Mahabarath- Retold and Illustrated

By Dr.Ilango Sivaraman

It is a classic story of a firebrand queen, Draupadi. In a critical situation,she decides to marry all five brothers of a royal family - Known as Pandavas. caught in a planned conspiracy by their royal cousins, Pandavas wager and lose their, Kingdom, their freedom and also their wife Draupadi.

In a mood of raving madness,the cousins(known as Kauravas) sexually assault Draupadi, in front of their husbands.

What follows is treachery,vengeance and a war,where millions of people die.

This classic story from Indin shores have captured the hearts of all those who have read this story.

Now it is available to International book lovers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ilango Sivaraman
• Release date: Aug 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536500899

Dr.Ilango Sivaraman

The author is an Indian, now living in Muscat, Oman- Teaching Engineering/ Management subjects. He has written four E books and a print book.

Book preview

Mahabharath -Retold and illustrated

A fascinating tale for everyone –

Dr. Ilango Sivaraman

(Illustrations by Jacob and Paul Kurian)

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I read this story,first time when I was about twelve years old.I could never forget the story-To my knowledge, no one in my family read this story.They all, might have heard about this story or seen a video or movie of this classic epic.

For the generation next, meaning my children(All grown up and on their own), the story had moved even farther away from their regular orbit of interest.

My intention is to give the essence of the story within 120 pages and with illustrations so that it captures the attention of even twelve year olds. But, I am sure,this story will touch the hearts of all book lovers.

A word before the beginning......

The story takes off , perhaps,after a sluggish introduction chapter – where the warring families and their lineages are introduced.

The story is made up of many unique characters:

Yudishtra- the eldest of Pandava family who could never tell a lie.—except one at the time of war, that changed the outcome of the war.

Bhima , the strongest of all men – his controlled anger explodes at the very end.

Draupadi – Takes a very bold decision to marry all five brothers and vows to take revenge on all Kauravas when one of them attempt to sexually assault her.

Krishna – God in humen form – Becomes a charioteer and steered the Pandavas towards victory in the final war.

Bhishma – Grand uncle of the warring families- Lays down his life on a bed of arrows

Sakuni- Magical in rolling the dies in a gambling game – His conspiracy is known only to him.

Duriyodana – Eldest of Kauravas – Full of jealousy and Vengeance

Dushasna – Duriyodana’s younger brother, who laid hands on Draupathi and suffered at the end.

And,Many more Characters– In this story where Gods/ Humans/ demons had their interactions – to make the story vibrant and moving.

The author Dr. Ilango Sivaraman is a teacher in an Engineering College in Muscat, Oman.

His E mail ID: [e-mail]

His blog: ilangoandsandyblog.wordpress.com

His other book: ‘Understanding,Experiencing and Enjoying Meditation’ on Kindle

Short URL: http://amzn.to/29RkBnr

Kindly leave a review after reading the book

Contents

Chapter 1 What is not in it... is nowhere...

Chapter 2 Bhishma- A Powerful Grand Daddy

Chapter 3 Kunti gives birth to Karna even before her marriage!

Chapter 4 Pandavas were born- Devas as fathers and human mothers

Chapter 5 Is there strength in numbers- Hundred Versus Five

Chapter 6 A palace built to be burnt

Chapter 7 Bhima versus Bakasura (A demon)

Chapter 8 Enter Draupadi, a firebrand princess

Chapter 9 Krishna – God in human form

Chapter 10 Maya Sabha - Palace of Illusions

Chapter 11 A roll of the dice – dice made of human bone

Chapter 12 Draupadi screams for help

Chapter 13 Dhirudarashtra intervenes

Chapter 14 Nightmare revisits Pandavas

Chapter 15 Sin committed second time

Chapter 16 Fate is a gift from Gods?

Chapter 17 Lord Krishna visits the Pandavas

Chapter 18 Arjuna’s resolve and penance

Chapter 19 Bhima meets someone stronger than him

Chapter 20 Beginning of year thirteen

Chapter 21 Thirteen – the year of anonymity

Chapter 22 Bhima entertains himself

Chapter 23 Arjuna entertains himself

Chapter 24 Duriyodana’s war strategies

Chapter 25 One more to go – Salya, the ruler of Madradesa

Chapter 26 Kunti requests Karna to join the Pandavas

Chapter 27 Kurushethra war planning

Chapter 28 Kurukshetra war – angels come to watch

Chapter 29 The killing fields of Kurushethra

Chapter 30 The second half of the Kurushethra war

Chapter 31 The highway of death – End of war?

Chapter 32 Fall of the big ones

Chapter 33 The last journey

Chapter 1  What is not in it... is nowhere...

This wonderful story has been told so many times that virtually everyone in India either knows the story, or has heard about it. And an interesting tale it is.

Many in India believe that it is not a story, but rather, it is a record of historical events – events which people claim occurred in 3100 BC (Before Christ), meaning it would have taken place over five millennia ago, that is - 5016 years ago.

To fully understand the story, this period should be examined in a present day context -

Mahabharat is a war story – a war between two closely related families, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Both the Kauravas and the Pandavas came from the royal family line known as the Kuru dynasty.

