Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata Read online

  Sure enough, an iron mace ripped itself out of Samba’s thigh. A terrified Samba pounded it to dust which he then cast into the sea. The sea rejected this iron dust and tossed it back to the shores of Prabhasa, where it turned into the deadly reeds that the Yadavas plucked to strike each other with.

  In a few hours, struck by the deadly blades of grass, the bodies of hundreds of slain Yadavas, young and old included, covered the shores of Prabhasa. It was impossible to distinguish who sided with the Pandavas and who with the Kauravas. Satyaki was dead. Kritavarma was dead. It was like another Kuru-kshetra. Krishna and Balarama could do nothing to save them.

  Thus did Gandhari’s curse fulfil itself.

  Krishna’s son, Samba, is portrayed in the scriptures as an irresponsible lout, perhaps to inform us that the child of a great man need not be a great man; greatness is not transmitted through the generations. Every man ultimately makes or destroys his own legacy.

  A game of dice leads to the carnage at Kuru-kshetra. An argument leads to the carnage at Prabhasa. Ultimately, all wars can be traced to the simplest of quarrels where man is eager to overpower rather than indulge the other.

  Krishna’s family does not escape Gandhari’s curse. Thus even God surrenders to the law of karma. By making man the master of his own destiny and the creator of his own desires, God makes man ultimately responsible for the life he leads and the choices he makes. God does not interfere with fate; he simply helps man cope with it.

  105

  Death of Krishna

  Watching the destruction of his family, a distraught Balarama lost all interest in life. He let his life breath slip out of his mortal body in the form of a serpent.

  With Balarama gone, Krishna realized it was time to end his mortal life. He sat under a Banyan tree, crossed his left foot over his right leg and started shaking it as he reminisced about his life: his journey from Vrindavan through Mathura and Dwaraka to Hastina-puri and finally Kuru-kshetra.

  As he was doing so, the sole of his left foot was struck by a poisoned arrow shot by a hunter who, seeing it through a thicket, mistook it to be the ear of a deer.

  The arrowhead was the only piece of the iron mace that Samba had been unable to pound into dust. The hunter had found it in the belly of a fish. The poison took effect and soon, even Krishna’s life breath slipped away.

  While all the Yadavas crossed the Vaitarni and entered the land of the dead awaiting rebirth, Krishna returned to the heaven known as Vaikuntha, located even above Swarga, and took his place as Vishnu, God who sustains the universe. Balarama was already there as the thousand-hooded serpent of time, Adi-Ananta-Sesha, ready to receive him in his great coils.

  In the cyclical Hindu world, all that is born must die. Even Krishna must experience death since he experienced birth. But Krishna’s death is not a normal death; he returns to his heavenly abode, Vaikuntha, after shedding the mortal flesh he acquired at the time of his birth. Such is not the case with other creatures. After death, they move into another life and forget their past life. This is because during their time in the world, they are involved in various activities that generate karma; they are obliged to experience the reaction of their actions in one life time or another. Krishna, being God, does not perform actions that generate karma; his actions are neither paap nor punya. They generate neither demerit nor merit. His actions, full of awareness and detachment, are part of leela, the divine performance.

  According to one folk tale from North India, in his previous descent as Ram, God had shot a monkey called Vali in the back while he was busy engaged in a duel. Vali protested against this unfair action and so God caused him to be reborn as Jara and allowed him to strike him dead when he descended as Krishna.

  In Prabhas Patan, on the sea coast of the state of Gujarat, stands a tree that has been identified as the descendant of the Banyan tree under which Krishna was fatally injured.

  The Banyan tree is a sacred tree for Hindus because of its long life which has made it a symbol of immortality.

  106

  Fall of Dwaraka

  No sooner did Krishna’s father, Vasudeva, hear of the calamity at Prabhasa than he died of a broken heart. Soon, a vast field of funeral pyres lined the shores of the sea. The Yadava women let out a wail as they mourned their dead. The sound of their mourning reached the heavens and even made the Devas cry.

  Some women leapt into the funeral pyres, unable to bear the thought of living without their husbands. Others lost all interest in worldly life and retired into the forest to live as mendicants. Those who still clung to life turned to Arjuna who had rushed from Hastina-puri on hearing of the great civil war in Dwaraka. But he came too late; there was hardly anything left of the Yadava clan to save.

  Then the sea rose and lashed against the walls of Dwaraka. It started to pour and rainwater flooded the streets of the island city dissolving its very foundations. Before long, the walls started to crumble. The widows and orphans had to scramble out and make their way to the mainland on rafts and boats.

  Arjuna decided to take the few survivors with him to Hastina-puri.

  But the misfortunes continued. On the way, they were attacked by barbarians who abducted many of the women and children. Arjuna raised his Gandiva and tried to protect them but he was outnumbered. The great Gandiva which could destroy hundreds of warriors with a single arrow now seemed powerless. Arjuna realized that he was no more the archer he used to be. His purpose on earth and that of the Gandiva had been served.

  Overwhelmed by his helplessness before the rising tide of fate, humbled before the raging storm of circumstances, Arjuna fell to his knees and began to cry uncontrollably.

  When the tears dried up, it dawned on him that Gandhari’s curse, which had destroyed Dwaraka and its people, had its roots in the war at Kuru-kshetra. And that war would not have happened if they had simply restrained themselves and not wagered their kingdom in a game of dice. Arjuna realized, that in a way, he was responsible for the fall of Dwaraka. This was the great web of karma that connects all creatures in a single fabric. He begged for forgiveness for his part in the sorrows of all mankind.

  In response, the clouds began to rumble and in a flash of lightning Arjuna saw a vision: a gurgling, happy child sucking its butter-smeared big toe as it lay on a Banyan leaf cradled by the deadly waves that were destroying Dwaraka. In the midst of destruction, this was a symbol of renewal and hope.

  Arjuna finally understood the message given to him by God. Life would continue, with joys and sorrows, triumphs and tragedies rising and falling like the waves of the sea. It was up to him to respond wisely, enjoy simple pleasures unshaken by the inevitable endless turmoil of the world.

  He took the surviving Yadavas and gave them a home in Mathura, where in due course, Vajranabhi, son of Aniruddha, grandson of Pradyumna, great grandson of Krishna, would rise as a great king.

  Archaeologists have found traces of an ancient port city in the coast near modern Dwaraka dated to 1500 BCE, the time when a great city-based civilization thrived on the banks of the Indus across what is today Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. It is a matter of speculation if the characters of the Mahabharata inhabited these vast brick cities.

  Vajranabhi asked artisans to carve images of Krishna based on descriptions given by Abhimanyu’s wife, Uttari. But the description was so grand that each artisan could capture only part of the beauty in each image. These images were lost to the world for centuries and later discovered by holy men who enshrined them in temples. The image of Srinathji at Nathdvara is said to be one such image.

  107

  Renunciation of the Pandavas

  It was finally time for the Pandavas to retire. Parikshit, born after the bloodbath of Kuru-kshetra, was now old enough to rule Hastina-puri. The forest beckoned Yudhishtira. ‘Let the younger generation enjoy life while we try and make sense of ours,’ he said.

  Crowning Parikshit as king, and distributing all their cows, horses, vessels, jewels and clothes among their subjects,