The Aftermath

The Pandavas arrived victorious at Hastinapur. Nobody was greeting them there, no smiling faces. The people they knew were either dead in the war or orphaned by it. There was not a home, not a village, not a family in the whole of Aryavarta that was happy. Poverty brought by the war killed many, and rapes, murders and injustice prevailed. Many kingdoms were ruled by a king, and Many kings Heir less. People were fighting with their own families over property and wealth. After all, that's what this was about. Kings fought wars, and commoners just fought verbally.

Widows wailed over bodies, and some searched for missing people under the debris at the war fields. Mothers beating their chests in pain. Children are crying helplessly. The palace was silent and dark. The guards were dead, and the maids were crying over their dead husbands and children. The atmosphere was loud in the silence. Funeral preparations were everywhere. Dhritarashtra and Gandhari were speechless; their hundred children were dead. Dushala was with them, widowed by her own cousins. Kunti met Draupadi and Subhadra. Three of them burst into tears. They had lost their children. Their future. Their heart and souls. Their sobs were overpowered by the cries of an infant. Uttara's ray of hope, Parikshit. Abhimanyu's last sign. An heir. A future. Arjun took Vrishakethu as his son because he now knew he had killed his father and their elder brother Karna in the war. Guilt paved the way for fatherhood.

Dwarka was filled with hooligans. Men killing masses over wealth, raping wives and mothers, theft, injustice, and panic spread everywhere. The Lord had a tear in his eyes. He knew it was time. He remembered the curse. The Yadu clan started killing each other after petty fights. They perished.

Yudhisthir sat on the throne with Draupadi. Subhadra started training her grandson to be the next king. An Ashwamedh Yagna was performed by the Pandavas. Here, Arjun met his only surviving son, Chitrangada's heir Babruvahan, who ruled Manipur.

The surviving allies participated in the grandeur. Meanwhile, Vidur, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti left the luxurious palace life to stay as hermits. They could no longer bear to live in such an environment. They regretted their decisions and the way they could not prevent their sons from killing each other. News arrived of their death in a forest fire. Yudhisthir's just and peaceful rule tried to balance the disorder in society. News arrived that Dwarka was eaten by the raging sea, and Krishna lost his life in an accident. Balarama has given up his life in Samadhi in a cave near the Somnath temples. Yudhisthir too knew it was time. Everyone mourned the death of the godly men.

Parikshit was crowned king. A new generation was ushered in. The Pandavas made their way to the Himalayas. The Kali Yuga was ushered in with the death of yet another Avatar of the Lord. Subhadra stayed back to act and guide as Raajmata, and Uttara and Parikhit attended the court. Yuyutsu, the son of Dhritarashtra and maid Sukhada, was his official advisor. Sukhada was given royal status because of him. Parikshit married Madravati and had four sons: Janamejaya, Bhimasena, Ugrasena, and Srutasena. He played an important role in the arrangement of the Vedic Hymns in the collection, and his contribution is credited and praised in the Atharva Vedas, which depict him as a just king, a great warrior like Abhimanyu and a patient ruler like Yudhisthir. News arrived that the Pandavas and Draupadi were no more. Subhadra and Uttara left for the hermitage. He consolidated the Kuru kingdom and paved the way for the development of the Srauta rituals. He ruled under great power for twenty-four years before dying of a snake bite at sixty. The Mahabharata suggests a murder plot by the Nagas, who felt underprivileged and insecure in their kingdom.

Janmejaya succeeded him on the throne and decided to perform the Sarpa Satra, calling on the great sages from across Aryavarta. Sages and Rishis decided to stop him from destroying the Nagas, so they narrated the tale of how their forefathers had fought and eliminated their own clan, and that resulted in nothing more than pain. This is how Jaya, the present-day Mahabharata, was composed. He decided to let the Nagas live safely in his kingdom and establish secular harmony.

It is believed that the present clan in Sri Lanka, known as the Karavas, are the descendant of Janmejaya, who gradually moved there in parts during Maha Padma Nanda and Ashoka's time. Mahapadma is, in fact, from the lineage of the Raghu dynasty, i.e. Rama's dynasty. The Karavas converted to Buddhism under Ashoka's daughter's influence. The flag of Hastinapur is said to contain the " golden lion, which was adopted in the Sri Lankan flag.

Kalki, the tenth Avatar of Vishnu, who will end the Kaliyug and hence the MahaYug and take the people and society back to Satyayug, where principles and truth will prevail, is stated to be born in " The Land of The Golden Lion." A sign or not, we do not know yet.

