maha barata

P.Sai Teja 1 | P a g e

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A STUDY ON THE MAHABHARATA

Epics are the very long poems that try to articulate the knowledge of the epoch. These epics which are

based on the knowledge framework, the episteme, reflect the problems in the present epoch and

suggest solutions to those problems. One such great Indian Epic, the Mahabharata, has been able to

capture the knowledge and life style of the people during the Dwaparayuga. The main characters in the

epic are the descendants of the clan of Bharata, hence it is titled Mahabharata, meaning the stories

about the people of bharata. The story is about a war for power between the cousins. The book has

eighteen parvas and many sub parvas. There are many interrelated side stories in the Mahabharata

which try to reflect the then society.

The following document deals with three stories taken from Mahabharata. These stories have been

chosen from the Vana Parva, in which the valour of the five pandavas is showcased and contrasted with

that of the Kauravas, the sons of Dritharashtra. The stories start with how Arjuna goes on a penance

and attains the grace of Shankara, the Lord Shiva. He then proceeds to the heaven to learn the arts of

war, music and dance and repays his preceptor with what he desires. Once he returns back to the earth,

there ensues a great battle with the Gandharvas, and the pandavas emerge victorious. These stories

mainly portray Arjuna as an undefeatable warrior who is superior to the king of Gods, Shakra.

These stories worsen the relationship between the pandavas and the Kauravas and lay the foundation

for the war that happens later on. Kauravas had despised the pandavas for long time and seeing Arjuna

attain the abode of the Gods, and get powerful with the new weapons instigates their hatred.

Dhuryodhana getting saved by the pandavas from the gandharvas, worsens the situation and thought of

defeating the pandavas in war gets settled in the minds of sons of Dhritharashtras, Karna and the

descendants of simbala (i.e. Shakuni and his family). Without these stories, the idea of defeating

pandavas in the war wouldnt have been ignited and the enemity between the children of bharata clan

would continue without any solution. The purpose of these stories is to show pandavas as noble and

powerful warriors contrary to the kauravas who are weak and filled with hatred.

The stories are discussed below in a chronological order with the reasons like need for the story, the

purpose it serves and what it carries forward. For every story, a summary (for reference) and an analysis

have been provided.


Story1: KAIRATA PARVA

Summary:

This story is about the war between Arjuna, the archer who has never been defeated before, and the

Lord Shankara, the three eyed God who is without a parallel and extraordinary. At the command of

Yudhishthira, the foremost of the pandavas, Arjuna embarks on a journey to the Himalayas in order to

attain weapons from the Celestial beings. Choosing a favorable place, he engages himself in asceticism.

Lord Shankara, understanding the reason behind Arjunas asceticism, assumes the form of a hunter and

comes down to earth accompanied by his wife Uma and various other divine beings. At the same time a

danava named Muka assumes the form of a boar and tries to attack Arjuna. When Arjuna notices the

disguise, aims at the boar, which was also simultaneously aimed by the Hunter. The arrows from both

the bows hit the boar at the same time killing it in an instant. Then both the hunter and Arjuna, start

arguing about who had killed the boar which results in a fight between the two.

Arjuna shoots innumerable arrows at the hunter who remains unscathed by those arrows. Soon

the inextinguishable quivers of Arjuna were exhausted and he starts attacking with his bow. The hunter

then snatches the bow and throws it away leaving Arjuna with only a sword to fight with. But even that

sword, which can cut rock, cannot harm the hunter. Unable to control his anger Arjuns engages in a fist

fight with the hunter in which he gets wounded severely and falls on the ground unable to fight.

Accepting his defeat, when Arjuna starts praying to him and the Lord Shankara gets pleased. He praises

Arjuna for his deeds and grants him a wish. Arjuna asks for the Brahmashira weapon which could

destroy the entire Universe. Shiva grants him his favourite weapon, Pashupata, which should not be

withdrawn without proper reason or else it would destroy the Universe. Lord shiva also grants him the

knowledge of using the weapon and then departs to his abode.

