Yudhishthira's Ashwamedham 04 Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon
Yudhishthira's Ashwamedham 04
(4)The Remorse
The Pandavas could not bear
The eerie silence and vast void
that filled the palace expansive
Devoid of any male members.
Middle-aged they were, still they felt
Orphaned as their mother Pridha too
Had left them on Vaanaprastha
With King Dhritarashtra and his queen.
They hardly spoke to each other
The cohesive force that held them together,
Pritha, their mother was now living
in the forests, awaiting the inevitable end.
But brothers they were; the gnawing solitude
Made them think about the utter futility
Of the war they waged, that brought
Nothing but total disaster to the world.
In the process, they had to kill or cause to kill
Their own grandfather Bheeshma,
The aacharyas, brothers and sons,
friends and jnathees to ascend the throne.
Their own brother, Pritha's eldest son Karna
Was killed by Arjuna, war codes going for a toss.
Their cousins, the Kauravas all the hundred
Were killed, leaving no one, by Bhimasena.
Every household in the entire Bharatvarsh
Had lost one male member at least, in the war,
Leaving destitute millions of elderly and women
Many more as widows and children, orphans.
"The cause was our greed uncompromising!
Was it justified? ", they started to introspect;
Could they justify their claim on the throne
Going by the succession norms prevalent?
This lead to remorse acute and unqualified
And they felt an urgency for requital
In their moments of remorse deep
Krishna's visit came as an invaluable solace.
12. Devoid of any male members: Pandavas had lost all their sons in the war. Of Abhimanyu, we have seen in part 1. All the five sons of Draupadi were killed in their sleep by Ashwatthamah, son of Drona Acharya (of course, in clear violation of the war-codes) . So the five Pandavas were the only male members in the palace. This was the condition of almost every household after the Great War.
13. Jnathee (Sanskrit) : A close relative.
14. Bharatvarsh: The entire Indian sub-continent. Almost the entire sub-continent partipated in the War.
15. prevalent succession norms: The norms of succession to the throne were clear and transparent. The eldest son of the King succeeds him to the throne. Dhritarashtra and Pandu were sons of King Santanu. So was Debabrata alias Bheeshma. (Kindly go through my serial poems "Satyawati" on ph for more information) . Bheeshma was the eldest. But he abdicated.So Dhritarashtra should have succeeded to the throne. But it was Pandu who did, because Dhritarashtra was born blind. The flip side is that, when King Pandu died young, Dhritarashtra ascended the throne. Obviously blindness was no reason to deny his right this time over. Thus, Pandavas' claim to the throne was flawed.
Part 2. Vyasa Bhagawan calls the sons of King Pandu, the Pandavas.But he does not call sons of King Dhritarashtra as ‘Dhartarashtrans’. He calls them Kauravas, the descendants of King Kuru. King Kuru is one of the paternal ancestors of King Santanu, father of both Pandu and Dhritarashtra. So, if Dhritarashtra‘s sons are Kauravas, so are sons of Pandu.
The cause was our greed uncompromising! Was it justified? " , they started to introspect; Could they justify their claim on the throne Going by the succession norms prevalent? There is so much to learn from each episode. Great going Unni!
I had discussed how Dhritarashtra felt pained, when the kingdom which was rightfully his, was being passed on to the Pandavas. There is more to it, right in the epic. Contd
Though the poem is based on the story from the great epic Mahabharat, it explains the futility of war and the loss and pain of those who lose their near ones in a war. A well written poem.
Thank you Bharati. The very purpose of penning this poem series, is to put down my firm conviction about the futility of wars and expansionist ideology. So, your words encourages me to complete the series faster. I am working on it with renewed enthusiasm. Thank you very much.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/17/2024 11:51:42 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Part 3 This means that Great Vyasa has chosen to call the Kauravas so, for the very purpose of indicating that they are the true claimants to the throne. That is Dhritarashtra‘s sons are the Kauravas, while Pandavas are just Pandavas.