Krishnavatara III: The Five Brothers Read online

  BHAVAN’S BOOK UNIVERSITY

  KRISHNAVATARA

  VOLUME III

  THE FIVE BROTHERS

  By

  K.M.MUNSHI

  2019

  BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN

  Kulapati K.M.Munshi Marg

  Mumbai – 400007

  All Rights Reserved

  © Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

  Kulapati K. M. Munshi Marg

  Mumbai - 400007

  First Print Edition: 1965

  Second Print Edition: 1972

  Third Print Edition: 1979

  Fourth Print Edition: 1983

  Fifth Print Edition: 1990

  Sixth Print Edition: 2006

  Seventh Print Edition: 2009

  Eighth Print Edition: 2014

  Ninth Print Edition: 2019

  First e-edition: 2020

  KULAPATI’S PREFACE

  The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan—that Institute of Indian Culture in Bombay—needed a Book University, a series of books which, if read, would serve the purpose of providing higher education. Particular emphasis, however, was to be put on such literature as revealed the deeper impulsions of India. As a first step, it was decided to bring out in English 100 books, 50 of which were to be taken in hand, almost at once.

  It is our intention to publish the books we select, not only in English, but also in the following Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

  This scheme, involving the publication of 900 volumes, requires ample funds and an all-India organisation. The Bhavan is exerting its utmost to supply them.

  The objectives for which the Bhavan stands are the reintegration of Indian culture in the light of modern knowledge and to suit our present-day needs and the resuscitation of its fundamental values in their pristine vigour.

  Let me make our goal more explicit:

  We seek the dignity of man, which necessarily implies the creation of social conditions which would allow him freedom to evolve along the lines of his own temperament and capacities; we seek the harmony of individual efforts and social relations, not in any makeshift way, but within the frame-work of the Moral Order; we seek the creative art of life, by the alchemy of which human limitations are progressively transmuted, so that man may become the instrument of God, and is able to see Him in all and all in Him.

  The world, we feel, is too much with us. Nothing would uplift or inspire us so much as the beauty and aspiration which such books can teach.

  In this series, therefore, the literature of India, ancient and modern, will be published in a form easily accessible to all. Books in other literatures of the world, if they illustrate the principles we stand for, will also be included.

  This common pool of literature, it is hoped, will enable the reader, eastern or western, to understand and appreciate currents of world thought, as also the movements of the mind in India, which though they flow through different linguistic channels, have a common urge and aspiration.

  Fittingly, the Book University’s first venture is the Mahabharata, summarised by one of the greatest living Indians, C. Rajagopalachari; the second work is on a section of it, the Gita by H.V.Divatia, an eminent jurist and student of philosophy. Centuries ago, it was proclaimed of the Mahabharata: “What is not in it, is nowhere.” After twenty-five centuries, we can use the same words about it. He who knows it not, knows not the heights and depths of the soul; he misses the trials and tragedy and the beauty and grandeur of life.

  The Mahabharata is not a mere epic: it is a romance, telling the tale of heroic men and women and of some who were divine; it is a whole literature in itself, containing a code of life, a philosophy of social and ethical relations, and speculative thought on human problems that is hard to rival: but, above all, it has for its core the Gita, which is, as the world is beginning to find out, the noblest of scriptures and the grandest of sagas in which the climax is reached in the wondrous Apocalypse in the Eleventh Canto.

  Through such books alone the harmonies underlying true culture, I am convinced, will one day reconcile the disorders of modern life.

  I thank all those who have helped to make this new branch of the Bhavan’s activity successful.

  K.M.Munshi

  New Delhi

  1, Queen Victoria Road,

  October 3, 1951

  INTRODUCTION

  Who has not heard of Sri Krishna who delivered the message of the Bhagavad Gita and whom the

  Bhagavat calls ‘God Himself’?

  From the earliest days that my memories can go back to, Sri Krishna has been, in a sense, dominating my imagination. In my childhood, I heard his adventures with breathless amazement. Since then I have read of him, sung of him, admired him, worshipped him in a hundred temples and every year on his birthday at home. And day after day, for years and years, his message has been the strength of my life.

  Unfortunately, his fascinating personality, which could be glimpsed in what may be called the original Mahabharata, has been overlaid with legends, myths, miracles and adorations.

  Wise and valorous, he was loving and loved, far-seeing and yet living for the moment, gifted with sage-like detachment and yet intensely human; the diplomat, the sage and the man of action with a personality as luminous as that of a divinity.

