Dridhrashtra and Pandu and their sons Pandavas and Kauravas.

Visithraveerya had died without leaving any children and as Bheeshma  also refused to rule the country,  Satyavati called her son sage Vyasa to come and have children through her daughter-in-laws and they have delivered two sons Dridhrashtra and Pandu. As Dridhrashtra was born blind he could not rule the country  and hence Pandu was made the king and he ruled Hastinapura.

One day when he was hunting in the Jungle he heard the sound from a bush and thinking that there were Deers playing he shot at that place with an arrow which killed a sage and his wife who were courting relationship. Pandu found to his horror the dying sage and his wife and went and asked for their forgiveness.Before his death the sage cursed the king Pandu that if ever he indulged in courtship with his wife he would die  immediately. Because of this curse Pandu went to the forest and lived there with his two wives, Kunti and Madhuri. His wives delivered five sons. Kunti delivered  Udhishtra, Bheem and Arjun and Madhuri his second wife,Nakul and Sahadev. 

Pandu  one day indulged in courtship with Madhuri, his second wife, forgetting about the curse and died there itself. Madhuri also died because she was the cause of her husband’s death. Kunti took the boys to Bheeshma when they learnt all the Vedhas and other martial arts and attained their bachelorhood.Bheeshma and Drona trained and taught these young boys all the martial arts and made them great warriors but Pandavas were much better in all arts and this made the Kauravas jealous who tried to undermine the valour of Bheem and Arjun and many times tried to kill them. When the Pandavas joined their Kaurava cousins and moved with them the Kauravas were jealous of them because the Pandavas were superior in all arts, archery, martial games and vedhas etc. So they gave them trouble and hatched many schemes to kill them. But the Pandavas survived.

As Dridhrashtra was ruling and Kauravas had an upper hand they refused to share power with the Pandavas and refused to yield. But Bheeshma calmed them and split the state into two and Pandavas ruled Indhraprastha and Kauravas Hastinapura.

Duryodhana the eldest son of Dridhrashtra wanted to vanquish the Pandavas and tried everything under his control to achieve this. He along with his uncle Sakuni. Sakuni the brother of his mother Gandhari , was against his sister marrying the blind Dridhrashtra but  could not stop the marriage of his sister and had come along with her to Hastinapura and lived there and spoiled Duryothana and made him an enemy of Pandavas.

As the Pandavas were famous and ruled their land well and were powerful   Sakuni and Duryodhna called the Pandavas for playing a chess game and defeated Udhishtra and took the kingdom and driven the Pandavas to Jungle for twelve years and one year live in  incognito and then claim back their land. If they fail in this they would forfeit their land for ever. So the Pandavas were driven to Jungle and later came back successfully completing their thirteen year jungle life and as Duryodhana refused to give back their country and hence Pandavas fought and defeated them.

The Kurushetra battle and Bagavat Gita

The war between the cousins Pandavas and Kauravas was declared as Duryodhana the eldest son of Dridhrashtra refused to give even a space on the end of needle to his cousins, the Pandavas. The place where  the battle was to be held was  decided as Kurushetra.

As the king Dridhrashtra was blind he could not take part in the war nor he could see the happening of the war and hence Lord Krishna has given the power to see the battle and report the same to Dridhrashtra to Sanjaya, the Charioteer of Dridhurashtra. Sanjaya even though a charioteer by profession was a man of virtue, good manners and justice. Because of high morals  and worthiness Lord Krishna gave Sanjaya the sight to see what happened in the battle and report the same to the King without moving from the King’s palace.

On the day of the battle  the first verse or Sloaka in Gita Dridhrashtra  asks is

 “Dharmashetra Kurushetra samavedha yuyuthsava

  Mamaka Pandavasaiva kimakurvatha Sanjaya.”

Meaning “ what our people and Pandavas who have gathered to fight are doing in the field of Justice at Kurushetra.” Here itself Dridhrashtra differentiates his sons whom he called as his people and the sons of his brother as Pandavas.” It shows his partiality for his sons.

 In Bagavat Gita this forms the first Sloaka or verse and Gita  contains eighteen chapters . 

Before the battle started Udhsishtra the eldest Pandava left his place as head of his side and went without any armaments towards the Kauravas  who thought that Udhishtra was afraid of the might of the Kauravas and hence going to surrender. But Udhishtra went to Bheeshma and Drona their teacher to pay his obeisance and ask for their blessings.

After seeing the battle field where Kauravas, their relatives as enemies and with whom he has to fight, Arjun was grief stricken and told Lord Krishna that 'he was crest fallen and afraid to kill his own relatives and cousins for a small piece of land' and laid down his bow and arrows and refused to fight.

