Next, Vyasa went to Ambalika. She grew pale on seeing Vyasa. The child thus conceived in her womb would be a pale weakling called Pandu.
‘Go to Ambika again. This time she will not shut her eyes,’ said Satyavati, disappointed by the birth of imperfect grandsons.
Vyasa did as he was told. But on the bed lay not Ambika but her maid who made love to him fearlessly. The child she conceived would be healthy and wise. He would be named Vidura. Though fit to be king, he would never be allowed to wear the crown as he was born of a maid.
Vidura was none other than Yama, the god of death, living out a curse. This is how it happened.
Once, a group of thieves took refuge in the hermitage of sage Mandavya who was at that time lost in meditation, totally unaware of their presence. When they were discovered by the king’s guards, Mandavya was accused of aiding them and as punishment was tortured and impaled. When he appeared before Yama, ruler of the dead, he demanded an explanation for his suffering for he had hurt no living creature in his life. ‘Yes, you have. When you were a child, you took delight in impaling tiny insects on a straw,’ said Yama. ‘Your suffering was repayment for the karmic debt incurred then.’ Mandavya protested that being punished for crimes committed in childhood, when one is innocent, was not fair. ‘That is the law of karma,’ replied a dispassionate Yama. A furious Mandavya then cursed Yama that he would take birth as a man and suffer the fate of never being a king despite having all the qualities of the perfect ruler. And so was born Vidura.
Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura were raised by Bhishma as if they were his own sons. The irony of the situation was evident to all. Bhishma, who had sworn never to beget a family of his own, was entrapped by the family of his father, which included a stepmother, two widowed sisters-in-law, their maid and three nephews.
Bhishma is the last of the Kuru bloodline. The sons his father bears on Satyavati die childless. Children of the royal family thereafter are not true Kurus; they are children of the daughters-in-law of the household by other men.
Vyasa draws attention to the frailties of human laws that try to correct what nature has ordained. Satyavati’s son dies childless but by the law of niyoga he can still be a father. Thus Dhritarashtra and Pandu become the ‘sons’ of Vichitravirya even though their mothers were made pregnant by Vyasa.
The laws say that only children of the lawfully wedded wife are the true sons, not the children of concubines. Thus only Pandu and Dhritarashtra can be kings, not Vidura, even though Vidura is the most worthy.
The story of Vidura’s past life is an attempt to explain why bad things happen to good people. In a further elaboration of the law of karma, it informs that even acts performed in ignorance or innocence have repercussions that one is obliged to experience either in this life or the next.
Yama, god of death, is also known as Dharma, god of order. A dispassionate god who oversees death and destiny, he ensures that the law of karma is followed meticulously.
Book Three
Birth
‘Janamejaya, in your family, sterile men became fathers by asking gods to visit their wives.’
13
Satyavati’s grand-daughters-in-law
South of Hastina-puri, on the banks of the river Yamuna, the Yadava council ruled the prosperous city of Mathura. One of the members of the Yadava council, Surasena, had a daughter called Pritha who was adopted by his cousin, Kuntibhoja, who renamed her Kunti.
When Kunti was of marriageable age, a swayamvara was organized where, from among the assembled guests, she chose Pandu as her husband.
Around the same time, the princess of Gandhara, Gandhari, was brought to Hastina-puri and given in marriage to Dhritarashtra. She did not know at the time of her wedding that she was marrying a blind man. When she learnt this, she decided to blindfold herself to share her husband’s suffering.
For reasons never clarified, though many suspect it was because of Pandu’s inability to father a child on Kunti, a second wife was purchased for Pandu. She was Madri, sister of Shalya, king of Madra. Second wives were usually purchased when the first wife was suspected of being infertile. But Kunti had proof of fertility: she had secretly borne a child before marriage. Perhaps rumours of her premarital liaisons stained her reputation and provided reason enough for getting a second wife.
