Mahabharata characters 58 – Nakula – Sustaining unity amidst individuality

This talk is a part of the “Fascinating Mahabharata Characters” series. To know more about this course, please visit: bhakticourses.com

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Welcome back to the Mahabharata character series.
We are discussing about Nakula and Sahadeva. Now, in one sense, the three Pandava brothers who were sons of Kunti, Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna were such outstanding warriors and persons that Nakula and Sahadeva in one sense live in their shadows. And although in one breath, although the five Pandavas are referred to as five, it may seem sometimes that the focus is more on the other three.
But Nakula and Sahadeva, although as compared to Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna may not have been so great, but in their own right, they were extraordinary and they were the object of the affection of the three elder Pandavas and they themselves were dedicated to the Pandavas and to their mother Kunti. Now, we know that the two brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva, were begotten by Madri through the Ashwini Kumaras. So, they were twins and among twins, both are almost identical, but there is still one who is born earlier, one is born second.
So, the Ashwini Kumara is also twins and so among them, so Nakula and Sahadeva, Nakul is the elder. He is the older among the two and accordingly, when the two are there, Nakula is often referred to as earlier, first. So, Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakul and Sahadeva in that sequence.
And the word Nakul itself means handsome and he was widely considered to be the most handsome person in the Kuru dynasty, not just among the Pandavas, but in the Kuru dynasty at large. And he is sometimes even compared to Cupid, Kamadeva, because he was so captivating. Now, when the Pandavas were living in the forest with their father and their mothers, Pandu passed away unexpectedly and Madri went Sati with her.
So, Nakula and Sahadeva in one sense became orphans because they lost their father and their mother. Of course, Kunti treated them like her own children. In fact, because they are not her own children and because she did not want them to feel neglected or discriminated against, she often paid more attention to them.
And they were taken care of. So, although they lost their mother, they still had their three elder brothers and they had a stepmother who was almost as good as their mother for them. And because among the they were the younger ones, so they naturally got more affection also because of being that way.
So, Nakula, when he was with his father itself at that time, Pandu himself started training his sons because Pandu the Kshatriya knew that his sons would eventually be Kshatriyas. So, although he was living almost like a renunciate in the forest, but he wanted to train his sons to take up the responsibility. So, at that time, Nakula distinguished himself with his talent in horse riding and sword fighting.
He was good at other weapons also, but especially these two were his skills. And then eventually when the Pandavas came back to Hastinapur with their mother after the death of Pandu and the self-immolation, the Sati of Madri, then at that time, Drona eventually came there. And when they became training under the academy of Drona, at that time, Nakula became an outstanding warrior on horseback fighting and in sword fighting.
And in that way, he became distinguished as a maharatha thereby. And as he was living as a maharatha, he was especially extremely dedicated to the five Pandavas and he was dear to Bhima. So, often when Bhima would get angry, Nakula would be a foil who would check him sometimes.
Now, there was a distinct situation because they were not directly the sons of the Kunti and because they were not the eldest, he or his brother, they were not the eldest, so they were unlikely to be the kings. So, according to some of the stories associated with Mahabharata, it said Shalya, he was the brother of Madri, the uncle of the Pandavas. So, every year once he would take his sons to Madra, his kingdom, and then he would shower them with his affection and would be happy to have them.
So, when they were around 13 years old, so at that time, Shalya proposed to Nakula that, you can become my heirs and I will make you the kings in future if you accept this. So, instead of being fourth in waiting in the Pandava lineage and thereafter, you will not even make up. It’s unlikely you will ever become the king over there.
But if you accept my proposal, then you can become the king. So, he made this offer to both Nakula and Sahadeva because they were directly his nephews. Now, through an indirect connection, even the Pandavas were his nephews, but in this case, the connection was direct.
Now, Nakula realized that this was a temptation and he told them that, actually, my brothers and my mother love me very much and I want to be with them. And he said, actually, I want your affection as an uncle. I don’t want your kingdom.
