Shivji in Mahabharat - Page 2

One of the most famous appearance of Shivji in MBH, as Kirata Rudra. This form is praised in Shiva Purana and is also worshipped.

I was not aware of the second instance. Thanks for sharing it.

I find the Kirata story so cute! I love the trope of a God coming in disguise and completely bamboozling the devotees! 😆

Arjuna worshipped Śiva after vowing to slay Jayadratha, but it was also Śiva's favour that enabled Jayadratha to block the Pāṇḍavas other than Arjuna, resulting in the slaying of Abhimanyu. This is narrated at Āraṇyakaparvan 256.24-30 and Droṇaparvan 41.11-18.

In the first narration, Jayadratha specifically goes to Gaṅgādvāra for his tapas to please Virūpākṣa = Umāpati = Vṛṣadhvaja = Trilocana. Gaṅgādvāra was as close as one could get to Śiva physically without actually climbing Gandhamādana and trying to get past the Rākṣasas and Yakṣas guarding Kubera's park on Kailāsa.

Pleased with Jayadratha's tapas, Trilocana accepts his bali - offering - in person, similar to Arjuna seeing his nightly bali in the physical presence of Tryambaka.

Jayadratha requests: samastān sarathān pañca jayeyaṃ yudhi Pāṇḍavān - I would conquer in battle all five of Pāṇḍu's sons with their chariots.

The God replies na - No; ajayyāṃś c'āpy avadhyāṃś ca vārayiṣyasi tān yudhi ṛtE'rjunaṃ mahā-bāhuṃ devair api durāsadam yam āhur ajitaṃ devaṃ śaṅkha-cakra-gadā-dharam pradhānaḥ so'stra-viduṣāṃ tena Kṛṣṇena rakṣyate - They're unconquerable and unslayable; you'll block them in battle, except large-armed Arjuna, unassailable even by Gods. That foremost of astra-experts is protected by Kṛṣṇa whom they say is the undefeated God holding conch, discus, and mace.

The language that Śiva uses to defer to Kṛṣṇa is peculiar - yam āhuḥ - whom they say, as if Śiva himself doesn't directly perceive Kṛṣṇa's divinity but relies on seers.

In the second narration, Jayadratha pleases Śarva = Hara = Rudra by gṛnan brahma sanātanam - chanting the eternal brahma. The exact same words are used to describe how Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna worship Śiva on their flying adventure. In this narration, Jayadratha is granted his wish in a dream, not in person. Instead of aspiring to defeat the Pāṇḍavas, Jayadratha only requests: Pāṇḍaveyān ahaṃ saṃkhye bhīma-vīrya-parākramān eko raṇe dhārayeyaṃ samastān - alone, I would resist in battle all of the Pāṇḍaveyas whose valour and exploits are fearsome in battle, and without any explanation, Deveśa grants only a part of his wish: vinā Pārthaṃ Dhanaṃjayaṃ dhārayiṣyasi saṃgrāme caturaḥ Pāṇḍu-nandanān - except Pṛthā's son Dhanaṃjaya, you will resist in battle the four delights of Pāṇḍu.

This was the reason of this topic. So many events happen in MBH to Shivji's direct or indirect involvement.

At the beginning of Anuśāsanaparvan chapter 14, Yudhiṣṭhira asks Bhīṣma to tell him about the names unto Īśa = Śaṃbhu = Babhru = Viśvamāya. Notably, this query uses dative declensions (Īśāya, Śaṃbhave, Babhrave, Viśvamāyāya) as if the names lead to the God or are offered to the God, rather than the usual genitive declensions (which would be Īśasya, Śaṃbhoḥ, Babhroḥ, Viśvamāyasya) which would mean that the names are of the God.

Bhīṣma asks Viṣṇu to respond, and so Vāsudeva tells the story of how he learned Jagatpati's names on the occasion of praying to him for a son, Sāmba. The story begins twelve years after Pradyumna slew Śambara; Jāmbavatī reminds Kṛṣṇa that he worshipped Paśubhartṛ for twelve years, becoming wind and drying up, to beget Rukmiṇī's sons, and now she wants a brave, most powerful, handsome, unblemished son equal to Acyuta. Accordingly, Kṛṣṇa summons Tārkṣya and flies to Himavat, where he is greeted by Upamanyu Vaiyāghrapadya with several tales of Śiva granting extraordinary accomplishments to various devotees.

