Arjun wins Draupadi in a contest.

Arjun and his four brothers were staying with a Brahmin family as Brahmins after escaping from the House of wax built by Duryodhana to kill them. While they were staying there King Dirubatha had announced the Swayamvaram ( Selection of bridegroom  by the bride ) of his daughter Draupadi. Many Brahmins visited Panchalam, the state of Dirupada, for the Swayamvaram to get alms and other benefits and see the festivities. So the Pandavas also went to the Town to participate in the Swayamvaram incognito even though it was for only Kshatriyas. They stayed in the home of a Potter without identifying their whereabouts.

Dirubatha was once a friend of Dronachchariar when they studied together under the same teacher and got a son and daughter to avenge his defeat by Dronachchariar. He got his daughter and son  by doing Penance to marry her to Arjuna and a son for defeating and killing Dronachchariar. Dirubatha was worried about the news of the Pandava’s accident at the House of wax and was happy to learn about the rumour that they had escaped that fire. So he thought of conducting the Swayamvaram where his daughter  would select her Husband from a group of kings present there.

The kings who participate in the Swyamvarm had to do a contest to claim the hand of Draupadi . There was a bow made of steel. The contestant had to fix an arrow to this bow and then aim at a gold fish which would be rotating at the top. The arrow had to go through a hole and hit the golden fish. The contestant should not see the fish directly but through the reflection on water below the mechanism. So the person who hits the golden fish could marry Draupadi.

There were many Princes and kings who came to attend the Swyamvaram and participate in the contest. People also gathered to witness this great contest. Drishtaththumnan, the son of Dirupatha came along with his sister and sat in the Swayamvaram hall.

Every one of the Princes and Kings tried to lift and aim the bow but could not succeed. This include famous and powerful kings such as Duryothana, Sisubala, Salliyan, Jarasanthan etc. When karna came to contest people thought he could win but the bow turned and hit him.

At that time a Brahmin youth got up and asked for permission to contest. Many protested against his participation as the contest was for only Kshatriyas. Drishtaththumnan told him that anybody from any caste could contest and if he wins could claim the hand of his sister.

The Brahmin youth, who was Arjun in disguise took the bow, prayed to Lord Krishna and took the arrow and took aim and shot the Golden fish which got cut and fell down. Draupadi was all smiles and placed her wreath of selection on the shoulder of Arjun.

The princes and kings shouted their protest against a Brahmin winning and claiming the bride but Beem took a huge tree and came and stood by his brother for his protection if the oppositionwent to attack Arjun to take revenge.

Finally Beem and Arjun took Draupadi to their hut. Drishtaththumnan just followed them to see who really they were. When Arjun and Beem reached their hut Arjun told Kunti, his mother that he brought a beautiful Mango for her. Kunti told him as “You were all brothers and  for your safety and unity you should share the mango among yourself.” Even though it was against convention, they accepted her verdict and agreed to follow her command. Hearing all this by hiding Drishtaththumnan went back and told his father about this incident and told him that he suspected that the groom should be Arjun and the others the four  Pandava brothers. Dirupada was happy to know about Arjun becoming his son-in-law and he could avenge his insult with Dronachchariar. So Dirupada sent his ministers and brought the Pandavas to his palace and was assured of them being Pandavas which made him glad even though the idea of five people marrying one girl repelled him. But Yudhistra told him that to have them united and against split up it was essential they share a common wife.

The Pandavas lived happily there for some years till they went back.

Krishna kills Kamsa his uncle.

King Vasudeva and his wife Devaki were happily ruling Mathura with the help of Kamsa, Vasudeva's  brother-in-law. Kamsa was the brother of Devaki. Once when Vasudeva was going with his wife and driven the chariot by kamsa then a voice from the heaven said ‘Kamsa you are are going to be killed by the eighth male child of Vasudeva.”

Listening to this Kamsa got annoyed and angry and immediately put Vasudeva and Devaki into prison, in chains  and took the reins of the country. Guards were posted to see that they did not move away from there. He initially thought of killing them both but Vasudeva prayed to him to leave them to live as only their eight child could kill them and have pardon on them.

Vasudeva and Devaki were in jail and Devaki delivered her first child. Kamsa came to know of this and came to the prison and took the baby by its legs and hit it on the floor and it died instantly.

Devaki delivered again and this baby also was killed by Kamsa.It happened till  the seventh child was delivered.

