Samba – son of Krishna

Krishna was the proverbial large tree, under which no other tree could grow or thrive. A well known father, whose son/s were not so well known. Though Krishna’s sons were not very well known, Samba was an exception as he had a small role to play in the epic Mahabharata and a larger role in the ultimate decimation of the Yadava community.

Samba was the son of Krishna and his wife, Jambavati (Read http://utkarshspeak.blogspot.in/2014/06/one-tale-and-two-wives-of-krishna.html ). Samba was very handsome like his father, but notorious. Though many felt that Samba resembled Krishna, Krishna however felt that Samba was like Lord Shiva and in every respect.

It is said that Lord Krishna had a desire for a son, but no ordinary son. He wanted a son like Lord Shiva. To appease Lord Shiva, he meditated for years to seek his blessings. When Shiva was pleased with his meditation, Krishna sought to be blessed with a son like Shiva himself. Krishna wanted a son who had the destructive powers of Shiva as he could foresee the decline of the Yadava’s who would be needed to be eliminated in future.

 Pic Courtesy - Wikipedia

Soon Jambavati gave birth to a son, who was named Samba, after the name of Lord Shiva. Samba grew up to be a handsome boy, b ut was notorious for pranks and was also extremely frivolous. One of his well-known pranks is said to have led to the ultimate decimation of the Yadava community. According to this, once some sages were taking rest under a tree. Samba dressed up as a pregnant woman, along with his friends, went to the sages to seek their blessings. When the friends asked the sages as what would the pregnant ‘woman’ give birth to, the sages were angry. They cursed that whatever came out of the belly of the ‘woman’ would lead to the ultimate end of the entire community. Samba was carrying an iron pestle under his dress.

The boys were worried about the curse and they approached King Ugrasena, father of Kamsa, who was reinstated as the King of Mathura after Krishna killed Kamsa. The king was ashamed of the acts of the boys and suggested that they ground the iron pestle and throw away the powder in the sea. The powder however, washed ashore the coast of Dwarka which was covered by bamboo trees. It is said that these were the same iron-like bamboo sticks which were used by the Yadava’s when a fight broke out amongst themselves, after nearly thirty years of the war of Kurukshetra.

A single piece of the iron which could not be grounded was found inside a fish by a fisherman, who sold it to an ironsmith, which was later made into the tip of an arrow. It was this arrow, which killed Krishna, the last of the Yadavas.

However, this is not the only claim to fame, or ill-fame, of Samba. Duryodhan had a beautiful daughter, by the name of Lakshmana. When she was of age, many Kings desired that she be married to their sons. Duryodhan decided to hold a swayamvar for his daughter and invited all the princes for the event. Samba secretly desired Lakshmana, though she did not fancy Samba. When Samba realised that on her own Lakshmana would never marry him, he forcibly abducted Lakshmana from the swayamvar. The Kauravas and the court of Hastinapur were up in arms on the kidnapping of Lakshmana, all the more since they knew that Lakshamana was not inclined towards Samba.

Under the leadership of Karna, an army was sent to get Lakshmana and Samba back. Samba, though alone fought bravely till Karna and others, destroyed his chariot and weapons. They brought both of them back and imprisoned Samba. Narada related the whole incident to the Yadavas, who were angry for imprisoning Samba. Balarama, the elder brother of Krishna decided to go and get Samba back.

Balarama took an army to Hastinapur, but camped outside the city and sent a message to Duryodhan that he wanted to meet them. Duryodhan was pleased and he along with Bhishma, Drona, etc. went to meet Balarama. During the meeting Balarama expressed his dislike for the way Samba was imprisoned, and that the least he would have expected that they be made aware of what had happened. However, he was willing to forget and forgive, provided they freed Samba and his wife Lakshmana.

Duryodhan and others were angry at the tone and by the sense of superiority, with no mention of Samba’s act of kidnapping. Soon there was a war of words, with both sides flaring at the incident. Balarama was so angry that he took his plough and struck the ground of Hastinapur and with all the force started to drag the city to be drowned in the Ganga. Seeing the earth shaking and tremors destroying the city, they brought Samba and Lakshmana to Balarama and apologised for their behaviour. Duryodhan arranged for a grand wedding of his daughter with Samba and soon all was forgotten.

Pic Courtesy - Brooklyn Museum

According to another tale, at one point of time, Krishna was so angry with Samba for not listening to anybody, that he cursed him with the debilitating disease of leprosy. Samba began suffering and his mother Jambavati, could bear no more. She urged Krishna to do something to lessen his pain and relieve him of the disease. Krishna then asked Samba to pray to the Sun and then take a dip in the river Chandrabhaga (near Konarak temple, Odisha) to cure himself. But by then Samba had become too weak to move by himself. On pleading by Jambavati, Krishna took Samba to the river and gave him a dip in the river, which cured Samba of the disease.

