Mahabharata – Instant Deforestation – {Ep.256}

Today’s episode is a Mahabharata story about how Arjun and Krishna embarked on a rapid deforestation project in the Khandava forest, with a little help from Agni but complete opposition from Indra

Namaskar and welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

In this episode, we’re back into the Mahabharata.

I’ll recap the story so far, in case you haven’t heard previous Mahabharata episodes. And I also urge you to check out the links in the show notes and on the site sfipodcast.com.

The Mahabharata is one of two major epics from India, the other is the Ramayana, which we have also covered before.

The Mahabharata started with Bhishma – the crown prince of Hastinapur. Bhishma gave up the throne, before ever sitting on it. And he did it for love. Not his own. His father’s. Despite his advanced years, Bhishma’s father married a girl – Satyavati. And Satyavati’s father extracted a promise from Bhishma that he would never sit on the throne, and never have children, and always serve whoever was on the throne. Bhishma did his best, but what was he supposed to do when Satyavati’s children, and then grandchildren suffered one tragedy after another?

After much confusion and turmoil, Dhritarashtra became King. Despite being blind, he was the only possible Emperor candidate of his generation. Duryodhan was the eldest of Dhritarashtra’s 100+ children. But Duryodhan was younger than Yudhishthir, the eldest of 5 boys of the previous Emperor Pandu. 

So when Dhritarashtra was pressured by public opinion to make Yudhishthir the crown prince rather than Duryodhan. Duryodhan wasn’t happy of course. He overreacted by trying to barbecue Yudhishthi, his 4 brothers, and their mother Kunti. In this plan, Duryodhan was supported in his plans by his hundred brothers as well as Karna. Karna was secretly a Pandavas, but no one knew that at this stage of the story. Not even Karna himself.

Unknown to Duryodhan, and the almost 100 Kaurava brothers, the Pandavas and Kunti, escaped. Instead of going back and confronting Duryodhan’s heinous act, they explored the countryside in disguise. Along the way, Bhima the second oldest Pandava got married to a demoness who had reformed her demoness ways, and the new couple even had a child. After that Bhima killed Bakasura, a local terrorist. 

Arjun, the third Pandava was an accomplished archer, perhaps even the best ever. He got a chance to shine at a swayamvar – you know a ceremony where a bride picks out her groom amongst an assembled lineup of eligible bachelors. This Swayamvar was that of Princess Draupadi of the Kingdom of Panchal. But Draupadi wasn’t picking her husband based on personality or looks. This was a particularly difficult archery contest that no one other than Arjun could have won. Arjun in disguise indeed won the contest and married Draupadi, but due to a ridiculous misunderstanding, all of his brothers ended up marrying Draupadi too.

Finally Dhritarashtra, and all the other Kauravas caught on to the fact that the Pandavas were still alive. They issued a summons which the Pandavas accepted.

Let’s continue the story there with the Pandavas back in Hastinapura.

The scene is set at a round table, in the Hastinapura palace. There were a number of people here. Emperor Dhritarashtra arrived, immediately took his seat at the head of the table and launched into a rant.

“You Pandavas think you own this empire, don’t you? Well, you don’t. You can’t just come and go as you please. Vidhur, you’re trying to clear your throat a lot. Someone give this guy a cough drop!” 

To clarify, none of the Pandavas were named Vidhur. Vidhur was Dhritarashtra’s brother and adviser. Though he was physically fine, he did not qualify to be emperor because his mother was a servant. Right now he was trying to get in a word edgeways. But that didn’t seem very easy. Waving his arms was not an option, seeing as the Emperor was blind.