Chandra's Choice: The Story of Dhruvasvamini

More often than not, the private lives of kings and the existence of their queens remain in the words of bards rather than those of chroniclers. Dhruvasvamini is no different, even after being the queen of the golden age of the Indian Subcontinent. She appears in the Basarh Clay Seal as the mother of Govinda Gupta (attributed as a sibling of Kumara Gupta I) and the queen wife of Chandra Gupta II or Vikramaditya. Except for one mention of Dhruva Devi, as she is popularly known, she remains a mysterious character in the Gupta lineage, with a side mention in the dynasty’s history. Visakhadatta, a famous poet and playwright, who later wrote DeviChandraGuptam as the play capturing the life of Chandra Gupta II, captured Dhruva Devi as one of the protagonists of his story. Although some scholars attribute Visakhadatta to be under the patronage of Chandra Gupta II himself when he wrote this story, many historians debate the literary work as a historical fiction written much after his time. Tru...

Rakhi Tales

A Rakhi to the Enemy: The year was 1535 CE. The Rajmata of Mewar, widow of Rana Sanga, was in a dilemma. On one hand was an attack from Bahadur Shah of Gujarat as a threat to her capital, Chittorgarh, and the throne of her beloved teenage son Vikramaditya. On the other hand, there was the son of her husband's archenemy, Humayun, who could be of some help. Rani Karnavati wrote a letter to Humayun, who was in the east at that time. Along with it, she sent a Rakhi, a thread of brotherhood, asking him, as a sister, for protection against the enemy. But the road was too long, and time was of the essence. Humayun arrived at Chittorgarh, in response to her letter, keeping his end of the bargain but a little late. Rani Karnavati had already performed the Jauhar. They never met. Humayun established Rana Vikramaditya on the throne of Mewar, as he had promised as a brother, and returned to his post. Two dynasties, political rivals and sworn enemies, from Sanga-Babur to Pratap-Akbar and even R...

Etched In Stone

This historical short story is a fictitious account of Ashoka, the Mauryan Emperor and his first wife Devi, who finds no place in Magadhan History. There is another fiction about her in the blog as well. This story stemmed from a merge of two ideas, one was to mention the cave inscription found in Saru Maru that mentions Asoka spending some days there with his lover (presumed to be Devi), the other idea of how if words did not immortalise a lot of battles and achievements, the names of many great men would be lost in time. The prince stood on the edge of the cliff, looking at the horizon. Dawn arrived as the birds started leaving their nests, wings fluttering, eager to discover the world. He looked up at them, the thought of once again going back to exploring the length and breadth of his state making him feel a little restless as he eyed his healing wounds. He was left to die; his enemies wished so. Yet by some miracle of fate, as if his purposes were yet to be fulfilled, here he was ...

The Cortege That Shook The Raj: Kanailal Dutta

10th November, 1908 Around late morning, a procession of lacs made their way through the streets of Calcutta (Kolkata), India. Some were chanting “Vande Mataram”, others blew conch shells, and Ululation filled the air. Flowers were being showered from all directions, and garlands made their way through the crowd, being thrown at the procession in the middle. Bhagwat Gita and Ananda Math (Novel by Bamkim Chandra) were offered. No, this was no “ Sobha Jatra ” or celebration. There were no religious festivities either. That dawn, the Alipore Jail, which opened only two years back, witnessed the hanging of Kanailal Dutta, a twenty-year-old member of the “Jugantar Dol”, an anarchist group that was set up primarily by Aurobindo Ghosh (Later Rishi Aurobindo), his brother Barindra and their associates. Kanailal hailed from Chandannagore, and although he was not present in most of their meetings in Kolkata, he was still one of their early members from Chandannagore, then a French province. ...

The Reva Cries

Roopmati had watched the troops leave. She had stood behind the chief queen as she traditionally bid goodbye to her sons. She had waited for the Sultan to come to her. He did. He was confident that the sudden advancement of Akbar’s foster brother, Adham Khan, could be curbed. It was not war, just precaution. He reassured her. Malwa would never bow to the Timurids. And he would not let anything happen to her. To Her. Roopmati felt suffocated by her husband’s affectionate hug. She felt trapped in the scrutinising eyes of all the people in the palace. Angry, blaming eyes. She tried to pace herself and sing, but her voice cracked in fear. Her melody was drowned in tears. Every evening, a messenger would come to the chief queen with the news of war. Roopmati was kept in the darkness. She was not told about anything. She knew the rumours. She was a witch. A temptress who caused doom to the Sultan of Malwa. She was a spy of the enemy planted in his life to destroy him. She wondered if he came...

