Thursday, May 19, 2011

Arjuna life

Arjuna was an ambidextrous master archer and played a central role in the conflict between the Pandavas and their adversaries, the sons of Dhritarashtra, known as the Kauravas. Arjuna was reluctant to take part in the battle because he knew he would be expected to potentially kill the enemy, which included many of his own relatives. He was persuaded by his charioteer and close friend, Lord Krishna, to change his mind. Their dialogue about issues related to the war—courage, a warrior’s duty, the nature of human life and the soul, and the role of gods—forms the subject of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the key episodes in the epic Mahabharata. He also played a key role in the killing of Karna, his arch-rival, in reality an unknown brother, on the side of the Kauravas. He bears an additional ten names: Kaunteya (son of Kunti), Phalguna (born in the Indian calendar month Phalguni when the star Uttara Phalguni was in ascension), Jishnu (the victorious one), Kireeti (one adorned with the ornamental crown or Kireetam; it was given by Indra in gratitude), Shwetavaahana (one with chariot drawn by white horses), Bheebhatsu (the fair fighter), Vijaya (the victorious one), Partha (son of Pritha aka Kunti), Savyasaachi (one who can shoot arrows with both hands and is ambidextrous), Dhananjaya (one who has gained wealth; this was the wealth that Arjuna won for his elder brother prior to the Rajasooya Yagna) and Gudakesha (one who has conquered sleep). Arjuna was son of Indra yet he was actually a form of god Shesha. From the Nara-Narayana pair, Krishna was Narayana, the divine soul, while Arjuna was Nara (or Shesha), the human soul. In this manner they came about to be friends and cousins.
Birth

Pandu was unable to sire a child due to a curse. His first wife Kunti had, in her maiden days, received a boon from the sage Durvasa, which enabled her to invoke any deity of her choice and to beget a child by that deity. Pandu and Kunti decided to make use of this boon; Kunti invoked in turn Dharma, Vayu and Indra and gave birth to three sons. Arjuna was the third son, born of Indra, king of the heavenly gods (devas).
[edit] Personality
Arjuna as seen in the Javanese shadow puppet play (wayang)

The son of Indra, Arjuna is said to have been well-built and extremely handsome; he married 4 times. Arjuna was also true and loyal to his friends, among others the great warrior Satyaki and his cousin and brother-in-law, Sri Krishna. He was also sensitive and thoughtful, as demonstrated by his misgivings about the Kurukshetra war, which caused Sri Krishna to impart the Gita to him. He was the only Purna Purush on the Earth (He did not have breasts like any other man, this was the symbol of Purn Purush). His sense of duty was acute; he once chose to go into exile rather than refuse to help a brahmin subject.
[edit] The Diligent Student

Arjuna is known as a great warrior. The foundation of his career as a warrior was laid down when he was young; Arjuna learned everything that his guru Dronacharya could teach him, attaining the status of "Maharathi" or outstanding warrior. A well known story about Arjuna exemplifies his powers of concentration"

    Guru Dronacharya decided to test his students in their skill of archery. He hung a wooden bird from the branch of a tree and then summoned his students. He asked the first one to aim for the bird's eye but not shoot just yet. He then asked the student what the student could see. The student replied that he could see the garden, the tree, flowers, etc. Drona asked him to step aside and not shoot. He repeated the same process with a few other students. When it was Arjuna's turn, Arjuna told his Guru that the only thing he could see was the bird's eye. This satisfied the Guru and he allowed Arjuna to shoot the bird. The lesson here is the power of focus.

Arjuna once noticed his brother, Bhima, who was a voracious eater, eating in the dark as though it was daylight, and realized that if he could practice archery in the dark he would become an even greater master of this skill. This skill proved to be instrumental in the slaying of Jayadratha during the Kurukshetra war.
[edit] Draupadi
Sculptural depiction of the contest (centre) in a Hoysala temple.

His skill in archery played an unusual role in his life, in that it won him the hand of Draupadi, his first wife, the daughter of Drupada, king of Panchala. Drupada held a contest to choose a suitable match for his daughter. A wooden fish was suspended high above a reflective pool of oil; furthermore, the fish rotated. Contestants were required to string a heavy bow and then hit the eye of the rotating fish, but were allowed to aim only by looking at the fish's reflection in the pool of oil. Many princes and noblemen vied for the hand of the princess of Panchala. Although the Pandavas were in hiding at that time, Arjuna had dressed as a high-caste snaataka Brahmin and was allowed to compete. It was Arjuna, the peerless archer, who alone was able to accomplish the set task.