And further, he told them that, actually, there’s no need for this sort of thing to create a wedge between us. And he said that, I have no desire to become pawns and then he spoke his mind. He said that, actually, it would be better that we stay your nephews and you want us as heirs so that you can have the sons of gods as your successors.
But we were born to Pandu and we belong there. And his firm refusal disappointed Shalya, but also impressed him when he saw the faithfulness that Nakula exhibited in resisting that temptation. So, the five Pandavas are often compared to five fingers of the hand.
Now, not all five fingers are equally long or equally strong. Not all of them are equally competent to do various things. But that does not mean that any of them is unimportant.
The unity of the Pandavas is one of the striking characteristics in the Mahabharata. The very fact that these five Pandavas, despite being strong individuals, despite being the very talented, very heroic and being independently thoughtful, still they were able to be united. United because of dedication to dharma and dedication to devotion, dedication to the Lord.
They were able to be united because of this. And that is significant. Now, did the Pandavas face temptations like this where there could be friction and rupture? Apart from this incident, there are incidents, small, small incidents actually.
So, when Yudhishthira was gambling at that time, after he had gambled and lost the twins, Shakuni tried to create dissension among them. And Shakuni said that, oh king, you have gambled. It seems that the sons of Kunti are not as dear, sons of Madhuri are not as dear to you as the sons of Kunti.
And that is why you have gambled Madhuri’s sons, but not Kunti’s sons. And Yudhishthira got angry. Yudhishthira had maintained his temper till that time, even though he was losing and he knew that Shakuni was a master and Shakuni was cheating also.
But still, he maintained his temper all along. And here he said, fool, we are all united and with a wicked mind you try to create dissension among us who are all like one. And Shakuni seeing the wrath of Yudhishthira immediately sobered and he apologised.
So, that is how we see that all the Pandavas, Nakula was committed to the other three Pandavas and the other three Pandavas also committed to them. And then we see Yudhishthira s affection for Nakula also, not just in his refuse, in his blunder and strong rejection of Shakuni s insinuations, but also we see it later when Dharma who had uptaken on the form of a crane at the time of the river of death, there was this, all the four Pandavas went and tried to drink from the water and they fell unconscious, almost seemed dead. So, when Dharma in the form of a Yaksha, Dharma first appeared as a crane, then he said that I am a Yaksha and then he revealed that I am Dharma.
So, when he was acting as a Yaksha at that time, he said to Yudhishthira that, you know, you can, I will give you, because you have answered my question, so I will give you benediction, I will give you one of your brothers back. So, choose whom would you like. And Yudhishthira immediately said, Nakula is all as a salt tree who has a broad chest, has powerful arms and who is, whose handsomeness is known all over the world, please bring him back to life.
And Dharma, you know, acting as Yaksha surprised, he said, surely, when your plans for getting the kingdom back, Bhima is far more powerful and far more important. And even Arjuna is a formidable Kshatriya, surely they are more important than Nakula. Why are you asking for Nakula? And Yudhishthira remained over.
He said, virtue is more important for me than victory also. And he said that virtue demands that now that Kunti has one son alive, mother should also have one son alive. And that is why I ask you for reviving Nakula.
And Yaksha was impressed and he said, because of your dedication to virtue, I will revive all your brothers. So, here we see this thick bond between the Pandavas. Now, we discussed earlier about the bond between Bhima and Yudhishthira also.
Bhima often opposed Yudhishthira, Bhima sometimes opposed Yudhishthira and he became angry with Yudhishthira also. But especially during the gambling match, when everything was being lost, he got angry, but Arjuna pacified him. And even in the forest, when Yudhishthira was living peacefully, waiting for the 12-13 years to get over, Bhima was angry and he wanted to go back and fight and challenge and defeat the Kauravas.
So, there was some strong difference of opinion that would happen. But by discussion, that will be reconciled. And that reconciliation by discussion was possible because there was dedication, mutual dedication among the Pandavas towards each other.
And because of that, neither of them succumbed to the temptations, even when the temptations came up. Now, moving forward, we also see that Nakula, he was also one of the five Pandavas who married Draupadi. And through Draupadi, he had a son named Satanika.
