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.

The Prince of Mewar

Born on 16 March 1559 in the Kumbha Palace of Chittorgarh Fort, Bhanwar Amar Singh was the eldest son of Kunwar Pratap Singh (later Maharana Pratap) and Kunwarani Ajabdeh Punwar. As the first grandson of Udai Singh I, his birth prompted the Maharana's celebratory hunting expedition, during which a sage forewarned of impending danger. Heeding this, Udai Singh established a new palace by Lake Pichola, founding Udaipur as Mewar's capital. Amar Singh exhibited extraordinary valour from a young age, inheriting his father's martial skills and his mother's reputed compassion. His training commenced early; according to James Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, he participated in his first battle alongside Pratap at age eight. By ten, amid Chittorgarh's fall and familial divisions, he assumed responsibility for his siblings. Historical accounts recount his defence of the queens' entourage against enemy soldiers en route to Kumbhalgarh fortress. He shared a clo...

The Annals of Rajputana

Col. James Todd’s Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan describes Rajputana through History, Geography, Mythology, Folklore, Veer Gathas, Traditions, Cultures, Heritage, Rules, Valour and its people. However, one must remember that he was commissioned to write the narrative and his resources are not based on historical evidence. However, it is worth a read and very interesting. The following excerpts are from his book. Please take note that Todd's accounts are based on hearsay, stories, and commissioned by royals and hence aren't treated as historically accurate. However, his book is important as it is the first English-language book to have extensive work done on Rajputana. Rajputs are commonly believed to be people from Rajasthan; however, their branches have spread far and wide into Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and even parts of Bengal. The initial origination-based clans/tribes had been subdivided first in the book Prithvirajraso by Chand Bardai; howev...

Neel Kanth

In the vast tapestry of Hindu mythology, Neelkanth Sasti holds a significant place, as it honours Lord Shiva’s act of supreme compassion and courage. According to the Puranas, this day commemorates the pivotal moment during the Samudra Manthan, the cosmic churning of the ocean, when the deadly poison Halahal emerged. Halahal, described as the collective essence of all the universe’s negativity and toxicity, began to spread destruction among both Devas and Asuras. Its effects were so perilous that even the gods could not approach it, symbolising the universal truth that adversity and suffering make no distinction between divine or mortal beings. With the balance of creation at risk and the churning brought to a standstill, Mahadev Lord Shiva, the Destroyer and Transformer within the Hindu Trinity, was invoked for help. In an act of unparalleled self-sacrifice, he consumed the Halahal to protect all existence from annihilation. However, the potency of the poison was such that it threaten...

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. ...

Asuras are not Demons

Demons in the Abrahamic religion are not the same as Asuras of Hinduism. Originally deities of Iranian origin, they were seen in the tribal context as no different from Devas but as counterparts to maintain balance. In early epics and Puranas, asura meant a chosen leader of great capacity. Only later, perhaps due to the Iranian link, their image declined. It was with the Brahmanas that the sharp divide appeared: devas as divine, asuras as evil. Puranic myths demonised them mainly to assert the superiority and immortality of devas, while asuras were cast as symbols of the "other." Since Tribes still worshipped them and embraced their power of negativity, being important to balance, they soon became synonymous with tribes, which was not the case mythologically. There are instances of Bali or Ravana being Kshatriya or Brahmin Asuras and competent kings. Indian demonology itself is vast and layered, shaped by surviving tribes, each with unique myths. Celestial, aerial, and terres...

Bijolia: Her Home

Journey to Bijolia: Lost Kingdoms and Timeless Temples of Mewar Bijoliya translates to a stop between two cities. Nestled in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district, Bijolia sits 55km from Bundi and 105km from Chittorgarh on the well-travelled Bundi-Chittorgarh road. Once part of Mewar, this seemingly sleepy town guards a rich and layered past: it was ruled from the 11th to the 13th century by the Punwars (or Parmar Rajputs) before falling under the Chauhan dynasty, who shifted the region’s capital to Bhilwara and constructed the imposing fort there. After a brief Chauhan rule, Bijolia was reclaimed by Rana Kumbha and became an integral part of the Mewar kingdom, with the Parmars serving as local Raos, representatives and stewards of the royal house. Despite its history and the famed Bijolia inscriptions (a treasure for historians), Bijolia has never found a seat on Rajasthan’s primary tourist circuit, especially if you’re venturing out by public transport or private car. While a handful of...

Jahanara Begum Sahib: The Sufi Princess

Shah Jahan's quarters flanked on either side by identical bungalows for Jahanara and Roshanara. Background: The Timurid Dynasty, better (and wrongly) known as the Mughal Empire, ruled the Subcontinent from 1526 C.E. till the time the British East India Company successfully captured Delhi from Bahadur Shah II in 1857 C.E. (The size of the empire obviously varied). Hence, a large part of medieval Indian history revolves around the characters of this dynasty. Due to the extensive amount of contemporary records right from Babur, the founder of the empire, writing his own memoirs in “ Babar Nama ” to the accounts of court poets like Abu Talim and the extensive details of Abul Fazl, one has a clear idea about the functioning of the Timurid empire as well as the Harem involving the royal ladies of the dynasty. Almost nothing is left to the imagination when it comes to the lives of the first six and most famous and successful Timurid emperors, namely Babar, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir...

DAMODAR GANGADHAR RAO : The Ill Fated Heir

In the shadowed halls of Jhansi's royal palace, a nine-year-old boy named Ananda Rao stepped into a destiny of struggle he was not born into. Born in 1848 to Vasudeo Rao and his wife, Ananda Rao was surrendered to the childless King Gangadhar Rao and his fierce young queen, Manikarnika (Manu), better known as Rani Laxmi Bai. It was November 19, 1853, on the king's deathbed, amid whispers of adoption rites that bound the boy to a throne teetering on the edge of empire. Queen Laxmi Bai was just nine when she married the 29-year-old widower Gangadhar. She had already endured heartbreak. Her biological son, Damodar Rao, arrived in 1851 but slipped away after three short months. With Gangadhar's death in 1853, Vasudeo, a distant royal relative, was instructed to hand over Ananda's adoption papers. Renamed Damodar Rao, the boy became Jhansi's last hope. But hope was fragile under British eyes. Enter the Doctrine of Lapse, Lord Dalhousie’s ruthless policy that devoured pri...

History: A Political Storytelling

History, as we know, is the study of the past. The primary sources of such study include coins, scriptures, seals, weaponry, architecture, things of daily use, palaces, forts, etc. However, when we talk of wars, events, and characters of people in the past, it is very difficult to be accurate about what we are reading hundreds of years later. Nowadays, History has become a hot political topic, changing narratives of what we have known for so long as history and challenging the past. In reality, all versions are somehow biased, and all in their entirety untrue. The art of storytelling plays a major part in the narration of history. We grow up hearing moral stories all our lives, right and wrong, heroes and villains. Our belief system starts functioning like that, as we believe that in every story there has to be a good and a bad. However, the reality is far from that. In reality, we don’t really have people who are pure evil or pure good like stories often suggest. Herein, the art ...

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...

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