All the five Pandava brothers had attended the tournament without informing Kunti, their mother. They returned home in triumph, bringing the princess Draupadi with them. From outside the house, they called out: "Mother, you will never believe what we have got here! Make a guess!" Busy with her work, Kunti refused to be baited. "Whatever it is, share it between yourselves equally, and do not quarrel over the matter," she said. So seriously did the brothers take even this casual statement of their mother, that they resolved upon making Draupadi their common wife. It says something about the magnanimity of Arjuna that, having won his bride single-handedly, he 'shared' her with all his brothers willingly. Despite marrying all five brothers, Draupadi loved Arjuna the most and always favoured him, and he preferred her of all his wives.

Legend has it that Draupadi had requested of the god Shiva, in a previous life, that she wanted to have a husband with five desirable husbandly traits in the one person. Despite being warned by Lord Shiva that this wasn't possible she insisted and the result was the separate embodiment of each of the five qualities in the five Pandava brothers.

Another version says that Draupadi in her previous birth performed severe penance to obtain a virteous husband;when Lord Shiva pleased by her austerities appeared before and wished to grant ger a boon she in her excited stated asked for a virteous husband five times and Lord Shiva ordained that she will have five husbands in her next life.
[edit] Adherence to his Duty

The brothers agreed upon a protocol governing their relations with Draupadi, their common wife. No brother would disturb the couple when another brother was alone with Draupadi; the penalty for doing so was exile for twelve years. Once, when the Pandavas were still ruling over a prosperous Indraprastha, a brahmin came in great agitation to Arjuna and sought his help: a pack of cattle-thieves had seized his herd and only Arjuna could retrieve them. Arjuna was in a dilemma: his weaponry was in the room where Draupadi and Yudhishthira were alone together, and disturbing them would incur the penalty agreed upon. Arjuna hesitated for a brief moment; in his mind, coming to the aid of his subject in distress, especially a brahmin, was the duty of a prince. The prospect of exile did not deter him from fulfilling his duty of aiding the brahmin; he disturbed the conjugal couple, took up his weaponry and rode forth to subdue the cattle-thieves. After finishing the task, despite the opposition of his entire family including the two people whom he had disturbed, he insisted that the penalty of exile be carried out.

Arjuna's exile led him eventually to Manipur and it was there that the Naga princess, Ulupi, became infatuated with him and asked him to beget a child. Arjuna refuses at first, but then Ulupi explains to him that the meaning of the exile is with respect to Draupadi and not absolute. So, as long as he stays away from Draupadi, his vow would not be falsified. Arjuna agrees with her. During this 12-year period, he visited numerous neighboring kingdoms and entered into marital alliances with their royal princesses, in order to strengthen the Pandavas' support-base, especially in view of the Rajasuya Yagya planned by Yudishthira. Some scholars[Who?] view the "exile" as a scheme to throw the major rivals of the Pandavas, including their cousins the Kauravas, off-track.

Altogether, Arjuna had also many wives. However, he accorded importance to only a handful of them, as enumerated in the following section.
[edit] Marital engagements

Arjuna had more than forty main wives and hundreds others in course of his adventures. Chief wives which played some role in the epic are listed

Draupadi: The most notable wife of Arjuna, she was wed to him following a swayamvar - a practice where a woman is allowed to choose her life mate by placing a garland on his neck. After marrying Draupadi, the [Pandavas] who were disguised as brahmans came home - which at that time was in a forest and told their mother Kunti that their brother had got 'bhiksha'. Kunti, without seeing what they had got, told them to divide the bhiksha between the brothers. She felt sorry after realizing that the Pandavas actually meant that Arjuna had got a daughter-in-law for her. Since a mother's wish could not be rejected, all the five pandavas were wondering what could be done - as it was not common for one wife to be shared by five men. In the meanwhile, Lord Sri Krishna came and he made Draupadi remember her wish which she asked from Mahadeva (Lord Shiva). Draupadi wanted a man who would be strong, could protect her from evil, was good in making wise decisions, attractive and also tolerant and resilient. Krishna told Draupadi that she could not refuse Mahadeva's gift that was bestowed upon her. She had a strong husband in Bhima, a protector in Arjuna, a wise man in Yudhishthira, an attractive man as Nakula and a resilient man as Sahadeva. Hence Arjuna's wife Draupadi then became the wife of all Pandavas. Panchali means lady from kingdom of Panchala.
Arjuna and Subhadra.
Painting by Raja Ravi Varma.