Upamanyu tells Kṛṣṇa his own story. Upamanyu was born in Kṛtayuga as the son of ṛṣi Vyāghrapāda, and his younger brother was Dhaumya. Once, while playing, the two of them came to an āśrama where a cow was being milked, and Upamanyu thought that milk must be sweeter than ambrosia. For a while, they were given flour mixed with water and told to drink it as milk, but when Upamanyu happened to taste real milk, he no longer liked the taste of flour-water, and he asked his mother for milk-rice.

This story has little in common with that of Upamanyu in Ādiparvan chapter 3, where Dhaumya is a guru who starves his disciple Upamanyu of alms, milk, and even the foam spat up by calves. The story of a poor boy tricked into believing he has tasted milk is also told about Aśvatthāman in some manuscripts of Mahābhārata, but not in the critical edition.

Upamanyu's mother felt pained and grieved. She hugged him, smelled his head, and said, "My calf, from where will milk-rice reach self-actualized hermits who live in woods and perpetually eat tubers, roots, and fruits? Without pleasing Virūpākṣa, the wish-granting and undiminished Sthāṇu, whence will come milk-rice, my calf, or comfortable garments? Always approach that Śaṃkara with all feeling, my calf, and by his favour, you will obtain fruit by your desires, my little son."

Upamanyu devoted himself to Mahādeva and performed tapas for a thousand divine years, standing on the tips of his big toes. For one hundred years, he ate fruits, for the second century, fallen leaves, for the third century, water, and for another seven hundred years, only air. Mahādeva was pleased and came to him in the guise of Śakra, riding his elephant and attended by all celestials. However, Upamanyu said that he did not want anything from Śakra or any other deity, except Mahādeva.

Anuśāsanaparvan 14.95-98:

Paśupati-vacanād bhavāmi sadyaḥ

kṛmir atha vā tarur apy aneka-śākhaḥ

aPaśupati-vara-prasādajā me

tribhuvana-rājya-vibhūtir apy aniṣṭā

By the order of the Lord of Beasts, I'll become instantly a worm, or instead a tree, even one of many branches. From the choice or favour of anyone who isn't the Lord of Beasts, even the distinction of ruling the three worlds is undesirable for me.

api kīṭaḥ pataṃgo vā bhaveyaṃ Śaṃkar'ājñayā

na tu Śakra tvayā dattaṃ trailokyam api kāmaye

May I become even an insect or a moth by Śaṃkara's command. Yet I don't desire even the three-world universe given by you, Śakra!

yāvac Chaś'āṅka-śakal'āmala-baddha-maulir

na prīyate Paśupatir bhagavān mam'Eśaḥ

tāvaj jarā-maraṇa-janma-śat'ābhighātair

duḥkhāni deha-vihitāni samudvahāmi

As long as he whose crown is spotlessly tied with the hare-marked moon's fragment, the Lord of Beasts, the Lord, the Master does not become pleased with me, so long, with hundreds of injuries from old age, death, and birth, I carry altogether the pains inherent in a body.

Divasa-kara-Śaś'āṅka-vahni-dīptaṃ

tribhuvana-sāram apāram ādyam ekam

ajaram amaram aprasādya Rudraṃ

jagati pumān iha ko labheta śāntim

Blazing with the daymaker sun, hare-marked moon, and fire (as three eyes), the essence of the three worlds, the impassable, the first, the only, the unaging, the immortal Rudra - without pleasing him, what man in the world here would obtain peace?

Can anyone name the three metres of Saṃskṛta poetry used in these four verses? If you've joined the Saṃskṛta Text Discussion private forum (link in my signature), you can check this topic to learn how to recognize the characteristics of these metres.

Upamanyu was willing to accept the short life of a worm, which cannot see or hear, which smells and tastes only decaying matter, and which has a tactile sense only to feel pain. He was willing to accept the long life of a many-branched tree, which can never move. The life of an insect, eaten by reptiles and birds, or the life of a moth that dies trying to find heat, would have been acceptable, as long as it served the purpose of Paśupati. Paśupati-as-Śakra asked Upamanyu, what was his intention regarding Īśa, the cause of causes?

