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  When the Pandavas have to hide in the forest after their Lakshagraha, lac palace, is burnt down, they meet the rakshasas Hidimba and Hidimbi. Bhima kills Hidimba in combat. Hidimbi is so awed by Bhima’s strength that she falls in love with him and marries him.

  Rukmi and Rukmini are the prince and princess of Chedi. Rukmi wants his sister to marry Shishupala, but she is in love with Krishna. When Rukmi tries to stop her wedding to Krishna, Krishna becomes angry and goes to kill him. Rukmini pleads on behalf of her brother so Krishna lets him off but shaves half his head and moustache as a mark of humiliation. Rukmi ends up hating Krishna for the rest of his life. In the Mahabharata, he tries to take the Kauravas’ side, but they reject him; as do the Pandavas. So he’s one of those few characters who do not participate in the war at all.

  There’s a Lakshman and Lakshmana too.

  These are Duryodhana’s children. Lakshman wants to marry Balarama’s daughter Vatsala (also called Shashirekha in some stories). But she wants to wed Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu. However, Balarama is reluctant to marry his daughter into the Pandava family who are on their way to exile in the forest after losing the game of dice. Abhimanyu feels bad about it and speaks to his cousin Ghatotkacha to help him. After much drama, Vatsala is married to Abhimanyu. These are parallel stories. Balarama had wanted his sister Subhadra to marry Duryodhana but she ended up marrying Arjuna. He wanted his daughter to marry Duryodhana’s son, but she marries Arjuna’s son.

  Lakshmana is Duryodhana’s daughter. There’s a romance between her and Krishna’s son Samba. To elope with her, Samba arrives in Hastinapur, where Duryodhana catches him and puts him in jail. The Yadava army marches on Hastinapur, demanding his release. A huge argument ensues. Balarama is so angry that he says he’ll destroy Hastinapur with his weapon (hal). Duryodhana asks for forgiveness because Balarama is his guru and sends his daughter to the Yadava household.

  So, there is no brother–sister story about Lakshman-Lakshmana here. Perhaps Vyasa wanted to depict the complex relationships between the Yadavas, Kauravas and Pandavas through their stories.

  Krishna marries his sister to Arjuna . . .

  Krishna’s sister is Subhadra. The Jagannath Temple in Puri is the only temple where Subhadra and her two brothers, one on either side, are placed in the garbhagriha (inner sanctum). Both brothers love their sister immensely. However, Balarama wants her to marry the Kaurava Duryodhana and Krishna wants her to marry the Pandava Arjuna. Everything in the Mahabharata becomes about a battle for territory.

  Let’s talk about the Ramayana; perhaps that has simpler relationships.

  Here, the most important brother–sister relationship is that of Surpanakha and Ravana. According to a story found mainly in the Tamil and Telugu loka kathas, he accidentally kills his sister’s husband Vidyutjeev. He then gives her the freedom to pick anyone she wants as her husband; to enjoy any man she wants in the forest.

  She meets Rama in the forest and tries to seduce him. When she fails, she propositions Lakshmana instead. This leads to an altercation in which Lakshmana angrily cuts off her nose. When Surpanakha narrates the story to her brother Ravana, she instigates him by saying it was his humiliation, and that the beautiful woman with the arrogant brothers—Sita—should be the pride of Ravana’s Lanka.

  Does Rama also have a sister?

  There are stories of his sister in loka kathas and in the oral tradition, not in the Valmiki Ramayana. In the Mahabharata, a girl called Shanta is mentioned, who is adopted by King Rompad from her father Dashratha. Perhaps, this is Rama’s sister. Scholars are not sure whether this is Rama’s father Dashratha or someone else by that name.

  In loka kathas, one of the popular stories is that Shanta is upset when Rama abandons Sita in the forest. She leads all the women of the palace to protest to Rama about it. When a golden statue of Sita is brought, she considers it as an insult to Sita. Where Rama’s mothers and everyone else keeps quiet about this, she becomes the voice of the palace women as Rama’s elder sister.

