If there was one group of people changed the course of the Mahabharata (numerous times!), it was the rishis.
I was doing a bit of research after I wrote my 1st post on Shantanu and Satyavati. This led me to several instances in the Mahabharata where the rishis play key roles. Here are some of those:
(image courtesy http://divopics.blogspot.com)
We all know the story of Kunti and how Karna was born. Rishi Durvasa visits Kunti's adopted father Kuntibhoja (she is actually an aunt of Sri Krishna but was given away in adoption to the childless Kuntibhoja). Durvasa is pleased by Kunti's devotion and hospitality to him and teaches her a mantra with the blessings that she can use the mantra to invoke any God and have a son born through them.
Kunti (still a child) decides to test the mantra and invokes Surya, who hands her Karna, and the rest is history.
Durvasa's mantra comes in handy in a crucial time in the epic. Pandu is now the king of the Kurus, and accidentally kills the conjugal couple (means 'in the act') rishi Kindama and his wife. To be fair, the rishi had the powers to transform himself into any animal, and Pandu thought he was only shooting down a deer couple. Still, the badly hurt Kindama curses Pandu that if he ever indulges in any sexual activity, he shall die immediately. And the Pandavas are not yet born! Quite a tricky situation.
Pandu now becomes an ascetic and lives in the forest with Madri and Kunti. Kunti reveals Durvasa's secret Mantra to invoke any God, using which she begets 3 children - Yudhishtira, Bhima, and Arjuna. Kunti also teaches Madri the mantra and she begets 2 children - Nakula and Sahadeva.
Pandu, after 15 years, touches Madri out of passion, and is instantly killed. Out of guilt, Madri commits sati on the funeral pyre, and the story of the Pandavas continues with Kunti as their only mother.
(image from wikipedia, Javanese Wayang)
Her sons (through Shantanu) Vichitravirya and Chitrangadha (step brothers of Bhishma) depart issueless, and Satyavati summons her 1st son Veda Vyasa to give their wives Ambika and Ambalika a son each. Dhritarashta and Pandu are hence born.
So, in two important places in the Mahabharata, the Kuru race itself could have been wiped out had it not been for Durvasa, Parashara (indirectly) and Veda Vyasa. There must be some more to these stories that I am missing. How can children of Veda Vyasa, who is not a kshatriya, be kshatriyas? Can they continue to claim to be part of the Kuru lineage? I read somewhere that according to the shastras the mother's caste determines her childrens' caste (gothra/lineage is different). Is that what is under play here, or does that go against the patriarchal system we've always had? This is most confusing to me.
In the case of Kunti and Madri, their sons are born instantly, or at least that is my reading of the stories. Neither Kunti nor Madri go through the process like Ambika and Ambalika did with Veda Vyasa (in fact the blind Dhritarashtra and the pale Pandu are the result of their respective mother's reactions to Veda Vyasa - one closes her eyes in horror and the other turns pale). This raises interesting questions, going by some of the modern world's developments. It is possible now to have children without actually carrying them, via test tubes. Maybe something similar happened here. Or maybe we should not try to explain things that are divine, where tools unavailable to humans might be in play.
Are there shastra principles that say that exceptions such as the above (children via some man else or even by invoking God) are proper when the greater good of the people is in jeopardy? Had the Kuru lineage abruptly ended, either in the case of Pandu/Dhritarashtra or in the case of the Pandavas, the course of history could have been altered so massively that the world, and Bharatavarsha would have seen more chaos than resulted.
I was doing a bit of research after I wrote my 1st post on Shantanu and Satyavati. This led me to several instances in the Mahabharata where the rishis play key roles. Here are some of those:
(image courtesy http://divopics.blogspot.com)
Kunti (still a child) decides to test the mantra and invokes Surya, who hands her Karna, and the rest is history.
Durvasa's mantra comes in handy in a crucial time in the epic. Pandu is now the king of the Kurus, and accidentally kills the conjugal couple (means 'in the act') rishi Kindama and his wife. To be fair, the rishi had the powers to transform himself into any animal, and Pandu thought he was only shooting down a deer couple. Still, the badly hurt Kindama curses Pandu that if he ever indulges in any sexual activity, he shall die immediately. And the Pandavas are not yet born! Quite a tricky situation.
Pandu now becomes an ascetic and lives in the forest with Madri and Kunti. Kunti reveals Durvasa's secret Mantra to invoke any God, using which she begets 3 children - Yudhishtira, Bhima, and Arjuna. Kunti also teaches Madri the mantra and she begets 2 children - Nakula and Sahadeva.
