The Mahabharata has inspired several artists & creators and spawned several great literary works and cinema.
Watch the video to know about how some film makers and writers have explored the ideas of Niyoga and parthenogenisis in their works!
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Miraculous Births in the Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is the largest treasure house of stories in the world, particularly of miraculous or super-natural births.Drona is born in a cup.
Two women come together to produce a child and a King gives birth to his son from his right thigh. These are only some of the several amazing stories in the epic.
But what was the idea behind telling these stories?
Were they merely fantasies of a fertile mind or was there was some meaning to these fantastic tales?
As always, Kulture Katha gets behind the why of the stories!
The Puzzling Birth Story of the Pandavas
There are several theories around the birth stories of the Pandavas.
The epic, while being a little secretive on this matter, also gives us a solid clue to unravelling the mystery.
Click to listen in to the puzzling birth story of the Pandavas.
Bijakshetra Nyaya: Were Pandu and Dhritarashtra legitimate heirs of the Kurus?
The farmer either sowed his own seed or let someone else’s seed be sown in his field. Either way, the output from the field belonged to the farmer.
That was the logic behind the Bija Kshetra nyaya, the seed-field metaphor that defined the relationship between man, woman and their heirs.
Click the link to know why knowing this rule is important for understanding the key predicament in the epic!
Also: Birth of Pandu & Dhritarshtra
Sexual freedom of women in the epic &
How Niyoga acquired a stigma
Niyoga: Sperm donation in the Mahabharata
Some of the key characters in the epic were born through an ancient custom called the Niyoga. A custom that traces its origins to a Rig Vedic ritual and a myth around Parashurama.
Click to know more about the Whats, the Whys and the Hows of the custom!
Of dominating fathers and submissive sons in Indian stories…
King Yayati wanted to enjoy the pleasures of life for long and demanded that his sons trade their youth for his old age. Puru, his youngest son, satisfied his father’s lust for life by sacrificing his youth.
King Shantanu fell in love with a fisherwoman at an advanced stage of his life. His son, Devavrata, ensured that his father’s desire was satisfied even though it meant he would have to sacrifice his kingship and sex life forever!
Why do we find dominating fathers and submissive sons in Indian stories?
How Bhishma made the Kurus a matrilineal clan!
Bhishma, a key character in the Mahabharata, is known for the supreme sacrifice of his sex life for the sake of his father.
But this selfless act of his changed the patriarchal nature of the Kuru clan forever.
After Bhishma, we find succession in the Kuru throne becomes matrilineal, with the Kuru throne being handed down through the mother’s bloodline.
For more on the Bhishma story, check this video!
Did Yudhishtra have a rightful claim to the Hastinapur throne?
In the Mahabharata, the entire premise of the horrific Kurukshetra war was that the Pandavas had a legitimate claim to a part (if not the whole) of Hastinapur, which they were being denied.
But did the Pandavas led by Yudhishtra have a truly credible claim to the throne?
Surprisingly, one look at the history of the Kuru clan tells us that primo geniture, which is the right to succession that comes from being the first-born, was never the norm among the Kurus.
Listen in to hear the stories of Yayati and King Bharata that tell you how, in the Kuru clan, issues of succession were decided by factors other than primo geniture!
Mahabharata Series 3 | The epic’s violent beginnings
The Mahabharata is narrated for the first time at a horrific snake sacrifice conducted by Arjuna’s great grandson and Abhimanyu’s grandson, Janamejaya.
But how does the snake sacrifice relate to the core story of the epic? How does the Sarpa Sattra or the snake sacrifice set the perfect context for the epic?
Click to find out!
Why did Draupadi have five husbands?
The great Indian epic, the Mahabharata, is full of riddles, puzzles and dilemmas. The epic poses several intriguing problems that make us wonder, who was right and who was wrong, who was good and who was bad…
But the one big question about the epic that baffles us no end is about Draupadi….
Why did she have five husbands?
Was Draupadi a victim of fraternal polyandry – a system where all the brothers in a family married the same woman to prevent land fragmentation?
Or was this Kunti’s idea to use Draupadi as the glue to keep her sons struck together?
Or, was poor Draupadi merely a pawn in the game fought by Pandavas and Kauravas for land?
Watch the video to know the answer to the trickiest riddle posed by the Mahabharata!
Kulture Katha 