Till date, mothers in Odisha, observe Samba-dashami (10th day of the Sukla Paksha or waxing phase of moon in Paush month of the local calendar, which falls in the months of Dec-Jan). Mothers observe special rituals and worship the Sun god on this day for the well-being of their children. As a part of the ritual, the legend of ‘Samba Dasami Brata Katha’ or the story of Samba is read aloud. Till some time back, a dip in the river (now reduced to a trickle), was considered to be a sure cure for leprosy.

What is interesting that though the story does not find any significant mention in the epics, there exists a ritual in Odisha which centres around the son of Krishna. Also, one hardly finds mention about Krsihna’ sons, and needless to mention that none of them were as illustrious as the father – isn’t that something that can be seen even in modern times?

Duryodhan Maharaj

Last week, we read about worshiping of Ravan as Mahatma Ravan in temples honouring him. As I mentioned earlier, in this, he is not alone. Duryodhan, the ‘villain’ from the epic Mahabharata, too enjoys similar adulation in certain parts of the country and he too is worshiped in temples that have come up in his honour and some of them exist since long.

In the ‘har-ki-doon’ valley of the The Jaunsar-Bawar region in Dehradun, is a place where Duryodhan is worshipped. It is said that during the dvapar yuga (the period of Mahabharata which ended with the ‘death’ of Lord Krishna), Duryodhan arrived at this place and was impressed by the natural beauty of the region. He requested the local deity, Lord Mahasu, for a piece of land for himself near the mountains of Himalaya, which the deity agreed, with a condition that he would look after the locals of the region. Till date the locals believe that the region is controlled by Duryodhan Maharaj. Some people believe that he passes his orders through his spirit which visits certain people in the village, and the orders are followed as a must. One of the villages by the name of Jakhol has a temple where an idol of Duryodhan is installed and it is taken out in processions during certain periods of the year.

 

Duryodhan Temple at Uttarakhand

The region of Mori in the same area, not only has an ancient temple dedicated to Duryodhan, but also has few temples in honour of the other Kaurava princes, Karna and King Shalya, all supporters of Duryodhan! It is interesting to note the region is also a contradiction of sorts, as one of the peaks is known as “Swargarohini peak” i.e. the gates to heaven. This is the region which the Pandavas had trekked and ascended to the heaven through the peak!

It is said that after death of Duryodhan in the battle of Kurukshetra, the people of the region wept so much that the tears became a river, known as Tamas, locally also known as the river Toms. Till date, people of the region do not drink water from the river, as they feel that the tears still flow in the river!

Finally and probably the most important temple of Duryodhan is said to be the Peruviruthy Malanada Temple in the Kollam district of Kerala, India. The region also has other temples dedicated to the other Kauravas, their sister Dusshala, mother Gandhaari, Shakuni, Karna and Bhishma and Dronacharya, but none of the temples have any idols. There are just platforms where the idols should have been.

 

The temple and on the right side is the altar without any idol

There is an interesting myth associated with the origin of the temple. According to this myth, during the exile of the Pandavas, Duryodhan set out to look for them and he traversed right up to the Malanada Hills in South. Duryodhan was very tired and thirsty and saw a woman drinking something and asked for water. The woman was drinking a local toddy and without realizing gave the same drink to Duryodhan who too drank it. As soon as he finished drinking, the lady realized that the person was of royal origin and around the same time Duryodhan realized by the dressing of the woman, that he had taken the drink form an untouchable tribeswoman, from the Kurava tribe.

While the lady was shivering from fear of royal retribution, Duryodhan was glad at the woman’s selflessness to offer him her own drink. Duryodhan pacified her that he was not angry and as part of his royal duty donated about 100 acres of land to them for cultivation. Since then, the priests in the temple of Duryodhan, built in his honour, and other Kuarava family have been from this untouchable Kurava class and the people till date venerate the ‘villain’ of the epic Mahabharata, Duryodhan. It is not surprising to note that toddy is an important offering in the temple!!

It is interesting to read about such myths as they bring out the other side of the villainous characters of such epics. Such myths in Mahabharata goes on to highlight the fact that certain characters were not absolutely negative in nature, but only had certain negative personality traits. While Duryodhan might have been a villain in general, fanned by his uncle Shakuni (who had his own justification for the villainy This is Utkarsh Speaking: Shakuni ), his ability to overcome a caste-bias was obvious in the way, he anointed Karna as the King of Anga. The above mentioned myth too goes on to prove the same thing, his attitude towards the lower caste people, especially in times when caste was the most important aspect of an individual.

