The Mahabharata is known to be one of the
greatest epics of all time. It deals with not just the black and white but with
the different shades of grey. It is presented at a time when questions of life
and death were answered by ‘karma’ and the actions of the people, justified by
‘dharma.’ Society remained a mere paradox; one that is not only idealistic but
seen as a reflection of sought after perfection. It introduces the ideal son,
who acts as a substitute, for his fathers curse and suffers, only so his father
could enjoy the worldly pleasures. Further, an ideal wife, one who willingly
jumps into her husband’s funeral pyre and so on. Yet, on a deeper level it was
rife with underlying structural, religious, classist and sexist forms of
discrimination – where women were treated as mere commodities, where sages lost
control of their vows and succumbed to lust and greed. While some children were borne of Gods and
Rakshasas, some were born of pots and fires.
The Kauravas were born out of jars
that were filled with ghee. Their mother, Gandhari was pregnant for two years.
When she heard about her younger sister-in-laws delivering before her she was
devastated. So impatient she was to have
heirs, that she asked her maids to hit her stomach with an iron rod. Soon her
body tossed this ball of flesh, so repugnant was the sight. However, fate had a
different tale to tell. She was destined to be a mother of a hundred sons and
so she was. Sage Vyasa asked her to break the ball of flesh into a hundred and
one pieces (hundred and one because she also wanted a daughter amongst the
hundred sons), and place it in jars of ghee. Within a year they would incubate
and transform into humans. When the first Kaurava son was born, Duryodhana, the
dogs wailed which was considered an omen, one that would bring misfortune to
the household.
The circumstances of their wretched births
seeped negativity right from their creation. The glimpse of this negativity is
conspicuously seen as the plot unfolds. The Kauravas play a vital role in this
splendid epic. They are fought by the Pandavas (their cousins) in the
overwhelming war of ‘Kuru-kshetra.’ Duryodhana, is portrayed as a covetous and
insecure man. He longed to be superior to his cousins (Pandavas), in every way
possible. He desired the throne and did everything he could, even if that meant
treading on people, making his own cousins his archenemy. The Kauravas were
extremely manipulative and opportunistic. They were fully aware that their
father loved them so much that he could never hinder them from doing something
erroneous. This ‘fathers love’ was taken full advantage of. I believe that the
hundred sons were born of competitiveness and this quality just flowed in their
blood. The Kauravas father, Dhritarashtra was forbidden from sitting on the throne
because he was born blind (the rule stated that no man with a physical defect
was allowed to take over the throne, irrespective of whether he is the first
born son). Dhritarashtra’s younger brother who was pale and quite a weakling
was pronounced the reigning King. This really perturbed him, but unable to go
against the rule, he quietly repressed his ambitions hoping that his heirs
would take over. Their mother was more interested in giving birth to an heir
before her sister in laws. Hence, this quality of always being better than the
Pandavas was an attribute he probably just inherited.
The Pandavas and the Kauravas were skilled warriors. Drona taught the
art of warfare to them. Who in return of his training, wanted them to capture
the King of Panchala, Drupada. His students successfully paid off their dues to
their teacher who avenged his humiliation by taking one half part of Drupadas
kingdom. Drupada was released but felt so dishonored that he had made his mind
to even the score with not only Drona but also his accomplices, the Kuru clan
(Kauravas and Pandavas). Hence, Drupada invoked Shiva, the destructive form of
God and asked for a son to kill Dhrona and a daughter who would divide the Kuru
household. His request was soon granted and he was destined to kill Bhishma,
but he was unsatisfied yet. He then sought the help of the Rishis Yaja and
Upayaja who created a magic potion that would enable Drupada’s wife to have
children but when it was time to give her the magic potion, she was busy having
a shower. The impatient Rishis threw the magic potion into the fire-pit. From
the flames of fury and retribution transpired two children, Drishtadyumna who
would take the life of Drona and Draupadi who would marry into the Kuru
household and drive a wedge between it. Destiny cannot be changed. They were
born to complete their fathers’ unfinished reprisal. The three children play an
extremely essential role in not only dividing but also for the carnage of the
Kuru household directly or indirectly. These three children were born of, from
and with retribution. Draupadi was one the chief reasons for the occurrence of
the war. She was outspoken in such a male dominant society, where women were
usually just considered to be ‘means to an end’. Their existence was merely
either to serve as commodities and to have heirs. They never questioned why or
never went against the word of a man. The women were depicted in strong but
flawed characters ( For instance:Devyani). However, Draupadi was forthright,
she questioned Yudhishtras’ authority to stake her, she was humiliated in front
of the whole court of Hastina-Puri but that dishonor was entrenched in her
mind. She was out to take her revenge at any given cost. She wanted to see the
Kauravas drenched in blood. She vowed that she wouldn’t tie her hair till she
had washed her hair with Dusshasana’s blood. The Kuru household was officially divided;
Draupadi had done what she was actually born to do, knowingly or unknowingly.
Everyone knew what was coming next. The war was inevitable as was the
bloodbath. Apart from this, Draupadi is described to be extremely beautiful
that Kunti knew that all her sons would yearn for her and if given to just one
son there would be disunity amongst the five Pandavas who had been so united.
The irony here cannot be overlooked. She was asked to be born to divide the
Kuru household, which she successfully does but also is the reason for the
Pandavas unity, she was wife to all five equally.