Arjuna gets pleased with the idea that he could touch the great lord, whom others cannot even

see unless they do great penance and considers himself blessed. Later all the heavenly lords along with

Shakra, the lord of heaven, appeared before him. They eulogize him and grant him many divine

weapons which could destroy the danavas, daityas and all the enemies. The lords return back to their

heavenly abodes.

Analysis of the narrative structure:

This story takes place at the foot hills of Himalayas, which is sacred and also secluded. There are many

reasons for choosing this place, it is the abode of Lord Shiva and also whatever happens there is

unknown to the people who cannot question it and check the authenticity. This gives the advantage that

anything could be said without showing any proof. If this story was developed at other places, then

doubts could have been raised like when Lord Shiva descended to the earth, hasnt anyone seen him

because he alone didnt come down but many apsaras have followed him? So building up the story at

Himalayas provided the best option.

From this story we get an idea about the powers of the God. Gods could change forms and they are

invincible to all the weapons. From the way the Lord Indra and other gods came from heaven to bless

arjuna signifies the idea that, gods keep watching us humans and they bless us for our good deeds.


Though Arjuna was a great archer, as was portrayed earlier, he couldnt stand a chance against Lord

Shiva. This shows the gap between humans and Gods and that a human cannot surpass gods whatever

they do.

A way has been suggested in the story for a human to meet with god. By merging with the nature,

wearing clothes made of grass and deer skin, and by taking up asceticism one could meet with god. He

should forsake meat and beverages and live on plants. The amount of food intake should decrease as

time passes by, from fruits in the first month at intervals of three nights, in the second month at the

interval of six nights, in the third month at the interval of fortnight and during the fourth month simply

the air.

Certain rules followed by archers have been put forward in the story. The target aimed by one archer

should not be aimed by another one and it is a highly offending act. Indirectly, the author is suggesting

that it is a disgrace to doubt the skill of a warrior. The characteristics of a warrior have been neatly

presented here. In the story, Arjuna is shown as the ideal warrior who fights the opponent with all his

strength, even when he doesnt have any weapons he resorts to fist fight. He accepts defeat only when

he loses his consciousness. The story portrays the idea of a warrior as one who would never show his

back in a fight, even though he is at the verge of a defeat.

The main purpose of this story has been to elevate Arjuna as a great warrior and bring out the view that

the one who has impressed and is blessed by the Gods is undefeatable. This is very important to the

later parts of the story because there are many great warriors and when Arjuna must emerge victorious

among them, he must have achieved something which others would not even dare to aspire. This story

had served the purpose and enemies start to hesitate to confront him later on in the Mahabharata

fearing him.

Story2: INDRALOKAGAMANA PARVA

Summary:

This story is about how Arjuna goes to heaven to learn the mystical weaponry of the gods and

their arts like dance and music and how he gets cursed by Urvashi, the apsara.

After Arjuna pleased the Lord Shiva, obtained the pashupatha and was blessed by the celestials, he

starts his meditation. Soon a golden chariot comes to him from heaven, to carry him to Shakras abode

on the invitation of Lord Indra (shakra). Thereupon Falguni (Arjuna) prays to the Mountain lord where

he had been staying so far and ascends the chariot. On his journey he encounters various rishis,

gandharvas, apsaras, the white elephant Airavata and at last reaches the city Amaravati. The city was

filled with sacred trees and flowers and Arjuna comes across the Nandana, the celestial Garden and gets

captured by its beauty. When he enters into the Surabhithi (Milky Way), he sees vasus, rudras, ashvins,

Tumbaru, Narada and other Gandharvas and salutes them. When he dismounts the chariot, he sees

Indra (Shakra). Arjuna approaches him and salutes him by bending low. Shakra, very much pleased to


see his son, makes him sit on his chair, which is resorted to by many celestials. The happiness at the

union of father and son is portrayed in the form of dance and music by the great celestial performers.

Arjuna living in the house of his father, Indra, learns using many weapons along with the great Vajra

(Thunder) weapon. At the command of his father he lives there for five years. He also learns the celestial

dance and music arts from Chitrasena. Though he was happy there, he couldnt get peace of mind

remembering his brothers, mother and the dice game in which they were defeated.

