Krishnavatara III: The Five Brothers Read online

  Jarasandha pursued Krishna and Balarama to Gomantaka but he and his friends were put to flight by the intrepid young men.

  With their fame resounding through Aryavarta, Krishna and Balarama returned in triumph to Mathura, where the Yadavas, under their leadership, became strong and disciplined.

  In order to destroy the Yadavas of Mathura, Jarasandha decided to strengthen his alliance with King Bhishmaka of Vidarbha and King Damaghosha of Chedi. He arranged that Bhishmaka’s daughter Rukmini should be married to Shishupala, son of King Damaghosha of Chedi, while his own grand-daughter was to be married to Rukmi, the son of Bhishmaka.

  To carry out this arrangement, a swayamvara was staged at Kundinapura, the capital of Vidarbha. In fact, it was a fraudulent imitation of the ancient ways of the Aryas, for no choice was to be left to Rukmini, but to marry Shishupala. Krishna, with several Yadava chiefs and their allies, went to Kundinapura uninvited and induced Bhishmaka to give up the false swayamvara.

  Krishna’s fame grew and his fabulous exploits gave him the halo of a demi-god.

  Jarasandha, howerer, was unforgiving. He decided to destroy the Yadavas of Mathura. He, therefore, made up his mind not to take any Arya king into his confidence and entered into a pact with Kala Yavana, the savage king of the region beyond the river Sindhu. According to the pact, the Yavana was to march on Mathura from the west and himself from the east, destroy the Yadavas and burn Mathura to the ground.

  To save the Yadavas from the fate which awaited them if they were trapped by these overwhelming forces, Krishna led them across swamps and deserts to far away Saurashtra. There they settled in the kingdom of Kukudmin, whose daughter Revati was married to Balarama. Their capital, Dwaraka, soon became a flourishing port.

  Kala Yavana could not reach Mathura. He became the victim of the anger of an old sage who went by the name of Muchukunda and whom he tried to kill.

  Jarasandha, when he reached Mathura, saw to his desperation that the Yadavas had escaped him. He spent his fury in burning Mathura to the ground.

  To force a dynastic alliance between himself and the kings of Chedi and Vidarbha, he issued orders that the swayamvara of Rukmini should be held at Kundinapura, where she should be married to Shishupala.

  Krishna suddenly appeared at Kundinapura, carried away Rukmini to Dwaraka, the capital of Saurashtra, and married her.

  THE KURUS

  In the Arya world, the largest and most powerful clans were the Bharatas and the Panchalas.

  In the old days, the Bharatas had established suzerainty over all the kings of Aryavarta. Their king, Bharata, was by tradition acclaimed the greatest of the Chakravartins. Hastin, who founded Hastinapura on the banks of the Ganga, belonged to the line of Bharata, the Emperor.

  In later times, the Bharatas also came to be called the Kurus and held sway over a large dominion and suzerainty over many kings.

  The lands occupied by the Kurus and their rivals the Panchalas formed the heart of Aryavarta, distinguished for its learning and valour. The most eminent of the Arya rishis had their hermitages there and its kings upheld the ancient ways of Dharma.

  Shantanu, a descendant of Hastin, was a great king. He begot a son, Gangeya, who grew in strength, valour and righteousness.

  When he was well advanced in years, King Shantanu fell in love with a fisher girl, who later came to be known as Satyavati. However, her father would not agree to her being married to the king unless her son, if she had one, could succeed to the throne. To make his father happy, Gangeya took a vow to remain unmarried and not to claim the throne. The vow was a very stern one and so Gangeya came to be called Bhishma, the terrible.

  By Satyavati, Shantanu begot two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitraveerya. The elder one died in battle. Bhishma installed Vichitraveerya on the throne of Hastinapura and carried away the King of Kashi’s daughters, two of whom were married to the boy king.

  Vichitraveerya, while still a boy, died issueless. Bhishma would not marry, nor accept the throne. The royal line of the Kurus was threatened with extinction.

  On the advice of Bhishma, Satyavati, the Dowager Empress, called on Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, her son by Sage Parashara, to beget sons on the widows of Vichitraveerya according to the ancient custom.

  Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa had been brought up by his father in the highest tradition of the Vedic rishis, of which his great-grandfather, Vasishtha, was one of the founders.