Dhritarashtra went on. “Did you even think how much of Duryodhan’s blood, sweat, and tears went into creating that palace that you carelessly burned down? My poor boy was so badly hurt. You Pandavas deserve to be whipped. Again, Vidhur? I really must speak my mind today, stop interrupting”

“Now back to you Pandavas. And in particular, you, Yudhishtir. You neglected your crown prince duties and  you ran away. Maybe you got cold feet. I don’t know. And I don’t care. My boy is the new crown prince, and that’s the way it’s going to be. I’ve a good mind to give you nothing. Nothing at all. But I can’t forget that you are the sons of my dearly departed younger brother Pandu. And solely out of the generosity of my heart I won’t leave you homeless. I’ve decided to give you Khandava. Again, Vidhur? What is it, spit it out? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something important here?”

Vidhur finally had an opening. “Sire, the Pandavas aren’t here yet. It’s just you, me, and a few of the Hastinapura elders.”

Everyone was careful not to laugh. An emperor who couldn’t see whom he was addressing, or not addressing, was no laughing matter.

What happened after the Pandavas arrived – we need not go into. Let’s just say Dhritarashtra expressed himself again. Not as forcefully – I guess once bitten twice shy. Let’s just say that the Pandavas accepted the deed to Khandava, whatever that was, and promptly headed there.

They weren’t sure what it was, until they got there. Arjun thought it might be a summer palace. Nakul and Sahadev thought it was a horse farm. Not surprising with those two, they always had horses on their mind. Bhima thought it was a wrestling arena. Yudhishtir thought it might be a landfill – a garbage dump if you will. Draupadi thought it might be a village or a small town of some kind. No one was correct. Khandava was a forest. And a dark forest at that. The trees and brush were so dense, it did not seem possible to enter the forest, without a machete.

Everyone was disappointed. “This is it? This is what the Emperor gave us? Our little hut near Drupada’s kingdom was much better than this.”

Arjun took a different view. It looked like this now, but they’d make it much better! Better than any other city in the country! “People will travel thousands of miles to be on this very spot we are standing on. It might even become the Capital city of the whole country.”

It was obvious to see that his brothers, and his wife did not share his optimism. But given his high levels of motivation, Yudhishthir suggested that Arjun could get the first crack at clearing this forest.

Let’s pause the story here, and take a small detour to a different area entirely. Let’s go visit my dad’s home. In case you aren’t tired of hearing me say it, Brahma, the creator of the Universe is my dad. As creator of the Universe he’s naturally knowledgeable about many of the things that happen within it. For example, if it suddenly becomes harder to keep a fire going, he could tell you exactly why that was. Even if the person asking the question were themselves an expert on Fire.

Agni, the God of Fire, approached Brahma and asked him exactly the same question. I was there too, by a happy coincidence. So this is first hand. 

Agni posed his problem “Something’s wrong with me, and I can’t figure it out. It’s taking people many more attempts with a matchstick just to get me going. This isn’t just a problem with the matches, it’s something else. Something smells here”

I was about to apologize for the overpowering smell of onions in the kachoris I was eating, before I realized he was talking metaphorically. 

“You know what they say, when there’s smoke…”

“There must be fire,” I hastily added, relieved that my Kachoris weren’t the problem.

Brahma told Agni, he knew exactly what the problem was. Simply put, Agni wasn’t getting a balanced diet. You see, Agni had been consuming too much Ghee. Ghee is clarified butter, in case you aren’t aware of this common ingredient in most Indian sweets. With fat it was also important to consume fiber, the kind of fiber that came from tree trunks.

“Oh if it’s that easy, I can quickly go and consume a few forests.”

“Well, it’s not that simple. You have forest deficiency now. I’m going to prescribe a very specific type of forest that you have to consume. This one is on the western side of the Yamuna. It’s called the Khandava, and it’s just what you need. It’s particularly dense, and it’s the population of snakes in the forest that are the really nutritious bits.”

Agni made his way there immediately. And because I was really curious, I went along. Agni said it was going to be quick work. But it wasn’t. Because the moment Agni reached out to set fire to his very first branch, the fire went out. It was doused by the rain! A very localized rain that came out of nowhere and targeted just Agni’s arm. Well, it came out of the sky really, so not nowhere. What I mean to say is that it caught us by surprise. Agni tried again, but the same thing happened. This was definitely not natural. This was Indra intervening. Indra is the ruler of swarg or heaven, and the leader of all the Devas. He’s also the God of Rain, Lightning, and Thunder. So you can imagine he’s capable of creating just enough rain to extinguish the possibility of a forest fire. But you may ask why Indra cared about this forest? The answer was that Indra was good friends with Thakshak, the Snake King who lived here. He couldn’t stand idly by while his friend’s home burned down, could he?

