Posted:
Hi FriendsMy knowledge on the epic saga is very little based on only bed time stories by my grandmother and tv serials. I have started reading Mahabharat recently, want to know which online site is closest to the original Mahabharat. There are many stories related to MB that is talked about and sometimes they are contradictory to each other. All these are damn confusing for a beginner like me. Different people come up with diff explanations... Wiki is not of much help either.Now presently I have three questions- may be very silly ones!! Please bear with me.1. Did Ashwatthama take any vow of lifelong celibacy like Bhism? I have heard about it. In the serial I don't know what they are showing? If yes then why And when He took such a wise decision? He doesn't look like someone very wise like Bhism to me.2. Ashwathama directed Bhramhasira towards the womb of Uttara, or he directed it towards the wombs of all pandava womenfolk in general (which is difficult to believe bcoz all of them were not present in one place na?). What actually he did?3. Why was Abhimanyu's child the only heir of Pandavas? Agree that all their children were died but were they so old at the time of Kurukshetra that they were incapable of producing children anymore? Even a septuagenarian can produce children. I mean technically it is not impossible right?. So what was stopping Pandavas to marry young princesses and produce heirs? In those times they had sages who could generate children from anywhere anytime. If they really wanted to carry forward their legacy was it so difficult for them?Please someone explain these to me?
Let me try and then others can chip in.
1. As far as I remember Ashwi did not take any vow of celibacy. Why he did not marry is something which only he or Ved Vyas can answer. The depiction of Ashwi in the show is sheer nonsense. Ashwi is pretty neutral and turned against the Pandavas only when they had lied to kill Drona. Even then on the 17 day after Dushy was killed he advocated peace. Looks like the subsequent unfair killings of Karna and Dury completely turned him into some monster.
2. He did aim the astra at all the Pandava women. Apart from Uloopi and Chitrangada who were in modern day Nagaland and Manipur all the other Pandava women were in Upaplavya. The Brahmashira astra was seriously powerful and could be directed at the place at will.
3. If Satyaki and Kritavarma could go back after Kurukshetra and have kids (remember their young sons survived the Yadava carnage) so could the Pandavas. Why they did not can have many reasons depending on how one wants to see things. Queens those days took an active part in administration and the queen who gives birth to the heir has generally more say in the matters. Maybe Pandavas did not want to cause heartburn in their private lives, they had to build the kingdom more or less from scratch and therefore had enough on their plates to worry about. Maybe they wanted to share the pain of their wives and hence did not marry. Ofcourse all this because Parikshit was there, if not they certainly would have taken steps to continue their line.
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