  The urge, therefore, came upon me, time and again, to embark upon a reconstruction of his life and adventures by weaving a romance around him.

  It was an almost impossible venture, but like hundreds of authors in all parts of India for centuries, I could not help offering him whatever little of imagination and creative power I possessed, feeble though they were.

  I have called the whole work Krishnavatara, The Descent of the Lord.

  The First Part, which ends with the death of Kamsa, has been named “The Magic Flute”, for it deals with his boyhood associated with the flute, which hypnotized men, animals and birds alike, sung with such loving tenderness by innumerable poets.

  I have named the Second Part, which ends with Rukmini Haran, The Wrath of an Emperor, as the central theme is the successful defiance by Sri Krishna of Jarasandha, the Emperor of Magadha.

  The Third Part is entitled The Five Brothers and ends with Draupadi’s Swayamvara.

  The Fourth Part is entitled The Book of Bhima and the Fifth Part is entitled The Book of Satyabhaama. The Sixth Part, which is now being serially published in the Bhavan’s Journal, is entitled The Book of Vyaasa, the Master.

  I hope to carry forward the series till the episode when, on the battle-field of Kurukshetra, Krishna reveals himself as the Eternal Guardian of the Cosmic Law—Saashvata Dharma Gopta—to Arjuna, if it is His will that I should do so.

  I have followed the techniques since 1922 to reconstruct the episodes connected with Chyavana and Sukanya in Purandara Parajaya (a play), Agastya and Lopamudra, Vasishta and Vishwamitra, Parashurama and Sahasrarjuna in Vishvaratha (a romance), Deve Didheli (a play), Vishwamitra Rishi (a play), Lomaharshini (a romance) and Bhagavan Parashurama (a romance), and now Sri Krishna and the heroes and heroines of Mahabharata in these volumes of Krishnavatara.

  Time and again, I have made it clear that none of these works is an English rendering of any old Purana.

  In reconstructing Sri Krishna’s life and adventures, I had, like many of my predecessors, to reconstruct the episodes inherited from the past, so as to bring out his character, attitude and outlook with the personality-sustained technique of modern romance. I had also to give flesh and blood to various obscure characters in the Mahabharata.

  In the course of this adventure, I had often to depart from the legend and myth, for such reconstruction by a modern author must necessarily
involve the exercise of whatever little imagination he has. I trust He will forgive me for the liberty I am taking, but must write of Him as I see Him in my imagination.

  K.M. Munshi

  Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,

  Chowpatty Road, Bombay-7

  August 15, 1967.

  CONTENTS

  KULAPATI’S PREFACE

  INTRODUCTION

  CONTENTS

  CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY:

  PROLOGUE

  THE YADAVAS

  THE KURUS

  1. KING DRUPADA'S RESOLVE

  2. SANDIPANI ARRIVES

  3. THE TEACHER AND THE PUPIL

  4. DRONACHARYA'S DECISION

  5. THE UNCLE'S COMMANDS

  6. BANISHMENT

  7. THE BLOW

  8. DURYODHANA IS AFRAID

  9. GRANDFATHER BHISHMA

  10. A GOPI IN HASTINAPURA

  11. GOURI PUJA

  12. THE DOWAGER EMPRESS

  13. THE BEST OF MUNIS

  14. KAMPILYA

  15. THE LOYAL DAUGHTER

  16. UDDHAVA AMONG THE NAGAS

  17. UDDHAVA'S TRIALS

  18. IN THE LAND OF THE DEMONS

  19. KING VRIKODARA

  20. KING VRIKODARA WINS A WIFE

  21. KING VRIKODARA MAKES A DECISION

  22. THE MIRACULOUS VICTORY

  23. THE LAST WISH OF ARYAKA

  24. THE BOY WHO WAS A GIRL

  25. INVITATION TO THE SWAYAMVARA

  26. BHANUMATI'S DEVOTION

  27. UDDHAVA'S MISSION

  28. THE MASTER IN RAKSHASAVARTA

  29. KING VRIKODARA RELINQUISHES THE SCEPTRE

  30. KRISHNA IN A PREDICAMENT

  31. "WHAT IS DHARMA?"