And he also married Karunamati. Karunamati was actually the daughter of Shishupal. As the daughter of Shishupal, she got married.
It was a strategic alliance at that time. Shishupal had not yet exposed himself as a, he has exposed his anti-devotional tendencies. And actually, when the Pandavas went to conquer the various directions, Shishupal agreed.
Because Shishupal, although he was angry with Krishna, still he respected the Kuru dynasty and respected the Pandavas. So, he agreed. But eventually, when the Pandavas revealed that they wanted to have Krishna as the Agra Purush for the Agra Puja, that time Shishupal got angry.
So, this alliance was formed before that. So, Nakula married Shishupal’s daughter Karunamati. And from there, they got a child Nirmitra.
So, he was also a hero. He also fought on the behalf of his parents, the Pandavas. And he was ruthlessly massacred by Ashwathama.
Now, as of course was Shatanika. So now, here we will see further that Nakula, when he was living, he was always dedicated to the cause of the Pandavas. When the Pandavas, all of them took vows.
So, Arjuna took, Bhima took first the vow to kill Duryodhana, to break the thigh of Duryodhana, to break the hand of Dushyasana, because Duryodhana had sort of insinuated that Draupadi come and sit on his thigh and Dushyasana’s hand had dragged Draupadi and tried to disrobe her. And along with that, he also said that I will kill all the hundred Kauravas. And then Arjuna took the vow that I will kill Karna.
And Sahadev took the vow that I will kill Shakuni. These were the three main protagonists or antagonists. So, the Kauravas, Karna and Shakuni.
And then Nakula said that I will also break havoc in the Kaurava camp. So, in the Kurukshetra war, Nakula played a significant role. So, although his contribution may not be as much as that of Bhima and Arjuna, but he was also a maharatha on the side of the Pandavas.
He was the… Now, before the Kurukshetra war also, he was sent west. So, the different Pandavas went in different directions. So, we know that Arjuna went in the north, Bhima went in the east, Sahadev went in the south and Nakula went in the west.
Now, when he went in the west, he fought many kings and his power was so great that although there were powerful kings over there, but he defeated all of them. And there was a prosperous kingdom of Rohitaka, where also he ensured that he got the tributes. And then another formidable kingdom over there was the kingdom of Trigarta.
So, Trigarta’s army, we discussed when talking about Arjuna how they were countless warriors, almost a large number of warriors, and they challenged Arjuna and kept him aside and kept him engaged at the time when Drona worked out his scheme and eventually Ashwathama was killed in the Chakravyuha. So, those Trigartas were formidable warriors, but Nakula fought with them and he defeated them and he killed them. He overpowered them.
After overpowering them, they agreed to give the tribute. So, that was no mean achievement apart from Dasharanas, Sivis, Malavas, Karnatas, all of them were also people whom Nakula defeated. And the tributes that he brought, the cards that were required to, there were hundreds and hundreds of cards like ocean with endless waves it seemed when he brought the tributes and wonderful sacrifices performed for the Rajasuya.
Later on, Nakula, when he was in Aghyatvas, he took the role of a hostler. Hostler is a person who takes care of horses and his name was Tantrapal. And he was naturally a good host.
He was good at horses and he was good not just at horse riding, but he was also good at horse handling in general. And because of being good in horse riding and horse handling in general, he was able to do that job expertly. Indeed, if you think about it for a person to be just walk into a kingdom and ask for employment and get that employment and excel in that employment, that was remarkable.
And then Pranthik was also one of the warriors, one of the persons whom the king asked that you also come and fight with me when they had to challenge, they had to take on the challenge of Susharma. So now, in the Kurukshetra war, he played significant role. His most significant role was in terms of his, on the 10th day when Bhima, when Arjuna want to kill Bhishma with the assistance of Shikhandi.
