Mahabharata
Mahabharata story[edit | edit source]
The story of the Mahabharata begins with the meeting of King Duswanta with Sakuntala. King Duswanta was a great king from Chandrawangsa of Yayati descent, married Sakuntala from Bagawan Kanwa's hermitage, then descended from Sang Bharata. Sang Bharata brought down Sang Hasti, who then established a government center called Hastinapura. Sang Hasti brought down the Kings of Hastinapura. From that family, Sang Kuru was born, who ruled and purified a vast area called Kurukshetra. The Kuru brought down the Kuru Dynasty or the Kaurava Dynasty. In that Dynasty, Pratipa was born, who became the father of Prabu Santanu, the ancestor of the Pandavas and Kurawa.
Prabu Santanu was a famous king from the Kuru lineage, originating from Hastinapura. He married the Goddess Ganga who was cursed to come down to the world, but Goddess Ganga left him because the King broke his marriage promise. The King's relationship with Goddess Ganga produced 7 children, but all of them were drowned in the Ganges sea by Goddess Ganga on the grounds that they were all cursed. However, then the 8th child was saved by Prabu Santanu, who was named Dewabrata. Then Dewi Gunjungun left Prabu Santanu.
Dewabrata's name was changed to Bhishma because he carried out bhishan pratigya, namely an oath to remain celibate forever and not inherit his father's throne. This was because Bhishma did not want him and his descendants to clash with the descendants of Satyawati, his stepmother.
After Goddess Gangga left him, King Santanu finally became a widower. Several years later, Prabu Santanu continued his married life by marrying Dewi Satyawati, the daughter of a isherman. From his relationship, the King had sons Sang Citranggada and Wicitrawirya. For the sake of his younger siblings' happiness, he went to the Kasi Kingdom and won a competition so he succeeded in bringing home three princesses named Amba, Ambika, and Ambalaka, to marry to his younger siblings. Because Citranggada died, Ambika and Ambalaka married Wicitrawirya while Amba loved Bhishma but Bhishma rejected her love because he was bound by an oath that he would not marry for the rest of his life. In an effort to get Amba away from him, he accidentally shot an arrow through Amba's chest. For that death, Bhishma was told that in the future Amba would be reincarnated as a prince with feminine characteristics, namely the son of King Drupada, named Srikandi. Later his death was also at the hands of Srikandi who helped Arjuna in the great battle at Kurukshetra.
Citranggada died at a young age in a battle, then he was succeeded by his younger brother, Wicitrawirya. Wicitrawirya also died at a young age and had not had time to have children. Satyawati sent Wicitrawirya's two wives, namely Ambika and Ambalaka, to meet the Rishi Vyasa, because the Rishi had been called to perform a ceremony for them to have offspring. Satyawati told Ambika to meet Rishi Vyasa in the ceremony room. After Ambika entered the ceremony room, she saw the Rishi's face very fierce with burning eyes. This made him close his eyes. Because Ambika closed her eyes during the ceremony, her child was born blind. The child was Dhristarastra. Then Ambalaka was told by Satyawati to visit Vyasa in a room alone, and there he would be given a boon. She was also told to keep her eyes open so that she would not give birth to a blind son (Drestarastra) as Ambika had done. Therefore, Ambalaka continued to open her eyes but she became pale after seeing the extraordinary appearance of the Bagawan (Vyasa). Therefore, Pandu (his son), the father of the Pandavas, was born pale. Dhristarastra and Pandu had a half-brother named Widura. Widura was the son of Resi Vyasa and Satyawati's lady-in-waiting named Datri. During the ceremony, he ran out of the room and ended up falling, resulting in Widura being born with a limp.