Figure 1-1 Map of india - Mahabharath times

Ancient India was divided into many kingdoms. The people loved, respected and obeyed their kings. From time to time kings would go to war with other kings. And, in that particular period of time there were no guns, bullets or bombs... so if there were wars between countries, the soldiers would mount their horses, or occasionally elephants, or even just went by foot, to do battle. The battle grounds were located far away from the places people inhabited, and consequently the common people were not hurt or affected.

In their belief system -There were three worlds.

One for the Humans, one for the Gods (called Devas and the world was known as Swarga Lok), and a third world for Asuras – known as Patala Lok (these people were known as Rakshasas or Demons).

In the world of the Gods – People were always young, happy, imbued with magical powers and lived forever. They were fortunate to be in possession of a divine drink commonly known as ‘Amrit’. Those who drank Amrit, lived forever young, death did not touch them. In the world of Asuras (Demons) – Well, they were stronger than the humans and some possessed magical powers. They were not able to get Amrit from the Devas – though they helped the Devas to obtain it.

Figure 1-2 Churning the ocean for Amrit

This Amrit was obtained from an ocean of milk in a specific region not accessible to humans. At the bottom of this special ocean, in a special container, Amrit was available. The Devas and Asuras decided that they would work together to get Amrit out from the ocean. They believed that as well as diving to obtain Amrit, there was an opportunity to other valuables - diamonds and other valuables from the ocean - if they could churn up the water.

The manner in which the ocean was churned is shown in figure 1-2 above. On the left side, Devas holds the tail of the King of Serpents- who was used as a rope to facilitate the churning. The gigantic serpent’s name was ‘Vasuki’. A mountain, named ‘Mandara’, was used as a pole. The pole would be churned left and right by the rope Vasuki, tail side pulled by the Devas (Gods) and the head side by the Asuras (Demons). The pole should not sink or go down the ocean, while they were churning. To support the poles, Vishnu, one of the three main Gods - responsible for the protection of people - assumed the shape of a very, very large tortoise and gave support from the bottom of the mountain.

(In modern cosmology, the Milky Way - the galaxy in which we live - is similarly depicted as a white spiral cloud. The rotating spiral galaxy structure of the Milky Way correlates to the ocean of milk being churned. The super massive black hole at its center correlates to the extremely heavy Mount Mandara. (as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshir_Sagar).

In the process of churning the ocean, a terrible poison seeped from the depths of the ocean enveloping the three worlds. God Shiva  - the first of the three main Gods, as per Hindu mythology – in order to save the worlds, swallowed the poison. His wife Sakthi, stopped the poison from spreading to his entire body by holding his neck. The poison stopped spreading and God Shiva’s neck, from that time onwards was depicted in blue.

As expected, many valuables came from the bottom of the Sea. The Devas shared all the valuables with the Asuras.

But when the Amrit came up, the Gods planned in such a way that one of their large birds, Garuda, came flying and snatched the Amrit flying away to ‘Devlok’, which was the home of the Devas. Garuda is a humanoid bird that God Vishnu uses as a vehicle. Devas, though good hearted and divine, decided that if the Asuras, (Demons) were to live forever, they would destroy all the humans as well as all the good things of the world. That was why, in the interest of the future and the goodness of the world, that Devas took away the Amrit.

The Asuras were totally disappointed as they were deprived of Amrit and the eternal life. They fought many wars with Devas to get the Amrit, but Devas always won these wars, and never gave the Amrit to Asuras.

Our story, Mahabharath,, took place in the world of Humans. But many of our heroes were born to Gods and worked to establish goodness in the world. They were not magical like Devas and Asuras, but were very skilled. Even Devas and Asuras respected the humans.

Mahabharath is an epic. It has hundreds of characters and as many  sub stories or sub plots, which run through the main story stream.

The purpose here is to catch and present the main essence of the story without getting entangled in sub plots and offer the spirit of the story in a concise form.

C:\Users\Sandhya\Desktop\scene 27.jpg

Figure 1-3 Garuda carrying away the Amrit

Characters that dominate the Mahabharat story start with King Santanu of the Kuru dynasty. His son, Bhishma was a valiant warrior and remained a bachelor, giving up his rights to his father’s Kingdom in favor of his step brother Vichitravirya. (His father, Santanu, married another woman and Vichitravirya was his son through his second wife).

To Vichitravirya were born two sons Pandu and Dhirudarashtra. As Pandu was the elder, he was made King. However, due to a curse from a sage, Pandu had to leave the Kingdom and live in the forest. Due to the same curse, Pandu had to die and his wives

Figure 1-4 The story depicted in Bangkok International airport

and children returned to the Kingdom. The capital of this kingdom was Hastinpura.

C:\Users\Sandhya\Desktop\MB images\Asuras and Devas Bangkok International airport R.png

Meanwhile, Dhirudarashtra took over the Kingdom. King Dhirudarashtra was born blind. His wife (Ghandari) who could see, blindfolded herself as a matter of moral support for her blind husband. She felt she would really appreciate her husband’s struggles if she also could not see the world.

King Dhirudarashtra had 100 sons and the eldest was known as