When Devaki delivered her eight child, which was a male one, at night all guards were sleeping and the child immediately after its birth told Vasudeva to take it to Gokulam and place it near the side of   Yasodha the wife of Nanda, the chief of the Cowheads or Yadavas  and bring the baby born to her and place it near  Devaki so that Kamsa would think that it was the eighth child of Vasudeva.

Vasudeva could break his chains and took the new born baby in rain and crossed river Yamuna which separated and gave him way. A snake Anandhan gave cover and protection to the basket from the top so that rain water did not fall on the baby in the basket  in which the eighth child was being taken to Gokulam.

Vasudeva went to Nanda’s house where Yasodha had delivered a female baby and was sleeping and everybody were in deep sleep. Vasudeva placed his baby near Yasodha and took the female baby of Yasodha and came back to prison and this time also river Yamuna gave him way. He placed the new born baby girl near his wife Devaki and went to sleep.

In the morning the guards awoke from their slumber and found a new born baby  and informed Kamsa who came to the prison to kill the baby. He took the legs of the baby and was about to hit it on the floor when the baby came off his hold and went up in the air and said “Kamsa you are going to be killed by Krishna who is in Gokulam” and vanished.

Worried Kamsa tried to kill Krishna, the baby born to Vasudeva and Devaki which was christened as Krishna and brought up by Nanda and his wife Yasodha thinking that the baby was their own.

Kamsa made many attempts to kill the baby Krishna  by sending an Asura as a woman who gave milk to the baby and the baby sucked all the blood of the Asura  and killed it.

Then Kamsa sent some killers to kill the Child and they were also killed by the child Krishna.

An Ox was sent to kill him and that ox also was killed. And finally Krishna came to his uncles palace and fought and killed him.

Sage Agasthiya and Vathabi-Villola Brothers

Vaathabi and Villola  were two Asura brothers. They were blessed with  super human powers and could get killed and come back to life many a times.

They had a hatred towards all saints and sages and  usually meet all the sages and ask them to have feast at their home. The elder brother Villola used to kill his brother Vathabi and mkea preparation with his body parts and offer it along with other items. The feast they offer would be so great taste, sumptuous and so delicious  the sages got enamoured by it and ate it to their maximum extent .

 Once the sage had eaten the feast Villola would call out to his brother Vathabi “ Vathabi come alive” and Vathabi would take his shape inside the stomach of the sage who had taken the food and would come out of the Stomach of the sage.The sage would get killed by this.  The so killed sage would be food for them for that day. In those days Brahmins also ate non vegetarian food.

This went on and on and many sages and saints fell to the ploy of the Vathabi-Villola brothers  and got killed.

Once sage Agasthiya came along and as Usual the Vathabi-Villola brothers accosted him to come and have food with them. As usual Villola killed his brother Vathabi and cooked him into mouth watering meat dishes and offered it to sage Agasthiya. Once Agastiya ate the food, Villola called out “Vathabi come alive”. Agasthiya who already knew of this ploy put his hand on his stomach and said “Vathabi Geernam” ( Vathabi Digested) and Vathabi who was inside the stomach of the sage Agathiya got digested and killed for ever.

The other brother Villola cried oud our Vathabi come alive many times but there was no trace  of Vathabi. Smiling sage Agasthiya left Villola teaching a lesson to these Asura brothers.

Shakunthala and Dushyantha

Viswamithra was a powerful king. Once he wanted to conduct a very famous religious ceremony  called 'Yagnam' which he wanted to conduct with the adviser to the Devas, Vasishtar. But Vasishtar ignored his invitation as he was so pious, holy and had innumerable boons with him. So Viswamithra also wanted to become such a sage and started to do penance and his penance was so intense the Deva's king Indra got afraid and sent one of the beautiful damsels of the Heaven to dance in front of him and disturb his penance. The damsel Maenaka came down to earth and started to dance, sing and did everything to disturb Viswamithra’s penance and made him fall in love with her and she conceived and delivered a baby girl to him and went back to heaven.

This baby girl was christened as Shakunthala and grew up. Once king Dushyantha came to the forest to hunt and saw Shakunthala and fell in love with her and they married in secret and  before  leaving her he gave her a ring so that she will remember him always.

After Dushyantha left for his kingdom Shakunthala was worried and suffered in isolation and was full of love and affection for her husband and missed his presence. At this time sage Durvasa came there to get some food. Shakuntala  in her lovelorn condition could not remember or felt his presence and sage Durvasa who was always angry and in tension cursed her so that her lover Dushyanth would forget her for ever.  Coming to senses Shakunthala apologized to Sage Durvasa and pleaded for mercy. But curses could not be taken back. So Durvasa modified the curse so that Dushyantha would remember her once he sees his ring which he presented to Shakunthala. Saying this Durvasa  left.