Though elder, since Dhritarashtra was born blind, he was forbidden from sitting on the throne. Pandu was made king instead, superseding Dhritarashtra just as Shantanu had superseded Devapi. This decision caused great heartburn in the blind prince, but he never voiced his protest for he was well versed with the quirks of laws. While some laws made him the legitimate son of Vichitravirya, there were others which prevented him from becoming king. At night, in bed, the blind prince whispered to his wife, ‘Let us make a son quickly, Gandhari, before Pandu makes one, so that he can reclaim what should rightfully be mine.’
Vedic literature classifies eight different ways in which man and woman come together. 1. If a woman is given away as charity to help a needy man, as Gandhari is, it is the way of Prajapati, father of all creatures. 2. If a bride is accepted more for her dowry than for herself, it is the way of Brahma, the creator who is entrapped by his own creation. 3. If a daughter is given as a fee for services rendered to the father, it is the way of the Deva, the sky-gods. 4. If a daughter is given for ritual purposes along with a cow and a bull, it is the way of the Rishi. 5. If a woman chooses her husband freely, as Shakuntala and Kunti do, it is the way of the Gandharva, the celestial musicians. 6. If a woman is purchased, as Madri is, it is the way of the Asura, the subterranean hoarders of wealth. 7. If a woman is abducted, as Ambika and Ambalika are, it is the way of the Rakshasa, the forest-dwelling barbarians. 8. If a woman is raped, it is the way of the Pisachas or vampires.
By blindfolding herself to share her husband’s blindness, Gandhari attains the status of ‘sati’ or the perfect wife. Later in the epic, her sacrifice grants her magical powers. Playwrights suggest that Gandhari blindfolded herself in outrage to protest against her marriage to a blind man. Rather than being exploited, she disables herself.
In the Bhil Bharata of the Doongri Bhils of Gujarat, there is a story connecting Kunti and Gandhari to the mother-goddess, Shakti. Once seven sages were busy performing tapasya. Intrigued, Shiva and Shakti paid them a visit in the form of eagles. But pushed by the winds, the female eagle got impaled on the trident of the sages. When the sages saw this, they were so upset that they decided to use their magical powers to bring life into the dead bird. Two women emerged from the dead bird: Gandhari from the skeletons and Kunti from the flesh.
The laws say that only a physically fit man can be king. So Dhritarashtra who is blind is bypassed and his younger brother, Pandu, is made king. Ironically, even Pandu is physically unfit; his disability (sterility or impotency) is not as evident as blindness.
14
Birth of Kunti’s children
One day, not long after his second marriage, Pandu went on a hunt, perhaps to vent his frustration at being unable to give even the highly fertile Madri a child. Would he die, like his father, leaving two childless widows behind?
Pandu’s arrow struck an antelope. When Pandu came closer, he realized he had killed the antelope while he was mating with a doe. To make matters worse, the antelope turned out to be a sage called Kindama and the doe turned out to be his wife. They had used magical powers to turn themselves into animals so that they could make love freely in the open.
Before dying, Kindama cursed Pandu, ‘You, who have so violently stopped a man from making love to a woman, may you never know the pleasure of lovemaking. If you ever touch a woman, you will die instantly.’
A distraught Pandu felt that a man who cannot father a child is unfit to be king. So he refused to return to Hastina-puri. He decided to live the life of a hermit in the forest of Satasringa along with the Rishis there.
When news of Pandu’s decision to become a hermit reached Hastina-puri, his wives rushed to be with him. They
found him living in the forest, wearing clothes of bark, having abandoned his royal robes, with Rishis for company.
‘Go back,’ said Pandu to Kunti and Madri, ‘I can never be a husband to you.’ But the two women insisted on staying with him. For it is the dharma of wives to follow husbands, both in joy and in sorrow.
In the absence of Pandu, Bhishma had no choice but to pass on the crown of Hastina-puri to the blind Dhritarashtra. It was perhaps in the destiny of Hastinapuri to be ruled by a blind king and his blindfolded queen.
A few months later, news reached Pandu that Dhritarashtra’s wife, Gandhari, was pregnant with child. The news depressed him. Not only had fate taken the crown from him, it had also left him in a state whereby he could never father kings.