  By his learning and austerities, Vyasa had acquired the highest position among the rishis of Aryavarta. He had also redacted the divine Vedas, which the Gods had communicated to the ancient sages of immortal memory, of whom his forefather was one of the most eminent.

  To perpetuate the line of the Kurus, the Sage accepted his mother's mandate. By Ambikaa, he begot Dhritarashtra, who was blind from birth. By Ambaalikaa, he begot Pandu, who was afflicted by disease from his very birth. By a maid-servant who offered herself in devotion, he begot Vidura.

  Bhishma brought up the three boys with care and wisdom. Dhritarashtra being blind could not succeed to the throne, and the younger son Pandu ruled over the Kuru empire well and wisely, earning immense popularity. Vidura, the maid's son, grew up to become a wise and saintly minister.

  The blind Dhritarashtra was married to Gandhari and by her begot Duryodhana, Duhshasana and several other sons.

  Pandu was married to Kunti, the sister of Vasudeva, the father of Krishna, and also to Madri, a princess of Madra. Afflicted by a curse which denied him the pleasures of life, the King retired to the Himalayas with his wives. By the will of their husband and the blessing of different gods, they begot five sons, Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna and the twins, Nakula and Sahadeva.

  On king Pandu's death, Madri, his younger queen, followed her husband on the funeral pyre, entrusting her two sons to the care of the elder co-wife, Kunti. The sages brought Kunti and the Five Brothers to Hastinapura, where, by the advice of Veda Vyasa, Bhishma accepted them as the sons and heirs of Pandu.

  The Five Brothers grew up, handsome, strong and honourable and became the favourites of all, though this displeased Duryodhana, Duhshasana and other cousins of theirs.

  Dronacharya, a pupil of Parashurama, the great master of the art of war, was employed by Bhishma to give training to the princes. During their training, the Five Brothers excelled their cousins in learning as well as skill in arms.

  When their training was over, they helped their guru Dronacharya to win for himself the northern part of the territories of Panchala, ruled by King Yajnasena, otherwise known as Drupada.

  All the Five Brothers became very popular with the Kurus. The eldest of them, Yudhishthira, came to be regarded as Dharmaraja-righteousness incarnate. Bhishma, therefore, installed him as the yuvaraja or the Crown Prince of Hastinapura, for, besides being fully fitted to be so, his father Pandu was the last king to sit on the throne of the Kurus.

  After Yudhishthira was installed as yuvaraja. Bhima, the second of the Five Brothers, went to Mathura to complete his training in mace combat under Balarama, who was the recognized master of that art.

  That was just before the Yadavas, afraid of being exterminated by the Emperor Jarasandha of Magadha, went away to Saurashtra, led by Krishna.

  1. KING DRUPADA'S RESOLVE

  The Panchalas occupied lands to the south of the river Ganga. After the Kurus, they were the most powerful of the Arya races and Kampilya was their capital.

  Their king, Yajnasena Drupada, was an austere and unforgiving man, who had for years brooded over a humiliation. To avenge it, had become the sole purpose of his life.

  In his young days when he was studying in the ashram of his Guru, he had an intimate friend, Drona, the son of a learned Brahman called Bharadwaja. With the airy unreasonableness of early youth, the friends took a pledge that each would share the other's fortune in life. After completing their studies, they separated, Drupada to become the king of the flourishing kingdom of the Panchalas.

  When Drupada became a king, Drona went to him and in
sisted on the pledge being redeemed. The young king rejected Drona's demand to share the royal opulence and repulsed his former friend.

  Drona took the insult to heart. He neither forgot nor forgave it. In order to avenge it, he underwent intensive training under the great Parashurama and acquired mastery in arms.

  Later, he was lucky enough to link his fortunes to those of the Kurus, when he was appointed to train in arms the Kuru princes, the sons of Dhritarashtra and his brother Pandu.

  When his pupils completed their training and became formidable warriors, Drona demanded a reward of them: they must avenge the insult Drupada had offered him years before.

  In obedience to their tutor's commands, Arjuna, the third of the Five Brothers, an archer par excellence, organised a sudden attack on Panchala and captured Drupada. When the King was brought before Dronacharya, the Brahman warrior had his revenge. He extracted an apology from the King for the insult and as ransom demanded a part of the Panchala kingdom north of the river Ganga.

