The Seed of Mahabharata

Everyone around the world is familiar with the epic war fought around 4000 years ago on the battle grounds of Kurukshetra, MAHABHARATA.

Like every fight, Mahabharata is fondly coined as ‘the fight between the good and evil’ which may not be correct in all its senses. Mahabharata was fought primarily for the throne of Hastinapur. The reasons of Justice and Righteousness were secondary that came along as a cover up.

Estimates suggest that over 400 thousand soldiers fought the battle of Mahabharata with only a handful of survivors in the end. The battle ended with Pandavas emerging victorious and winner of the throne of Hastinapur. Kauravas had a greater legion of soldiers by their side and yet it resulted in their downfall.

The battle would never have happened if the king of Hastinapur, Shantanu had not turned blind in love. The seed of Mahabharata was planted by 3 individuals: Shantanu, Satyavati and Shantanu and Goddess Ganga’s son Devrath, whom we know as Bhishma Pitamah.

There are 2 cases that watered the seed which later bloomed into the gory war. Shantanu was wooed by Satyavati and she agreed to marry him under one condition that he passed his throne to their future son and not his first son Bhishma Pitamah.

Bhishma on the other hand took the ‘Bhishma Pratigya’ which means ‘terrible oath’: the oath of lifelong celibacy and to protect the throne of Hastinapur without ruling the kingdom.

The terrible oath of Bhishma added fuel to the fire as he did not stop the misdeeds of the Kauravas, be it the Lakshagraha inferno, humiliation of Draupadi in front of the whole court room or the Pandavas’ exile. He also had to fight against the Pandavas, whom he loved more than anyone else .Dhritrashtra was the king of Hastinapur and Kauravas were his sons, so going by his oath to protect the throne of Hastinapur, Bhishma Pitamah had to fight for Kauravas. Duryodhona , the eldest of Kauravas provoked Bhishma of going soft on his beloved Pandavas which agitated him to no limits and thus his terrible oath took a turn for the worse when he tried to attack an unarmed Arjuna ,which infuriated lord Krishna who charged towards Bhishma Pitamah to kill him, but was stopped by Arjuna as he reminded lord Krishna of his own oath of not to use weapons.

Bhishma Pitamah being a demigod and the eldest in Hastinapur (Pandavas and Kauravas being the 4^th generation to Bhishma Pitamah) did nothing about the episode when Arjuna’s 16 year old son Abhimanyu was tricked into the battle formation ‘chakravyuh’ and was killed gruesomely by the Kauravas.

His oath was to protect the throne of Hastinapur but he failed to see that the throne that he was protecting was in the hands of those who’d do whatever it would take to rule the kingdom of the unfortunate Hastinapur.

Bhishma Pitamah was and is still known as a great warrior and a demigod who rode his path of life with valor, justice and righteousness. But sometimes it becomes customary to put aside your own rules and follow the real dharma that was, in this case to protect Draupadi while she was being humiliated by the hands of Kauravas in front of the whole courtroom.

  

I am not here to blame the great demigod for every mishap that occurred on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Bhishma Pitamah’s death was itself a eulogy of suffering, torn between love and ‘dharma’, he witnessed the battle unfold further while he lay in agony on the bed of arrows laid by arjuna. And this, after living the life under the ‘terrible oath’.