  32. "DHARMA HAS SEIZED ME"

  33. BIG BROTHER IS ANGRY

  34. THE CHARMING KIDNAPPER

  35. THE KIDNAPPER'S SECRET

  36. DHARMA WINS

  37. BHANUMATI SECURES A PROMISE

  38. HOW TO WIN THE BRIDE

  39. HOW TO CARRY OFF THE BRIDE

  40. DRUPADA'S DILEMMA

  41. A GIFT FROM THE ENEMY

  42. "SHARE MY BURDEN WITH ME, KRISHNAA"

  43. SHIKHANDIN INTERVENES

  44 THE NIGHT BEFORE

  45 'YOUR PLEDGE SHALL BE FULFILLED'

  46. DRAUPADI GOES TO THE SWAYAMVARA MANDAP

  47. THE ALL TOO FAMILIAR LAUGHTER

  48. 'VAASUDEVA, YOU HAVE KEPT YOUR PROMISE'

  49. THE MASTER DECIDES

  EPILOGUE

  NOTES

  APPENDICES

  GLOSSARY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY:

  SRI KRISHNA:

  BALARAMA—his elder brother;

  VASUDEVA—his father, Chief of the Shoora tribe of Yadavas;

  DEVAKI—his mother;

  DEVABHAGA—his uncle;

  UDDHAVA—his intimate friend and the third son of Devabhaga;

  YUYUDHANA SATYAKI—his friend, a Yadava Chief, son of Satyaka;

  KRITAVARMA—his friend; a Yadava atirathi;

  CHEKITANA—his friend; a Yadava Chief, ruler of Pushkara;

  GURU SANDIPANI—his teacher, with his ashram at Ujjain;

  ACHARYA SHVETAKETU—his friend and Sandipani’s principal disciple;

  RUKMINI, SHAIBYA —his wives;

  GADA—a Yadava Chief;

  SATRAJIT —a Yadava leader;

  SATYABHAMA —his daughter.

  * * *

  BHISHMA:

  KING SHANTANU—his father, Emperor of Hastinapura, of the Kuru tribe;

  SATYAVATI—his step-mother, the Dowager Empress of Hastinapura;

  CHITRANGADA, VICHITRAVEERYA—his step-brothers, Satyavati’s sons;

  AMBIKAA, AMBAALIKAA—Vichitraveerya’s wives; daughters of the King of Kashi;

  * * *

  PANDU—Son of Ambaalikaa, widow of Vichitraveerya, begotten by Vyasa, and King of Hastinapura;

  KUNTI—his wife;

  MADRI—his second wife;

  YUDHISHTHIRA, BHIMA, ARJUNA—his sons by Kunti

  NAKULA, SAHADEVA—his sons by Madri;

  The Five Brothers

  * * *

  DHRITARASHTRA—blind son of Ambikaa, widow of Vichitraveerya, begotten by Vyasa, and father of the Kauravas;

  GANDHARI—his wife;

  SHAKUNI—his wife’s brother;

  DURYODHANA—Dhritarashtra’s eldest son;

  DUHSHASANA—his younger brother;

  BHANUMATI—his wife;

  KARNA, PRINCE OF ANGA—his friend;

  PUROCHANA—his agent

  * * *

  KRISHNA DWAIPAYANA VYASA—the Best of Munis, son of sage Parashara by Satyavati and great-grandson of the Vedic Rishi Vasishtha;

  JAIMINI, PAILA—his chief disciples;

  DHAUMYA—his disciple, the preceptor of the Five Brothers;

  VIDURA—Principal Minister of the Kurus in Hastinapura;

  KUNIKA—a Minister of Hastinapura.

  * * *

  YAJNASENA DRUPADA—King of Panchala;

  KRISHNAA DRAUPADI—his daughter;

  DHRISHTADYUMNA, SATYAJIT—his sons;

  SHIKHANDIN—his daughter who was transformed into a boy

  * * *

  ARYAKA—King of the Nagas, and father of Krishna’s grandmother;

  KARKOTAKA—his grandson;

  RAVIKA—Karkotaka’s wife;

  MANIMAN—Karkotaka’s son;

  KAPILA, PINGALA—Karkotaka’s daughters;

  SIGURI—a Naga Chief.

  * * *

  HIDIMBA—a Rakshasa Chief;

  HIDIMBAA—his sister, Bhima’s wife;

  GHATOTKACHA—Hidimbaa’s son;

  NIKUMBHA—a Rakshasa boy.