  Drupada had to accept the terms imposed by Drona. However, smarting under the humiliation, he could never forgive Drona nor his pupil Arjuna. His whole life was poisoned by this bitter memory and all he lived for was to avenge it.

  Drupada also transmitted this dominant passion of his own life to his two sons, Dhrishtadyumna and Satyajit, and to his daughter Krishnaa, from their very childhood. To fulfil their father's vow became the mission of their lives too.

  The boys grew up into fine young warriors and began to prepare for the day when they could fulfil their father's pledge. Dominated by this same passion, Draupadi-the dark-skinned, stately, wondrously beautiful maiden-resolved to marry the most redoubtable warrior in Aryavarta, so that she could help in fulfilling the aim of her father's life. This aim became more difficult to attain as the years passed.

  Dronacharya, his son Aswatthama and his brother-in-law Kripacharya, were in high favour with the Kurus, who, led by the powerful Bhishma, grew from strength to strength. Their hold over the Kurus increased as Drona's pupils became formidable warriors, notably Bhima and Arjuna, the sons of Pandu, Duryodhana, the eldest son of Dhritarashtra, and Karna, a charioteer's son, who had nevertheless been made the ruler of Anga by Duryodhana.

  Drupada's growing frustration was converted into panic when his kingdom was menaced in the east by the Emperor Jarasandha of Magadha. That ambitious monarch, whose ominous power had cast its shadow over the Arya kings for more than a quarter of a century, had started encroaching on the territories of his easterly neighbour, the King of Kashi. Drupada was afraid that once Kashi came under the hegemony of Jarasandha, Panchala would have hostile powers on both its fronts.

  He was growing old, Drupada felt. His sons, in spite of their best efforts, had not acquired either the ability or the skill of expert warriors. His hope of securing for Draupadi, now past twenty, a husband, who could carry on his ambition, had not been realized as yet. His pledge stood as far removed from fulfilment as when it was taken.

  In the meantime, Yudhishthira, the oldest of the Five Brothers was appointed Crown Prince of Hastinapura, and Arjuna, his enemy, was fast gaining the reputation of being the greatest warrior in Aryavarta.

  Frustration made Drupada furious, and his determination grew more and more grim.

  About this time, Guru Sandipani, one of the disciples of Parashurama in the art of war, came to the court of Drupada. Himself one of the great teachers of the martial art, the Guru conducted the most reputed school in Aryavarta which initiated promising young men into the Vedas and the Shastras as well as skill in arms and strategy in war.

  His pupils were drawn from many of the royal houses of Aryavarta and some of the leading ashrams, for the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas received the same education till they chose their own special life of learning or war. Few kings or rishis ever thought that education of their aspiring sons and disciples would be complete without giving them some training in the Sandipani School.

  Guru Sandipani trained his pupils as he travelled on foot all over the lands ruled by the Arya kings. They spent the rainy season in Avanti where Sandipani had his ashram, a month or two in Prabhasakshetra on the sea of Saurashtra and a few weeks at Kurukshetra in the ashram of the Best of Munis, Veda Vyasa, where Brahmans sought to acquire the highest learning. In between these stages, Sandipani visited the court of different kings or the ashrams of notable rishis, giving their young inmates the benefit of his training.

  Sandipani always made it a point to stay for at least two weeks in a year at Kampilya, the capital of Panchala, as he had great regard for its king.

  In spite of his unbending mind and the passion which dominated his life, Drupada was a king who ruled over Panchala in the best tradition of Dharma. Drupada held the Guru in great respect. In his company, he sometimes forgot the bitterness which had taken possession of him. And during Sandipani's stay, the Panchala warriors had the opportunity to learn the latest knowledge that could be acquired about skill in arms.

  Sandipani, therefore, was the only person who knew everything about arms and also everything about kings and cadets in Aryavarta. So when he visited Kampilya this time, King Drupada unburdened his heart of the frustration and bitterness which filled it. And as the King spoke of wanting to wed Draupadi to an invincible warrior, his lean face was set in grimness and his hawk-like eyes flashed in ill-concealed hatred.

  After hearing the King patiently, Guru Sandipani said: 'Noble lord of Panchala, I understand your feelings. But among all the young warriors, I know, Arjuna, the Pandava, is by far the most irresistible. He has brought archery to perfection. The Gods appear to have blessed him with miraculous skill.'