Then Lord Krishna advised him to fight as it was his duty to fight and the people who stand as his enemies would have to die anyway and killing them is bound to happen and he was just a tool in the hand if destiny and recited the Bagavat Gita.

The war went on for eighteen days and many great warriors had died in that.

When the war ended all the one hundred kauravas were killed and on the Panadava side the five brothers remained while all the other Pandava families perished. Pandavas won the war and became victorious.

Dridhrashtra even though in sorrow and remorse called Udhishtra and crowned him as the King and later went to forest along with his wife and Kunti to get solace and peace.

Kasan learns secret of Sanjivini from Sukrachchariar

Long time ago there was big competition among the Devas and Asuras about who would control all the three worlds. Prakaspathi was the Purohit or advisor for the Devas and Sukrachchariar was the purohit or advisor for the Asuras. 

The war among the Asuras and Devas was conducted with these two Purohits or advisors. But Sukrachchariar, the advisor to Asuras had an upper hand as he had a great medicine called Sanjeevani by which Sukracchariar was able to give life back the the dead Asuras who came back to life and again fought the Devas.

 Prakaspathi, the advisor of the Devas did not have this Sanjivini and hence the dead Devas just died and gone and were not replaced like the Asuras who were brought back to life. The Devas were loosing the battle and had  found a way to  stop this as they have decided to send Kasan the son of Prakaspathy as he was handsome and a dedicated young man.So the Devas requested Kasan, the son of Prakaspathi to go and learn the Sanjivini medicine from the Asura advisor, Sukrachchariar.

Kasan went to Sukrachchariar and paid his obeisance to him and requested him to accept him as a disciple and teach him all the techniques he had. Sukrachchariar had accepted him as a disciple and was enthused with the idea of the son of Prakaspathi becoming  his disciple.

So Kasan continued to serve Sukrachchariar and his daughter Davayani for many years and did as he was told to make them happy. Kasan was a very handsome and good looking person and hence Davayani fell in love with him and approached him to love her but he was not responsive and made her happy by his dance, speech and actions.But remained as a bachelor, otherwise he would not be able to learn the Sanjeevini Medicine as only a strict bachelor could learn  it.

 The Asuras were unhappy to know that the son of Prakaspathy being accommodated by Sukrachchariar as a disciple and were worried that the secret of sanjeevini would be learned by him and hence planned to kill him. So one day they caught Kasan when he was tending the cattle of Sukrachchariar and cut him into many pieces and fed them to dogs. When kasan did not return Davayani got worried and asked her father to check for him.

 Sukrachchariar found Kasan in the stomachs of dogs and through his Sanjivani medicine brought him back to life. Devayani was very happy.In olden days all these sages had the capacity to learn what happened to anybody by their GNADIRISHTI (see what could happen by their 7th sense).

Next time the Asuras caught Kasan and killed him and threw the pieces of his body into the sea and it was eaten by fishes. Again under Devayani's insistence Sukrachchariar found Kasan in the stomachs of fishes and brought him back to life.

Seeing this the Asuras killed Kasan again and this time burnt him to ashes and mixed the Ashes into a liquor and made Sukrachchariar drink that liquor.

So when Davayani wanted to find him Sukrachchariar spelt the Sanjivini medicine and then Kasan replied from his own stomach.

 Sukrachchariar was astonished and asked him how he entered his stomach. Kasan told him how he was killed and made into ash and that ash mixed with liquor and fed to Sukrachchariar. Now Sukrachchariar was confused as he could not bring back Kasan without himself dying. So he told his daughter Davayani that death should not be taken seriously as all who are born had to die and hence told her to forget Kasan.

But Davayani was adamant as she loved Kasan very much and wanted him to come to life. Now Sukrachchariar understood the purpose of Kasan becoming his disciple and found only one way to bring him to life. As he was very fond of his daughter he could not reject her demand. So he taught Kasan the Sanjivini medicine and learning it Kasan came out of Sukrachchariar’s stomach, killing him instantly and once he was out used the same Sanjivini medicine to bring back Sukrachchariar’s life.

Now Kasan wanted to go back to his abode with the Devas but Davayani confronted him and asked him to marry her. Kasan refused to marry her saying that he could not marry his own master’s daughter and also that since he came out of the stomach of her father he became her brother and hence a brother cannot marry his own sister.

Davayani got furious and cursed him saying that the Sanjivini medicine he learned would not be helpful to him. Kasan replied that even though the Sanjivini may not help him he would teach that  to others to get its use and left her to go to the side of Devas.

Once Devas knew the Sanjivin medicine their death stopped and all Devas who were killed were again came back to life and hence the Devas won the battle.