At that time, Duryodhana recognizing the danger had arranged for several circle of warriors to keep the, keep Arjuna and Shikhandi s combination from reaching Bhima. So Arjuna and Shikhandi were contending with various warriors and ultimately they wanted to reach Bhima, Bhishma, sorry. So Nakula was a quirky warrior and Nakula helped break that circle, challenged and kept the warriors who were there engaged, he got them distracted, he overcame them.
And Arjuna and Shikhandi who were fighting other warriors also at that time, they broke through that circle. So that was a critical assistance for a vital success that he offered. And thereafter, he was also prominent in killing the sons of Shakuni.
So several, Shakuni had several sons and most of them, Nakula challenged, they challenged Nakula, Nakula challenged him on different occasions and overall Nakula was consistently successful in combating them and ultimately killing them. So one son of Shakuni was Uluka. Now Uluka was almost as perverse as Shakuni and Uluka had the capacity to speak provocatively and he had a sharp tongue and Duryodhana had employed him as a messenger just before the war to incite the Pandavas.
We will discuss this incident when we discuss about Duryodhana. So that Uluka who had put fuel in the fire of the Pandava rage, Nakula challenged, so Nakula and Uluka had a fierce fight, but eventually Nakula made short work of Uluka and he killed him. So Nakula further fought with several other maharathas and one of his outstanding features was on the 17th day, he fought heroically with Karna and actually while fighting it, it was an intense fight and four times they said that he broke the bow of Karna and this was something which was a stupendous feat because Karna was one of the top archers and Karna was impressed and incensed and over a period of time Karna fought and got the upper hand and then he defeated Karna and Nakula and Nakula had to flee.
But the point is that he did keep Karna engaged for a significant amount of time and that also contributed to exhausting and exasperating Karna and eventually when Arjuna combated him, Arjuna was able to overcome Karna. So his roles, Nakula’s roles in the Mahabharata are often roles of assisting and assistance is not a minor activity, especially when the assistance is to great souls who are doing great work and when they are responsibly dedicated are also significant. So when Nakula, when eventually the coronation took place of Yudhishthira after the war, before the war also, before the coronation, Nakula was also one of the most persuasive arguers when Yudhishthira decided that I will not accept the kingdom.
I will renounce the world because I have been the cause of the death of so many Kshatriyas. I have to atone for this. So that time Nakula was one of the most persuasive arguers.
He spoke many arguments to try to check Yudhishthira from that course of action. And although Yudhishthira remained firm, but Nakula’s voice, he heard attentively and he responded to his points also. Now later on when the kingdom took up, he also took up royal responsibilities in that kingdom and he also lived with the Pandavas, serving them.
Now especially one of the things that he did was Nakula had a relatively, had a very non-envious, non-limical heart. So just as, although Kunti was not his mother but his stepmother, he served her just like his mother. And because Dhritarashtra and Gandhari were in the same generation, so Nakula served them also very carefully, very attentively.
And in that way, he exhibited his devotion and dedication to the whole Pandava family. And eventually when the Pandavas did Mahaprasthanaika Parva, when they decided to renounce the world, so he also went with the Pandavas towards the climbing up the mountains to ascend to heaven. And his pride and his beauty, Yudhishthira said, was the cause of his undoing.
That he was so handsome and he was proud of his handsomeness, thinking that there is no one as handsome as me. That is said to be the cause of his downfall. Now we have to understand that Nakula was, yes, he was conscious that he was proud and here in this particular sequence, the emphasis is that how even small, small weaknesses have to be given up.
And giving them up is what one needs to do gradually. So it was no great blemish. But in terms of this journey towards heaven, it’s depicted that even small, small blemishes can cause problems.
Nakula was actually conscientious and when the Pandavas were told to shed their royal robes and when he was going to the forest, actually Nakula covered his face and his whole upper body. They were expected to have their upper body. He just had a cloth covering him.
And the reason he was covering was that he did not want, he was so handsome that he did not want women to get attracted to him. So now Nakula, one of his, as we said, his horse racing, his horse carrying, his sword fighting, his knowledge of dharma, his dedication to duty, his taking care of his mother and even his uncle and aunt. These are all his extraordinary qualities which mark him as a great Pandava hero.
Thank you.