Originally posted by: Chiillii
Balram's mother was Rohini also known as Pauravi. Sister to Somdatta Bahlika and aunt of Kouravas and Pandavas. Bahlikas however aligned with kouravas inspite of Pandavas also being their cousin.
Balram also taught Duryodhan mace fight when he had exiled himself in Mithila after fighting Krishna. Dury wormed his way into Balram's hear there.
Duryodhan and Balram were born in the same year just like Krishna and Arjun were.
Krishna's closeness to Arjun could ve pushed Balram to Duryodhan. Bhima was in my opinion equal to balram or even better though he trained under him. Just like Arjun was better than Drona.
I dont believe Balram was sheshnag. And Bhima's battle score is 5 times better than Balram
Personality wise too Balram is hedonistic wine drinking girl chasing guy, Bhima is not. So Dury who was more closer in personality and more intentionally subservient got into Balram's heart.
As per Indonesian MB, Shalya had three daughters
Rewati married to Balram
Banowati married to Duryodhan
SutiKanti married to Karna.
By the way Indonesian MB is considered least interpolated,
@Bold Are you sure on this? Indonesian Mahabharata is completely different to ours
1) No Polyandry-- Draupadi only married to Yudhishtir
2) Arjun married to Shikhandi. In ours Shikhandi is male having a son who is killed by Lakshman on day 8
3) Gandhaari was in love with Pandu, since she had to marry Dhritrashtra, she wanted her sons to kill Pandu's sons
4) Duryodhan's wife is secretly in love with Arjun and they marry after the war
5) The 100 Kauravas are actually Kshetraj santaans of a goat
Aside Karna being married to Shalya's daughter somehow rejects the idea of demoralising of the former by the latter. Why would he do that to his own son in law. Also the entire tricking Madra Naresh to join their side makes no sense since why would Shalya support the opponent of his son in laws.
Not sure but this version seems to me as some deliberately altered version to suit the narrative. Aside it might not be interpolated but it is definitely a much later text, so in high probability the story which reached to them was in itself a distorted one
About the other points, Dury seems closer to Balram in characteristics, also Bheem was definitely better than Balram in overall warfare(although I do think Dury and him was better in mace fighting) but still that doesn't seem to be a reason big enough to go against your first cousins and the husband and BILs of your own sister
Going by the folklores, his daughter was married to Abhimanyu. He wanted her to marry Lakshman, but she loved Abhi and by the help of Ghatochkach they make a fool out of Lakshman and marry.
(They have made a jester of Lakshman in that folklore. It doesn't match the characterization of him that we could decipher reading about his minor references in Mahabharata)
So you go against a family where the girls of your family has been for three consecutive generations (at least two if we ignore the folklore) just because one of the brothers is better than you seems seriously improbable to me. Aside why did he have to accept Krishna's order to not join Duryodhan? Krishna himself did join the Pandavas despite Balram not wanting it
Aside could you please tell if Kritvarma was a part of the Narayani Sena or did he join Kauravas separately? Didn't he train Abhimanyu? Any other notable figure of the Narayani Sena
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