Untold Stories of Mahabharata - 2

Untold Stories of Mahabharata - 2

In Mahabharata , each and every part is connected to one another and veda vyasa doesn’t leave any scope to us to question anything. Besides the narration of the whole kurukshetra and fates of kauravas and pandavas , it also contains philosophical and devotional things in it. This book teaches us about the life, Karma, Dharma and also about God.

There are some hidden and untold stories of Mahabharata which you were unaware of and which nobody ever told you before. So, here we are going to tell you about some more hidden and untold stories of Mahabharata.

Draupadi's brother was actually a reincarnation of Ekalavya.

Originally born to Vasudeva's brother Devashrava (which by the way makes him Krishna's cousin!), Ekalavya got lost in the forest and was subsequently brought up by the Nishada king Hiranyadhanu. He was killed by Krishna during Rukmini's abduction. However, to honour the great sacrifice Ekalavya made as guru dakshina , Krishna blessed him so that he can reincarnate and take revenge on Drona. Hence, Ekalavya was reincarnated as Draupadi's twin Dhrishtadyumna.

Barbarika, son of Ghatotkacha, had a unique power, which made Krishna ask him for his head in charity.

Bheema's grandson (Ghatotkacha's son), Barbarika was supposed to be a great warrior. By Lord Shiva's blessings, he had special arrows by which he could mark his enemies, mark the ones he wanted to save, and then destroy all his enemies respectively. Thanks to this, he could have ended the war in one minute flat. Krishna however, knew better than to let this happen. Because of an oath to his mother, Barbarika always fought for the weaker side. Krishna appeared to him as a Brahmana, and reasoned that whichever side he took would by default be stronger. That way he would have to keep changing parties till everyone got killed. Krishna then asked for his head in charity because the battlefield must be purified before battle by sacrificing the head of the bravest kshatriya. Barbarika obliged and became the greatest Kshatriya alive. That is how Krishna saved the Pandavas from losing the battle.

The author of Mahabharata is also a character in the epic!

Yes, yes, we all know that there was no one writer who put the Mahabharata together. But as per the story, Satyavati had a son with Sage Parashara before her marriage to King Shantanu. Before giving into the sage's advances, Satyavati exacted three wishes out of him; one of which was that the son born of their union be famous as a great sage. Soon after, Satyavati gave birth on an island in Yamuna. This son was called Krishna-Dwaipayana, later known as Vyasa - compiler of the Vedas and author of the Puranas and the Mahabharata .

Ramayana occurred before the Mahabharata did

There is a version of the Ramayana within the Mahabharata. It’s called Ramopakhyana and can be found in the Draupadi-harana Parva of Vana Parva. The context of it – Yudhisthira was lamenting the exile of the Pandavas and Draupadi when Rishi Markandeya narrated the story of Rama’s exile to console him. (Which also proves that Ramayana occured before the Mahabharata did.)

Shakuni’s vengeance 

Gandhari had been married to a goat before getting married to Dhritarashtra. The goat had been sacrificed promptly thereafter but this made Gandhari a widow and Dhritarashtra her second husband. So when they came to Hastinapur as guests, Bhishma locked all of them up. But since it was considered a sin to starve your guests, Bhishma did send food daily, but kept on reducing the quantity. When the family realised this trick, they decided to feed a single person who would survive and avenge them. They selected Shakuni, the youngest and cleverest son. Broke his leg to always remind him in every step of his life, the atrocities committed by the kuru clan. Before dying his mother asked him to take a particular bone from her body, which would always listen to him. He made dice from that bone and those dice always fell on the number he wished for. Armed with dice and revenge, he set upon bringing down the clan by sparking a war between the cousins.

Udipi fed the kurukshetra warriors

When the Mahabharata war was fought, all the kings aligned themselves on one side. But Udupi king preferred being on the neutral part. So, he spoke to Lord Krishna and said that, “The people who will fight will definitely need some more food to eat. So, I will be the caterer in this battle and I will feed each warrior.”

The battle lasted for 18 days and thousand of soldiers died every single day. So, Udipi king had to make that much of less food each day so that the food never gets waste.