Who is your favourite Mahabharata character?

Kurukshetra: The Great War of Mahabharata (S1; E1-18)

Animated Miniseries

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt38235589/

This is an excellent animated miniseries that tells the story of the 18 days of the Kurushetra War across 18 episodes. It is a tightly edited series that narrates each day of the battle, then swings back in time to illustrate the background that culminated in the war. As we know, the Mahabharata, which includes the Kurukshetra War as only a small part, is 10 times longer than the Iliad and Homer combined. The series gives a very clear view of what the  War was all about. It is not all about killing and winning, but there is always a great reason and justification for why things happen the way they do.

Every now and then, the story backtracks to remind us of significant events from the Mahabharata: the iconic dice game in which the Pandavas lost their kingdom and even their wife, Draupadi, to the Kauravas; Draupadi's disrobing and humiliation; their exile; and the princes' childhood.

With too many characters and almost similar-sounding names, it can be pretty confusing for a newbie. Names like Bhisma and Bheema, Krishna and Karna, Dhrirashtrata and Duryodhana can sometimes give a mind freeze.

In war, everyone loses. Neither warring can claim to be just or otherwise, as that is the meaning of war when all decent manners to solve a problem have failed. In ancient India, however, it seems. The warring factions had specific rules of war. No war could go on after the sun sets. A soldier is only allowed to engage in combat with someone of equal rank. Combat should be face-to-face. Attacking someone from behind or killing someone unarmed is scorned. They were expected to attack gentlemanly. The Kurushetra War was the mother of all wars, where war codes were broken and marked the beginning of a new yuga, Kaliyuga.

Gemini's visualisation of Karna

Out of all the numerous characters who participated in the Kurushetra War, the one who plucked the strings of my heart is definitely the tragic Karna. Born out of wedlock to the Pandavas' mother, Kunti, he was disposed of at birth to float aimlessly in a river, only armed with some celestial markings. He was adopted by a childless charioteer. Because of his unprivileged upbringing, he was deprived of so many things in life. He was not accepted to learn sorcery from the best teacher of the era, Dronacharya. He had to lie about his background to learn it, instead of from Parasurama, who cursed him after discovering the truth about his parentage. He was disqualified from competing in certain events (e.g. Swayambara). Only after the leader of the Kaurava brothers, Duryodhana, gave him a kingdom did he attain the status of a warrior. For that, he was eternally indebted to the Kauravas.

So, when the war broke out, it was natural for Karna to support the Kauravas. By then, Karna had earned a reputation as a formidable warrior, admired for his skills. He was also revered as a kind person who would not refuse alms to the needy at any time. His nemesis had always been Arjuna.

Karna was dragged into the war as the Commander-in-Chief on the 16th day, only after Dronacharya was mortally wounded. Before that, because of their prior animosity (between Karna and Dronacharya), Karna did not fight alongside the rest. The shocker came to him just as he was going to war. Kunti appeared to reveal that she was his mother, that Karna was her firstborn. She pleaded with him not to kill any of her five sons, the Pandavas. To Karna, that was the most illogical thing. After all, he was also her son, and why should he comply with the demands of a mother who abandoned him? To Karna, Arjuna (the third of the Pandavas) was his mortal enemy. Arjuna was said to be of equal standing to Karna in war.

Karna replied to his mother, Kunti, "Either way, you will have five sons at the end of the war." His implication was that, even if either Arjun or Karna died, she would still have five sons!

The part about Karna's experiences just before he was downed was glazed over, without highlighting the philosophy surrounding his death. Karna had chosen King Shaliya as his charioteer. King Shaliya was an expert charioteer, uncle to the Pandavas, and was tricked into joining the Kauravas. Shaliya grudgingly became Karna's charioteer, sabotaging and irritating him at every level. He, being a King, felt insulted charioteering for a lowly 'low class' soldier. When the chariot got stuck in the mud, Shaliya booted off, claiming that it was not his job to pull the wheel up.

https://utkarshspeak.blogspot.com/2012/06/
karna-and-his-karma.html

This was another war travesty. While Karna was extricating the wheel, he was shot by Arjuna, who was in turn prompted by Krishna. This was unethical, shooting an unarmed soldier, but even the Gods did not follow rules in this war. 