One day in the assembly, Arjuna gazed specially at the apsara, Urvashi. Seeing this Indra(Shakra) asks

Chitrasena to send Urvashi to Arjuna as he seemed attracted to her. Receiving the command, Chitrasena

goes to Urvashi and informs her about the command of Indra. He eulogizes Arjuna and asks her to

satisfy his needs and Urvashi agress to it. After sending Chitrasena away, Urvashi embellishes herself

and moves out to meet Arjuna. On the way, all the passersby are spell bounded by her beauty. When

she reaches the gates of Arjunas palace, Arjuna respectfully comes and receives her. Seeing her, Arjuna

modestly closes his eyes and then saluting her asks what brought her here so late at night. Then Urvashi

explains to him that once he had looked at her at the assembly with steady gaze and Indra observing this

asked Chitrasena to send urvashi to Arjunas place, and thus she has come here.

Arjuna, filled with shame, shut his ears and eyes and says it isnt proper for him to hear her say such

words. He says that to him she occupies the same place as her mother Kunti. He admits he has gazed at

her steadily, it wasnt because he was attracted to her but because he was surprised seeing the mother

of the Puru Dynasty dance there. He says he doesnt hold any other feelings toward her than seeing her

as the perpetuator of his race, his great mother.

Urvashi says she belongs to the clan of apsaras, who are free and unfettered in their choice, so Arjuna

shouldnt consider her as his superior. All sons and grandsons of the Puru dynasty come there and sport

with them and they dont incur any sin by doing it, so she asks him not to send her away. But Arjuna

remains unchanged in his attitude towards her. He tells her that she is same to him as are Kunti and

Madri and bows his head to her asking her to leave and protect him as her son.

Hearing this, Urvashi loses her senses, gets angered and curses Arjuna that he would live among women

becoming a dancer, losing his manhood and his respect. She then returns to her house infuriated.

Thereupon Arjuna goes to Chitrasena and explains to him what has happened and about the curse, who

in turn goes and says it to Shakra. Shakra tries to console Arjuna in private saying the curse is for good

and it would come in handy during the last year of the fourteen years exile. Hearing this Arjuna becomes

glad and forgets about the curse.

Later one day a great rishi named Lomasha comes to the heaven to see Indra. He is surprised to see

Arjuna, a mere human, occupying the half of the seat beside Indra. While he was wondering what great

deeds might have been performed by Arjuna, Indra explains to him that Arjuna was not a mortal even

though he has been born among men. He says that there were earlier two great Rishis names Nara and


Narayana renown in the three worlds, who at request by Indra had been sent to earth to accomplish a

job of reducing the burden of mother earth. They are born as Arjuna and Hari ( Krishna ). There are

many daityas (demons) like Nivatakavachas, who by obtaining boons are trying to attack the celestial

worlds. They can be killed by Partha or the Hari alone. On this purpose Arjuna has come to the heaven

to obtain celestial weapons. Indra then requests the rishi Lomasha to go to earth and inform Yudhistira

that Arjuna has achieved what he came to heaven for and would return back to earth soon. Lomasha

then departs from the heaven to earth.

At the same time, Dhritharashtra, on the earth, gets to know from Sanjaya, the suta, about the great

deeds Arjuna has performed. He feels who on earth would be able to defeat Arjuna, who has received

the blessings from the Lord Shiva himself. He gets frightened thinking his sons wont stand a chance

against the great Pandavas. Then Sanjaya consoles him saying that nothing could be done now, and he

has lost his chance to save his children. Earlier, when his sons were dragging draupadi to the assembly

he hasnt taken the necessary steps to control them and now he is bearing the fruits of it.


The story takes place at Heaven whose splendor is described very beautifully in the story. Heaven is the

final destination for good people and this story signifies that fact by taking Arjuna to heaven, who is

considered the best among humans. To tag arjuna as an undefeatable warrior he must be taken to

places which no other person could reach. So if Arjuna trained at a place on earth by the best teachers,

others might think of going to that place to learn too, but if the same happened in heaven, which no

other person might even think of approaching, then it would achieve the purpose. Hence heaven was

chosen to train Arjuna in divine weapons.

