Did Bhishma starve Shakuni’s family to death, thus making Shakuni plot to destroy Bhishma’s family?

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Question. Is it true that Shakuni became the enemy of the Urdu dynasty because Bheeshma starved and killed all the family members of Shakuni and forcibly took Gandhari away from them. And then whatever little food they had, they all saved it and gave it to Shakuni and told Shakuni that he should, he should destroy the Kuru dynasty in return. Answer, there is absolutely no reference to any such story in the Mahabharata itself. The The Mahabharata has been retold by many people in many different ways, and such people often have their own agenda.

Sometimes they add simply want to add spice. Sometimes they have some spite. Whatever it is, first of all, the story doesn’t come in the original Mahabharata. And we can also look at broader contexts that, yes, Shakuni did have some negative feeling toward Bhishma. That was primarily because when Bhishma came to seek the seek the hand of Gandhari for the guru prince, he expected that Gandhari would be given to Pandu because Pandu was expected to be the king.

But Bhishma thought it was implicit that the the younger brother would not marry before marrying the before the marriage of the elder brother. So Gandhari was given he asked simply for the hand of the Gandhar princess for the Kuru prince. Bhishma didn’t mention who it was. And when Gandhari’s hand was given to Draupadi sorry, to Dhritarashtra, Gandhari accepted it as her fate gallantly, and she became an exemplary wife. But Shakuni felt resentment.

He felt that his sister had been cheated, and that’s why he felt that if my sister does not get the royal privilege through her husband, she should at least get it through her son. And that’s why he tried to prop Duryodhana up. But this had nothing to do with, Bhishma having wronged his family. That that particular incident is also incompatible with the rest of the Mahabharata because three reasons. First is that there is no reference in the Mahabharata of Gandhari hating Bhishma anytime.

No. It would have been if Bhishma had caused had tortured and killed her entire family, you know, she would definitely have, at some point, expressed that anger to Bhishma. She doesn’t do that. Secondly, there are many places where Bhishma where the Mahabharata characters criticize each other when they are angry. And then whatever wrong they have done, even a small wrong, is sometimes exaggerated and, spoken in those occasions of rage.

So there are times when Duryodhan as well as, Karana lash out at even Bhishma in the Mahabharata, but never once do they mention this incident. And if there if this incident actually happened, they would definitely have used that to criticize Bhishma. And thirdly, there is no other incident where Bhishma seemed to be cruel in this way. The only place where he might seem a little he he can seem a little hard is when he refused to marry Amba, but he had no intention to marry her at all because because he was a brahmachari. And, that was completely circumstantial that she was left abandoned.

And but apart from that, systematically torturing or killing someone is completely out of sync with Bhishma’s character. And not only that, why would Bhishma do that if he wanted the bride from the, bride from that family? No. There is the Kuru kingdom had such power that at that time, for any family, it would be an honor to have their daughter married in the family. There was no reason for the Gandhar Kingdom to oppose.

And there was no and if they were not opposing, there’s no reason for the for Bhishma to torment torture a family with whom he was going to be related through marriage. And on top of that, if Bhishma had done something like this to the entire family, why would Bhishma even allow if Bhishma was so cruel and powerful enough to do that and get away with that? Why would Bhishma have then allowed the sole surviving member of that family to come so close into the inner circles of the guru rulers? Why would Bhishma let Shakuni survive? Why would he let Shakuni thrive in the Khura assembly?

So this is a complete, fabrication. And both both in the text and the context, we can say that it is, it is not a valid story at all.