  * * *

  JARASANDHA—Emperor of Magadha;

  SAHADEVA—his son;

  MEGHASANDHI—his grandson.

  * * *

  DRONACHARYA—a pupil of Parashurama and teacher of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the art of war;

  KRIPAADEVI—his wife;

  ASWATTHAMA—his son, a friend of Duryodhana;

  KRIPACHARYA—Teacher of military science, brother of Kripaadevi;

  STHOONAKARNA—a Yaksha, a master of the magic art of healing.

  PROLOGUE

  THE YADAVAS

  In the days of the ancient fathers of our race, the Aryas, a vigorous people, spread over India, intermarrying with the Nagas, fighting with them or among themselves, and founding or destroying kingdoms.

  The Arya rishis, dedicated to learning and self-discipline, lived in their hermitages, communing with the gods and spreading the Arya way of life based on Satya, Yajna and Tapas—Truth, Sacrifice and Purity—which they called Dharma.

  Long before kingdoms were established in the fertile plains of North India by adventurous Arya kings, the Yadavas had pushed their way across the river Ganga, The confederated tribes of the Shooras, the Andhakas and the Vrishnis were the most powerful of them.

  These confederated tribes cleared the forests in the valley of the Yamuna and established settlements which collectively came to be called Shoorasena after Shoora, the most powerful of their chiefs. Later they conquered Mathura, which in their hands grew in power, prosperity and influence.

  The irrepressible Yadavas of Mathura had an inveterate horror of restraint. They would not have a king. Their affairs were carried on by a council of chiefs. However, Ugrasena, the chief of the Andhaka clan, came to be called ‘king’ by courtesy.

  Andhaka Ugrasena’s son, Kamsa, grew up, reckless, wild and ambitious. He distinguished himself by his valour and married Asti and Prapti, the daughters of Emperor Jarasandha of Magadha, who cherished the mighty ambition of subduing all the kings of the earth by guile and force. Kamsa became a trusted lieutenant, captured power in Mathura and used it tyrannically.

  Shoora, the powerful chief of the Shoora tribe, married Marishaa, the daughter of the Naga chief, Aryaka, and begot sons, am
ong whom were Vasudeva and Devabhaga and daughters, among whom were Prithaa and Shrutashravaa.

  Prithaa, the eldest, was given in adoption to King Kuntibhoja and came to be known as Kunti. Married to King Pandu of the Kurus of Hastinapura, she became the mother of the Five Brothers known as Pandavas, three of them, Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna, being born to her, and the other two, Nakula and Sahadeva, the sons of her co-wife, Madri, being adopted.

  Shrutashravaa, the other daughter of Shoora, was married to King Damaghosha of Chedi and begot a son by name Shishupala, who, headstrong and ambitious, also wanted to win the favour of Jarasandha, the Emperor of Magadha.

  Vasudeva, Shoora’s eldest son, married Devaki, the daughter of Devaka, the brother of King Ugrasena.

  To falsify the prophecy the eighth son of his cousin Devaki would kill him, Kamsa put Vasudeva and Devaki in prison and killed their first six sons as they were born.

  The seventh child, extracted from the womb long before his time, was secreted away and grew up as Samkarshana Balarama.

  The eighth son, Krishna, who according to the prophecy was going to be the redeemer of the Yadavas, was taken away to Gokul at midnight as soon as he was born, and was brought up by Nanda, the chief of the cowherds of Gokul.

  Devabhaga, the younger brother of Vasudeva, begot Uddhava, who, when an infant, was sent to Gokul to be brought up as Krishna’s companion.

  Balarama, Krishna and Uddhava grew up, strong, handsome and venturesome. Krishna, the most loving and lovable of them, became the favourite of the cowherd community and the darling of the milkmaids of Vrindavan, to which Nanda had migrated.

  When Krishna was sixteen, he was brought to Mathura, where he killed his maternal uncle, the wicked Kamsa.

  Krishna, Balarama and Uddhava went to complete their education and training in arms in the school of Guru Sandipani. While living with Sandipani, Krishna rescued his son Punardatta from kidnappers by a miraculous exploit.

  When Jarasandha heard that his son-in-law had been killed by Krishna, he marched on Mathura to avenge his death. Unable to face the siege of the town by such a powerful foe, the Yadavas allowed Krishna and Balarama to steal away from it at night. The brothers travelled across the Sahyadri to Gomantaka and lived among the Garuda tribes.