Nakul & Sahadev – The Uncharted Twins:
Everyone talks about Yudhishthira’s righteousness, Bhima’s strength, Arjun’s valour, Draupadi’s honour, Duryodhana’s cruelty, Karna’s loyalty, Krishna’s supremacy whenever the topic of Mahabharata comes up.
A lesser known fact was that Pandu’s wife was not only Kunti but also Madri who belonged to the Madra Kingdom whose brother was Shalya, the charioteer of Karna during the Kurukshetra war. When Pandu was cursed by sage Kindama that any sexual association with his wives would ultimately lead to his death. Kunti had a boon granted by sage Durvasa that she would be gifted a child by any god. Consequently, Yudhishthira was gifted by Yama Dharmaraj, Bhima by Lord Varun and Arjun by Lord Indra. With Kunti having 3 blessed sons, Madri was feeling jealous. Kunti empathising Madri shared the mantra with Madri, who was gifted a pair of twins by Ashwini Twins and named them Nakul & Sahadev.
Early Childhood
Nakul was born through Ashwin or Nashatya while Sahadev was sired by Dasra or Revanta. It means most handsome and Sahadev means with the gods. Nakul was described as the most handsome person ever on Earth by Ved Vyas in his version of Mahabharat. Meanwhile, Sahadeva was the most smart and witty amongst the 5 pandavas and also the kauravas. Nakul and Sahadeva too grew along with all the other Kuru princes, leant under the guidance of guru Dronacharya. Both of them grew up to be skilful sword warriors. Nakul and Sahadev are the most knowledgeable amongst the Kuru princes. They were experts in the field of astrology, vedas, medicine, encryptic arts, administration, finance, economy and arts.
Nakul and Sahadeva both married Draupadi and she had 1 son each with each of the pandava. The son from Nakula was Satanika and the son with Sahadeva was Shrutasena. Nakul married Karenumati and were blessed with a son named Niramitra. Nakul also has a daughter with Draupadi who was named Printha. Sahadeva married Vijaya and has a son Suhotra. Even Sahadeva had a daughter with Draupadi who was Sumithra. During the year of incognito in the kingdom of Virata. Here, Nakula tends horses as Granthika and Sahadeva herds cows at Tantipala.
Sahadeva’s Secret
Sahadeva had a great power of knowing the future. Pandu, earlier predicted his death and was in deep meditation for years. During this penance, he gained a great amount of knowledge about the past, present and future. Pandu called up his sons and shared these secrets. To get that knowledge, one has to eat Pandu’s flesh after he died. Sooner, Pandu died and was cremated. None of the pancha pandavas could fulfil their fathers wish by eating his flesh. Sahadeva observed a group of ants carrying a small piece of flesh which was his fathers’. He quickly grabbed it and put it in his mouth. Immediately, Sahadeva was enforced with the power of knowing the past, present and the future too. Hence sahadev was also known as ‘trikal gyani’.
Sahadev then rushed to his brothers and mother to share this secret but was stopped by a brahmin who was none other than Lord Krishna himself. He knew this earlier that he wasn’t just an ordinary sage but the Supreme Lord himself. Krishna then told he not to mention anybody about the powers he got. But Sahedev with curiosity replied that he can’t lie to others. Then Krishna answered that if someone asks him a question, he will reply back with a question. He then asked Krishna for a promise to accept his request. He asked Krishna to protect the five brothers and if any one of the brothers dies, Krishna must accept death himself. Krishna reluctantly agreed to his wish.
From then, Sahadev turned out to be the most silent man in the Mahabharat from one of the naughtiest, mischievous kid. He was willing to share the secret but he was waiting for the question, the right question which was never asked by anyone during the whole episode of Mahabharat. Imagine the amount of patience and immense mental strength he had to have by not letting out things.
Sahadev already knew about the fire plot of ghee palace at Varnavat, a plan hatched by Duryodhan and also knew that Duryodhana was manipulating the pandavas into the palace, he knew about the political cunningness of Shakuni and his plan for the game of dice, he knew what would happen to Draupadi’s honour in that gambling hall where Dusshasana rips her clothes, he knew about who would die in the Kurukshetra war. He knew that Ashwathama would kill the kids of the pandavas. Every time Sahadev looked at his son he was stuck in grief knowing the incident of how his son was going to die.
He knew all these terrible things would happen in the future but he never told anyone about it. Not to his brothers, who he was very much closer to than his own shadow. So even to his Draupadi, who knew all the secrets of Sahadev except this one. Not anyone but Krishna. For this reason, Sahadev was the quietest amongst the pandavas, keeping the thoughts to himself. Imagine the amount of patience and mental strength required by a person to keep quiet throughout a yuga.He had to suffer this pain for years and years and years. This is why Sahadev was called the most patient man in the world, that he had the fortitude to cope and not lose his self-control.
