Mahabharat: Tales From The Epic for Children of All Ages

By Swati Bhattacharya

The Mahabharata is a story of the dynasty of King Shantanu, the ruler of Hastinapur. It is a story about the decisions taken by his successors and the Royal household, that determined to a great extent the fate of Hastinapur. The story revolves around the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who were cousin brothers. Duryodhana was the eldest amongst the Kaurava brothers and was the son of Dhritarashtra. Yudhishtira, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva were five brothers and were called as the Pandavas because they were the sons of Pandu. Kunti was the mother of the Pandavas.
A lot of the Mahabharata revolves around how the Kauravas tried to get rid of the Pandavas and to stake claim to the throne of Hastinapur and how finally both the groups ended up fighting a war against each other. Though finally, the Pandavas won the war, not much good was done as everything was destroyed in the war and hence, after making Parikshit the King, the Pandavas left Hastinapur forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: V&S Publishers
• Release date: Apr 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9789357940269

Book preview

Vashishtha’s Curse

Rishi Vashishtha was one amongst the seven divine sages, better known as the Saptarishi. He was selfless, devoted and was revered by people for his intelligence. He established a Gurukul on the banks of the River Beas and an ashram. In the Gurukul, the sage trained and took care of his students. Rishi Vashishtha, apart from these, was also known to possess a divine cow. Her name was Nandini. She was sacred also because she had the power to grant people’s wishes.

The eight Vasus in heaven once decided to visit Rishi Vashishtha’s ashram. It was decided that they would visit the ashram along with their wives. The day of their visit soon arrived and they set forth together. On reaching the ashram, like several other things, Nandini too left them amazed. However, one of the wives happened to like Nandini very much. She was keen on possessing her and slowly, the thought of stealing Nandini away from Rishi Vashishtha, if possible, got into her mind.

She then took her husband into confidence and asked him to steal Nandini away from the Rishi, for her. Her husband, Prabhasa, with the help of the other Vasus who were with him, stole the cow from the Rishi. Rishi Vashishtha came to know of the theft. So angry and hurt he was at this act that he cursed the eight Vasus saying that they would take birth as mortal humans, in order to suffer on the Earth.

The Vasus pleaded for mercy. With this, Rishi Vashishtha reduced the intensity of the curse for all the eight Vasus. The seven Vasus, who had assisted Prabhasa in committing the crime of stealing Nandini, would be liberated from their human birth very soon. But Prabhasa, who was found to be the culprit was to live longer on the Earth as a human being. However, he was to be one of the most illustrious men of his times. It was Prabhasa who took birth as King Shantanu’s son Devarata and came to be known later as Bhishma.

Moral

Being convinced by somebody to do the wrong

thing is worse than doing it on one's own initiative.

The Strange Promise

King Shantanu ruled the city of Hastinapur in the ancient land of Bharata. He was a virtuous and mighty king and was respected and loved by his people. Once on his way to the forests, King Shantanu happened to pass by the river Ganga. On the banks of this river he saw a beautiful lady. King Shantanu was so mesmerised by her that he stopped to speak to her. On coming closer, the king was further enchanted by this attractive woman and he asked her to marry him. The lady agreed to marry King Shantanu on the condition that he would never question her. The day you question my actions, I shall leave you, she said to him. The lady was Ganga herself. The unsuspecting King Shantanu married Ganga and brought her to Hastinapur.

After a few months, Ganga gave birth to a son. King Shantanu was overwhelmed with joy. But his joys did not last for long as after a few days, Ganga drowned her first son in the river. King Shantanu was grief-stricken. He could not believe what had happened to his child. However, bound by the promise he had made to Ganga at the time of marrying her, he did not question her. After a few months again a baby boy was born. This time too, Ganga, the mother of the boy, drowned him in the river after a few days. King Shantanu could not understand the reason behind these actions of Ganga but he could do nothing but mourn silently.

Ganga gave birth to five more sons after this and she meted out the same treatment to each her son. Finally her eighth son was born. Again after the passage of a few days, she took the child and started walking towards the river. However, King Shantanu by then was so frustrated that he no longer could contain his agony and stopped Ganga midway and asked her the reason behind her actions. Ganga smiled to him and said that all the eight sons that she had given birth to, were born out of a curse. Hence, she was relieving each of them from this curse by drowning them at birth. The eighth son however, had been cursed to live longer on the earth and suffer as a human being and the King’s objection to drowning the eighth child had helped in doing that.