This story gives us a glimpse of how heaven looks like. On the way to Heaven, we first encounter rishis,

gandharvas and apsaras, then the golden chariots of the gods and the heavenly elephant Airavata which

are the gods transport facilities and then we enter into the city of amaravati which has the Assembly of

Indra and the houses of other gods. Thus we get a picture of the heaven as having the core central part

filled with houses of gods and important places and the surrounding areas of filled with beings of lower

status like the apsaras, gandharvas and rishis. The buildings are beautiful, adorned with gems and gold,

and there are the beautiful apsaras, whom every man aspiries, who entertain the audience with dances,

music. There are beautiful gardens throughout the heaven which are filled with beautiful beasts. There

is no scarcity of food there. Heaven is portrayed as an embodiment of every good aspect that a being

aspires. Heaven is the place every being aspiries to be, and this description of that place is quite

satisfactory.

The character of Arjuna is portrayed as the one who knows the dharma and behaves properly. When

Urvashi approaches him, the self-restrain that he shows acts as an index of his good nature. This

instance highlights that it is wrong to have feelings towards a person who is in the mothers position and

this belief as we can see is valid still in the present society. The curse incurred by Arjuna, is turned into a

boon which comes to aid during the last year of the exile when they need to be in incognito. This


projects the idea that one who follows the dharma can negate all the negative forces acting on him. The

story shows the necessity for a person to follow dharma and the benefits that he obtains by doing so.

There was a belief of reincarnation during the period of Mahabharata and this idea has been reinforced

in this story, when Indra narrates the birth story of Arjuna and Krishna to rishi Lomasha. The idea of

Karma is strongly followed in the story, which says that a persons destiny is decided at his birth and he

alone bears the results of his actions either god or bad. This has been made clear when the rishi

Lomasha sees Arjuna on the seat of Indra which is not available to great rishis let Arjuna, who is a mere

human.

At the times of Mahabharata, there is a procedure followed to impregnate the queen, if the king is

unable to do so. Other people, as per certain rules, are eligible to perform the task, but still the son born

would be the legitimate son of the king. This method is not considered as an offence, and had been

followed by Indra and other gods to result in the valorous pandavas. This fact is reasserted in this story

when Indra states that Arjuna is his son. This gives us an insight into the social customs during the period

of Mahabharata.

We can see that Caste system was present during the times of Mahabharata and in this story itself we

see the demarcation between people of the kshatriya class, the upper class of kings, and the Suta class,

who are just inferior to the kshatriya class and serve them. Sanjaya, the suta, is obedient to

Dhritharashtra, the kshatriya, and provides him with valuable suggestions from time to time.

Mahabharata is full of valuable suggestions on how to lead a life. In this story, we get to know that it is

improper to repent about something later on when one had the opportunity earlier to prevent this

situation. This truth has been expressed as a conversation between Dhritharashtra and sanjaya, when

the king fears his sons death seeing Arjuna obtaining the heavenly weapons.

This story carries forward the idea about the beauty of heaven and who all would be able to reach that

splendid place. After reading this story we look at Arjuna as a warrior more powerful than Indra himself

after obtaining the heavenly weapons. It has been shown that Destiny and karma play an important part

in the life of an individual and even great personalities like arjuna are controlled by it.

Story3: GOSHA YATRA PARVA

Summary:

This story describes the valor of pandavas and how Dhuryodhana was saved from the Gandharvas by the

sons of pandu which resulted in dhuryodhana deciding to defeat the pandavas in the war.