Kunti consoled her husband, ‘There was a time when women were free to go to any man they pleased. This alarmed the sage Shvetaketu who saw his father, Uddalaka, unfazed by his mother’s association with other sages. Shvetaketu then introduced the law of marriage so that women were bound to husbands, enabling all men to know who their fathers were. They could only have children by their husbands and if their husbands were unable to give them children, they could go to men chosen by their husbands. Children borne by the wife belonged to the husband whether he fathered them or not. So it is that the father of the planet Mercury is the planet Jupiter even though it was the moon who conceived him in the womb of the stars. So it is that you are the son of Vichitravirya even though he never made your mother pregnant.’
Pandu decided to take advantage of this rule. He decided to ask a sage to come to his wives. ‘Why a Rishi when I can call upon a Deva?’ asked Kunti. Pandu looked at her quizzically. Kunti explained, ‘When I was young, the Rishi Durvasa visited by father’s house. My father asked me to take care of all his needs. Pleased with my devotion and service, he gave me a magic formula by which I could call upon any sky-god and have a child with him instantly. Perhaps, in his foresight, he realized I would have need of such a formula in my life. So, if you wish, I can use this formula, and have a child by any god of your choice.’
What Kunti did not tell her husband was that in her curiosity she had used the magic formula to invoke Surya, the sun-god, and that she had a child by him. To protect her reputation, she had put the child in a basket and abandoned it to a river’s whim soon after. It was an act of shame that weighed heavy on her heart.
Pleased with Kunti’s solution to his situation, Pandu said, ‘Call Yama, who is the lord of dharma, and the model for all kings.’ Kunti used the magic formula, invoked Yama and had a child with him. He was named Yudhishtira. He would be the most honest of men.
Later, Pandu asked Kunti to invoke Vayu, the god of the wind. ‘Because he is father of the mightiest of all gods, Hanuman.’ The child thus conceived was named Bhima. He would be the strongest of men.
Kunti then called upon Indra, king of the Devas and ruler of the sky. By him she had a son called Arjuna. He would be the most skilled archer in the world, capable of using the bow with both his right and left hand. Since Kunti had invoked Indra of her own volition and not because her husband had told her to, the son of Indra, Arjuna, became her favourite child. Only he was referred by all as Partha, the son of Pritha.
‘Call another Deva,’ said Pandu after the birth of Arjuna.
‘No, I have been with four men,’ said Kunti. ‘If I call another, I will be known as a whore. So it is decreed in the books of dharma.’ Pandu thought the four men Kunti was referring to were the three gods and himself. Kunti, however, was referring to the three gods who had given her three sons after marriage, and the one god who had given her one son before marriage—a secret that she shared with no one.
The accidental killing of Kindama seems like an elaborate afterthought to explain or cover up the sterility and/or impotency of Pandu.
Shvetaketu is believed to be the fountainhead of patriarchy. Before he introduced the law of marriage, women had full sexual freedom. In fact, a woman could go to any man and a man who refused her was deemed a eunuch. This freedom was allowed because childbirth was considered of prime importance to facilitate the re-entry of forefathers into the land of the living. Shvetaketu insisted on fidelity from women so that all children knew who their biological fathers were. If a man could not father children because he was impotent, sterile or dead, the woman was allowed to go to other men, with the permission of her husband or his family.
The number of men a woman was allowed to go to if her husband could not give her children was restricted to three. Including the husband, a woman thus could be with up to four men in her life. If she went to a fifth man, she was deemed a whore. This law gains significance later in the epic when Kunti lets Draupadi marry all five of her sons.
As per some Vedic marriage rites, a woman is first given in marriage to the romantic moon-god, Chandra, then to the highly sensual Gandharva named Vishwavasu, then to the fire-god, Agni, who cleanses and purifies all things, and finally to her human husband. Thus, the ‘four men’ quota is exhausted. Clearly this was an attempt of society to prevent Hindu women from remarrying.
In the Oriya Mahabharata by Sarala Das, at the time of Bhima’s birth, a tiger roars. Kunti runs away in fear, abandoning her newborn but Bhima is so strong that he kicks the tiger on his head and pushes him away. With another kick he breaks a mountain. Apologizing to the mountain, Kunti transforms each broken piece of the mountain into a local deity.