Upamanyu replied, "Well, what use are other intentions? Īśa is the cause of causes. We don't hear that another's liṅga - phallus - is worshipped to excess by Gods. Except Maheśvara, who else's liṅga is worshipped by all the Gods, or was worshipped in the past? Tell, if you've heard. Really, he whose liṅga Brahman and Viṣṇu and even you always worship, together with deities, is thereby the most eminent."

As Upamanyu was worrying why Rudra did not feel pleased with him, Śakra on an elephant transformed into Mahādeva and Umā on a bull, blazing like the Saṃvartaka fire ready to destroy the world. He had eighteen arms and three eyes; he wore white clothes, white garlands and unguent, a white yajñopavīta, and a necklace of jewels binding golden lotuses.

Upamanyu saw Bhava's innumerable astras personified, of which these were foremost:

1. The bow Pināka, bright like a thousand rainbows, with a seven-headed, sharp-fanged, poison-spitting giant snake coiling its neck around the bowstring.

2. The arrow Pāśupata, bright like the sun or deadly fire, emitting sparks, with one foot, large fangs, thousand heads and bellies, thousand arms, tongues, and eyes, by which Tripura was burnt to ashes in an instant.

3. The trident, seeming to frown with three-peaked eyebrows, by which Māndhātṛ Yauvanāśva was slain with his army, although he was emperor of the three worlds, while the trident stayed in the hand of Lavaṇa Rakṣas.

4. The black serpent, smokeless and with sparks, like a black sun rising.

5. The axe, like a blazing fire-crest, with a snake coiling its neck around it, given to Rāma Jāmadagnya to slay the emperor Kārtavīrya and make the earth kṣatriya-free thrice seven times.

Upamanyu praised Mahādeva with a seventeen-verse prayer, identifying him with the best of every concept (similar to the list in Bhagavad-gītā), and with an eleven-verse prayer, asking for perpetual devotion to Śaṃkara, omniscience of past, future, and present, inexhaustible milk-rice for him and his family, and the God's presence in his āśrama.

Maheśvara blessed Upamanyu to be unaging, immortal, free of pain, virtuous, endowed with fine qualities, omniscient, handsome, forever youthful, bright like fire, with the milk-ocean available to him wherever he wished, to eat milk-rice with ambrosia included, with his family for the duration of the kalpa - cosmic cycle, after which he would approach Maheśvara, and meanwhile Maheśvara would be near his āśrama to give him darśana whenever Upamanyu remembered him.

In Anuśāsanaparvan chapter 15, Kṛṣṇa narrates how he ate fruits for a month, water for the second month, and only air for the third, fourth, and fifth months, standing on one foot with arms upraised, until Hara and Umā arrived on a cloud in a burst of radiance, surrounded by all deities. Kṛṣṇa found it difficult to look at Mahādeva's radiance, and praised him with a sixteen-verse prayer. Śaṃkara told Kṛṣṇa to choose eight wishes.

In chapter 16, Kṛṣṇa narrates that his eight wishes were: (1) dharme dṛḍhatvaṃ - firmness in morality; (2) yudhi śatru-ghātaṃ - slaying enemies in battle; (3) yaśas tathā'gryaṃ - foremost glory; (4) paramaṃ balaṃ ca - supreme strength; (5) yoga-priyatvaṃ - fondness for strategy; (6) tava saṃnikarṣaṃ - closeness to You; (7) vṛṇe sutānāṃ ca śataṃ śatāni - I choose a hundred hundreds of children. Śaṃkara granted these wishes. Then the world's mother, the earth who purifies all, Umā Śarvāṇī, treasure of tapas, said that Bhagavat had given him (8) a son named Sāmba; now, Kṛṣṇa should ask her for eight wishes too. Kṛṣṇa requested: (1) dvijeṣv akopaṃ - twice-born brāhmaṇas' non-anger; (2) pitṛtaḥ prasādaṃ - father's pleasure; (3) śataṃ sutānāṃ - a hundred children; (4) upabhogaṃ paraṃ ca - utmost luxury; (5) kule prītiṃ - family's friendship; (6) mātṛtaś ca prasādaṃ - mother's pleasure; (7) śama-prāptiṃ - reaching calm; (8) pravṛṇe c'āpi dākṣyam - I choose expertise. The Goddess promised Kṛṣṇa all of it: 16,000 wives and the ability to please them without being worn out, utmost friendship from relatives, a desirable body, and perpetual hospitality to seventy hundreds of guests.

