Dharma, Adharma and Other Opinions

Abhimanyu's Death changed the course of the battle for the Pandavas. They fought with rage and won the battle in the next five days. They slay each warrior in the same ruthless way to seek revenge for Abhimanyu. But my question is, was it all worth it? Was the throne of Hastinapur more precious than the young lives lost? Are cousins killing each other? Disrobing a woman in the courtroom? Where was Dharma in silence?
Ram left Ayodhya without a question. Kaikeyi became the villain in the life of the favourite son of the kingdom. Her own son hated her. Sita suffered for it, Ayodhya suffered for it, and Dasharatha died in grief. Was it all worth the throne of Ayodhya? Vibhishana and Sugriva fought with their own brothers and betrayed them for the throne. Power has always been this manipulative.
People say Power is the strongest of all desires. It can do almost anything like magic. The great epics are indeed proof of this Human behaviour. If we consider characters as mere humans living among us, leaving the Gods who knew their purpose, angels aside, I feel they were given God's status for all that they suffered. Their hardship and sorrows were inhuman and unbearable. There is a story of Ram telling Rishi Vasishta, "Man becomes god by his deeds." It sums up most of the godliness in epics. Here I start with a few stories to state my point. 

Iravan in South India

Iraavan or Oiravaan was the son of Arjun and his Naga wife Ulupi. He came all the way from Manipur, against his mother's wishes, to fight for his father's side. He did not know his father and heard of his warrior skills. So, Iravan came to Kurukshetra to fight and see his father, whom he had an extreme desire to know. Krishna had suggested a human sacrifice to Goddess Kali to ensure a win before the wars started. Arjun was in a dilemma as to who would go to sacrifice himself even before the war. Iravan came at that wrong moment and touched his feet. He was a little older than Abhimanyu but still a young lad, about eighteen.
" Who are you? Why are you touching my feet?"
" I am Iravaan, son of Ulupi from Manipur. You are my father."
Arjun did not remember any Ullupi. Yet this young lad, calling him father, was seeking his blessing and was ready to die for him. Arjun ordered him to sacrifice himself to Kali. He did so without hesitation for the father who never remembered his mother.

Shanta was Dasharatha's daughter. She was forced to lure Rishyasringa, the virgin sage, to get her father's wishes for a son fulfilled. She, who was the princess of such a powerful empire, was forced to marry the sage and live her life in a hermitage away from the palace. Dasharatha easily abandoned her. So much so that Ram only knew he had a sister when he met her in the forest. The desire for a son was so great in Dasharatha that he sacrificed the princess' future for it and readily gave her away to the king of Anga as an adopted daughter. 

Abhimanyu was a young lad of sixteen who did not want to get married to Uttara. He knew that there was a war coming, and the result could be anything. He was bound by his father's words to marry the princess of Matsya. What followed was the great war for his Uncle's throne and he was brutally killed. His widow was a teenager too, pregnant with his heir, and had dreams of a future. Not only did the war end his young life, but it also ended Uttara's, too, in a way. Parikshit never knew his valiant father. He was burdened with the fact that he was the only heir to the throne. Abhimanyu, who never knew his father before his marriage, never knew his son either. His own uncles and cousins tricked him to death.


Angad was the son of Bali, and he was the future king of Kiskinda. He turned to a messenger instead when his father died and his uncle ascended the throne. Although he became king later due to a lack of an heir, he was sent time and again to Lanka under great danger as a messenger of the man who killed his father. He was forced to fight for his Uncle and Ram and killed many warriors, including one of Ravana's sons. 

Such are the stories where kings and princes sacrificed their own families for the sake of thrones and power. The sons and daughters were obedient and did what their fathers wished. They fought, lived through hardship and sacrificed themselves. 

