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    Mystery of Birth and Death in Mahabharata
    Mystery of Birth and Death in Mahabharata
    Mystery of Birth and Death in Mahabharata
    Ebook113 pages2 hours

    Mystery of Birth and Death in Mahabharata

    By Indrajit Bandyopadhyay

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    About this ebook

    This book consists of three essays on Mahabharata titled "Mystery of Pandava God-Fathers," "Karna’s Father Found," and "Mystery of Death of Bhisma., Drona, Karna and Duryodhana." The author believes that behind every myth there is fact, and myth hides as much as reveals. The first essay attempts to search the mystery of Pandava God-fathers. Pandavas are hailed as Indras or sons of Dharma, Vayu, Indra and Asvins. Behind the myth who are their actual fathers? Why was the myth created? The second essay attempts to search Karna's father. Who is the man behind the myth of Surya? The third essay attempts to find the poetic truth behind the myth that all Pandava opponents were killed in unfair war.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateNov 7, 2011
    ISBN9781105221378
    Mystery of Birth and Death in Mahabharata

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      Book preview

      Mystery of Birth and Death in Mahabharata - Indrajit Bandyopadhyay

      Mystery of Birth and Death in Mahabharata

      Mystery of Birth and Death in Mahabharata

      Indrajit Bandyopadhyay

      Copyright © 2011 Indrajit Bandyopadhyay

      All rights reserved.

      ISBN: 978-1-105-22137-8

      Dedication

      I dedicate this work to the lotus-feet of my father Śri Tarun Kumar Banerjee and my mother Smt. Pampa Banerjee

      Contents

      Acknowledgments

      a) Mystery of Pandava God-Fathers

      b) Karna’s Father Found

      c) Mystery of Death of Bhisma., Drona, Karna and Duryodhana

      Acknowledgments

      I express my gratitude and debt to K.M. Ganguly’s English Translation of Mahabharata. All excerpts of Mahabharata are taken from that translation. I also express my gratitude and debt to ‘The Machine-readable Text of the Mahabharata based on the Poona Critical Edition’, Produced by Muneo Tokunaga, Kyoto, Japan. I have taken all transcriptions from the net version.

      1. Mystery   of  Pandava God-fathers

      Can Gods really be fathers of mortals? No hope! So, who are the fathers of the Pandavas? Why were they called God-sons?

      In this article we will venture into those queries. But before that we must keep in mind some points about Vyasa.

      He plays a dual role – a historic role which includes his role as a historic figure and also a myth-maker, and above all the role of a ‘Kavi’ – ‘Kavayo Viduh!’

      Not a single character mentioned in the epic is without a purpose, or without any link to the central characters.

      The ‘text’ is a network of characters and events, each reflecting others and each existing being reflected by others, like ‘Indra’s Net’.

      The Pandavas are never for once curious about their fathers! They never for once claim themselves as sons of God. Even Kunti, while turning down Pandu’s request for more sons, counts her previous encounters as those with ‘men’. The Pandavas knew who their actual fathers were! They also knew the purpose why the story of their mythical origin was circulated by certain Rishis! The Kauravas too were no buyer of ‘God-father’ story. Duryodhana was clearly cynical - (SECTION LXI of UDYOGA PARVA) – if Agni, or Vayu, or Dharma, or Indra, or the Aswins had ever engaged themselves in works from worldly desire, then the sons of Pritha could never have fallen into distress.

      How  did  the  story  come  to  be  circulated  in  Hastinapura?

      In Mahabharata it is the ‘godlike’ Rishis – ‘resolved to go to Hastinapura with Pandu's children ahead, and desiring to place them in the hands of Bhishma and Dhritarashtra.’ (SECTION CXXVI of ADI PARVA) In Devi Bhagabata Purana, it is Kunti who introduced her sons as God begotten, and even invoked the Devas who came in the celestial space above and said – ‘Yes, these are the sons born of our seeds.’-(THE SECOND BOOK, Chapter VI, 64 – 71) Blending the two, we may conclude that certain sects of Rishis with Kunti’s consent were keen on spreading the myth of the ‘God-father’ origin of the Pandavas, and with a definite purpose!

      Pandu’s Banabas

      The Pandavas came to Hastinapur along with their mother Kunti, after Pandu’s death. Pandu won Kunti in a swamvara. Later, Bhisma brought (and bought) Madri from Shalya and married her to Pandu. After Madri was wedded to him, Pandu ‘gave himself up to enjoyment in the company of his two wives as best he liked and to the limit of his desires (SECTION CXIII of ADI PARVA).’ No way saying that Pandu was impotent!