When the pandavas were in the forest as per the oath taken, Dhritharashtra and his sons were in

Hastinapur enjoying the comforts. Pandavas settled near a lake which was far from the habitations of

men and many rishis came to see them. Seeing their condition, Dhritharashtra feels sad and says that his

sons need to pay for what they have caused and no one can stop that from happening. Having heard


that Arjuna has fought with Lord Shiva and has been to Indras abode, the heaven, Shakuni carries the

news to Dhuryodhana and Karna. When duryodhana is filled with grief, shakuni suggests that they

should visit the pandavas in the forest and gain happiness by seeing their condition. On hearing this

Duryodhana became excited with the desire to see the pandavas in rags, but again became melancholy

saying that king Dhritharashtra would not grant permission to go to the place where the pandavas are.

He orders Shakuni and Karna to find a valid reason so that Dhritharashtra would not prevent them from

going there. The next day they make up a plan, as their cattle herds are located at Dvaitavana, they

could go on the pretext of checking them. They instructed a cowherd to approach the king with this

proposal and when it was done they offered to go and check the cattle. Dritharashtra felt the reason

was proper as a king should check his cattle from time to time, but he was afraid that his sons might face

the wrath of the pandavas who are also living in the same region. He asks dhuryodhana to send some

faithful servants of his own to go check the cattle rather than he himself embarking on the journey.

Shakuni tries to convince the king that they dont have interest to interfere with the pandavas and their

sole purpose is to count the cattle. As they wouldnt go near the residence of pandavas, there is no

question of any wrong happening. Hearing this Dhritharashtra unwillingly issues them permission to

take up the journey.

Dhuryodhana along with Karna starts on the journey accompanied by many chariots, horses and

elephants. They settle at a favourable place four miles away from the lake and the cattle are brought

there. Dhuryodhana himself supervised the cattle counting and once the task is done, they begin

enjoying at the forest. At that time Yudhishthira (Dharmaraja) was living near the lake and performing a

sacrifice called Rajarshi. Arriving at that place Dhuryodhana orders his soldiers to build pleasure houses.

Just when his soldiers reach the lake, some gandharvas ask them to leave the premises saying they are

sporting at that place and it is closed for all comers. When the soldiers return back, Dhuryodhana gets

angry and orders his Kuru army to vanquish the gandharvas in the battle and capture the area. On his

command, all the descendants of Dhritharashtra and other thousands of armies go to attack the

gandharvas and forcefully enter the forest area. This angered the Gandharvas and a war breaks out

between the parties. Karna with his mighty shower of arrows tried to stop the gandharvas by beheading

them, but they returned back in hundreds and thousands. Dhuryodhana and his brothers come to

support Karna and the Gandharvas who became serious begin using illusionary techniques. The kuru

heroes deprived of their senses are unenable to fight with the gandharvas, only Karna stood still

continuing the fight. When all the gandharvas rush upon karna destroying his chariot he jumps away

from the chariot and escapes on a horse.

Seeing Karna slip away, the Kuru army looses courage and fled away at the sight of rushing gandharvas

except the king dhuryodhana, who refuses to run away and keeps fighting. The gandharvas capture the

king and all the ladies of the royal household. The sons of Dhritharashtra who ran away come to

pandavas to ask their help. Though the four pandavas were against the idea of helping them, Yudishthira

explains to them that family members may fight among themselves, but they shouldnt tolerate any

outsider insulting their family and due to the insult offered to Duryodhana and to the ladies of the royal

family, the family honor has been destroyed and he orders them to regain it back. As he is in the middle


of a sacrifice, he asks the four pandavas to take up the task of protecting the family honor. Taking

orders, the pandava warriors arm themselves and ride on fast blazing chariots and encounter the

gandharvas in the forest. They kindly ask them to leave Dhuryodhana and their family members and

when they reject it, a war ensues between the pandavas and gandharvas. Both parties hurl great

showers of arrows on each other. With the intention to destroy their chariots, as they had previously

done in the battle with dhuryodhana, the gandharvas surround the pandavas. But their plans are met

with resistance by the great shower of arrows from the Kuru warriors and the gandharvas feared to

come near them. With the new acquired celestial weapons, arjuna kills gandharvas in large numbers and

when the gandharvas try to ascend the sky and take away dhuryodhana, Arjuna surrounds them on all

sides by his arrows. Having nowhere to go, they hurl great weapons on him and arjuna gracefully

negates them. When they resorted to illusionary techniques, arjuna uses arrows with mantras and

cancels their spells. When the gandharva king chitrasena gets attacked by those arrows, he approaches

arjuna saying that friends had been fighting so far and asks him to stop this war.