  Then Sandipani mentioned several young princes of repute but Drupada rejected them outright. 'Find out for me a real warrior, one who can overcome all the pupils of Drona', said Drupada almost fiercely, for he was at the end of his patience.

  Sandipani smiled indulgently at the King's impatience and spoke in sympathetic tones. The only other young warrior who can to some extent match the skill of Arjuna is Karna. But he is a charioteer's son, a loyal pupil of Drona and a dependant of Duryodhana, the son of Dhritarashtra. Any alliance with him is out of the question!'

  Drupada was silent for a little while, gazing almost absently, and when he spoke, there was almost a ring of finality in his voice. 'I must find a suitable warrior to match the pupils of Drona. My pledge will not remain unfulfilled. And Krishnaa will keep her vow; she will marry the warrior who destroys Drona'.

  Sandipani looked anxiously at the flaming hatred which burnt in Drupada's eyes. He almost felt that if Drupada's vow remained unfulfilled for long, he would do something terrible. 'Noble King, you have done her great harm in bringing her up in the way you have done', said Sandipani in a soothing voice. 'It will embitter her whole life'.

  'No. She is the finest daughter a father could have. She often says that, had she not been a woman, she would have outstripped Drona's pupils and avenged the insult,' replied Drupada, a smile dissolving the sternness which overcast his face.

  Sandipani tried to soften Drupada's grimness by smiling in his tum, persuasively. 'It is very difficult to think of a master bowman, for in these days so few practise the use of a bow and arrow that, when a man knows how to shoot with them, he can perform miracles. I know many excellent young warriors, but most of them are skilled in the sword, the mace or the battle-axe. Few of them have mastered archery to perfection'.

  'I agree. In these days, the battle goes to the master bowman. He can aim from a safe distance and, given a sure aim and powerful arrows, he is invincible', said Drupada.

  That is why Arjuna has emerged as an irrestible warrior', replied the Guru. 'You must have heard that he can shoot at a target even in the dark'.

  Drupada frowned, thought for a while and said: 'You are considered a great teacher of archery. I have already heard of some of your pupils who are experts in bowmanship'.

  The Princes Vinda and Anuvinda of Avanti are expert archers,' said Sand
ipani.

  Drupada shook his head. 'Neither of them can ever come up to the best pupils of Drona. But there is one pupil of yours whose bow has been blessed by the Gods. He has the reputation for taking a deadly aim from a running chariot while he is handling four horses-a feat which even Arjuna cannot perform'.

  Sandipani laughed at the earnestness with which Drupada said this. 'I know whom you mean. You mean Krishna Vaasudeva, don't you? He is the only pupil of mine who has out-stripped even his Guru in the use of arms. He can match the best archer in Aryavarta. But it is no use counting on him.'

  Why not?' asked Drupada, speaking with appealing Insistence_ 'I have heard so much about Vaasudeva. He routed Jarasandha, killed the Karavirapura Vaasudeva, destroyed the savage Kala Yavana. He led the Yadavas through the desert to the shores of the distant sea. Recently he is said to have inflicted a defeat on Shalva. And he has come to be recognized as the finest chariot warrior.'

  'You need not tell me all that,' said Sandipani, glowing with pride. 'In Vaasudeva's hands, a bow is a formidable weapon of war. As you know, shooting an arrow from a running chariot is a very difficult art: speed, poise, swiftness and agility, all have to be timed to the movements of the rushing horses. All these have come to Krishna by the favour of the Gods.'

  'It is said that he can not only shoot a deadly arrow, but can speed his Chakra at an opposing warrior from a running chariot, even when the enemy is rushing forward In his chariot,' added Drupada, who for the moment allowed his enthusiasm to overcome his grimness.

  That is true,' said Sandipani.

  'What more do I want then?' said Drupada. 'Get him to wed my Krishnaa, I beg of you. He is your pupil and will listen to you.'

  'I know Krishna,' said Sandipani. 'He will not wed a young woman unless she wins him, and it is very difficult to win him. I know what Rukmini and Shaibya had to go through to become his brides.'

  'My Krishnaa is a wonderful maiden. She would stand up to all the tests', said Drupada with pride.