The Emperor's First Wife

Rukaiya Begum Ruqaiya Sultana Begum was born to Babur's second surviving son, Hindal Mirza, and his wife, Sultanam Begum, in 1542 C.E., merely a few months after Hamida Banu gave birth to the heir Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar. She was well-versed in Persian, Urdu and Arabic and was attracted to poetry and music. Being a proud descendant of the Timurid clan, most of Rukaiya's childhood was spent in Kabul, near the Bagh E Babur, built by Babur himself. From early childhood, she had seen the struggle of her family to regain their lost power in Hind. In 1551 C.E., just after her father died young at a battle for Humayun, leaving her and her mother in the harem of the emperor, it was Hamida Banu who wanted the marriage of Rukaiya to her first cousin, Akbar. Theirs was the first in-house marriage of the Mughals, soon to be followed by many more in the generations to come. At the mere age of nine, she had married the crown prince, and when Humayun won back Lahore, she was fifteen. At...

Shikhandi: A Tale of Identity and Revenge

Hastinapur was the most powerful empire in the north of the Vindyas, in the subcontinent once ruled by King Bharata. When its long-reigning and prosperous king Shantanu passed away in old age, he left behind his ambitious wife Satyabati, her two sons, Chitrangad and Bichitravirjaya and his first surviving son from his first wife Ganga, Devabrata, who took the lifelong oath of not being king nor marrying or having any progeny and hence earned the name Bhishma. When Chitrangad was about to ascend the throne, he died in an unfortunate accident, leaving the minor Bichitravirjaya as the only contender on the throne. Bhishma almost outspokenly took over the role of guardian to the throne of Hastinapur upon this event. However, the rules suggested that the young prince must marry before he could be crowned. Upon hearing of this, Bhishma sent his spies around the subcontinent to find eligible princesses who would not only marry the heir apparent but also be the future queen and queen mother of...

Brothers and Sisters of Mahabharata

The Mahabharata, one of the greatest epics of Hindu mythology, not only recounts tales of valour, destiny, and dharma but also reveals intricate relationships between siblings whose lives shaped the moral and political fabric of the narrative. The bonds between brothers and sisters in the epic are diverse: marked by affection, rivalry, loyalty, and sacrifice. These relationships, though complex, embody the human emotions that transcend divine lineage and royal blood. Satyavati and Her Lineage Satyavati and her brother Matsya were born from a miraculous union between a Cursed Nymph in the form of a fish, Adrika and the King Uparichara Vasu, whose semen the fish had consumed when it fell in the river. They were discovered by their adoptive father, King Dusharaj, the ruler of the fishermen, and thus came to be known as Matsya Santan , meaning “children of the fish.” When the king found out about the twins, he claimed the male child as his heir and gave the girl, Satyavati, to the fis...

Battle of Haldighati

There have been a lot of talks going on regarding who won the Battle of Haldighati. While some want to change what we read and say that the Maharana won it, many oppose the point with a Mughal victory. Here, I compile every account I found of the Battle and its Aftermath and make my unbiased conclusion on the topic. PS. The dates vary from book to book; I gave the ones I found in most sources. The Background: Relation with Mughals Mewar was one of Rajputana's strongest individual kingdoms, along with the likes of Marwar and Kacchawar (Jaipur). Long before the Mughals under Akbar, Mewar under Rana Sangram Singh had successfully managed to keep the "Turk Invaders" under Babar at bay, fighting 17 wars, big and small. The relationship was further questioned when, during the invasion from Saurashtra, Sanga's widow, Rani Karnavati, had written to Mughal Emperor Humayun for help, sending him a rakhi. Contrary to popular belief, Humayun had rested on his way from Gaur (Beng...

Kumbhalgarh Gogunda: Witness to Turmoil

Okay, so picture this: you’re winding your way up into the Aravallis, just 6km from Kelwara, and suddenly, perched on a cliff, there is a long, invincible wall in sight, that of Kumbhalgarh. I don’t just mean “oh, that’s an old fort, I mean, this is huge. Built by Rana Kumbha (that’s short for Kumbhakarna Singh of Mewar), you can actually see why it’s the second most important fort in all of Mewar. It’s got drama, secrets, heartbreak… basically, if these ancient stones could talk, they’d have more stories than your grandma. Let’s start from the beginning. After his father, Mokal, was killed, young Kumbha and his mother hid out on this very hill, plotting their comeback. But every time they tried to build here, the walls just wouldn’t stand. The king was stressed, "Do I need a new architect?!" he wondered. Cue the local priests, who sent him off to a saint in Ranakpur. The advice? Not what Kumbha wanted to hear. “You need a human sacrifice to build your fort. I’ll do it. But ...

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