When arjuna requests him to release Dhuryodhana and the ladies of royal families, Chitrasena explains

him the intentions with which Dhuryodhana came to the forest and how Indra, who had known this

before hand, had ordered him to stop them. Having heard this Arjuna feels happy seeing the help

extended by the gandharvas, but he says that Dhuryodhana needs to be released as it was requested by

his brother Yudhisthira. So they approach yudhisthira and narrate to him what has happened. The

foremost pandava thinking about the family respect requests the gandharvas to release the captured

members and thanks them asking them to return to heaven. Dhuryodhana being saved by Dharma

(Yudhishthira) thanks him and leaves back to the capital.

During the journey back, karna joins them and expresses his happiness seeing the king, Dhuryodhana

and others in great form. When he asks how they defeated the gandharvas, Dhuryodhana explains to

him what has happened and thinking about the insult he encountered, he refuses to continue the

journey further and declares that he would commit fasting till his death. Even though Karna, Shakuni

and his brothers try to convince him, he wouldnt budge from his decision. Karna and others too refuse

to move forward and decide to stay at the feet of Dhuryodhana.

On hearing about the fasting unto death of the king, the sons of diti and the danavas fearing that they

wouldnt stand a chance before the gods without the leadership of the great Dhuryodhana performed a

sacrifice to summon him before them. A goddess appeared before them and brought the great king to

their place, the daityas eulogized him and they plead him to break his vow to starve till death. They

explain to him the origin of his birth and assure him that with the great weapons that they possess and

with his leadership they could easily defeat the pandavas. And in order to help them many asuras had

been born and they are going to manipulate the great warriors like Bhishma, drona, karna and others to

fight with their enemies. When these asuras are going to enter their hearts, the hosts would not show

any mercy and kill the enemies. Also many daityas and yakshas have been born as kings and they would

unite with Dhuryodhana in his war against pandavas. They assure him that he is going to rule the world

without any rival.


On being pleased by the speech of the daityas, dhuryodhana stops his idea to commit suicide and gets

convinced that they would be able to defeat the pandavas, even though he had seen their valor that

day. Dhuryodhana didnt reveal what had happened to any one and kept it to himself. He returns back

to hastinapur and gets berated by his elders, but even then he wouldnt stop making plans to destroy

the sons of pandu. Meanwhile Karna in order to show his valor to the king, goes on a campaign to annex

the kingdoms and returns successfully. Dhuryodhana decides to perform the rajasuya yaga, but being

unable to do so performs another sacrifice called Vaishnava and calls all the neighboring kings to show

his splendor. The sacrifice ends successfully, but some remain unsatisfied comparing it with the rajasuya

yaga performed by Yudhisthira. This hurts their feelings and they pledge to kills the pandavas when they

return from their fourteen year exile.


The story takes place in the forest named Dvaitavana. As the pandavas were in their exile, they had to

be in the forests and this place which was away from hastinapur and other habitations had been chosen.

There had been enmity between cousins (Pandavas and Kauravas) from earlier times. This story

intensifies the enmity lays down the base for the war that is to happen later on.

Dhritharashtra is partially responsible for bringing down the war within the Kuru clan. He is the head,

the king, of the country, the person who should be impartial to his subjects and think properly about the

repercussions before taking any decision. Contrary to this, he has been prejudiced towards his own

children and allows them to insult the pandavas, and he had partially enjoyed padavas disgrace himself.

After performing such unkind acts, looking at the pandavas grow in power he fears the death of his sons

and starts repenting when all possibilities he had to stop this from happening. Even in this story, he

knows he shouldnt believe what his sons promise, but due to the love for them, he allows them to

check the cattle because of which dhuryodhana is disgraced in the fight with gandharvas and he decides

that war is inevitable.

