Book 1: Adiparva- Chapter 1

Mahabarata leverages story-within-story format of story telling.
Adiparva describes how Ugrasravaasu (a student of Vyasa) arrives in Naimisha forest and addresses a group of sages. He claims himself an SME (subject matter expert) in divine stories and tells the gathering as how listening to Mahabaratam can impart significant knowledge. The group asks Ugrasravaasu to narrate Mahabaratam for them and thus it begins. Below is the picture depicting Ugrasravaasu narrating Mahabaratam to a group of sages in Naimisha forest.

India (mostly the northern part) has been once known as Aryavartam. Kuru race ruled the region somewhere around 2000 B.C to 1000 B.C. One of the Kuru kings was Shantanu. It is believed that Shantanu had a past life where he was king Mahabhish.

Mahabhish was friends with Indra and went to his court often to see Apsara's dance. Once, Gangaa too had come to that court with her father Brahma. Mahabhish couldn't just take his eyes off Ganga.  A gust of wind blew Gangaa's dress top off her body. While the rest of the gentlemen in the court lowered their eyes, Mahabhish was still fixated on her. This angered Brahmaa and cursed them both to be born on earth and live together. What a blessing in disguise!

Mahabhish in his next life was born to a Kuru king Prateep in Hastinapuram. Prateep named him Shantanu (Shaant - peace as in Shanti. Tanu- body) . Shantanu was very intelligent and it is believed that he had the ability to turn anyone young with his touch. Shantanu was the 2nd son among Prateep's 3 sons (Devaapi, Shantanu and Bahleek). However, Prateep handed over the kingdom to Shantanu as he found him to be the most eligible person to rule the kingdom. Prateep then left to forest for performing Dhyaan (meditation).

When Shantanu was taking a stroll on the shores of Ganga, he saw a beautiful girl-Ganga herself. He got attracted to her. He approached her and said 'I want to say something'. She asked him to hold on to whatever he had to say till the next day. Shantanu went to the Ganges the next day, met her and proposed to her.
She accepted his proposal on condition that he can never question her actions. If he ever does, she'll answer him but then leave him.


Shantanu was so blinded in love, that he immediately accepted the condition. They married and lived happily. A child was born. While cries of happiness filled the palace, Ganga took the child to the Ganga river and threw him in. Shantanu though shocked by her strange behaviou, didn't question as he remembered her condition. Ganga did the same with all her 7 children that is throwing them in the river. Shantanu couldn't take this any longer and he stopped her while she was about to throw her 8th child in the river. He questioned her act.

She reminded Shantanu that he was king Mahabhish in his previous birth and that he used to come to Indra's court for Apsaraa's dance. She reminded him of the curse her father had given them both and why they are living here. Also, she knew that all the 8 children were in fact Vasus (attendant deities of Indra) and that they are born on earth by a curse from sage Vasishta. The Vasus had pleaded her to bear them as her children and throw them in Ganges so as to expedite their term of punishment in earth.

As an FYI, there are 8 Vasus (attendant deities of Indra)
Prithvi or Dhara (earth)
Agni or Anala (fire)
Vayu or Anila (wind)
Antariksha or Aha (space)
Aditya or Pratyusha (sun or light)
Dyaus or Prabasa (sky)
Chandramas or Soma (moon)
Nakshatrani or Dhruva (star)

(Or is used in the names of 8 Vasus as different scriptures refer to these 8 Vasus by different names. Mahabarata uses the names Dhara, Anala, Anila, Aha, Pratyusha, Prabasa, Soma and Dhruva).
Vasus are also brothers to each other but their parentage is different in different scriptures. 

The 8 Vasus along with their wives once visited sage Vasishta in his ashram. It is said that wife of Dyaus(sky) persuaded Dyaus in stealing an Vasishta's Kamadhenu(a wish-bearing cow). All of Dyaus brothers were accomplice to this act. 

Sage Vasishta instantly learnt(through his ascetic powers) that the Vasus had stolen his cow . He cursed them that they all be born on earth. When Vasus pleaded the sage, he revised his curse ( after re-evaluation) and said that the 7 Vasus can spend 1 year on earth while Dyaus will have to spend his entire life thereby paying the full penalty. 

It so happens that Shantanu just saved the incarnation of Dyaus (in alignment with Vasishta's curse). 
Ganga names her 8th child as Devavrat (later known as Bhisma in reference to his strong oath on lifelong celibacy). She then tells Shantanu that she'll have to leave him as per her condition. She also would take her child Devavrat with her and return him to Shantanu after Devavrat's education. 

