Abhimanyu

It is funny how more I procrastinate writing a post, how bored I become about that. Few days back I was thinking I will write about Abhimnyu. A story, a song, something. Now I just want to draw a chart showing who is Abhimanyu.

Subhadra, Krishna's sister is in love with Arjuna. But Balarama, the eldest does not want his sister to wed the destitute Arjuna. Instead he prefers Duryodhana. So Subhadra elopes with Arjuna.

And Abhimanyu is their child. When Pandavas go for Vanavasa, pregnant Subhadra stays back with her brothers.

One day Subhandra pesters Krishna to tell her some story. Krishna starts describing Mahabharat war. The way different vyuhas - army formation)?)  will be arranged by the armies. He starts telling about chakravyuha - the most difficult of all. And he also says the only way for an enemy to enter that formation. Subhadra is fast asleep. Then who is responding to his story. Krishna realizes that his nephew is listening with intense curiosity about chakravyuha. And Krishna stops the story. So Abhimanyu who is still in womb learnt how to enter the chakravyuha - but not how to come out of it.

And one fine day, the great war started. And kid Abhimanyu who is still sixteen, offers to enter the enemy vyuha and is unable to come out of it. Kauravas and Karna surround him and kill him.

He has a wife - Uttara who is carrying a child Parikshita. Parikshita will be the only surviving heir of Pandavas.

So Abhimanyu's story like so many other stories in Mahabharatha is exemplification of human cruelty.

Kaikeyi

She is the vamp of Ramayana or second vamp. Third wife of King Dasharatha and mother of Bharatha and step mother of Rama.

Kaikeyi was the daughter of King Ashwapati. She was raised by maid Manthari because king had banished his wife as he felt she was not suitable for family harmony. Raised with seven brothers Kaikeyi was brave, intelligent and beautiful.

When King Dasharatha married her, Kaikeyi's father took a promise from Dasharathi that he will make Kaikeyi's son the future king. Dasharatha agreed because his other two wives Kousalya and Sumitra had not bore him any sons.

When King Dasharathi was fighting a war, and was hurt, Kaikeyi who was his charioteer had brought him away and healed his wounds. Then king had promised her two boons which she had not used.

When the princes Rama, Lakshmana. Bharatha and Shatrughna grew to be young men, Dasharatha announced the coronation of Rama.

Manthara, Kaikeyi's maid could not digest this fact. She filled the ear of her queen saying once Rama becomes king, she the queen, will become the servant of queen Kausalya. She also reminded Kaikeyi of the two boons she had received from the king.

Kaikeyi does locks herself inside her room. When the king comes asking what is wrong with her, she asks her 2 boons. First boon was Rama will live in forest for 14 years. Second boon was Bharatha  will be made the king.

Dasharatha becomes miserable. He can not send his favorite Rama to vanavasa. Nor can he go back on his promise.

When Rama hears about this news, he convinces his father that it is his duty as a son, to fulfill the promise made by his father. And he leaves for forest. Rama's wife Sita and Lakshmana follow him.

King Dasharatha unable to overcome his grief, dies. Bharatha who was in not in the palace during all this, comes back and sees his father dead and his brothers gone. He scolds Kaikeyi and goes to bring back Rama. 

Bharatha

Bharatha is son of King Dushyanta. Shakuntala is  his mother. Our country is called Bhaarata or Bharatha khanda due to this Bharatha. 

Shakuntala is the daughter of apsara(angel) Menaka. Sage Kanva was bringing her up. King Dushyanta sees her and he falls in love with her. He courts her and marries her in the forest. 

Then king returns to his capital. After few days, when Shakuntala, by then with a child, goes to Dushyanta's court, king had forgotten her completely. Due to a curse by sage Durvasa. Rejected by her husband,  Shakuntala comes back to the forest where son Bharatha is born. 

Few years later, King comes to forest, recognizes Shakuntala and Bharatha and takes them back to the palace.

Bharatha in Ramayana

Bharatha in Ramayana is the son of King Dasharatha and Queen Kaikeyi. When the king is planning for anointment of Crown prince Rama, Kaikeyi reminds Dasharatha of 3 wishes he had granted her. 

Now she wants them and she says her son must be crowned and Rama must live in forest (Vanavasa) for 14 years. Bound by his promise but at the same time not able to withstand the separation from his favorite son, Dasharatha dies. Lakshmana, the second son wants to go to vanavasa with Rama. 

Bharatha who was in his grand parents house, comes back and hears the events and is very angry with his mother. He runs after Rama requesting him to come back and rule Ayodhya. Rama  is not ready to go against the promise given by his father. Bharatha brings the foot wear of Rama and keeps them on throne and rules on behalf of these. 

Mohini

In Sagara manthana:

Gods and demons decided that they want to bring Amritha (nectar) from heavens. For that they were supposed to churn ksheera sagara (ocean of milk).

How big a rope do you need to churn the ocean? When gods and demons were discussing that, it was concluded that Vasuki, the lord of snakes will be the rope and the mountain Meru parvata will be the trunk.

But once the churning started, Vasuki and mountain started sinking. Then Vishnu  took his incarnation as Koorma or turtle and supported Meru parvata.