After the God and Goddess disappeared, Kṛṣṇa returned to Upamanyu, who told him that in the Kṛta age, a ṛṣi named Taṇḍi worshipped Mahādeva for 10,000 years, obtained darśana, and praised him with a fifty-three-verse prayer, after which Śiva blessed him with a divinely knowledgeable son and firm devotion.

In Anuśāsanaparvan chapter 17, Upamanyu tells Kṛṣṇa the one thousand and eight names of Śiva that he learned from Taṇḍi.

In chapter 18, various sages and others give testimonials to Yudhiṣṭhira that praying to Śiva brought them extraordinary blessings.

This was one of the stories I had in my mind when I started this topic. It is not very well known that Shri Krishna did Tapasya to please Mahadevji to obtain his sons.

Very nicely explained, thanks for this.

Angry at Drona's death, Ashwatthama attacks the Pandavas.He even brings out Narayan astra. After Ashwatthama attacking Pandavas and their army in various ways, Arjuna counters him with Brahmastra. Then, after thinking and with sorrow, Ashwatthama runs away.

He encounters Vedvyas. He asks Vedvyas why he could not attack Krishna and Arjuna. Vedvyas tells him that once Narayan was born as Dharma's son. He did Tapasya of Shivji for lot of years on Mount Mainaka.

He then saw the lord of the world and the universe, the lord who is the creator of the universe. He is supremely difficult to look at and is the

lord of all the gods. He is smaller than the smallest and larger than the largest. This is the wise and supreme Rudra, bull among the gods. He is mobile and immobile. He is stationed in the hearts of all beings. He is difficult to resist. He is difficult to look at. His anger is fierce. He is the great-souled one. He is the one who destroys everything. But he is the one who is generous.

Then, Narayana asks him for a boon. One of the boon Shivji gives him, is that no one will be able to harm him. And that he will be able to defeat Shivji in a battle.

He also reminds Ashwatthama that he was born from Shivji's blessing. He had done austerities and pleased Mahadev.

Knowing all the forms of Bhava, one who worships the lord in the form of a linga, obtains eternal knowledge about his own self and about the sacred texts.

Then Ashwatthama bows to Rudra and shows his reverence to Shri Krishna.

Thanks for sharing this episode of Aśvatthāman's doubt after scorching the entire Pāṇḍava army with the fiery Āgneya astra but failing to singe Keśava and Arjuna, which is the penultimate chapter 172 of Droṇaparvan in the critical edition.

The translation that you've shared doesn't match the grammar of the text in a few places:

tato viśv'eśvaraṃ yoniṃ viśvasya jagataḥ patim

dadarśa bhṛśa-durdarśaṃ sarva-devair ap'īśvaram

aṇīyasām aṇīyāṃsaṃ bṛhadbhyaś ca bṛhattaram

Rudram īśānam ṛṣabhaṃ cekitānam ajaṃ param

gacchatas tiṣṭhato vā'pi sarva-bhūta-hṛdi sthitam

Instead of "the lord of the world and the universe," which sounds redundant, the words viśveśvaraṃ = master of everything and jagataḥ patim = lord of the world have different connotations. The words yoniṃ viśvasya = birthplace of everything are feminine, which isn't conveyed by "the creator of the universe." The words bhṛśa-durdarśaṃ sarva-devair api = strictly difficult to see even by all gods should be read together, as sarva-devair ap'īśvaram = even by all gods the master doesn't make sense grammatically as "the lord of all the gods." I think the words īśānam = masterer and cekitānam = examiner (related to cikitsā = examination) connote actions. The word ajaṃ = unborn shouldn't be missed. It isn't Rudra who is "mobile and immobile;" rather, the genitive declension of gacchatas tiṣṭhato vā'pi = whether of motile or of stationary indicates that these words modify sarva-bhūta-hṛdi = in all beings' hearts; Rudra stays in all beings' hearts whether they're animate or inanimate.

The description of Rudra continues with a warlike aspect, consistent with what Nārāyaṇa seeks:

divyaṃ cāpam iṣudhī c'ādadānaṃ

hiraṇya-varmāṇam ananta-vīryam

Pinākinaṃ vajriṇaṃ dīpta-śūlaṃ

paraśvadhiṃ gadinaṃ svāyat'āsim

Carrying a divine bow and two quivers of arrows, golden-armoured, endlessly heroic, with Pināka bow, with thunderbolt, with bright trident, with axe, with mace, with a very long sword.