Because Drestarastra was born blind, the throne of Hastinapura was given to Pandu. Pandu married Kunti and then Pandu married Madrim for the second time, but as a result of Pandu's mistake when shooting an arrow at a deer that was in love, the deer issued a curse that Pandu would never experience a husband and wife relationship again, and if he did, Pandu would die. . The deer then died and changed into its original form, namely a priest. Then, because he experienced such a bad incident, Pandu then invited his two wives to beg the Almighty to give them children. With the help of the Adityahredaya mantra given by Resi Vyasa, Goddess Kunti was able to summon the gods to then have a son. The first time Batara Surya tried this mantra, Kunti became pregnant and gave birth to a child who was later named Karna.
However, Karna was then thrown out to sea and cared for by the Kurawas, so that later during the Bharatayudha war, Karna sided with the Kurawas. Then at Pandu's request, Kunti tried the spell again, Batara Guru sent Batara Dharma to fertilize Goddess Kunti so that her first child, Yudistira, was born, a year later Batara Bayu was also sent to fertilize Goddess Kunti so that Bima was born, Batara Guru also sent Batara Indra to fertilize her. Goddess Kunti gave birth to Arjuna and finally Batara Aswan and Aswin were sent to fertilize Goddess Madrim, and Nakula and Sadewa were born. The five sons of Pandu were known as the Pandavas.
Pandavas and Kurawas are two groups with different characteristics but come from the same ancestors, namely Kuru and Bharata. The Kauravas (especially Duryudana) were cunning and always jealous of the Pandavas' advantages, while the Pandavas were calm and always patient when oppressed by their cousins. The father of the Kauravas, namely Drestarastra, loved his sons very much. This made him often instigated by his brother-in-law, Sengkuni, and his favorite son, Duryudana, to allow him to carry out evil plans to get rid of the Pandavas. Once upon a time, Duryudana invited Kunti and the Pandavas for a holiday. There they stayed in a house provided by Duryudana. At night, the house was burned. However, the Pandavas were saved by Bima, who had been informed by Vidura of the Kauravas' cunning so that they were not burned alive in the house. After saving themselves, the Pandavas and Kunti entered the forest. In the forest, Bima met the giant Hidimba and killed him, then married his sister, namely Raseksi Hidimbi or Arimbi. From this marriage, Gatotkaca was born. After passing through the jungle, the Pandavas passed through the Pancala Kingdom. There the news spread that King Drupada was holding a competition to win over the Goddess Drupadi. Adipati Karna took part in the competition, but was rejected by Drupadi. The Pandavas also attended the competition, but they dressed like Brahmins.
The Pandavas took part in the competition to win five types of competition, Yudistira to win the philosophy and state administration competition, Arjuna to win the Arrow weapon competition, Bima to win the Mace competition and Nakula - Sadewa to win the Sword weapon competition. The Pandavas managed to do well to win the competition.
Draupadi had to accept the Pandavas as her husbands because according to her promise whoever could win the competition she created would become her husband even though she deviated from her wishes, namely that all she wanted was only a Satriya.
After that, a fight broke out because the audience grumbled because Brahmins should not take part in the competition. The Pandavas fought and then escaped. when they got home, they told their mother that they had come with the results of begging. Their mother also ordered that the proceeds be divided equally among all their siblings. However, how surprised he was when he saw that his children not only brought the results of begging, but also a woman.
To avoid fierce fighting, the Kuru Kingdom was divided into two to be divided between the Pandavas and Kauravas. The Kauravas ruled the main (central) Kuru Kingdom with the capital Hastinapura, while the Pandavas ruled the Kurujanggala Kingdom with the capital Indraprastha. Both Hastinapura and Indraprastha had magnificent palaces, and it was there that Duryudana fell into a pool that he mistook for the floor, so that he became an object of ridicule for Draupadi. This made him even more angry with the Pandavas. To seize Yudistira's wealth and kingdom, Duryudana invited Yudistira to play dice, this was Arya Sengkuni's idea. During the dice game, Duryudana is represented by Sengkuni as a dice dealer who has the power to cheat. At the start of the war weapons betting game, the bets continue to increase to become bets on royal treasures, then soldiers are betted, and at the peak of the game the Kingdom becomes a bet, the Pandavas lose, all the property and the Pandava kingdom, including their brothers, are also betted and finally, his wife Draupadi is placed as a bet. In the end, Yudistira lost and Draupadi was asked to attend the gambling arena because it belonged to Duryudana.