Malanda Temple Picture, courtesy - www.sasthamcotta.com

Gandhari’s Hundred Sons

One of my readers sent me the following after reading “Gandhari and her Karma ” dated June 25, 2012, –

“Hi Utkarsh………, had a question too. Gandhari had 100 sons, as we all know it takes 9 months for incubating a baby (unless they had machines for the same at that time) and if she had 1 baby at a time, by the time the 100th would be born the first one would be 75! So how old was Gandhari during the war? Or did she give birth to all 100 at the same time? In which case, biologically, it would be difficult for all 100 to survive. What do you think?”

An interesting question and often asked by many. How can someone have 100 sons together or even one after another? Could it be that she had many combinations of twins, triplets, quadruplets, etc. many times over?

Mythology is replete with instances which are known as supra-normal births (beyond the range of normal or scientifically explainable), where births have taken place from fire, any body fluids, like tears and sweat, or from body parts like thigh, etc. This is essentially done, to connote a sense of ‘difference’ on the said character and also to hint that the character is destined to do in-human acts or feats. This was the then author’s way of assigning an importance to the character in reference. We will not get into such instances as all heroes in mythology have had ‘different’ births, like Krishna, Jesus, Hercules, Rama, Ganapati, to name just a few. Mahabharat is full of supra-normal births, be it Dronacharya, Kripacharya, Draupadi and her brother, and of course, Gandhari’s hundred sons.

The birth of Gandhari’s hundred sons, in brief – After Gandhari had conceived it was close to two years and she had not delivered. When she heard the news of Kunti’s children being born in the jungles, she was frustrated and angry and in her state of rage, she started beating her stomach. Soon she delivered a mass of flesh. Vyas had once blessed her with a hundred sons (a common blessing in those days) and when she saw the mass of flesh, he was called. He immediately instructed her to assemble a hundred jars with ghee (oil) in it. Gandhari at this stage expressed her desire to have a daughter too. As soon as the jars were assembled, Vyas divided the ball of flesh into a hundred and one parts and distributed each into the jars. He asked her to cover them and leave them, and soon she was the mother of hundred sons and one daughter.

Many later day thinkers hint at the concept which is better known to us today as ‘in-vitro fertilisation’. Today we know of such methods of IVF and cloning whereby births can be ‘made’ through artificial methods. I am by no means saying that Vyasa was a gynecologist and nor am I saying that people then had knowledge of such modern methods of reproduction. It could just be the figment of a creative writer’s imagination who had imagined a possibility, without going into the intricacies of the method. Also, don’t forget what is said at the beginning of the epic Mahabharata – “What is found herein may also be found elsewhere; What is not found herein does not exist.”

Another theory says that there weren’t a hundred sons, but just two, i.e. Duryodhan and Dushsshan. This gains ground as in the entire epic; these were the only two whose names had cropped up time and again (though later, we have heard of Vikarna, the Kaurava who was against the war). Also, the pregnancy lasting for two years lends credence to this theory. People of antiquity had never quite been able to explain the concept of twins (You can read more about twins in mythology in my earlier series "Twins – A case of peaceful co-existence. " dated May 1, 2011). The two-year pregnancy could have been put in to explain the birth of twins.

Another version is that the evil of Duryodhan was equal to that of hundred people; a concept similar to that of Ravana’s ten heads which implied his immense intelligence and knowledge. Mythology, like fiction also thrives on hyperbole and on a more simplistic note, this could be just that.

Another version takes the help of etymology (the study of the origin of words). Duryodhan means one who is difficult to fight, (‘duh’ – difficult & ‘yodh’ – to fight) representing ego & Dushasana means difficult to control. Representing ‘huge ego’ and ‘lack of control’ as a hundred only gave a sense of proportion to the immense trouble that the duo could unleash.

A philosophic explanation is as follows – Dhritarashtra represented blind mind and Gandhari represented blind intellect following the blind mind. Together they breed unfulfilled desires, dreams and ambitions, all unleashed on what stood for reason and law (dharma). The result of such a clash could only be a war of epic proportions!

The sheer beauty of what the authors of antiquity wrote is brought out by such representations, which to a rationalist mind might seem ridiculous and jest-worthy! Modern thinking should be used to understand the deeper meanings in the myths and not to look down and make fun of what was written way back, when ‘science’ was not a subject. I guess this is what education is all about!

I hope I have been able to answer my readers query!!