Chitrangada: Arjuna traveled the length and breadth of India during his term of exile. His wanderings took him to ancient Manipur in the eastern Himalayas, an almost mystic kingdom renowned for its natural beauty. Here he met the gentle Chitrangada, daughter of the king of Manipura, and was moved to seek her hand in marriage. Her father the king demurred on the plea that, according to the matrilineal customs of his people, the children born of Chitrangada were heirs to Manipur; he could not allow his heirs to be taken away from Manipur by their father. Arjuna agreed to the stipulation that he would take away neither his wife Chitrangada nor any children borne by her from Manipur. A son, whom they named Babruvahana, was soon born to the happy couple and thus became the heir to his grandfather's kingdom.

Ulupi: While Arjuna was in Manipur, Ulupi, a Naga princess of noble character, became infatuated with him. One son was born to them and was named Iravan who died in the Kurukshetra War. Ulupi abducted Arjuna to her realm in the netherworld that he might become her husband, but later restored Arjuna to the lamenting Chitrangada. Ulupi played a very major part in the upbringing of Babruvahana and had much influence with him; he allowed her to restore Arjuna to life after he was slain in battle by Babruvahana.

Subhadra: Arjuna decided to spend the last portion of his term of exile in an orchard near Dwarka, the residence of his cousins Balarama, Krishna and Subhadra, who were the children of his maternal uncle Vasudeva. He and Subhadra fell in love with each other, aided by Krishna, who loved both Arjuna and Subhadra. Knowing that the entire family would view with disfavour the prospect of Subhadra becoming the fourth wife of her cousin Arjuna, Krishna facilitated the elopement of the couple and their departure for Indraprastha. On Krishna's advice, Subhadra drove the chariot from Dwarka to Indraprastha. Krishna used this fact to persuade his family that Arjuna had not abducted Subhadra, but rather the reverse, she had kidnapped him. A son, Abhimanyu, was born to Arjuna and Subhadra. Parikshita, son of Abhimanyu and Uttara, born after Abhimanyu was killed in the battlefield, was the sole surviving dynast of the Kuru clan, and succeeded Yudhishtra as the emperor of the Pandava kingdom.
[edit] Gandeeva

Shortly after his return to Indraprastha, Arjuna visited the Khandava forest with Krishna. They encountered Agni, the fire-god, who was ill from consuming ghee as one king had performed many 'yagnas' (ritual invocations with fire), thus feeding ghee to Agni. He asked for Arjuna's and Krishna's help in consuming the forest in its entirety to restore him to health. Takshaka, the serpent-king, a friend of Indra's, resided there and Indra caused rain whenever Agni tried to burn his friend's home (it was due to this fire that the serpent king fled from there and took refuge with Karna and told him that he can use him at the tip of his arrow when fighting with Arjuna). Arjuna told Agni that he must possess a powerful unbreakable bow to withstand the power of Indra's astras. Agni invoked Varuna, and gave Arjuna the Gandeeva, an incredibly powerful bow, which gave its master victory in battle and a divine chariot, with powerful white horses that did not tire and could not be wounded by ordinary weapons.


Arjuna told Agni to proceed, and fought a duel with his father which lasted several days and nights. A voice from the sky eventually proclaimed Arjuna and Krishna to be the victors, and told Indra to withdraw.

It is said that the Gandeeva was created by the creator Brahma himself (Karn Parv, sec 72).
[edit] Mayasabha

In the burning of the forest, Arjuna spared one Asura, named Maya, who was a gifted architect. In his gratitude, Maya built Yudhishtra a magnificent royal hall, unparalleled in the world. It is this hall, which triggers the pinnacle of Duryodhana's envy, causing the game of dice to be played.

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