Duryudana sent his guards to fetch Draupadi, but Draupadi refused. After failing, Duryudana ordered Dushasana, his younger brother, to fetch Draupadi. Draupadi, who refused to come, was dragged away by Dushasana who had no sense of humanity. Her hair was pulled all the way to the gambling arena, where her husband and in-laws gathered. Because they had lost, Yudistira and all his siblings were asked to take off their clothes, but Draupadi refused. Dushasana, who had a rough character, pulled the cloth that Draupadi was wearing, but the cloth stretched out continuously and inexhaustibly because he received supernatural powers from Sri Krishna who saw Draupadi in danger. Sri Krishna's help was due to Draupadi's action in bandaging Sri Krishna's wounds during the Rajasuya ceremony at Indraprastha.
Draupadi, who felt embarrassed and offended by Dushasana's attitude, vowed not to tie her hair until it was cremated with Dushasana's blood. Bima also vowed to kill Dushasana and drink his blood later. After taking this oath, Dhristarastra felt that disaster would befall his descendants, so he returned all of Yudhisthira's assets that were placed at stake.
Duryudana, who felt disappointed because Drestarastra had returned all the treasures that would have belonged to him, held a dice game for the second time. This time, whoever loses must exile himself to the forest for 12 years, after that live incognito for a year, and after that has the right to return to his kingdom. For the second time, Yudistira took part in the game and once again he lost. Because of this defeat, the Pandavas were forced to leave their kingdom for 12 years and live incognito for a year.
After the exile period expired and in accordance with a valid agreement, the Pandavas had the right to take over the kingdom led by Duryudana again. But Duryudana was evil. He did not want to hand over the kingdom to the Pandavas, even as wide as the tip of a needle. This made the Pandavas' patience run out. Sri Kresna carried out peace missions, but repeatedly failed. Finally, fighting was inevitable. Pandavas tried to find allies and they got the help of forces from Kekaya Kingdom, Matsya Kingdom, Pandya Kingdom, Chola Kingdom, Kerala Kingdom, Magadha Kingdom, Yadawa Dynasty, Dwaraka Kingdom, and many more. In addition, the great knights in Bharatawarsha such as Drupada, Setyaki, Drestadjumna, Srikandi, Wirata, and others sided with the Pandavas. Meanwhile, Duryudana asked Bhishma to lead the Kurawa army and appointed him as the supreme commander of the Kurawa army. The Kurawa were helped by Resi Dorna and his son Aswatama, the brother-in-law of the Kurawa namely Jayadratha, as well as teachers Krepa, Kertawarma, Salya, Sudaksina, Burisrawa, Bahlika, Sengguni, Karna, and many more.
The battle lasted for a full 18 days. In that battle, many knights died, such as Abimanyu, Durna, Karna, Bhishma, Gatotkaca, Irawan, King Wirata and his sons, Bhagadatta, Susharma, Sengkuni, and many more. These 18 days were filled with bloodshed and terrible massacres. At the end of the eighteenth day, only ten knights survived the battle, they were: The Five Pandavas, Yuyutsu, Setyaki, Aswatama, Krepa and Kertawarma. (Later told in the story of Bharatayudha)
After the war ended, Yudistira was crowned King of Hastinapura. After ruling for some time, he handed over the throne to Arjuna's grandson, Parikshit. Then, Yudistira together with the Pandavas and Draupadi climbed the Himalayas as the final destination of their journey. There they died and reached heaven. (Told in the story of Pandawa Seda)
Parikesit ruled the Kuru Kingdom with justice and wisdom. He married Madrawati and had a son named Janamejaya. Janamejaya married Wapushtama (Bhamustiman) and had a son named Satanika. Satanika was the son of Aswamedhadatta. Aswamedhadatta and his descendants later led the Kuru Dynasty Kingdom in Hastinapura. (Told in the story of Parikesit)
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