Kousika The Brahmin learns a lesson of Dharma

There was a Brahmin who did all penances and worshiped God with all sincerity, devotion and discipline. His name was Kousika and because of his virginity and chastity had attained some super natural powers.

One day when he was resting under a tree reciting Vedas, an egret, sitting above the three defecated and it fell on him. He was furious and looked at the egret and immediately it burnt and died. Seeing this Kousika felt remorse for doing such a sin in anger.

After some time he went for his regular 'Bitsha" asking for food from others. In olden days the Brahmin had to get 'biksha'  (getting uncooked food items from others) and then prepare food and eat. This is called 'UNCHAVIRUTHI'. So Kausika went to a house and called the housewife to come and give food to him as he was very hungry.

The housewife was busy in her home work like cleaning, cooking etc and Kausika waited patiently for her to come and offer food. Then the husband of the woman came home and ordered his wife to fetch him food as he was very hungry. The woman immediately went to look after the needs of her husband and was busy in that without  attending to Kausika's needs as he was waiting there for a long time.

The woman finished her serving of her husband and then brought food for Kausika who was seething with anger. The woman asked for his forgiveness in making him waiting while she attended to the needs of her husband.

Kausika told her that she was insulting a Brahmin guest and made him wait and it was against all written  down Dharma and rules and saying this he stared at her hoping she would burn as the egret.

The woman answered him " I was attending to the needs of my husband which is my prime duty and asked for your forgiveness and  do not think I am a egret to burn."

Kausiaka was astonished to hear this as he did not expect the woman to know what had happened  to the egret in the jungle?

The woman further said that  "respected Brahmin you have not learned Dharma and its rules and hence go to Mithila and learn Dharma from Dharmaviyaatha there.(Dharma means Justice).

So Kausika went to Mithila and enquired with all sages and learned men for 'Dharmaviyatha' but was directed to a Butcher as he was Dharmaviyatha. 

When Dharmaviyatha saw Kausika he was smiling and asked him "Did that pious and Chastised lady sent you to me?"

Again Kausiak was surprised by his query and wondered how he could have known even his confrontation with that pious lady.
Dharmaviyaatha after finishing all his business took the Brahmin Kausika to his home and tended to his blind parent's needs and then came to attend Kausiak and explained what Dharma was about.

After learning all this Kausika came back to his village and started tending to his parent's needs and looked after them well which was his prime duty.

In this one learns to do his duty and it would be helping one to go to God and not just penance or reciting Vedas will help one to achieve this.
Same this is mentioned in Bagavt Gita in Chapter 9 and verse 27 , Krishna telling Arjuna that " whatever you do, eat, doing penances, giving alms etc  you do it , dedicate it to me I will protect you from all problems."

Writing of Mahabharata by Lord Ganesha

Sage Vyasa wanted to write the epic Mahabharata and wanted somebody to write it. As he would be thinking and reciting it at very high speed a very able and exemplary writer was required to write it. So sage Vyasa asked sage Narada to suggest somebody to write the Mahabharata for him.
Sage Narada had suggested Lord Ganesha, the elephant god to write the epic as he was a versatile person and was the god of education and literature.

So Vyasa went to Lord Ganesha and requested him to write his epic.

Lord Ganesha had agreed to this task and made one condition for writing Mahabharata. He told Vyasa that he would write but Vyasa should not stop in between and should continuously recite and if  he stopped in between he would stop writing and go away.

Vyasa agreed and made one condition to him that Lord Ganesha should not just copy what he says but should understand the verses and its meaning while writing.
Lord ganesha agreed to this and Vyasa had started his recital and Ganesha wrote it. While reciting Mahabharata Vyasa purposely inserted difficult verses to get time to think as Ganesha took time to understand the intricacies of the verses.

While writing the Mahabharata Ganesha broke his writing pen and without loosing time he broke one of his horn to write so that he was not left behind in writing. Finally Vyasa and Lord Ganesha finished the epic in record time.

This is the reason why Lord Ganesha is shown as with only one horn and the broken horn in his other hand.

Sage Vyasa, The son of Parasara maharishi

Parasara was a great sage and was the grand son of Vashishta, son of Bhramma. Once Parasara  wanted to cross the river Ganga. So he approached the head of the fishermen who asked his daughter Satyavati to take the great sage across the river in her boat.The sage Parasara was attracted by the beauty and charm of this beautiful girl Satyavati and asked her to marry him. Satyavati refused his advances and proposal on the ground that she was a virgin and could not marry the sage and loose her chastity.

But the sage was insistent and told her that after his courtship with her she would deliver the most intelligent and holy child who would do wonders in the history of Bharat and once she delivers the child she would again become a virgin because of his boon. He also made her body smell like a beautiful flower with an attractive fragrance.

