MAMA SHAKUNI: Mastermind of Kurukshetra

Hindu mythology is full of mysterious characters and one of them was Shakuni of Mahabharata. A brother whose love for his sister lead to the great war of Kurukshetra which left a great impact on the corridors of Indian history.

Shakuni and his beloved sister Gandhari. source: brightduniya.in

Prince of Gandhar is known to be the mastermind of many events in Mahabharata. He is primarily shown as being evil and deceitful. But have you ever wondered what drove him to plan against his own sister's in-laws, whom he used to adore the most?

Gandharnaresh's narrative goes beyond plotting and conspiring against the Pandavas. If you believe he accomplished all of this plotting because of his dedication to the Kuru tribe, you are mistaken.

Gandhar was a little kingdom burdened by its difficulties. Yet its princess was beautiful and popular too and she was blessed with a boon of being a mother to 100 children by Lord Shiv. As a result, Bhishma, who defeated the king of Gandhara during a military expedition, frightened the king into offering the prince his daughter's hand in marriage. Gandhari accepted the proposal but Shakuni never forgave Hastinapur for the insult.

When Gandhari learned that her future husband was born blind, she blindfolded herself and resolved to live her life as a blind person, and not to see the world that her husband could not see.

Gandhari has been terrified of the dark since she was a child. Behind the blindfold, she lives a frightening life of darkness. This did not sit well with Shakuni, who was already angry because Bhishma had duped his sister into marrying a blind man. He thought it was an outrage that his sister had to live her life blindfolded. For this, he vowed to punish Bhishma.

Dhritarashtra later learned of Gandhari's marriage to a goat to overcome the Manglik dosh in her birth chart, which indicated her first husband would not survive. He was furious at the fact that he was the second husband, and he decided to punish her family.

One day Gandhari’s father, king Subala along with her 100 brothers were invited to the kingdom of Hastinapur as a guest but were put into prison and decided to starve them by giving them only a fistful of rice to eat every day.

King Subala decided that one of them would consume all of the food given for everyone and survive to exact vengeance on the Kuru clan. To decide which of his sons was the most intelligent, he had them all thread a piece of bone.

By attaching the thread to a rice grain, feeding it to an ant, and passing the ant through the pinhole in the bone, Shakuni was able to achieve it. Shakuni was chosen to survive and was instructed to consume all of the food available. To survive, he was even told that he would have to consume the flesh of each of his brothers one by one as the food supply dwindled by the day.

Subala twisted Shakuni's leg to give him a permanent limp to remind him of his mission. Shakuni was therefore plump and robust, even though the fact that he was surrounded by his starving family. Shakuni ate his father's flesh and crafted a set of dice from his thigh bones after Subala died. These dice possessed the magical ability to turn any number Shakuni desired. It is thought that his father's soul stays there.

Shakuni, Duryodhana's uncle, was instrumental in bringing Hastinapur's gloomy days. He never missed an occasion to turn the brothers against one other, for when they fight, it is the Kuru clan that suffers the most.

One main event that led to Mahabharata was the game of dice whose main mastermind was Shakuni. It all began with the founding of a new city at Indraprastha, which was located opposite Hastinapur, the home of the Kauravas.

Yudhishthira, the Pandavas' eldest son, decided to invite a huge number of kings, including their cousins the Kauravas. Duryodhana was outraged by Draupadi's rude remark as he visited The Place of Illusion, which was the Maya Bhavan built by Maya Sura. "Is a blind man's son also blind?" she inquired. Duryodhana was humiliated, and when he returned to Hastinapur, he told his clever uncle Shakuni about the situation, and be prepared to invite the Pandavas to the Game of Dice. Yudhishthira and his brothers accepted the invitation after Dhritarashtra's consent.

Shakuni was the master of the magical dice placed on behalf of Duryodhana whereas on the other side it was Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira started to lose everything as the game progressed. He lost his entire fortune first, then his adoring brothers, himself, and finally beloved Draupadi.

When Draupadi was summoned to the court, she flatly declined the proposal, shocked and enraged with Yudhishthira. Duryodhana, enraged, ordered Dushana to pull Draupadi to the court, which he accomplished by pushing her and pulling her long hair. Duryodhana further insulted her by slapping her on the thigh and asking her to sit there. But Duryodhana, enraged, ordered Dushana to strip Draupadi of her robes.

Finally, to save herself from such humiliation, Draupadi prayed to Lord Krishna for assistance, and a miraculous incident occurred, in which Dushana continued to unwrap the layers and sections of her garments despite the tiredness. Dhritarashtra was depressed after seeing this depressing situation and resolved to return everything to Yudhishthira that he had lost in the game. As things began to go against Duryodhana's desire, he requested a second chance at the Game of Dice, in which the Pandavas lost all they owned, including their kingdom, and were sentenced to a 13-year exile with one year spent in hiding.

The Pandavas were nothing to Shakuni. He did nothing but stoke the flames of animosity between the two parties.

mastermind of dice, Shakuni. source: divine.onlieum.com