Top Ten Mind-Blowing And Interesting Facts About Mahabharat

Mahabharata is such a large book that comprises of a large amount of slokas but again some of these slokas are excised or removed as interpolations and later additions to the epic by the critical edition. However, This time Shub's Top-Ten bring you a list of some mind-blowing and interesting facts about Mahabharat 

1. Mahabharat was originally known as Jaya (‘Jayam’)

Mahabharata was not called as so, until very recently. It was originally known as Jayam or Jaya. The original epic was called Jaya, then it was called Vijaya, then Bharata and finally Mahabharata.

Jaya had about twenty five thousand verses while the final form had over one hundred thousand verses. Jaya was about spiritual victory, Vijaya was about material victory, Bharata was the story of a clan and Mahabharata included also the wisdom of the land called Bharat-varsha.

2. Not all Kauravas were against the Pandavas in the war

Two of Dhritarashtra’s sons, Vikarna and Yuyutsu did not approve of Duryodhana’s actions and had actually protested against Draupadi being staked in the game of dice.

3. Bhishma Pitamah’s real name was Devavrata

When Devavrata was a young man, his father Shantanu went on a hunt, and fell in love with a local fisherwoman, Satyavati. However, Satyavati’s father lay down a tough condition – he would only let him marry her if her sons became heirs to his throne. Shantanu returned to his kingdom heartbroken.

Devavrata, unable to see his father in this sad state went to persuade Satyavati to marry his father, offering to step aside as the heir. Satyavati was not satisfied. Even if he steps down, she argued, his sons may claim the throne later. So, Devavrata took a vow never to marry or reproduce and came to be known as Bhishma (Terrible).

4. The youngest Padava, Sahdev could see the future

Sahadev, Panadava youngest brother knew everything about the future and all events of the Kurukshetra war. He knew about the outcome of the war, but remained silent as he was cursed to die if he revealed anything.

The story goes, Pandu (Father of Pandavas) wished his sons must eat his flesh post death so that all the knowledge may transfer to them which he had collected after so many years. Only Sahadeva ate a piece; the moment he ate he was able to see future

5. Bhima’s son was denied the throne like Dhritrashtra

Bhima had one surviving son named Sarvaga by Balandhara, who was not given the throne despite being much elder to Parikshit. He became the ruler of Kashi (his mother’s land) instead.

Interestingly the same had happened with Dhrirashtraya, his uncle, who was denied the throne due to his blindness and later became a pretext of Kurukshetra war. History seems to have repeated itself, without grave consequences though.

6. Abhimanyu had the soul of a demon!

According to Krishna, Abhimanyu was an incarnation of a very powerful demon named (Kalayvan) who was capable of killing him at a later point. Abhimanyu’s only weakness is his partial knowledge about Chakravyuha.

Hence the Chakravyuha was indeed launched to kill Abhimanyu as this was the only way by which Abhimanyu could attain Moksha. Therefore, Krishna never imparts the knowledge of “how to come out of Chakravyuha to him.

7.Characters who appear in both Ramayana and Mahabharata

Vibhishana : The brother of Ravana; and the king of Lanka.In course of their Conquest of Bharata,Sahadeva the youngest Pandava conquered south Indian powers such as Cholas,Keralas,Pandyas and reaches the Southern tip of India,from where he sent a treaty of peace for the King of Lanka,which is happily welcomed by Vibhishana.

Hanuman : Hanuman meets Bhima during the Pandava’s 12 year exile.Bhima was always impressed by Hanuman and his power.Both of them acknowledges each other.Hanuman,who by now had attained centuries of maturity and sagely insight,assures Bhima victory in the upcoming war,which would also result in massive destruction.Hanuman also grants a boon to Bhima that he would watch over Arjuna and enhance his already superior strength by being present in his chariot flag.

Lord Parashuram : Parashuram was the Guru of Bhishma,Druna and Karna;and coincidentally all three ended up fighting in the same side and lost their lives.At a particular situation,Parashuram had to fight a duell with Bhishma,which lasted longer than Kurushetra war itself,and surprisingly Parashuram,the incarnation of lord Vishnu was defeated by Bhishma.One who had vanquished the Kshatriya race,tasted defeat from Kshatriya for the first time.

Karna,due to his desire to posses divine weapons,approaches Parashuram guised as a Brahmin and takes his discipleship.Karna succesfully the knwoledge of all divine weapons.But once Prashurama recognized the true identity of Karna,gave a curse that he would forget the usage of his celestial weapons when he needed them the most.This is why Karna could never kill Arjuna .

All three characters mentioned above are deemed to be immortals who would live on earth till the end of time.Besides them,all deities namely Brahma,Vishnu,Shiva,Devi,Indra and sages such as Vashishta,Viswamitra ,Narada etc appear throughout both the epic.

8.Arjuna saves Drona from crocodile and wins Brahmastra This is an interesting story that Arjuna came in possession of Brahmastra. One day, a crocodile caught Drona. He could have easily defended himself, but wanted to test his students. He cried for help, and seeing this situation, everyone became clueless. But Arjuna knew what to do and soon enough, he release arrows to kill the crocodile. Guru Dronacharya was extremely happy with Arjuna’s presence of mind and applying his skills in a life situation.

He soon given him the knowledge of Brahmastra, complete with the means for launching and withdrawing it , which could make him invincible. This is notable that Drona did not part this information with his own son, Ashwaththama, his son.

9. Barbarik, son of Ghatotkacha, had a unique power, which made Krishna ask him for his head in charityBheema's grandson (Ghatotkacha's son), Barbarik was supposed to be a great warrior. By Lord Shiva's blessings, he had special arrows by which he could mark his enemies, mark the ones he wanted to save, and then destroy all his enemies respectively. Thanks to this, he could have ended the war in one minute flat. Krishna however, knew better than to let this happen. Because of an oath to his mother, Barbarik always fought for the weaker side. Krishna appeared to him as a Brahmana, and reasoned that whichever side he took would by default be stronger. That way he would have to keep changing parties till everyone got killed. Krishna then asked for his head in charity because the battlefield must be purified before battle by sacrificing the head of the bravest kshatriya. Barbarik obliged and became the greatest Kshatriya alive. That is how Krishna saved the Pandavas from losing the battle.

10.Karna was student of Drona and already friend of Duryodahna in Gurukul He was given education by Drona but denied Brahmastra and thus to get this weapon he went to Parshruama. Duryodhana and Karna were already friends before Rangbhoomi and Rangbhoomi was pre planned. Adi parva, Vana parva, shanit parva all talk of Karna being student of Drona and Adirath being friend of Dhritrasthra. Adirath was also of royal lineage and former ousted prince of Anga. This is not shown on TV but I and many others on Quora have given many references from epic in our previous replies