Dhuryodhana, by himself, was not purely responsible for the disastrous war. It has been due to the evil

intentions of karna and Shakuni together who were responsible for the downfall of the kuru clan. During

the dice game, when the pandavas had been defeated, it was because of karnas cruel intentions that

dhuryodhana decided to defame her in the assembly. Even now, it was because of the evil intentions of

shakuni and karna that dhuryodhana had decided to go to the forest to criticize the pandavas in that

situation.

Karna is portrayed in the story as a weak minded person who boasts of his skill and when the need

arises, would be the first person to run away. Karna had been the person responsible for the trip to

forest with the idea of insulting the pandavas in their poverty. When the Kuru army was fighting with

the gandharvas, he took his stand initially, but when they threatened his life he started running away

leaving the king, whom he should have protected with his life. Later on when he joins the king, he simply

starts praising him without even realizing the blunder that he had committed. In order to prove his


valour, later on he tries to annex the neighbouring kingdoms and showcase his prowess, when the real

warriors (pandavas) had been in the forests. In Mahabharata, karna involved too much in the family

matters of the Kuru clan, he being an outsider had been the reason for the disgrace done to draupadi

during the dice game. He is powerful but boasts more about it and he creates false impressions in the

mind of Dhuryodhana which leads to their downfall later on.

The story suggests that a king, during those times, possessed a large number of cattle which are left to

the care of the cowherds. They are a form of wealth which indicate the status of the king. These cattle

roam in the grass lands within the territory of the king and once in a while, are counted by marking them

with the royal emblem. It is the right of the king to take care of his cattle from time to time. This right

had been made use of by the sons of Dritharashtra to go the forests. The importance of cattle wealth is

also indicated in the story of Goharana parva, where the Kauravas try to criticize the king of Virata by

stealing his cattle. Hence we can say that during those times, cattle had been considered as an

important component of the kings wealth.

Some revelations about the abilities of the Gandharvas have been show cased in this story. Gandharvas,

as we know belong to the heaven and can fly in the sky. They are versed in the mystical arts of dance

and music. In this story we can see them as great warriors and people who can use illusions in the war.

While fighting with such valorous gandharvas, the sons of dhritharashtra, though having an army,

starting running away being unable to defeat them. They do not stand a chance against the divine

warriors. Contrary to this, the pandavas who are just four in number face them bravely and are able to

fight on equal levels with them. Even the illusionary techniques of the gandharvas had been dispelled by

the pandavas. Arjuna with his new acquired divine weapons has been invincible. This shows the gap

between the levels of courage and skills that separates the sons of the Kuru clan.

This story delivers a message that, maintaining the family pride should be given importance over

individual pride. It is vital to preserve the pride of the woman of the family. Members of a family might

loathe each other and fight among themselves, but they should not allow an external person to insult

the family name. Also one must never say no to a person who has come for aid even when the person is

an enemy.

When dhuryodhana was humiliated by the Pandavas and he decides to commit suicide, we see the start

of preparation for war. As Gandharvas had taken the side of Pandavas by helping every now and then,

the danavas and daityas (the evil) have chosen Dhuryodhana to be their leader. The war between

cousins turned into a battle between the good and the evil. The danavas persuaded dhuryodhana not to

commit suicide by showing him their powerful allies, their unique powerful weapons and how they

planned to manipulate powerful warriors like Bhisma, Drona and Karna for their advantage. From this

story we could say that the preparations have started for the great war which is going to change the face

of the earth.


Conclusion: From the stories we can see that Mahabharata has tried its best to portray the knowledge of that era

and it has succeeded in this aspect. Mahabharata, though it deals with the war between cousins, it is

about the way a person should see life. It shows that there is good and evil in this world and there exists

a constant fight between them. The one which emerges victorious is going to influence the later

civilizations. Mahabharata is about Dharma, the action, and as an action is present at all times, we can

say the Mahabharata remains valid all the times. We should read Mahabharata not as a religious text,

but for attaining a perspective on the mode of actions that we perform.

maha barata

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