out of his kingdom. After the Kaurava princes have had a go at him, the Pandavas attack himand overpower him in no time at all. He is, as their teacher had asked, boundand gagged and presented before Drona. Defeated and humiliated, Drupada hands over half his kingdomto Drona and returns with his tail between his legs. Even though they attack the kingdom in two separate batches, the battleremains the only one mentioned in the epic where the Kauravas and the Pandavasare on the same side. And the only reason this happens is because of their teacher, the greatDronacharya. Q4 What is the incredible story of how a god physically wrotethe entire Mahabharata A4 The Xennial 23 April2021 Over the last several weeks we’ve been narrating for you, stories fromthe Mahabharata. If you’ve been following the series, you’ll likely know by nowthat the epic has beenascribed to sage Vyasa, which is to say it’s believed that Ved Vyasa is theauthor of the Mahabharata. You also know the story ofVyasa, how he came to be born, and the role he played in the epic that he wrote. The sage is the grandfather of the Kauravas and Pandavas, the warring cousins around whom the story ofMahabharata revolves. The epic itself is about 13,000pages. Compiled by scholars atthe Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, over a period of nearly 50years, this Critical Edition of Mahabharata is a 19-volume to me with anothertwo volumes of the Harivamsa, an appendix to the epic that is also said to havebeen written by Vyasa. It is said that the first timethat the Mahabharata was ever recited in its entirety was in the court of KingJanamejaya, the great-grandson ofArjuna who inherited the throne from his father Parikshit who had succeeded thePandavas after they left for their heavenly abode. Sage Vaisampayana, a disciple ofVyasa is said to have narrated this epic for the court. The Mahabharata, unlike most other holy texts, is rarely recited duringauspicious occasions. In fact,several people are afraid to keep an edition of the epic in their homes eventhough they admire the work greatly since it is, at the end, the story of afamily going to war. Even so, no one disputes the importance of the epic. Even though Vyasa is said to be the author of the epic, the physicalwriting of this great work of literature is attributed to Ganesha. The story goes that Vyasa had the entire story planned out in his headbut knew what a daunting task it could be to write it down. And so he prayed to Brahma to helphim out. On Brahma’s suggestion Vyasa then sought out Ganesha, the god ofwisdom and knowledge, to write out the epic. Ganesha agreed but said that he had but one condition: that Vyasashouldn’t dictate without interruption. Should Vyasa stop, Ganesha proposed,he’d drop the task right there and leave. Vyasa agreed but put his owncounter-condition: that Ganesha should first understand what was being dictatedto him before writing it out. The elephant-headed god agreed and thus began the greatest literarycollaboration. Vyasanarrated the story of the Mahabharata and Ganesha kept writing as furiously asVyasa kept dictating. In fact at one point, the reed he was using to writebroke and Ganesha was left without a writing instrument. To continue withoutinterruption, Ganesha is believed to have broken one of his tusks,dipped it in ink and simply continued as if nothing had happened. This is thereason why Ganesha is depicted with a broken tusk today. There were occasions when Ganesha had to pause for brief moments tounderstand the complex compositions of Vyasa before writing them down. This wasthe only time that Vyasa had a moment to breathe. And so, after three long yearsof constant dictation, Vyasa completed the epic with Ganesha having writtendown every single word and verse after having understood its entire meaning. Q5 How exactly did Mahabharata begin? A5 The Xennial 21 April2021 For most part, Mahabharata is associated with the great 18-dayKurukshetra war that ended with the victory of the Pandavas and the defeat ofthe Kauravas. Yet, the war itself was the result of decades of infighting,bickering and power struggle between the two sets of cousins. And, if you really can trace thestory back a generation or two, you’d realise that the roots of this bloodybattle lie elsewhere altogether. To be precise, in the court of Brahma. Long before the events of the Mahabharata unfolded, the land was ruled bya powerful king called Mahabhisha. He camefrom the same Ikshvaku dynasty to which Rama belonged too. Mahabhisha was so powerful and pious that after his death, he was grantedentry into the heavens and would be invited to participate in all divineassemblies. He was at one such assemblythat Brahma was hosting. Also attending the assembly was Ganga who had taken ahuman form. Due to a gust of wind,the robes covering Ganga flew off and all the beings present there avertedtheir gaze. All, that is,except Mahabhisha who stared at her in a lustful manner. Ganga too seemed to enjoy this gaze, much to the chagrin of Brahma who then cursed