In Indian epic Mahabharata, Bhima is the second among the five Pandavas. The Mahabharata relates many events that portray the might of Bhima. Bhima was born when Vayu, the wind god, granted a son to Kunti and Pandu. After the death of Pandu and Madri, Kunti with her sons stayed in Hastinapura. From his childhood, Bhima had a rivalry with his cousins Kauravas, especially Duryodhana. Duryodhana and his uncle, Shakuni, tried to kill Bhima multiple times. One was by poisoning and throwing Bhima into a river. Bhima was rescued by Nāgas and was given a drink which made him very strong and immune to all venom.
The Pandavas refers to the five brothers namely, Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, who are the main characters in the epic Mahabharata. They were the acknowledged sons of Pandu, the king of Hastinapur and his two wives Kunti and Madri. The five brothers shared a wife, Draupadi. The Pandavas waged war against their cousins Kauravas ; this was known as Kurukshetra War. The Pandavas won the war and the Kauravas lost.
Duryodhana also known as Suyodhana, is a major antagonist in the Hindu epic Mahabharata and was the eldest of the Kauravas, the hundred sons of a blind king Dhritarashtra and queen Gandhari. Being the firstborn son of the blind king, he was the crown prince of Kuru Kingdom and its capital Hastinapura along with his cousin Yudhishtra who was older than him. Karna was Duryodhana's closest friend. Notably, Duryodhana, with significant assistance from Karna, performs Vaishnava Yagna when the Pandavas are in exile. Duryodhana used his greater skill in wielding the mace to defeat opponents. He was also an extremely courageous warrior and he was said to be a good ruler. Duryodhana's greed and arrogance were the two qualities said to lead to his downfall in the Mahabharata.
In the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, Yudhishtira is the first among the five Pandava brothers. He was the son of the king Pandu of Kuru and his first wife, Kunti and was blessed to the couple by the god Dharma, who is often identified with the death god Yama. In the epic, Yudhishthira becomes the emperor of Indraprastha and later of Kuru Kingdom (Hastinapura).
Sahadeva was the youngest of the Pandava brothers, the five protagonist of the epic Mahabharata. He and his twin brother, Nakula, were blessed to King Pandu and Queen Madri by the gods Ashvins. Sahadeva is described to be skilled in swordsmanship and astrology. During the Kurukshetra War, he killed many warriors including Shakuni.
Virat, in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, was the king of Matsya Kingdom with its Virata Kingdom, in whose court the Pandavas spent a year in concealment during their exile. Virata was married to Queen Sudeshna and was the father of Prince Uttara and Princess Uttarā, who married Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna. Abhimanyu and Uttara's son Parikshit succeeded Yudhishthira to the throne of Hastinapura, after the war of Mahabharata.
Shakuni also known as Saubala, Gandharnaresh, Gandhararaja and Subalraja (Sanskrit): सुबलराज, lit. "King of the Kingdom of Subala" was the prince of the Gandhara Kingdom, later to become the King after his father's death. He is the main antagonist in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He was the brother of Gandhari and hence Duryodhana's maternal uncle.
The Kurukshetra War, also called the Mahabharata War, is a war described in the Indian epic poem Mahābhārata . The conflict arose from a dynastic succession struggle between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura. It involved several ancient kingdoms participating as allies of the rival groups.
Anarta is a Vedic period kingdom of ancient India described in the Mahabharata, roughly forming the northern Gujarat state of India. It was founded by a grandson of Vaivasvata, inter alia the father of the present Manu and of Yama, named Anartha. He built a fortress at Kusasthali (Dvaraka), which was later flooded by Varuna. The place remained then for some time as a forest land, before Krishna and the Yadavas went there and built Dvaraka. It was then ruled by Yadavas after they fled from Mathura of Surasena Kingdom, due to the attacks of Jarasandha, the king of Magadha. The Yadava chiefs like Vasudeva Krishna, Bala Rama, Kritavarma and Satyaki, ruled this kingdom under their king Ugrasena. In Mahabharata, Dwaraka is considered as a capital city of Anarta Kingdom. But some other ancient texts like Mahabhagavata, mentions Dwaraka and Anarta as two independent kingdoms. As per the Purana viz. Bhagavata Purana, Bala Rama's wife Revati was from this kingdom.