      Just after thirty days from his second marriage, Pandu started for Digvijaya – ‘the conquest of the world’. After his return, (SECTION CXIV) Pandu, ‘accompanied by his two wives, Kunti and Madri, retired into the woods. Leaving his excellent palace with its luxurious beds, he became a permanent inhabitant of the woods, devoting himself to the chase of the deer.’ It is indeed strange that Pandu won’t enjoy the fruits of his conquest, nor he showed any inclination to ‘rule the world.’ He seemed to dislike the palace!

      Pandu fixed ‘his abode in a delightful and hilly region overgrown with huge sala trees,’ and there ‘he roamed about in perfect freedom.’ Pandu’s love of nature, and joy in natural surroundings is evident. Perhaps, this is Vyasa’s true blood running through his veins. But he did not completely eschew royal pleasure - "and at the command of Dhritarashtra, people were busy in supplying Pandu in his retirement with every object of pleasure and enjoyment.’ He was well in touch with Hastinapur. The palace must have been a confinement for him. The palace walls, perhaps, became the embodiment of his psychological blockade! That is why he tasted ‘perfect freedom’ in the mountains and forests!

      Did Pandu go to the forest just to kill deer? I think Pandu went to the forest in search of some herbal medicine (we find him later going to the Gandhamadana), to cure his infertility. It is for that reason that Bhisma and Satyabati gave their approval, and Kunti and Madri did not make any protest but accompanied him. He undoubtedly had some problems. But it does not seem like ‘performance anxiety,’ though ‘self-consciousness about body appearance (we know Pandu’s body complexion!) can all lead to’ such a problem. (solveyourproblem.com/artman/publish/article_465.shtml)  He probably had some stress-related problem, which affected his power to fertilize! Dr. Kedem-Friedrich’s research on the possible link between stress, coping and male immunological fertility problems reveals that the way men cope with stress can actually affect their biological symptoms.’ (biu.ac.il/Spokesman/scholar/fertil) ‘Nearly any major physical or mental stress can temporarily reduce sperm count. Emotional Stress may interfere with the hormone GnRH and reduce sperm counts. Psychological or relationship problems contribute to male infertility.’ (umm.edu/patiented/articles/what_causes_of_male_infertility_000067_4)

      Pandu’s stress-related infertility might have several contributing factors. Pandu was a religious person at heart, and his dual identity was pulling him apart. On one hand he was the legal son of Bichitrabirya, a father infamous for his lust. On the other, he was sage Vyasa’s biological son! Palace rumours about his father’s lust, about his mother’s unwilling sex with Vyasa, (Shri Satya Chaitanya in his article ‘The Puzzle of Pandu’ has made a very fine analysis of certain factors. boloji.com/hinduism/121) and war-stress (Pandu had just been on a Digvijaya) - these could have been some factors!  But his natural inclination to quit ‘samsara’ after his biological father, severely opposed by his ‘Kshatriya-duties’ keeping him fettered to Hastinapura(A pre-shadow of Yudhisthira!), might have been the most potential factors. This is evident from his own words uttered after he had accidentally killed Kindama. (SECTION CXIX of ADI PARVA). He makes a clear contrast between his two fathers – one is ‘that lustful king’, and the other is ‘of truthful speech’!

      As the story would have us believe, Pandu met with a tragedy now!

      SECTION CXVI elaborates the story. One day Pandu, while roaming about in the woods shot at a deer ‘with five of his sharp and swift arrows’. But alas! That was ‘a Rishi's son of great ascetic merit who was enjoying his mate in the form of a deer’. How can a man (or Rishi!) take the form of a deer? Why would a superb archer like Pandu need to shoot ‘five’ arrows to kill a single or even two deer? Why was the Rishi not dead even after being shot by ‘five arrows’?

      This Rishi was certainly doing an act of bestiality. We find his ‘mate’ silent; though it’s possible she (?) had been killed! The Rishi blamed Pandu for being ‘overpowered by passion and wrath’ and therefore losing reason. Pandu replied, 'O deer, kings behave in the matter of slaying animals of thy species exactly as they do in the matter of slaying foes’. He also cites a strange precedence of Rishi Agastya, who engaged in the

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