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1-MBH-Characters

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1-Special MBH Male Characters
See also   Women in MBH

Here are some special MBH male characters and their special characteristics, by which they stand alone.
See also  Women in MBH - this is its counterpart for women characters

Shaantanu
MBH's first male character is King Shaantanu of Hastinaapur, from whom this story begins. First he marries Gangaa from who he has a son named Devavrat or Bheeshm and then marries Satyavatee from whom he has two sons Chitraangad and Vichitraveerya - who continues his family line.

Bheeshm
--Bheeshm was the son of a celestial, Gangaa, and an incarnation of a Vasu.
--He had many great Guru - Brihaspati, Parashuraam etc
--His main characteristic is that he took such a difficult vow to marry his father Shaantanu to Satyavatee that he was called Bheeshm.
--Because of this sacrifice, he got the boon of Ichchhaa Mrityu from his father, and that is how he lay down on the bed of arrows for several days even after falling in the War on the 10th day.
--He was also such a knowledgeable soul that after Yudhishthir became the King of Hastinaapur, he went to him for his teachings. He is famous for giving Vishnu Sahastra Naam and other many political preaching delivered to Paandav from the bed of arrows.

Dhritraashtra
--People know him as a blind, jealous with Paandav, desirous for being a king man. Does anybody know that he knew the account of his 99 previous births? Once he said to Krishn - "Krishn, I know about my 99 previous births, I did not such a thing which could give me so much sorrow, what did I do in my any previous birth?" Krishn said - "It was in your last 100th birth...."
--He also had 10.000 elephants strength.

Paandu
--Paandu was the son of Ambaalikaa and Vyaas Jee. He did not do much except to marry Kuntee and Maadree and having five sons through several Devtaa. They were later called Paandav. Since he had a curse of a Rishi Kindam on himself, he could not have a child of his own.
--He died soon when his children were even young.

Vidur
--Vidur was the incarnation of Dharm Raaj.
--Since he himself was the incarnation of Dharm Raaj, he could not make any mistake in morality, so much so that his morality is famous among Hindu as "Vidur Neeti". There are three Neeti famous - "Vidur Neeti" about morality, "Chaanakya Neeti" about political economy and Bhartrihari's three "Shatak" - Shatak means hundred. These three Shatak are the collections of 4-lines Sanskrit verses, 100 verses each, as "Shringaar Shatak" (on love), "Neeti Shatak" (on morality) and "Vairaagya Shatak" (on detachment).
--When Vidur Jee died, he did not die normally, he got absorbed in Yudhishthir.
--Although he has no special quality in him, but his this quality is enough to remember him that his all actions and speeches were according to Dharm. He could have never made any mistake in  his speech or action.

Drone
--Drone will always have a black spot on his face - because he loved Arjun most and he had already declared that he would be the best archer of the world, when he saw Eklavya more skilled than Arjun, he asked his right thumb in Guru Dakshinaa, which he gave without any hesitation instantly.

Ashwatthaamaa
--Ashwatthaamaa was the son of Drone and was immortal - nowhere is found any reference that how he was born.
--He was born with a gem on his forehead which he had to give up when he had killed Pareekshit.
--Although there is nowhere any reference of this, but he was born to kill Dhrishtdyumn, and he killed him after the war ended.
--He killed Draupadee's five sons also, born from five Paandav, in sleep thinking that they were Paandav.
--To save himself from Arjun, he released Brahmaastra which he did not know to get it back, he did a nasty work with that he directed it towards Uttaraa's womb which had Pareekshit, Abhimanyu's son. Krishn helped Uttaraa to bring back Preekshit to life, take his gem and curse Ashwatthaamaa.

Kripaachaarya
--Kripaa was immortal. Although both Kripaa and Kripee were the children of Maharshi Sharadwaan and an Apsaraa, but no information is available as how Kripaa was immortal. And if he was immortal, then what about Kripee? Was she also immortal? And if not, then why not?