15
Birth of Gandhari’s children
Gandhari was angry on learning that Kunti had become a mother before her. She had conceived much earlier but mysteriously her pregnancy continued for two years. She could wait no more and so she took a terrible decision: to force the child out of her womb.
Gandhari ordered her maids to get an iron bar. ‘Now strike me on my belly with it,’ she ordered. The maids hesitated. ‘Do it,’ shouted Gandhari. With great reluctance, the maids did as they were told, and struck the queen on her belly. ‘Again. Strike me again. Again and again,’ said Gandhari. The maids kept striking her until Gandhari’s womb quivered and pushed out a ball of flesh, cold as iron.
‘Does it cry? Is it a boy or girl?’ asked Gandhari. When told what she had delivered, Gandhari wailed. Fate was indeed cruel.
She sent for the sage Vyasa. ‘You told me that I would be the mother of a hundred sons. Where are they?’ she asked. Feeling sorry for Gandhari, Vyasa instructed Gandhari’s maid to break the ball of flesh into a hundred pieces and put them in jars full of ghee. They would incubate over a year and transform into sons, he told Gandhari.
‘Can I have a daughter too?’ asked Gandhari, softly. Vyasa smiled and told the maids to divide the ball of flesh into a hundred and one pieces.
Thus were born the hundred sons and the one daughter of Gandhari and Dhritarashtra. Collectively, the sons were called the Kauravas.
The first among them was Duryodhana. When his pot was broken, on the day when Kunti gave birth to Bhima, the palace dogs wailed. ‘He will bring misfortune,’ advised Vidura to Dhritarashtra, ‘Let us be rid of him, brother.’
‘I don’t care,’ said Gandhari clinging firmly to the newborn. ‘No one will harm this son of mine. He is my firstborn, my favourite.’
Her second son was called Dusshasana.
The daughter was called Dusshala. She was given in marriage to Jayadhrata, king of Sindhu.
During his wife’s long pregnancy, Dhritarashtra had taken for his pleasure a maid. She bore him a son called Yuyutsu. Like Vidura, he was an extremely capable man but disqualified from ever sitting on the throne.
Contrary to popular projection, both Gandhari and Kunti are viewed by Vyasa as ambitious women who knew the value of sons in a royal household.
The traditional Hindu blessing for brides has always been, ‘May you be the mother of a hundred sons.’ Gandhari holds Vyasa to that blessing. But she wants a daughter too. Thus the Kuru household had a hundred and five sons (hundred Kauravas and five Pandavas) and one daughter, Dusshala,
who was so indulged by the entire household that her husband, Jayadhrata, was forgiven repeatedly despite his immoral behaviour.
Scholars wonder if the story of the miraculous birth of Gandhari’s children is a record of occult secrets known to ancient sages. Maybe they could transform the remnants of a miscarriage into live children by incubating them in magically charged pots of ghee. Or maybe it is all a poet’s imagination. The latter is suggested when the Rishi called upon to create Gandhari’s hundred children is none other than Vyasa, the poet of the epic.
Rationalists believe Gandhari had only two sons, Duryodhana and Dusshasana, who are the only two of the hundred to play a significant role in the epic. They were probably twins, the ‘two-year’ pregnancy probably meaning ‘twin’ pregnancy.
16
Birth of Madri’s children
‘Since you cannot go to other men,’ said Pandu to Kunti, ‘invoke a Deva for Madri. Let her be mother too. And let me be father of more sons.’
Kunti obeyed. ‘Who shall I invoke?’ she asked Madri.
‘The Ashwini twins,’ said Madri. Instantly the two gods, lords of the morning and evening star, appeared and gave Madri twin sons: Nakula, the handsomest man in the world and Sahadeva, the most knowledgeable man in the world.
‘Madri can go to another god,’ said Pandu. ‘Invoke another Deva,’ he told Kunti.
But Kunti refused. With one invocation, Madri had cleverly called twin gods and become mother of two sons. She feared with another invocation, Madri could call another set of gods, a male collective, and have as many as three, four, five, why even seven sons. And with the following one, she would be mother of more sons. She could not allow that. She would not let the junior wife have more sons, hence more power than her.