Droṇaparvan's final chapter 173 also glorifies Rudra. Arjuna meets Vyāsa by chance, and inquires:

saṃgrāme nighnataḥ śatrūñ śar'aughair vimalair aham

agrato lakṣaye yāntaṃ puruṣaṃ pāvaka-prabham

In battle, when I shoot enemies with spotless arrow-heaps, I discern a man going ahead, bright as fire.

jvalantaṃ śūlam udyamya yāṃ diśaṃ pratipadyate

tasyāṃ diśi viśīryante śatravo me mahāmune

Brandishing a blazing trident, in whichever direction he turns, in that direction my enemies decompose, great hermit!

na padbhyāṃ spṛśate bhūmiṃ na ca śūlaṃ vimuñcati

śūlāc chūla-sahasrāṇi niṣpetus tasya tejasā

He doesn't touch the ground with his two feet, and he doesn't let go the trident. From the trident, thousands of tridents discharge by his energy.

tena bhagnān arīn sarvān mad-bhagnān manyate janaḥ

tena dagdhāni sainyāni pṛṣṭhato'nudahāmy aham

All the enemies shattered by him, people think are shattered by me. The troops burned by him, I burn along behind him.

bhagavaṃs tan mam'ācakṣva ko vai sa puruṣ'ottamaḥ

śūla-pāṇir mahān Kṛṣṇa tejasā sūrya-saṃnibhaḥ

Magnificent lord, Kṛṣṇa! Show me this: who is that best of men, really, with trident in hand, huge, by his energy totally resembling the sun?

Vyāsa tells Arjuna that it is Śaṃkara, and to take shelter of him. Who else could even mentally assail the army protected by Droṇa, Karṇa, and Kṛpa? Even the smell of angry Maheśvara makes enemies shudder and faint.

Vyāsa extols Bahurūpa with many epithets and explains the meaning of some epithets. He narrates how Bhava destroyed the yajña, smashed Pūṣan's teeth, shot an arrow through the coppery, silvery, and golden cities of Tripura, paralyzed Śakra's thunderbolt-hurling arm, and transformed his mouth into the submarine fire.

Not only the Pāṇḍavas, the Dhārtarāṣṭras too are born by the blessing of Hara (Ādiparvan 103.9):

ārādhya varadaṃ devaṃ Bhaga-netra-haraṃ Haram

Gāndhārī kila putrāṇāṃ śataṃ lebhe varaṃ śubhā

After worshipping the wish-granting God Hara, the remover of Bhaga's eyes, the pretty woman of Gandhāra apparently obtained her wish of a hundred sons.

It is surely no coincidence that an epithet alluding to the myth of Śiva blinding Bhaga is used for the God who blesses Gāndhārī before she finds herself affianced to a blind man and decides to give up her eyesight.

When Duryodhana enters prāya to end his life after being captured by Gandharvas and released by Yudhiṣṭhira's mercy, the Dānavas who exhort him to keep up the conflict narrate this story of his origin (Āraṇyakaparvan 240.6-8):

purā tvaṃ tapasā'smābhir labdho Devān Maheśvarāt

pūrva-kāyaś ca sarvas te nirmito vajra-saṃcayaiḥ

astrair abhedyaḥ śastraiś c'āpy adhaḥ-kāyaś ca te'nagha

kṛtaḥ puṣpa-mayo Devyā rūpataḥ strī-mano-haraḥ

evam Īśvara-saṃyuktas tava deho nṛp'ottama

Devyā ca rāja-śārdūla divyas tvaṃ hi na mānuṣaḥ

Formerly, by austerity you were obtained by us from the God Maheśvara. And your entire upper body was fashioned of heaps of diamonds, unbreakable by missiles and weapons, and moreover your lower body, faultless one! was made of flower-composition by the Goddess, stealing women's minds by its beauty. Thus, your body is endowed by the Master, best of governors of men! and the Lady, royal tiger! You are of destiny and not of human effort.

Invulnerable above the belt and vulnerable below, where Bhīma's fatal blow will strike his thighs, Duryodhana is the collaborative product of a God and a Goddess who are themselves two halves of the same body.