Shakuni's story starts where many others end, and some reach mid-way. Here is a quick update on what was happening in the various kingdoms when this story starts.
Gandhara
The Gandhara kingdom was a mountainous state located to the north-west of Bharatavarsha. The Gandharas were intelligent people. However, though Gandhara was a part of the extended Aryavarta, many orthodox Aryan kingdoms would find the Gandharas unchaste as their customs, rituals, and lifestyle often differed from the mainstream Aryan system.
Subal was the king of Gandhara. He had a number of sons and one daughter called Gandhari. Shakuni was Subal’s eldest son and was famous for his outstanding intelligence. There was a myth that Shakuni could impeccably identify a person just by seeing his shadow once! He was the pride of Gandhara. Although he was not particularly great as a warrior, Shakuni was an astute military strategist. His skill in dice games, however, was proverbial. He regularly resorted to deceptions for winning dice games and no one could detect his tricks. But he played such games only for fun and to hone his extraordinary mental abilities.
King Ugrasen of Mathura invited King Subal to attend his beloved niece Devaki’s swayamvara ceremony. There was a political will behind this invitation which was to mend the difficult relations between the Gandharas and the Vrishnis. Subal accepted the invitation and detailed Shakuni to visit Mathura on his behalf. As instructed by his father, Shakuni visited Mathura to be present during the function.
In Mathura, a life-changing incident befell Shakuni. He became a different person with completely different priorities.
Hastinapur
The powerful Hastinapur kingdom was ruled by the Kauravas—the descendants of Kuru the Great. The Kuru king Pratip had three sons—Devapi, Bahlik and Shantanu. Devapi became an ascetic in his early youth and left the kingdom. The second son, Bahlik, was made the king of Vahik Desh (a kingdom located west of Hastinapur) while the youngest, Shantanu, became the king of Hastinapur. Shantanu’s first wife was Ganga who bore him Devavrata—an extraordinary personality and an unparalleled warrior. But in spite of his merit and popularity, he could not succeed his father to the throne.
Shantanu had fallen in love with a much younger Satyavati—the adopted daughter of a fisherman. The fisherman put a condition that Shantanu must secure the throne of Hastinapur for Satyavati’s son. In order to facilitate his father’s marriage to Satyavati, Devavrata surrendered all his rights to the throne and also remained a bachelor throughout his life to avert any potential feud between his children and those of Satyavati in the future. In recognition of his outstanding sacrifice, the gods gave him the name ‘Bheeshma’.
Shantanu and Satyavati had two sons—Chitrangad and Vichitraveerya. Chitrangad was killed in his youth by a Gandharva of the same name. Vichitraveerya became the king but he was grossly incompetent. It was Devavrata who was actually ruling over the kingdom, as a regent though. However, Vichitraveerya died childless due to sudden illness. In order to get a suitable heir to the throne, Vichitraveerya’s young wives—Ambika and Ambalika were asked to bear sons through Niyoga. They reluctantly agreed to bear Rishi Vyasadeva’s (Satyavati’s son from her pre-marital union with Rishi Parashar) sons. But their sons were flawed, unfortunately. While the older Dhritarashtra was born blind, the younger Pandu was an albino. Vyasa’s union with a maid of Ambika begot Vidur who would grow into an extremely wise and righteous man. As the eldest Dhritarashtra was blind, Pandu was anointed as the crown prince with Devavrata as the regent and Vidur as the adviser.
When Dhritarashtra and Pandu reached marriageable age, Devavrata started looking for suitable brides for them.
Mathura
The Yadavas had many clans like the Vrishnis, the Andhakas, the Kukuras, the Haihayas, the Chedis, the Bhojas and so on. The Vrishni Yadavas were the most prominent among them. They ruled over the kingdom of Saurasena, named after Shurasen, their king. Mathura was its capital city. The Vrishnis did not prefer hereditary monarchy as the mode of governance. Instead, they governed their land through some unanimously selected chieftains who were as good as kings.
After Shurasen’s death, his good friend Ugrasen was chosen by the fellow chieftains as the head of the state and like Shurasen, he was a just ruler. Ugrasen had an adopted son, Kansa and a niece, Devaki who was more than a daughter to him. Kansa was a devious man who had ambitions of becoming the king of Mathura. Shurasen had one son, Vasudeva, and four daughters. Shurasen gave away his eldest daughter, Pritha, to his childless friend Kuntibhoja, a Bhoja warlord. Kuntibhoja renamed Pritha as Kunti after adoption.
Devaki and Vasudeva (the parents of Lord Shri Krishna Vasudeva) loved each other secretly. Though Ugrasen liked Vasudeva very much, he never saw him as Devaki’s husband. As Devaki reached the marriageable age, Ugrasen arranged a swayamvara ceremony for Devaki to choose her husband from many suitors. But an untoward incident happened during the ceremony.
Are you now ready to read Shakuni & The Dice of Doom?
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