So Satyavati agreed to have him as husband in the old Indian style of "Gandharva vivaaham" in which they agree to have courtship with an understanding. After this courtship Parasara had left and in due course Satyavati delivered a  male child and immediately after the birth Parasara came and  took the child with him. Parasura brought up the child, taught him all the Vedas and upanishads and made him a great sage like himself.

Vyasa wrote the epic Mahabharata and Bhagavatham and many other puranas.

Satyavati had again attained her virginity and had now a fragrance around her always which attracted king Shantanu of Hastinapura.

Droanacharyaar- Drona the teacher

Guru Drona was the teacher of Pandavas and Kauravas and was the son of sage Bharadwaja. Durona and Dirubhada, the prince of the state of  Panchala, studied  together under the same Teacher or Guru and were good friends. As they were so close friends Dirubhada has promised to give half of his country to Drona once he ascended to the  throne.
After their completion of training they went away and Drona got married to Kripa’s sister. He had one son called 'Aswaththaama'. They were in abject poverty and Drona could not even feed them and  hence Drona wanted to get some help from Parasurama and went to him. But Parasurama had given away all his wealth by the time Drona went to him but had only the weapons and archery and other powers. So Dron took these and had gained the power to defeat anybody and became very powerful in all martial arts and war games.

Then  Drona  remembered his friend Dirubhada’s promise and  went to his bosom friend Dirubhada to ask for the promised half country. 

When Drona approached Dirubhada he was sitting as a king in audience with all his court members and when poor Drona went in his dirty and torn dress as a friend, he felt ashamed to call him as a friend.. He feigned ignorance and did not show any recognition as a friend or his promise. Drona tried to remind him about his promises but Dirubhada mocked him and insulted him and got him evicted from his court.

Drona was humiliated and came back to his brother-in-law Kirupa’s house at Hastinapura and stayed there. One day when the Pandavas and Kauravas were playing a ball game  the ball fell into a deep well and the boys could not retrieve the ball.  Drona who happened to pass by there saw this and  he  took the ball out by just sending an arrow into the well. The ball was brought up with an arrow. The boys were impressed by this feat and went and told  Bheeshma about it and Bheesham realized who the person could be and asked Drona  to teach these boys all his knowledge in archery and other weapon handling and other war games. 

Drona became Dronachchariyaar, the teacher.( Achchariyaar = Teacher)

So Drona taught them all he knew and once the princes learnt their lessons the boys asked Drona what they could do them in gratitude. Drona asked  The Kauravas to go and defeat the Dirubhada but they could not do it. Then Drona asked Arjuna to go and defeat Dirubhada and Arjuna defeated him and brought him as a prisoner. 

Drona  pardoned his friend Dirubhada and gave back his country to rule.

Thus insulted by Drona, Dirubhada  did penance and prayed to Lord Shiva to give his a son who would defeat and kill Drona and a daughter to marry Arjuna. God appeared and gave him the boon to have a son and daughter Drishtathumna and Draupati. The son could avenge for him and kill Drona. Drishthathumna achieved this under deceit.

Parasurama's vow to kill all Kshatriyas

Once when Parasurama was away from his home one King Karthiveerarjuna came to the abode of Jamathgni, the father of Parasurama  and was felicitated by the sage with food and drinks provided by the holy cow Kamadhanu because of its divine powers.

King Karthiveerarjuna was a very powerful king with 20 hands and had divine powers.  The king was so much impressed by the cow and wanted the cow for himself and asked the sage to hand over the cow to him.

 The sage refused saying the cow came to him from heaven and cannot be gifted away without its permission and he wanted the cow to have milk and other items for his daily routines and also for entertaining Kings and others like him.

The King was offended as his request was turned down and then the king with his army  tried to forcefully take the cow away from Jamathagni but the holy cow sent  a large force of army  with its holy power to fight the king's army. There was a fierce battle  but they were defeated by the King’s army and they also killed the Sage and his sons and took away the cow Kamadhanu.

When Parasurama came back, he saw to his horror what has happened and with grief and rage went to fight the king Karthiveerarjuna and defeated him and his army and destroyed all of them. Then with the same fury he went to kill all Shatriya kings and Shatriyas as Kings come from the caste of Kshatriya. He went on doing it until he met Rama, the son of Dasaratha, the  King of Ayodhya. Rama was also a reincarnation of Lord Vishnu and was equal to Parasurama in valour and strength  and hence when Parasurama challenged Rama, Rama was able to hold him and Parasurama accepted his defeat and gave his powers to Rama and left to do penance.