After 16 years, Shantanu hears a complaint from his farmers that a young man stopped the river Ganga with his arrows. Shantanu arrives at the scene and questions the young man as to who he was. Then he spots Ganga there. Ganga informs Shantanu that the young man was Devavrat and that he had learnt his education from Brihaspathi and warfare from Parasuram. Below picture depicts Ganga presenting the grown up Devavrata to his father Shantanu. 

Happy Shantanu brings his son Devavrat to his palace and later declares him as the crown prince of Hastinapuram.


[P.S - Family tree in next post]

MB: About Vyasa, his Parents, Step Father, Step Brother and Half Brothers

In a epic like Mahabarata, where there are lots of characters, I'm going to be putting a family tree as and when we introduce a new character. This way we shouldn't be lost as to who is whose half brother and who is whose step mother.

Vyasa, is both the author and an important character in Mahabarata. He happens to be the grandfather of the Pandavas and Kauravas. (We'll establish that relationship in a later part).

If you looked at the picture in my previous post, in the bottom half, it is Vyasa who narrates the story to Lord Ganesha. It is considered that Ganesha was the scribe as Vyasa dictated on condition that Ganesha should write after he fully understood each verse.

Vyasa is also called Dvaibayanar as he is considered to be born in the island of river Yamuna. (island -> referred as Deevu -  like in Maldives ). Sometimes referred as Krishna Dvaibayanar referring to his complexion which was dark (Krishna -> means dark complexioned)

Vyasa is born to Parashara(compiler of Vishnu Purana), a wandering sage and Satyavathi, the daughter of a fisherman named Dusharaj. However, Satyavathi's relationship with Parashara was a one-time affair and was a secret (if not illegal as we don't know what was legal at that time) until much later. 

Satyavathi later married Shantanu, the King of Hastinapuram (a city in modern Uttar Pradesh) on the condition that only her sons should claim the throne and not Shantanu's eldest son - Bhishma.
Below is a classical picture (slightly modified) of the famous painter Raja Ravi Varma depicting Shantanu wooing Satyavathi.

Though Shantanu was upset with this condition, it is said that Bhishma later visted Satyavathi's father and vowed that he'd never claim the throne. When Dushara implied that even though Bhisma wouldn't claim the throne, Bishma's sons might later claim, Bhisma vowed that he wouldn't marry anyone.

With that condition, Bhishma brought Satyavathi to his father Shantanu.

Satyavathi had 2 sons with Shantanu: Chitrangada and Vichitravirya.  Chitrangada died before he married, while Vichitravirya died after marrying Ambika and Ambala before having children.


Now that we've introduced too many characters in the very first post, let me stop it right here and come back later on in a separate post on Satyavathi, Shantanu or Bishma. 
All we have to know for now is that Vyasa was born to Satyavathi and Parashara and that Shantanu was his step-father.Bhishma, his step-brother. Chitrangada and Vichitravirya his half-brothers.

If you didn't know the difference between a Half brother and a Step brother like me,

Half brother - shares just one common parent biologically. For e.g., Vyasa and Chitrangada (or say Vichitravirya) were Half brothers as Sathyavathi was their mom (though Vyasa's and Chitrangada's fathers were different).
Step brother - has no blood relation with no parent in common. For e.g., Vyasa and Bishma were Step brothers (they didn't share any parent in common).

 
Adiparva (first book of the 18 parvas that i mentioned in my prev. post) establishes most characters and the history and genealogy of the Bharata and the Kuru races. So, we'll be talking more about Satyavathi, Shantanu and Bhisma again.


Vyasa also compiled the Vedas and Puranas which were till then only dissemniated orally over generations.  It is believed that Vyasa lived around 1500 B.C and that he was tall and with dark complexion. 

Let's put a simple family tree for Vyasa for now. 