  There is never any talk of Shiva’s family. Did he not have any brothers or sisters?

  Shiva is svayambhu so he has no brothers or sisters. In south Indian temples it is believed that Parvati’s brother is Vishnu. This is a temple tradition, not prevalent in the rest of India. At Shiva Kalyanam, or Shiva’s wedding, Vishnu performs the role of Parvati’s brother. In the Padma Purana, Kartikeya and Ganesha are said to have a sister—Ashok sundari. It’s just a brief description in an oral tradition. In Bengali loka kathas, Shiva is said to have a daughter called Mansa who is worshipped when there’s a snakebite. It is believed that she will remove the poison. So in a way, she is Ganesha and Kartik’s sister.

  In the 1970s, there was a superhit film titled Jai Santoshi Ma. In it, Ganesha is shown having two sons, Shubh and Laabh, who want a sister. So Ganesha creates Santoshi Ma as a sister for his sons; she ties them rakhi. There should be a sister who will tie a rakhi and a brother who will visit the sister on Bhai Duj, which is the last day of Diwali. Also, on this day, Yama comes to Lakshmi as her brother. Yama is the god of accountancy and Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. He comes to his sister’s place to see whether she’s being treated well or not. And how does he do that? By keeping accounts. Here, an abstract concept has been turned into a story.

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  Characters from the Ramayana in the Mahabharata

  The stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are set in different yugas. How come some characters appear in both?

  These are Puranic stories where the rules of space and time do not apply. It is a world where people fly, cities fly, people get siddhaprapti (acquire extraordinary powers), they live forever (become chiranjeevi), and so on. You cannot understand this rationally. It’s poetry, a way of seeing stories. While we think these happened in two different yugas, in the Vishnu Purana, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are two chapters of the same story. Vishnu takes the avatar of Rama in the Ramayana—chapter one—and Krishna in the Mahabharata—chapter two. It is not yugas but a story of one kalpa, or aeon. The two are branches of the same tree. They are connected and will always be.

  Parashurama appears in both.

  He is also a Vishnu avatar who appears before Rama and Krishna in each of the epics. Among Vishnu’s avatars—Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama and Krishna—the last three are human avatars.

  Parashurama has an independent story. He kills Kartavirya Arjuna, a cruel king, with his axe (parashu). His name is Rama, and he is of the Bhargava kul (clan) so he is called Bhargava Rama. Later, because he carries an axe—parashu—he comes to be known as Parashurama.

  He appears in the Ramayana. He kills all corrupt, greedy and selfish kings, wreaks havoc all around. All the Kshatriya kings are frightened of him. He learns of Rama of Raghukul who is a very good king and that he has broken the Shiva bow. He goes to meet Rama to see whether he’s the one destined to bring back dharma to Kshatriyas. So it is Vishnu as Parashurama talking to Vishnu as Rama. You can’t apply logic here; see it as a story. That both of them have Vishnu tatva (quality). As Parashurama, Vishnu kills all corrupt Kshatriyas and as Rama he appears as one to show that Kshatriyas can follow dharma too.

  Parashurama is born a Brahmin but turns violent seeing the wrongdoings of the Kshatriya kings. Parashurama has an angry personality and when he meets Rama he tries to provoke an argument with him but fails. He is pleased that he has finally met a good Kshatriya, and realizes that now he has no more work to do. That’s his role in the Ramayana.

  In the Mahabharata, he returns as a teacher. In Kurukshetra, from the Kauravas’ side the maharathis (great warriors) are Bhishma, Dronacharya and Karna. All three have the same guru—Parashurama. It is interesting that three of his students end up on the side he disapproves of. So, Vishnu takes the avatar of Krishna to defeat them all. Through Parashurama the stories of all three human avatars are thus combined in the Vishnu Purana.

  We know the importance of Hanuman in the Ramayana, but he appear