Matsya Kingdom was one of the solasa (sixteen) Mahajanapadas during the Vedic era as described in the Hindu epic Mahabharta and 6th BCE Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya. Viratnagar in the northern part of Jaipur district in Rajasthan was its capital. It had Kuru and Surasena mahajanapadas to its north and east respectively. In the modern era, another United States of Matsya was a brief union of 4 princely states of Bharatpur, Dholpur, Alwar and Karauli temporarily put together from 1947 to 1949. Modern day Meena claim to be descendants of the Matsya avatar of Vishnu, and the ancient Matsya Kingdom,and are still found in large number in districts east of Aravali.
Virata was a kingdom ruled by the Matsya king by the name Virata. It was here that the Pandavas spent their 13th year of anonymity after their 12 years of forest-life in the forests of Kamyaka and Dwaita. Its capital was Virata Nagari, modern Bairat in the Jaipur district of Rajasthan. Akhnoor, a town in Jammu and Kashmir is also considered by some as the Virat Nagar. Upaplavya was another city in this kingdom where the Pandavas and their allies camped before the beginning of the great Kurukshetra War.
An akshauhini is described in the Mahabharata as a battle formation consisting of 21,870 chariots ; 21,870 elephants ; 65,610 horses and 109,350 infantry as per the Mahabharata. Thus one akshauhini consisted of 218,700 warriors. The ratio is 1 chariot : 1 elephant : 3 cavalry : 5 infantry soldiers. In each of these large number groups, the digits add up to 18.
In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Uttarā or Anglicized as Uttaraa (उत्तरा) was the daughter of Queen Sudeshna and King Virata, at whose court the Pandavas spent a year in concealment during their exile. She was sister of Prince Uttara.
Harivaṃśapurāṇa was composed by Acharya Jinasena in 783 AD. It is divided into 66 cantos and contains 12,000 slokas. The book aims to narrate the life of Neminatha, the twenty-second Tirthankara in Jainism. According to the Jain sources, Krishna is the first cousin of Tirthankara Neminatha. Therefore, Krishna's adventures too occupy a significant portion of the book. Harivamsa Purana suggests that Draupadi was married to only Arjuna as opposed to Hindu traditional accounts which suggests that she was married to all five Pandavas.
Prasthala was the capital of king Susharman of Trigarta Kingdom. As per epic Mahabharata, this city was under the constant attack of Matsya kings like the king Virata. Susharman tried to avenge the Matsyas with the help of Duryodhana of Hastinapura, but the attempt was foiled by the Pandavas staying in the domains of the Matsyas. Prasthala is identified to be the modern city Jalandhar in Punjab, India.
In the epic Mahabharata, Uttar was the prince of Matsya Kingdom and the son of King Virata, at whose court the Pandavas spent one year in concealment during their exile. His sister Uttarā was given in marriage to Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna.
Akrura was a chief of king Kamsa, an ancient people of India, and a descendant of the Vrishni kula (clan). He is worshipped as Shri Akrurji Maharaj by the present-day Varshney community and is also known as Babrhu. The life of Akrura is depicted in the ancient Indian texts known as the Puranas.
Mahabharat is a 2013 Indian mythological television series based on the Sanskrit epic Mahabharat. It aired from 16 September 2013 to 16 August 2014 on Star Plus. The television show was produced by Swastik Productions Pvt. Ltd. The series was heavily criticised for several inaccuracies.
Suryaputra Karna was an Indian mythological epic television series, which premiered on 29 June 2015 on Sony Entertainment Television (India) and Sony Entertainment Television Asia. The show aired Monday through Friday nights at 8:30 PM. Produced by Siddharth Kumar Tewary of Swastik Pictures, the series covers the life journey of Karna, one of the great archers and a prominent character from the Mahabharata.The show starred Gautam Rode, Vishesh Bansal and Basant Bhatt as the lead character at various stages of his life.