Drona like the other characters mentioned above was not born out of a
mothers’ womb but out of a pot. He was the son of sage Bharadvaja who spilt
semen when his eyes fell on a beautiful apsara, Ghrutachi. In the beginning,
Drona comes across as an insignificant character but gradually the character
progresses to be a really important one. Burning with the fire of ignominy off
he was to douse that fire. After learning the art of war from the great
warrior-priest, Parashurama, he set out to impart his knowledge to the young
princes of Hastina-Puri. He taught them well and within no time, the princes
had acquired the art of warfare. However, in return, Drona wanted his students
to pay his fee by capturing the King of Panchala, Drupada alive and so they
did. Finally Drona’s fire doused. He only let Drupada free when he was given a
ransom of one half of his kingdom. Drupada further on as mentioned earlier
invokes Shiva to destroy Drona and his apprentices. Once again, an unnatural
birth and the trait of vengeance cannot be neglected.
Unnatural birth existed but wasn’t common.
However, Mahabharata talks about quite a few. One of them was the birth of an
extremely powerful King, Jarasanga. He was the King of Magadha. His birth is
quite out of the ordinary. His father was childless; the thought of not having
an heir often displeased him. Hence, he prayed to a sage who gave him a mango
and told him to give it to his wife and soon the mango would turn into a child.
The father splits the mango into two because he had two wives and did not want
to unfair to either. Soon the mango turned human but there was glitch since the
mango had been split so had the boy. One wife had one half of the body while
the other with another wife. The King was flabbergasted. He immediately ordered
that the bodies be thrown into the forest. The forest was a home to a demoness
called Jara who ate humans. She comes across the two halves and fuses them
together. She instantly developed a mother-like feeling towards the child and
she protected him till his body was split into two by Bhima. He was just another
out of the many characters that were portrayed to be vengeful. He was angered that
his son-in-laws’ murderer was being respected and loved instead of being
punished. He attacked Mathura seventeen times only to watch his son-in-laws
murderer dead. However, those seventeen times were all in vain. The number of
times he attacked Mathura just demonstrates the level of hatred and frustration
he had.
Like I mentioned earlier,
unnatural birth existed at the time the Mahabharata. Of all the people
aforementioned there lived an extra-ordinary woman called Satyavati. When I say
extra-ordinary I say it in the more literal meaning. She wasn’t born out of a
mothers’ womb. She was the daughter of a King called Uparichara, who in due
course of his hunt decided to rest under tree. While he was relaxing, the
thought of his beautiful wife had him eject some quantity of semen. Not wanting
to waste his semen, he carefully wrapped it in a leaf and requested a parrot to
deliver it to his wife so that she could bear a child with it. On his way to
deliver the parcel, a falcon attacked the parrot and the packet fell into a
river and was eaten by a fish. The fish was once an Apsara, Girika who was
cursed by Brahma to live the life of a fish until she gave birth to human
children. A fisherman catches this fish and finds in her belly a pair of twins.
One of them being Satyavati. She got married into the Kuru-household. She had
two sons, one who was arrogant and died fighting and the other a weakling who
no woman wanted to marry and unfortunately died having no children. She
however, made sure that her line of descendants doesn’t just end there. She
called for her third son that she had secretly had with a sage while ferrying
him across a river. He lived in his father’s hermitage and looked repulsive and
hideous. But so desperate she was to have grand heirs that she sends him to
sleep with her two daughter-in laws. That was then, that Dhritarashtra and
Pandu were born. The two important men whose heirs, Kauravas and Pandavas are the central
characters of the ‘Mahabharata’.
In
conclusion, I’d like to sum it all up. The idea of unnatural birth is so unique
but yet so acceptable. The characters mentioned above are all unique in their
own way. Satyavati is the reason why the line of heirs in the Kuru household continued,
Draupadi was so outspoken. The Kauravas were so competitive and insecure that
they envied their own cousins success so much that they sent them to exile for
a long period of thirteen years. Drona taught the Kauravas and the Pandavas the
art of warfare without which there would be no war, if Jarasanga did not die,
Yudhishtra wouldn’t be King. If he wasn’t the King, there would be no
‘Indra-prastha’ or status that Kauravas would feel jealous about. These
characters not only play an important role in this epic but also in each
other’s lives. Had it not been for Satyavati there would have been no Pandu or
Dhritarashtra and their children. Had it not been for Draupadi commenting on
Duryodhana’s fall, the question of undressing her in front of the court would
have not occurred. Hence telling us that, these characters are so closely
inter-twined that leaving out one of these characters would actually lead to a
whole other plot, they co-exist. Apart from that, they all portray a character
with different shades but have a similar trait of vengeance, other than
Satyavati, Kripa and Kripi. The fashion that they were born in was so
exceptional, out of fire, pots, fish and mango. They all lacked humility
somewhere or the other, once again exceptional to this is Satyavati, Kripa and
Kripi. Even the names given to these characters, like Draupadi gets her name
from her father, Draupada which in Sanskrit means, ‘firm-footed’.
Dhrishtadyumna-‘daring and splendor’. Duryodhana means ‘hard to conquer’.
Satyavati means truthful. Thus we observe that even the characters in this
great epic are very much similar to their own personality. The characters
gradually, help build up a plot that actually teaches the lessons of life. Was
this karma or dharma, will be a question that will always remain unanswered.
SANIKA SHAH
FSLE-3
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