 

 The 18 Parvas (books) in MahaBaratam are

1. AdiParvam (the book of the Beginning)
2. Saba Parvam (the book of the Assembly Hall)
3. Vana Parvam (the book of the Forest)
4. Virada Parvam (the book of Virada)
5. Uthyoga Parvam (the book of Effort)
6. Bhishma Parvam (the book of Bhishma)
7. Drona Parvam (the book of Drona)
8. Karna Parvam (the book of Karna)
9. Sallian Parvam(the book of Sallian)
10. Souptheega Parvam (the book of Sleeping warriors)
11. Sthri Parvam (the book of Women)
12. Shanthi Parvam (the book of Peace)
13. Anushasana Parvam (the book of Instructions)
14. Aswamethiga Parvam (the book of the Horse Sacrifice)
15. Asrama Vaasiga Parvam (the book of Hermitage)
16. Mousara Parvam (the book of the Clubs)
17. Maha Prasthaniga Parvam (the book of the Great Journey)
18. Swarga Aarohaniga Parvam(the book of the Ascent to Heaven)
--
Addendum
19. Hari Parvam (the book of the Geneology of Hari)

If you do not remember these 18 Parvas, that's fine, we'll be describing each of these Parvas in the subsequent posts. 

Let Dharma prevail!
 

MB: Intro

While the tech geeks are writing about data in GB (Giga Bytes), I decided that I'll write about MB. Not the MegaByte. I'm talking about Mahabaratam. Yes, I'm going to be writing Mahabaratam.


I know, your reaction on me writing Mahabaratam is 'What the hell?'

But the question should rather be 'What is hell?' and 'What is heaven?'.
Anyway, I do not know if Mahabaratam will answer those questions either(at least I do not know yet). 

I had  dusted off an old book on Mahabaratam I had at home. It struck me that I'm holding one of the 2 great epics in Indian Literature (the other one being Ramayanam if you didn't know).

I told my parents that I'm going to read the book.
"It's a long time I last heard the story. There are just too many characters to remember" I said.


"Who wrote Mahabaratham, Anna? "  a 10th grade boy from the neighbourhood who had come home (to apparently borrow something, I guess) asked me.

There was a sudden rush of adrenaline. It would be embarassing if I told him I didn't know.
"Why don't you go study for your board exams", I asked him politely.

"Study? Don't you know, the exams are over and the results are out and I came school first. That's why I brought the sweets"

So, this guy didn't come to borrow something. He has come to celebrate his happiness by embarassing me in my own home.

"You came school first? You mean, you came early to school?" I asked.
"No, I meant I'm topper at school", he said.

"Congratulations!"
"Thanks, but you haven't answered my question"

'What the hell?' I thought. I know it is not a straight forward answer.  It is not like how anyone can say 'Tirukural was written by Tiruvalluvar'. It doesn't rhyme like that with Mahabaratha.

Else I would have told him by now, 'Mahabaratam was written by 'Mahabarat' or 'Mahalakshmi' or 'Mahalingam' as the case may be.

 As I sat on the couch, I casually looked at the book's cover while ensuring the boy doesn't notice that.

I looked at the boy and said, 'Swami Sithbavanandha'. The boy giggled.

My parents looked at me in shock. 'A spoilt kid', they must have thought.

What have I done? This name doesn't strike any chord. Apparently this 20th century Swami Sithbavanandha has only written this particular book that I held in my hand and not the actual Mahabaratha.

Well, instead of tagging 'Written by Swami Sithbavanandha' on the book cover, the author could have been more specific on the cover page with statements like 'I'm not the original author of Mahabaratam' or could have mentioned 'Based on the original book by Vyasa. '.

After trying hard to convince the boy that I was just kidding, I gave up and decided to master the master-piece.

But this is no mean-feat.

Just to scare you by numbers:

Mahabaratam is an epic (a very long poem) of 1,00,000 (1 lakh or hundred thousand) slokas or poems (each poem made of 2 lines - a couplet sloka). It is said that it is 4 times bigger than Ramayana and 10 times bigger than Illiad and Odyssey combined( 2 great Greek epics).

There are 18 Parvas (books) that make up Mahabaratam  the details of which will be discussed in my subsequent posts. There is also an addendum (Harivamsa parvam - life of Lord Krishna that is not included in the 18 parvas) that is sometimes included as part of Mahabaratam.

Some one once told me that the best way to master something is to teach. Though I may not really teach, I decided that I will share what I learn everyday from this book in this blog.

What I share will be what Vyasa (or Swami Sithbavanandha) has said, however in my own style.

As always, you are most welcome to like, share, comment and provide feedbacks.

The posts on MB will be in this new blog 'Mahabaratam.blogspot.in' or linked to 'shan-channel.blogspot.com'.

Let Dharma prevail!!

With Regards,
Shan (I wish I could say...author of Mahabaratam)