Demons argued and got to hold Vasuki's head and Gods held tail. Due to poisonous breath of the serpent many demons died.

The first thing to come out of ocean was not nectar but  very powerful poison called halahala. It was so strong that all living would have died.

All the gods requested God Shiva and he swallowed the entire poison to save world. His wife Parvati, stopped the poison from entering his stomach by pressing his throat.

After halahala other things came out of ocean. Lakshmi was one of them whom God Vishnu married. Then there came kalpavraksha and kamadhenu, a tree and a cow which would fulfill all wishes.

Finally nectar came. By this time demons were infuriated as they had nothing so far. But giving nectar to demons will make them very strong and they will never die. And hence cause havoc on heaven and earth.

Some scheme was to be evolved to avoid demons from getting nectar. For this Vishnu took the form a beautiful woman and appeared in front of fighting Gods and demons. This was Mohini.

Mohini offered to distribute nectar among equally. She asked them to stand in two different lines - one of gods and one of demons. Bewitched by her beauty, all agreed to this.

She kept on poring nectar to gods and by the time she finished their line nectar was empty.

Diti and Aditi

Diti and Aditi are both daughters of Prajapati Daksha. They are both married to sage Kashyapa.

Indra and 12 aadityas are sons of Aditi. 

And Diti's sons are demons, Hiranyaksha, Hiranyakashipu, Jaya, Vijaya etc. Daitya (demon in sanskrit) is derived from Diti.

One story says that - After Indra is born, Diti requests Kashyapa to give her also a handsome, strong and intelligent son. And after she becomes pregnant with the child, Aditi becomes jealous and asks her son Indra to kill the child in the womb. Indra goes to his step mother, bows to her and requests her to let him wash her feet. When he is washing and cleaning her feet, Diti falls asleep. Indra enters her womb with his powers and cuts the fetus into 49 pieces. When she realizes what he has done, Diti curses Indra and Aditi. She curses that Aditi will be born as a human and suffers a lot. And because of that curse, Aditi will be born as Devaki, mother of Krishna.

Brahaspati

Brahaspati is the guru - teacher of Gods. (deva guru)

Shukracharya is the teacher of Demons.

Brahaspati is son of Sage Angirasa and Surupa. He has three wives , Shubha, Tara and Mamata. and Kacha is one of his sons.

In astrology, Planet Jupiter  is  called Brahaspati. Hence thursday, day of Jupiter is also called brahaspati vaara in India.


In colloquial usage, a person is said to be thinking of himself as brahaspati in derisive manner - as  he thinks himself to be too smart

Bheeshma

King Shantanu of Hastinapur married Ganga - the river who stays in heaven. But she had set a condition. King should not ask her any questions no matter what she does. Blinded by love and passion, king agrees and marries Ganga.

Ganga gives birth to a beautiful son. But as soon as the baby is born, Ganga takes the new born to the river and puts the baby in the river and returns empty handed. King is aghast after hearing the news. He comes to confront her. But remembering her condition, he keeps quiet.

But Ganga throws her sons into the river again and again. Seven sons of King Shantanu are thrown into river. But when eighth son is born, king can no longer hide his anger and sadness and stops her. King asks Ganga, why is she throwing their children to river. Ganga returns back to heaven as King is broken his promise.

Eighth son of King Shantanu remains alive and is called Devavrata who later becomes Bheeshma.

Devavrata grows to become handsome and strong young man. When he is 16, he notices that his father has become very moody and is showing interest in nothing. When he probes around, he comes to know that his father has fallen for a daughter of a fisherman called Matsyagandhi. But the fisherman is not letting him marry his daughter because, Shantanu already has a son who will be heir to the throne.

Devavrata walks to the hut of Matsyagandhi and promises her father that he will never become king, so he need not worry. Then fisherman raises the doubt that, his children may covet the throne and hence snatch it from fisherman's grandsons. At this the prince makes a bheeshma pratijne - severe oath - that he will never marry so that his children or grand children will never compete for the throne. With this oath, he comes to be called as Bheeshma. He also promises that he will always protect the throne of Hastinapur.

Shantanu marries Matsyagandhi and later gives birth to two sons Chitraveerya and Vichitraveerya.

Bheeshma brings them up like his own children. Educates them. But Chitraveerya dies an untimely death.

Bheeshma goes to a swayamvara to bring brides for Vichitraveerya. King of kashi had 3 daughters Amba, Ambika, Ambalika and had arranged a swayamvara for their marriage.  Bheeshma abducts these three princesses and brings them to Hastinapur.

But Amba tells him that she loves King Salva and would marry only him. Bheeshma is kind and tells her to go to Salva and marry him. But Salva rejects her because she was abducted by Bheeshma.

Amba returns to Hastinapur and asks Bheeshma to marry her. He tells her about his oath and declines to marry her. She does severe tapas asks a boon to kill him.  and is born as King Drupad's daughter Shikhandi.

In the Mahabharatha war, Shikhandi comes opposite to Bheeshma. Bheeshma says he can not fight with women and leaves the battle ground. He asks his great grand son Arjun  to prepare a bed made of arrows for him and lies on it waiting for Uttarayana to come. Waiting for his death.