Pandu, after 15 years, touches Madri out of passion, and is instantly killed. Out of guilt, Madri commits sati on the funeral pyre, and the story of the Pandavas continues with Kunti as their only mother.
(image from wikipedia, Javanese Wayang)
Going back chronologically, Satyavati (Shantanu's wife) herself had an interesting history before Shantanu came along. Rishi Parashara ends up getting attracted to her and they have a child who becomes rishi Veda Vyasa (yes, the one who wrote the Mahabharata and organized the Vedas). Rishi Parashara also blesses Satyavati so she gets her virginity back(!).
Her sons (through Shantanu) Vichitravirya and Chitrangadha (step brothers of Bhishma) depart issueless, and Satyavati summons her 1st son Veda Vyasa to give their wives Ambika and Ambalika a son each. Dhritarashta and Pandu are hence born.
So, in two important places in the Mahabharata, the Kuru race itself could have been wiped out had it not been for Durvasa, Parashara (indirectly) and Veda Vyasa. There must be some more to these stories that I am missing. How can children of Veda Vyasa, who is not a kshatriya, be kshatriyas? Can they continue to claim to be part of the Kuru lineage? I read somewhere that according to the shastras the mother's caste determines her childrens' caste (gothra/lineage is different). Is that what is under play here, or does that go against the patriarchal system we've always had? This is most confusing to me.
In the case of Kunti and Madri, their sons are born instantly, or at least that is my reading of the stories. Neither Kunti nor Madri go through the process like Ambika and Ambalika did with Veda Vyasa (in fact the blind Dhritarashtra and the pale Pandu are the result of their respective mother's reactions to Veda Vyasa - one closes her eyes in horror and the other turns pale). This raises interesting questions, going by some of the modern world's developments. It is possible now to have children without actually carrying them, via test tubes. Maybe something similar happened here. Or maybe we should not try to explain things that are divine, where tools unavailable to humans might be in play.
Are there shastra principles that say that exceptions such as the above (children via some man else or even by invoking God) are proper when the greater good of the people is in jeopardy? Had the Kuru lineage abruptly ended, either in the case of Pandu/Dhritarashtra or in the case of the Pandavas, the course of history could have been altered so massively that the world, and Bharatavarsha would have seen more chaos than resulted.
The importanace of Rishi or Guru (in a more broader sense) is there not just in Mahabharatha but throught out the Purnans & even in Kaliyuga. In Kaliyuga also you have many Guru Sarwabhoma, and thats why we all can still live in the world preacefully, like my favourite Guru "Sri Mantralaya Raghavendra Swamy", Sri Adi Shankaracharya BhagavatPada" etc. While speaking about Rishis I can't resist myself in mentioning some great contributions by Rishis in "Sri Ramayana" though we can't feel their importance directly as we can feel in "Mahabhratha" as you already explained in the blog. Unlike Mahabharatha where there are many "Heros" and many lead charecters, Sri Rama is just heart & Soul of "Sri Ramayanam". Ayanam in sanskrit means "Movement" so its Rama's movement. But many can ask questions "What/who made Sri Rama a greatest follower of Dhrama which he never deviated even when he was in deep troubles? How Sri Rama being a human being could lift "Shivadhanvu" which even many devas couldn't do that? etc. It was because Sri Rama was helped by Rishis (Gurus) throught out "Sri Ramayana" starting from his childhood to killing Ravana at Lanaka. Not many movies show all these things and hence not many people aware about the contributions of Rishi. Sri Ramayana is mostly "Guru Vibhavam"...
ReplyDeleteIn the smritis, there are 12 or 13 conditions under which a person is accepted as a son of another person and one among that is a child born out of niyoga (the name of the process by which Dhr, Pandu and Vidura were born of Veda Vyasa).
ReplyDeleteHence , by this smriti rule, they become the sons of the respective husbands of the queens and hence legal heir to the throne.
(In fact, it is very clear that they are not to be even considered as children of Veda Vyasa)
//Are there shastra principles that say that exceptions such as the above (children via some man else or even by invoking God) are proper when the greater good of the people is in jeopardy?//
This is correct. There are such shastra principles. However, I cannot remember any particular quote.
This Niyoga was carried out by Rishi Vasishta on the wife of KalmAshapada when he became unfit to beget a progeny. It is a great sacrifice of these rishis that they do this by going out of the way of their normal life and principles, just to protect the society. Without respective kshatriyas, as you mentioned, it would have been chaos.