The Forgotten Political Drama

I believe they skipped quite some footage before Devaki and Vasudev ji's marriage, you guys can watch it on YT. 😳

(Thank God for the veterans, or else personally I wouldn't even have known! 😈)

You can watch those parts in this playlist over the videos - Disc 2: parts 1 to 5 :-

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0E962F743D5466DA

RSji did not just win the best Director award in 1994 for no apparent reason. 😆

This is a clear representation of all the political strains and strings which knotted into the 8th avatara of Vishnu! The rising tensions inside the Yadava community and the coup that successfully represses oppositions laying the seed for the ultimate revolution almost over a decade later.

I hope you enjoy!

The political backdrop of the Yadavas is so fascinating! They were not your simple monarchy like the Kurus and Panchalas, with one King and a united praja. They were made up of several different 'factions', each of whom had their own leader, and King Ugrasena was kind of like the "leader" of them all, but they constantly disagreed with one another. There were others like Kamsa, who believed themselves to be the mightiest of them all. Even after Kans' death, Krishna and Balarama were constantly appeasing disagreements among them. It's why the Yadavas all killed one another so easily in the end. The disagreements they had among each other simply erupted once Krishna and Balarama left the Earth. Without them to hold everyone together, the Yadavas disbanded as expected.

Ramanand Sagar portrayed this unrest among the Yadavas so well in those initial episodes. 👏 It's really a big pity that those episodes were deleted/edited out of the show, because it really helps new viewers understand why Kans was such a difficult enemy to overcome. It's not that he was the strongest. He just had support in the form of Jarasandh, and unless the Yadavas all united to overthrow him, they could never have defeated Jarasandh's army. That was the whole point behind Vasudev and Devaki's wedding - to unite the Yadavas. Vasudev was a brilliant strategist. He was intelligent and strong, but he was also peace-minded and didn't desire instant war like the other Yadavas. That's why he was perfect as a future leader and Krishna's father.

Did they show in first episode about parikshit story and kaliyug entering and talking to parikshit and parikshit giving four place to kaliyug and getting curse that after 1week he will be kill by takshak nag

And did they show story of jay vijay gate keeper of Lord Vishnu vaikunth who are curse 4 children bhraman in first episode

@Janu di, so would I be right in saying that the Yadavas were the closest thing to a democracy that we had in those days? 😉

Also, do we get to see Vasudev's leadership in any form post-Kamsa? 😳

@Surabhi di, I myself am not watching it on TV so can't confirm what they showed this time, but in the playlist I have been following on YT, they showed Parikshit's curse, but not Jaya-Vijaya. For Kamsa they're gonig with the Kalnemi theory. 😊

Yadavs were a kind of one party system of democracy, the elected representatives had their voices. The leadership wasn't hereditary

Although I am not sure if Devki Vasudev marriage would have helped

Originally posted by: proteeti

@Janu di, so would I be right in saying that the Yadavas were the closest thing to a democracy that we had in those days? 😉

Also, do we get to see Vasudev's leadership in any form post-Kamsa? 😳

I'm not sure if I'd call it a democracy since the citizens didn't choose their leader, but maybe a combination of democracy and monarchy? They weren't your typical monarchy for sure lol.

We see a little - post Kamsa vadha, we see the Yadavas battling Jarasandh and coming up with different strategies to defeat him. Vasudeva alone doesn't take decisions as he's not yet the King, but he is involved, and so are Krishna and Balaram. Post Kans-vadh is some of Swapnil's best acting as a leader of the Yadavas. 👏 It was too short, but absolute perfection!

Originally posted by: FlauntPessimism

Yadavs were a kind of one party system of democracy, the elected representatives had their voices. The leadership wasn't hereditary

Although I am not sure if Devki Vasudev marriage would have helped

Devaki belonged to the Andhaka faction of the Yadavas, and Vasudev the Vrishnis. These two factions were the most powerful/influential out of the Yadavas, so of course they were the ones mostly at disagreement with each other (also largely due to Kans' atrocities - he belonged to the Andhakas and brought them a bad name). Thus, the elders decided that getting their respective prince and princess married to each other would form sort of a truce between both factions. With the Andhakas and Vrishnis at peace, the other Yadava factions wouldn't dare do anything.

The truce would have worked upon Vasudev and Devaki's marriage, but no one predicted that Kans would betray his own faction, the Andhakas, and forge an alliance with Jarasandh, thereby overthrowing the entire Yadava race. This is where Kans shows that although he may not have been physically the most powerful, he was sly and crafty, and knew what to do to get what he wanted.

Thanks for the explanations Janu di. Although I don't consider Kans to be very bright. Yes he had an amazing (was it though?) support system in his Mantri-mandala, in the likes of Chanoor etc. They were the ones who gave him ideas na. 😆

Originally posted by: proteeti

Thanks for the explanations Janu di. Although I don't consider Kans to be very bright. Yes he had an amazing (was it though?) support system in his Mantri-mandala, in the likes of Chanoor etc. They were the ones who gave him ideas na. 😆

He wasn't exactly intelligent (as in learned in Vedas and all), but he was crafty and sly in the way sociopaths are. He definitely wasn't stupid. After all, he did bring about the downfall of the entire Yadavas and subjugated Mathura for almost 25-30 years.