Now, coming to the women in the epics. Sita was kidnapped by Ravana to seek revenge. Sita, who had trusted in her husband's love and skills, lived each passing day in Ravana's Ashoka Vaan, hoping that Ram would come for her. She bravely fought Ravana's romantic advances and made friends with the women in his household. She was a captive, so the hardship was inevitable. Ram fought the wars for his wife. But when they met, the question rose on her Chastity. She had to give Agni Pariksha, the toughest a woman could, yet she was forced to live at Valmiki's ashram, abandoned in the middle of the forest, pregnant and helpless. He never asked where she went, and in her anger, she refused to inform her husband about his sons. Even after almost a decade, when they reunited, her chastity again became the question. She never questioned her husband because she trusted him, but his lack of trust in the queen of Ayodha made her commit suicide. Was this justice? A woman who got married to a prince who promised her a luxurious life lived as a captive to a man of lusty intentions, and maintained her dignity, yet her character and chastity became more important questions than her trust and self-esteem.

Draupadi and Pandavas

Draupadi married the great warrior Arjun. She rejected his enemy Karna, hoping for a bright future. He who married her with the promise of love shared her with his brothers. Five husbands could not protect her honour; they gambled her away like a good, and her brothers-in-law disrobed her in the courtroom, and he whom she actually loved went into exile to marry Chitrangada, Ullupi and Subhadra. His love for Subhadra was expressed time and again. She was the shared wife, and all of them had other wives, and none kept their promises as husbands to love and protect her. She was almost kidnapped by Jayadratha, her sister-in-law's husband. She never had the chance to raise her five sons. She was a dutiful wife who left her sons behind to accompany her husband to exile. She who wanted her husbands to kill their cousins shed the most tears for her own people, her children, her brother, and Abhimanyu. She lived all her life in pain yet was blamed for favouring Arjun and regretting not marrying Karna. She sat on the throne of Hastinapur as the deserving Queen, but was it all worth the loss of her young teenage children? The Kuru clan died in the war she wanted. Was it all worth it??

Jaya Manuscript

The answer here is simple. History repeats itself. The concepts of right and wrong, Dharma and Adharma, are there to balance the forces of nature. It's a matter of perception; what one sees as right and justified can be wrong from the other's end. If we see the epics from Ravana or Duryodhan's view, they are justified. Ravana, who liked Sita, had the chance to have her as well as seek revenge for his cousin Marich and sister Surpanakha. He was a valiant warrior who, in defeat, took Ram's name and gave him his parting wisdom. He fought bravely and never forced the captive Sita to accept his love. Duryodhan, who grew up not knowing his cousins who lived in the hermitage, was never taught by his parents or uncle Shakuni the rules of the throne. He is the son of the king who desired kingship and did all that he could to hold his power, just like the Pandavas. There was no Krishna to guide him. He did not know that his uncle actually wanted the fall of the Kuru empire and trusted him blindly. As a child, he was taught to hate the Pandavas and not treat them as his own. His anger worsened when Arjun snatched his bride-to-be, Subhadra. They were all justified where they stood, yet each one was wrong in some way or the other. 

No human is right and no human is wrong. Their decisions are right and wrong; What Duryodhana did to Abhimanyu was wrong from the Pandavas' view, and what the Pandavas did to Karna was wrong from the Kauravas. None of these valiant warriors could have been killed otherwise, and it was their time to go. Duryodhan was in fact an ideal husband to his wife who he loved and honoured. He was a hero to her. He was a father who saw his sons grow up, but Arjun, on the other hand, forgot his wife from Manipur. This made Arjun wrong. Rama killed Bali from a distance. This seemed against the rules for Bali, but to Rama it was Dharma. Indrajit fought from the clouds, it seemed wrong to the Vanara Sena, but he was using his strength hence Dharma to him.

I strongly believe that no wars, no battles and no destruction occur if both parties are not at fault. Hence, tagging the Kauravas wrong, Pandavas right, Ravana wrong, and Rama right is, in fact, offensive as each side had valiant, brave and just warriors. There were people like Karna who were heroes. There were people like Indrajit who were heroes. All epics make us learn human behaviour. They teach us what we should do and what people do wrong. They teach the evils of desire, addiction, overconfidence and bad behaviour. They teach us to think before acting, as all actions have a price. They teach that Death and Destruction are inevitable for all those who are born or created. They teach us not to fear death but to smile when dying to defeat it. They teach us to live today because nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.

Courtesy: Star Plus

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