The scriptures give a detailed account of how, at this stage, Karna's soul did not perish and how all his good deeds in life prolonged his life. There was an extensive discussion on how our actions shape the future. It was essential to be kind and charitable, but not to the point that it undermined us. In Karna's case, he had previously donated his protective armour and earrings, which made him invincible, simply because someone asked for them. 

Karna's story is the tale of one who is wronged at birth. His kind nature led him into much trouble, and he had to lead a frustrating life. Even the Gods played him out. All his good deeds are of no consequence. His life story tells us that we become the company we keep,

And there is a final lesson we learn when Karna finally succumbs to his injuries in the later versions of the Mahabharata. Krishna reveals his proper form and asks for a boon. Karna requests a life in which he can support others even at his lowest point. The philosophy of life is summed up in one statement: the purpose of life is to help those in desperate need.

An essential watch for those who want to learn about the Mahabharata and the Kurukshetra War but do not know where to start, this is it.

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Time for a reboot?

It is said that ancient Indians had certain ethics in war. Fighting can only be done between dawn and dusk. So, a pre-dawn surprise attack is technically wrong in their book. Their code of conduct also dictates that a warrior of a certain stature could only engage in combat with someone of the enemy of a similar calibre. That is a foot soldier duels with another foot soldier, a warrior on the elephant battalion with another one on an elephant and so on. The commander does not watch the battle on the sidelines but gets his hands dirty by being in the thick of things. By convention, come dusk, both warring factions would lay down their arms and continue in natural light the following sunrise.

The Kurukshetra War (circa 3000 BCE, dates debated) is said to have ended all the codes of war. When cousins and uncles go for each other's carotids, niceties are expectedly put aside. As the cyclical nature of time was pushing to Kaliyuga, anarchy is what one just expects. With battles sometimes going beyond the stipulated times and deceit taking charge, the gentlemanly behaviours of wars are cast aside. Drona, the archery teacher of both Pandavas and Kauravas, was fighting on the side of the Kauravas. He and his son, Ashwatthama, were charging gallantly and needed to be neutralised. A white lie was told to Drona that Ashwatthama had been killed, to shake Drona's concentration. In actual fact, an elephant christened 'Aswatthama' was purposely killed. This type of deceitful 'below the belt' manoeuvres became acceptable.  

Fast forward to the 21st century, nothing is sacrosanct anymore. There is no gentlemanly conduct in war. It is a free-for-all, no-holds-barred kind of affair. Women are taken as spoils. Children are used as human shields, to be sacrificial lambs for sympathy and to paint a bad picture of the opponents. Media is used and abused to algorithmically influence people's minds about a particular perceived agenda. Everybody seems to have a truth. At which point of history one wants to take as the beginning of the truth is the bone of contention no one can agree. 

Is there any way to curb all these, or is it merely an inevitable end to complete the cyclical of time to restart and reboot civilisation as we know, as it had happened many times before, again and again, and yet again!

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Then and now...

Somebody's here!

It is a piece of land right in the middle of the triangular subcontinent, a land so remote that King Dasavaratha thought it was apt for Ram, Sita and Laxman to spend 14 years in exile. A forest lush with various flora, deer, birds with psychedelic-hued feathers, the cursed stone of Ahalya, sages, tribes and demons used as their playground and workstations. It soon came to be non-existent with climate change and invading foreign invaders over the generations.

Locally made pistols

The farangs took a particular interest in this area when they were kings. The abundance of minerals in that area piqued their curiosity. Many mines sprung up, and the visitors thought it was an appropriate venue to host numerous factories specialising in gun manufacturing, ammunition and bombs.

There it was, Jabalpur of the central state of Madhya Pradesh with its gun factories, military barracks and related military training posts. 

What used to be a playing field for sages the like of Gautama who sought peace beyond the physical world is now a minefield for training warriors to shatter the living daylights of their enemies.

@India Coffee House

The invaders also brought in uniforms which impressed the locals. Somehow, this uniformed dressing gave authority to its wearers, and the natives were dying to put them on their skin. They did not mind that it would mean thrashing their own kind and playing subservient to the colonial masters.

The locals in foreign costumes were God-sent to the invaders. It made it much easier for the HQ some 7,000 km away to cow their subjects into submission. This is how British troops and officials about 20,000 ruled over the 300 million population in India.

It is a jungle out there!

Heading somewhere?

Renaissance in the pipeline?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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