Karn
--Karn was the son of a celestial - Soorya Dev. Thus, in a way, he was the younger brother of Sugreev
--He was born with a golden armor and golden earrings which were to protect his life.
--He is famous for his alms giving. He worshipped Soorya Dev and after that he used to give alms to whoever came there and whatever he asked for.
--Taking the advantage of his alms giving quality, Indra cunningly asked his armor and earrings in alms assuming the form of a Braahman. And Karn did not say no to him in spite of knowing that the Braahman was Indra who wanted to saved his son Arjun from him. Thus he gave his life to Indra in a way.
--The last thing, he was so unfortunate for his whole life, that (1) His mother threw him in the river, so he did not his mother and was always known as Soot's son, because a charioteer brought him up; (2) He could not get weapons training properly, he had to lie for it. He went to Parashuraam Jee and since he was the enemy of the Kshatriya, he told him that he was a Braahman. He was such a good disciple that Parashuraam Jee did not take Guru Dakshinaa from him, but when he knew the truth, he took all education back from him as a curse. (3) He had one curse more. (3) Later Indra cunningly took his life saving Kavach and earrings. (4) All this combined became the cause of his death.
--He was so much obliged to Duryodhan that even if both Krishn and Kuntee asked him to come to Paandav's side, he did not come and said - "It is too late now, I cannot die without paying the debt of Duryodhan."

Yudhishthir
--Yudhishthir was the son of a celestial Dharm Raaj.
--His main characteristic was that he never told lie. People trusted him for his this quality so much that when Drone heard "Ashwatthaamaa died" during the MBH war, he told that he would believe only when Yudhishthir would say it. Yudhishthir said it and he believed it.
--It is said that because of speaking truth, his chariot ran on the ground 4 fingers up, but after he told this .lie about Ashwatthaamaa, his chariot wheels touched the ground
--He was a knower of Dharm and thus never went out of Dharm any time

Bheem
--Bheem was the son of Vaayu Dev, thus he was the younger brother of Hanumaan.
--He had 10,000 elephants strength in his body
--He ate a lot and that is why he could not miss his food at any time of the day. It is said that he ate half of the food of the family and the rest of the half food was for all others.
--He could carry all 5, four of his brothers and Kuntee or Draupadee alone on his shoulders for quite some time.

Arjun
--Arjun was the son of the King of the celestials - Indra; and thus he was the younger brother of Baali
--He had 10 names to give meaning to his qualities
--He could use his Gaandeev bow with both hands
--He told Uttar that he got the firmness of his hand from Indra (G-4-Van/67)
--The greatest thing about him was that he was the friend of Krishn, and because of this Krishn agreed to be his charioteer

Nakul and Sahadev
--Nakul and Sahadev were twins born to Maadree from the celestials Ashwinee Kumaar.
--Nakul had only four people equal to him - Ashwatthaamaa, Dhrishtketu (son of Shishupaal), Rukmee (Rukminee's brother), and Pradyumn (Krishn's son).

Dhrishtdyumn
--Dhrishtdyumn, born from Agni Kund, son of Drupad, was born with armor and a bow and arrow to kill Drone. Drupad performed that Yagya with only this purpose that he wanted a son who could kill Drone.

Eklavya
--He was a Nishaad's son and will always be remembered for his Guru Dakshinaa to Drone. Drone had asked his right thumb in Guru Dakshinaa so that he could be equal or more to Arjun in archery..

Jaraasandh
--Jaraasandh was born in two pieces. His two mothers threw those pieces. A Jaraa named Raakshasee picked them up for eating but joined them in playful mood. The two pieces came to life. Jaraa took him home and gave him to the King. For this reason he was difficult to be killed.
--Secondly, he also had 10,000 elephants strength. Thus only Bheem could kill him, still because of his special  birth Bheem had to use special technique to kill him.
--He used to respect Braahman very much, and used to give them what they wanted, that is why Krishn, Bheem and Arjun went to him in the form of Braahman to ask for the alms of duel fighting. He gave it and was killed by Bheem.

Keechak
--Keechak, the brother-in-law of Raajaa Viraat, was a Soot's son. He also had 10,000 elephants strength in his body, that is why only Bheem could kill him. When Duryodhan heard about his killing, he said - "Keechak can be killed only by four people - Balaraam, Bheeshm, Bheem and Shalya. Balaraam has not killed him, Bheeshm is here, he has not killed him; Shalya has not killed him; it means that only Bheem has killed him. And it means Paandav are living in Viraat's kingdom."

Shishupaal
--Shishupaal was born with three eyes and four arms. His mother got afraid seeing that and wanted to kill him, but an aerial voice stopped her doing so. On asking who will kill him, it said that in whose lap his third eye and two extra arms fall down, he/she will kill him. Since the she started giving him in everybody's lap. When she gave him to Krishn, they fell down. She prayed Krishn not to kill him, Krishn assured her to pardon his 100 mistakes on which He could kill him. That is what He did in Yudhisthir's Raajsooya Yagya and killed him on his 101st abuse. This was his last birth so he got absorbed in Krishn. Read his story in Jaya Vijaya

 

 

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Created by Sushma Gupta On 5/27/04
Contact:  sushmajee@yahoo.com
Modified on 01/24/13