After the Pandavas had fulfilled their thirteen years of exile,
they were faced with a looming question.
What would they do now?
Duryodhana was supposed to give back their kingdom, but would he do
so? Yudhishthira then asked his
brothers, “What should we do?”
Bhima was the first to reply and said to Yudhishthira, “We
should go to war to reclaim our honor and our kingdom. Duryodhana has wronged
us and we should seek retribution.”
Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva agreed with this sentiment and
said to Yudhishthira, “We agree with Bhima we should go to war with Duryodhana.”
Yudhishthira replied to his brothers and said, “It is not
better to seek reconciliation with Duryodhana but I agree that we have been
wronged. Let us first seek the council
of Krishna.”
Therefore, the kings and princes gathered in the hall of
King Virata and Krishna spoke to them saying, “An ambassador should be sent to
Duryodhana asking for half of the kingdom that should be returned. If Duryodhana does not agree with this then
the righteous ones will be the Pandavas and war may be waged.” Then Krishna returned to his home in Dvaraka.
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| Sanjaya meets Dhritarashtra during peace negotiations (Source:wikimedia |
So an Sanjaya was sent to Dhritarashtra with the message. At the same time, however, messages were sent
to the various surrounding kings asking for the help. Arjuna wishing to gain the alliance of
Krishna set out to Dvaraka. When he arrived,
he saw that Duryodhana had also just arrived and was there seeking an alliance
with Krishna. They went up to Krishna’s
room where he was sleeping an Arjuna placed himself at the foot of his bed and
prostrated himself while Duryodhana took a seat next to head of the bed. When Krishna awoke, he saw Arjuna prostrated
at the foot of his bed then he saw Duryodhana at the next to him. Krishna then said, “Greetings, what is the
reason for your urgent visit?”
Duryodhana replied, “I was the first to arrive and I seek
your help in our impending war.’
Krishna then said, “Indeed you were the first to arrive but
I saw Arjuna first so I must also help him.
One of you can have an army the other can have me but I will not fight.”
Arjuna who was younger was allowed to pick and because he loved
Krishna, he picked him over the army.
Duryodhana was pleased with the arrangement and went home with the army
and Krishna and Arjuna departed to their camp.
Author’s Note:
This story is based off the story from The Story of the GreatWar: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant. This version of the story follows the basic
outline of the original story. I added
in the conversation at the beginning and I increased the amount of dialogue in
the story. I chose to do it like this to
make it feel like the reader was there which was the main goal for writing this
story.
Bibliography:
The Story of the Great War: Some Lessons from the Mahabharata by Annie Besant (1899)
I remembered in my choice for the reading of the Mahabharata (PDE), it said that Arjuna chose Krishna over an army because of how adorable Krishna was. I thought that was so sweet in the story. I’m glad you wrote this as your storytelling because it reminded me of that passage. It also shows how loyal of a friend Arjuna is compared to the power hungry Duryodhana.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your take on this portion of the myths of the Pandava brothers. It was interesting to see the dialogue that you added to explain the choices that the brothers make. Like Brynn, I also remembered Arjuna choosing Krishna, but I hadn't considered that this would almost seem like a disadvantage to Duryodhana. Good job with your storytelling. :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this story from the Mahabharata! I remember reading a more detailed version of this story from one of the previous readings and I thought it was really interesting! I love reading about Krishna so this was a great story for me to read. He’s just really interesting to read about because he is so powerful and good at fighting.
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