It is believed that the episode of Sahadeva eating Pandu’s flesh is an ongoing debate whether it was included in Mahabharat or not. A few argue that the Adi parva had such instance and few argue that there was never such an instance in the Adi parva and the whole episode of Sahadeva eating Pandu’s flesh doesn’t make sense and add up a point that Sahadeva was the most intelligent due to the intelligence of Ashwini Twins and his teachings from Brihaspati himself.
Sahadev knowing that Shakuni was the brainchild of the gambling plan, took a vow that he would kill Shakuni during the war. Sahadeva faced his uncle on the penultimate day of the war. Sahadeva knew that he was the mastermind of the Kurukshetra War. He alslo knew the motive of Shakuni for starting the Kurukshetra War. He knew that Shakuni’s father was tortured by the Duryodhan and wanted to take revenge on him. Sahadeva asked him why is he participating in the war, that too on the side of Duryodhan, whom he wanted to take revenge on and his revenge also on the verge of being achieved as all the greats like Bhishma, Drona, Karna have already fallen and now too under Shalya who could fall any moment. Shakuni answered in a very depressed, sad tone of how Duryodhan tortured his parents, friends, relatives of the Madra kingdom.
He also told that he was the one behind every greed move of the Kauravas from the ghee palace to the gambling game, giving poisonous sweets to Bhima o mercilessly killing. Abhimanyu. Shakuni was responsible for the innocent deaths of millions of people just because he wanted to take revenge on a single person. He couldn’t go for a living after committing all the sins and dying on the ultimate battlefield would be the last thing, he could do to clear off his sins. Sahadeva knew this and gave an offer to Shakuni to withdraw from the war, Shakuni did not answer and challenged Sahadeva. Sahadeva shot 1000 arrows and later he cut off Shakuni’s head with his intense sword skills.
Nakula & Mahabharat
Nakul was the most handsome prince of the Kuru princes and was always boastful regarding his beauty all the time. Nakul is best in using the sword amongst other weapons and also the best swordsmen amongst the pandavas. Nakula was so interested in the sword that Bheeshma himself told Nakul about the origin of Sword in the. Santi parva of the Mahabharat. Both Nakula and Sahadeva loved their stepmom Kunti and their 3 brothers more than anyone else. Shalya offered the Madra kingdom to the twins and they accepted with. A condition that they will continue to stay at Hastinapur with their brothers. During the game of dice, after losing all the kingdom, wealth. Nakul was the first person to be put on stake by Yudhishthira and Nakul willingly accepted it as his dharma. To abide by his brother’s words.
Nakula – WikipediaNakula was also an expert in horse breeding, treating horse illnesses and a great charioteer too. Nakula is such an expert that it is said that he would ride his horse. And he can deflect every single raindrop with his swords and. Nakul emerges completely dry after the rains stops.
Once during the 12-year exile of. Pandavas in the forest after losing the game of dice, Yudhishthira felt tired and exhausted. Nakula ventured out the forest in search of water to drink and later he found a beautiful lake. The lake was devoid of life except a crane. While Nakula was about to drink the water, the crane warned him that. The water in the lake would turn poisonous if without satisfactorily answering its questions.
Nakula paid no heed to the crane’s words and drank the water from the lake. Thus, he fell unconscious on the ground and Nakula died. The other 3 brothers except Yudhishthira followed suit. Later, Yudhishthira came in search of his brothers and accepted the questions posed by the crane. The crane was none other than Yaksha and this episode turned out to be called as the. Yaksha Prashna by Ved Vyas which happens during the Vana parva. There were approximately 125 questions posed by the Yaksha to Yudhishthira according to the Sanskrit version.
After providing satisfactory answers, the yaksha was impressed by him but provided. With a boon that he could bring back only. 1 brother to life. Yudhishthira chose Nakul to be brought back alive as he was. Madri’s son and he wanted the blood of Madri too to be running. Impressed, the Yaksha brings back all the brothers back to life.
During the Kurukshetra War, Nakula killed Shakuni’s son Virkassur on the 17th day. Nakul also killed all the 3 sons of Karna namely Sushena, Chitrasena, Satyasena on the penultimate 18th day. A lesser known fact is that Nakul was defeated by Karna on the 16th day and was spared by Karna. It is also known that even though Karna defeated Nakula, he was very scared of. Nakula’s roar which was equal to the roar of approximately 10,000 elephants. Nakula defeated Dussassana on the 1st day of war but spared his life due to Bhima’s vow to kill him. He defeated Shalya on the 11th day and Shakuni on the 14th day.
After the war, Yudhishthira appointed. Nakul as the king on the northern front and Sahadeva on the southern front of the Madra kingdom.
Journey to Heaven
Upon the onset of Kali Yuga and Krishna’s death, the Pandavas retired and on their way to. Heaven giving up all their belongings and kingdoms to Parikshit, Abhimanyu’s son. They were accompanied by a dog on their way. Except Yudhishtra, all the Pandavas fell weak and died by falling off the mountains. Draupadi falls from the mountain first. Then falls Sahadeva and the chart goes on.