Shakunthala became pregnant and Vismamithra came to know of this and inquired Shakunthala and found from her that Dushyanth was the cause of the pregnancy and took his daughter to him to get them officially married as their marriage was in secret.

While they were going on the boat crossing the river Ganga, Shankunthala had her hand inside the water playing with the fish and other aquatic creatures and by doing this her finger became thinner and the ring became loose and fell into the water.

Viswamithra and Shankunthala reached the palace of Dushyanth and met him while he was in audience and pleaded the case of Shankunthala. But because of Durvasa’s curse Dushyanth could not remember Shakunthala and refused to accept her as his wife. Whatever pleading and threatening Viswamithra did was not effective and hence the father and daughter had to come back to their abode rejected by Dushyanth.

 In due course  Shakunthala delivered a boy and he was christened as Barath. ( it is his name which is used to denote India as Bharath even today). The boy grew up playing with deers, lions and other jungle animals.

One day one fisherman caught a big fish from river Ganga and when he cut it open he saw a royal ring and he took it to king Dushyanth. King Dushyanth saw the ring and immediately remembered Shakunthala and came running to the jungle, saw her and her son and apologized to Sage Viswamithra and took Shakunthala and his son to his kingdom and palace and they lived happily for ever.

Killing of Bahasura, the Giant

While the Pandavas settled and were living in the village of Ekachakra, there lived a huge Giant called Bahasura who was having the town under his grip and was killing all the men and women, children and cattle and everything which was alive and moving. This in discriminated  killing was so intense and the King was powerless to deal and kill him. So the People of the town went to Bahasura  and requested him to have some kind of discipline in his eating habits. They promised to send him carts of food, cattle, cows, goats etc in a cart daily which will be driven by a man who could also be eaten by the Giant. Each family of the town had to send one member for this cart per day as per the routine they followed.

Bahasura agreed for this arrangement and from that day the town people sent many cart loads of food and other items  in many carts and the Bahasura ate cart man and all the other cattle and food.

Pandavas were staying in the house of a Brahmin and earned their food by begging and collecting them and Kunti cooking and feeding them and herself. The food was not sufficient for all and Beem being a very big man and the son of Vayu, the god of wind, was always hungry as the food was not sufficient for him. So Kunti gave him most of the food and shared the other with herself and her other four sons. Even this was not sufficient for Beem.

One day Kunti found the family members of the Brahmin family with which they stayed, were crying. It was found that that day that family had to send one of their family members to cart the food for the Bahasura who would eat the food and the cart man  who would never come back.The father of the family said he would go as cart man as he was old and infirm. The son said he would go as he was young and would be a fit food for Bahasura. The mother cried and said she would go instead of the other two as they would be required to look after the family tree. So it went on and on.

Hearing all this Kunti cam forward and said she would offer her son Beem to go instead of them as he  was extremely powerful and capable to kill the giant and would go willingly for this assignment. He would be happy to go instead of that family members and since they were staying there it was their duty to protect them.

The head of the family refused this offer saying that it was not proper to send a guest to do such a thing as it was against the principle of Dharma ( justice) as guests  were to be respected and protected. But Kunti persuaded him saying that her son could kill the Bahasura and come out powerful and victorious.

The head of the family reluctantly agreed and allowed Beem to take the cart loads of food, cattle etc to the Bahasura. So Beem accompanied by all the town people went to the place where the Bahasura lived and before certain distance of Bahasura's residence  the other people returned back  fearing killing by the giant. They said  saying good bye to him crying about his life and his sacrifice for the town.

Beem went to the place and started eating all the food and cattle, cows, and pots of curd, milk etc. He wanted to finish the food to gain strength as he was not eaten well till that day after their  departure from the house of wax. Also he did not want the food to be wasted in his fight with Bahasura . He also could not take food after killing the giant without a bath and Pooja.The Bagasura saw this from a distance, became furious  and came and hit Beem at his back. But Beem continued to eat and finished all the food and then hit back Bahasura and both started fighting and the fight went on for some time. Finally Beem killed Bahasura and tore him into two parts and left his carcass at the entrance to the town gate.

The people who waited for the Beem to die and were ready to send someone the next day were overjoyed and praised Beem and took him on their shoulder and celebrated this even with good food and revelry.

The Pandavas stayed there for some more time.