Originally posted by: MS-meghasharma
an article on the same story
Truth behind "Shakuni"
Since a child i was fascinated by mythology, and who else but my grandma {dad's mom} would tell me all the stories from the past. I used to love watching those black n white mythological movies with her.
Taking 20 mins time from my Haskell assignment :) here i go with one of the stories she had told me.
We all know about Shakuni - symbol for wickedness/slyness. He was known to be cunning and had one thing always in his mind - "Downfall of Krishna".A person who is so smart and intelligent must have had some reason to hate Krishna. This story is all about that. Hope its a good read for you guys!
Dhritharashtra was a wise but a blind king and Ghandhari was his loyal wife who had blindfolded her eyes intentionally. She chose not to see a world which her husband could not see. Ghandhari's astrological signs showed that her first husband would be on his death bed soon and so they got her married to a goat and then they killed the goat. This was a secret known to the Ghandhara family{100 sons + 1 daughter}, to which she belonged to before marriage. A few years laters Dhritharashtra got to know about this and he imprisoned the entire Ghandhara family and the king Subala and his 100 sons and treated them very badly.
Every day only one a handful of rice was given to each of them to eat. As days passed one by one started to die of hunger. King Subala realized that this was not how their dynasty was going to end. By now the amount of anger on Dhritharashtra had quadrupled and so he came up with this plan of every one in prison sacrificing their food and handing it over to one person and make that person strong and be responsible for the downfall of Dhritharashtra . The youngest and wittiest son was Shakuni and everyday all would offer their food to him. He could not bear the sight of his father and brothers dying of hunger everyday.
When Subala realized he had no more energy to survive, he called Dhritharashtra and requested him to be considerate on this poor kid and allow him to be free and also promised that he will always be like a guardian to his sons. (Meanwhile Dhritharashtra had 100 sons and a daughter.) He finally pitied his father-in-law and agreed to this. Subala contented with his reply breathed his last. But before dying he told Shakuni to make use of his thigh/back bone and create a powerful magic dice which spins the requested number. He wanted this to be the reason for the downfall of Dhritharashtra and his dynasty.
Shakuni as promised, was the guardian of the 100 Kaurava sons and being with them he gained their confidence and instilled all wicked thoughts into everyone. He was the responsible for the Kurukshetra war, which he did by provoking Dhuryodhana against the Pandavas which led to the victory of latter thus fulfilling his fathers wish.
http://ur-destination.blogspot.in/2010/10/truth-behind-shakuni.html
I agree with this.
And there is even a story on how dritarashtra came to know of it.
It said that one day kauravas were bullying pandavas on them not being pandu's sons and then in anger bhima too called not being dritrashtra's sons or "sons of goat" which Bhishma heard. Having told this to dritrashtra the inquiry started and they came to know of what all happened.
In those days a woman's kids are always said to be her first husband's kids (except the ones born before marrying him i.e out of wedlock) Hence all the pandavas are pandu's sons except karna. And yes, all of them are rightful heirs to the kingdom too.. (this one i have added to clear doubts of those members who feel pandavas are not legal heirs as they are not pandu's blood. But it is not about blood. A wish given to a woman is the wish given to the entire clan of hers and her husband's)
Hence Shakuni, the mastermind is not kaurava's well wisher but fox in sheep's clothing for duryodhan to bring his downfall with his brothers, just like how his 99 brothers and his father died.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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