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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.
Strangely, Kalki, 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.