them both toa life on earth as mortals since they had given into such base mortalinstincts. Brahma didn’t stop there, he cursed that in her mortal form, Ganga would break Mahabhisha’s heartand only then would she be allowed back into the heavens. Mahabhisha wasoffered the option of choosing his father on earth and accordingly chose the Kuru king Pratipa who ruledHastinapur Now, Pratipa already had two sons. However his eldest, Devapi sufferedfrom leprosy and gave up the kingdom to become a hermit whereas his second son,Bahlika opted to rule hismaternal uncle’s kingdom in Balkh. It was thus that Hastinapur fellinto the laps of Shantanu, his third son, who was in fact Mahabhisha in hisprevious life. Long before Shantanu’s birth, Ganga had approached Pratipa while he wasin penance asking to be married to him. Pratipa who had promised to be faithfulto his wife turned down Ganga and instead offered the hand of his yet-to-beborn son to her. It wasthus that Shantanu’s fate was sealed soon after he was born. Unbeknownst of all of this, Shantanu was walking along the banks of the Ganga when he lays his eyeson a beautiful woman and is smitten by her. Immediately, he issmitten by her and asks her to marry him. That woman is, of course, Ganga who agrees to marry him onone condition: that he would never question any of her actions.Infatuated, Shantanu agrees to the condition not knowing what that would leadto. it As they bear theirfirst child, Ganga promptly takes it to the banks of the river and drowns.Shantanu, who had promised to never question his wife watches in horror as hisfirstborn dies before his eyes but doesn’t question Ganga. She continues to dothis for the next six children, much to Shantanu’s dismay and despair. Ultimately, he cannot stop himselffrom asking her why she was being so cruel at which point Ganga reveals theentire story: of who he was in his previous birth, what he did, and whatit would cost him. She alsoreveals that the seven children she had drowned were, in fact, Vasus or divinebeings who were cursed by a sage. The eighthvasu was cursed to live a long and virtuous but celibate life on earth. Sayingso, she disappears into the waters along with the child promising that she’dbring him back when he’s older. This child is Devavrata orBhishma. Several years pass and Shantanu goes back to ruling his kingdom justly.He earns the love and respect of his people but every night he returns to anempty chamber, his wife having abandoned him taking their son with her. One evening as he’s walking alongthe banks of the river, he notices a young man who’s controlled the flow of theGanga using his powers. Curious to know who he is, he walks towards him but the young man disappears. Soon enough, Ganga appears in human form, along with the young boy whoshe discloses is their eighth son, Devavrata, and then disappears into the waters. Even though,he’s heartbroken to have lost Ganga again, Shantanu is happy to have his son back. He takesDevavrata to Hastinapur where he names him his heir. Life goes on smoothly for some years till Shantanu falls in love withSatyavati an adopted daughter of a local fisherman and asks for her hand inmarriage. Satyavati agrees but places a condition on the nuptials: that her son should inherit theHastinapur throne. Shantanu is heartbroken again, for he had alreadymade Devavrata the crown prince. So he walks away from the union. On learning that his father had sacrificed his love for his sake, Devavrata approaches thefisherman and takes a vow to never marry, produce any heirs, and foreverbe the regent who’d defend the king. It’s this terrible vow that earnsDevavrata the name, Bhishma. As per his vow, Bhishma doesn’tjust marry, he chooses to be celibate. He also dedicates his life to the throne of Hastinapur, first servinghis young stepbrother, Vichitravirya and then Dhritarashtra. He even goes to the extent ofkidnapping three sisters – Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika – to marry Vichitravirya.Ambika and Ambalika marry the young prince who dies childless. In order to continue her line, Satyavati summons Vyasa, her son from aprevious liaison with a sage and asks him to impregnate Ambika and Ambalika. Ambika gives birth to Dhritarashtra whereas Ambalika gives birth toPandu. However, since Dhritarashtra is blind, Bhishmaplaces the younger brother Pandu on the throne. On Pandu’s passing,Dhritarashtra ascends the throne as the king of Hastinapur. The fight for who shouldinherit the throne starts right about at this point, leading to a bloody war that costs millions oflives and occasionally leaves Bhishma wondering if it had been worth takingsuch a terrible vow after all. For had it not been for Bhishma’svow, the line of succession would’ve been clear and there would’ve been no war. All the above QA are based onstories appeared in yahoo opening page on 20-8-2021 Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on 20-5-2021 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1133428827.102954.1621517865924%40mail.yahoo.com.