Agni tried again, but Indra thwarted him once more.

I pointed to a couple of people in the distance. Maybe we could go ask them if they had a matchbox. And an umbrella. A forest sized umbrella.

As we approached them, and Agni realized who they were, he quickly changed into the guise of a scholar. You know, those who regularly walk around in saffron robes, chanting wise things and commanding royalty to do their bidding. The reason for that was that these two gentlemen we were approaching were royalty ready to do a scholar’s bidding.

The two people were Arjun and Krishna. Krishna was visiting his cousins. Without meaning to, I caught a little bit of their conversation. 

Arjun said “We’ve been trying for days, but this forest is just too unmanageable. How are we supposed to construct a palace, a city, farms and how do we transform this land into an empire?”

Krishna replied that his brother, Balaram, had a plough. Maybe they could borrow it. Or maybe these two scholars who were approaching could help.

Agni spoke up. “Help me, kind sirs. I’m very hungry and I need to eat”

Arjun, as the host, was obligated to help. He readily said yes! But when he asked Agni what he would like, Agni refused offers of parathas, daal chawal, all the standard things you might expect a person to eat. Instead Agni changed into his true form, a giant ball of fire.

“Whoa! You don’t have to go all up in flames! Our cooking is not that bad!”

I had to intervene and introduce Agni and myself. But that didn’t shake Arjun’s resolve. It only strengthened the fire in his belly.

“I’ll do it,” Arjun said energetically. “So what if Indra’s trying to rain on your parade,”
“…fire” I corrected
“… we’ll fight fire with fire!”
“Water” I corrected again.
“Whatever. I’ll help you, Agni”

Krishna, ever the practical one, asked how exactly was Arjun going to help him. He had just his ordinary quiver of arrows and his regular bow.

Agni said maybe he could help. He had a bunch of weapons, you know divine weapons, forged in the purest of fires. Presumably those would give any warrior a bit of a boost. What happened If you’ve seen the Matrix movie, and if you remember the scene where shelves of weapons just appear on order, and similar things happen on demand in Doctor Strange, or in Inception. Well, something very similar happened here. Shelves of weapons appeared out of nowhere. There was every kind of arrow there. There were dam building arrows, a rockbreaker arrow, a floodmaster 3000 that could change the direction of any river. And the drought maker that could dry up a river. And bows, lots and lots of bows. Including the most famous bow of all – the Gandiva.

One version of the legend also has Krishna receiving his Sudarshana Chakra, his flying discus with its 108 at this point. But the alternative is the more well known version – where he got the Sudarshan Chakra from Parshuram.

Anyway, armed with their weapons, Arjun and Krishna began preparations. Arjun combined a multiplier arrow with hover special, and with another multiplier to create a whole canopy over the forest. Which didn’t change the darkness of this already dark forest. But it did protect it from Indra’s automatic sprinkler system. 

Indra stepped up his game. Instead of raining water, or cats and dogs, he rained boulders and trees. But the rock breakers from Arjun’s bow smashed them all to smithereens.

Indra tried lightning bolts next. But Arjun countered them quickly by adding lightning rods to his canopy. Krishna meanwhile was clearing another part of the forest. And Agni finally began consuming the Khandava forest.

And then just like that, Indra stopped fighting. It’s not like Indra to give up in the middle of a fight. It’s just that while he was there in his comfortable heavenly palace, he had a caller. Takshak, the snake king whom he was defending in the Khandava forest, was not actually in the Khandava forest. And then when Arjuna used a Wind Disperser arrow that completely blew away all of Indra’s clouds, that was the final bit of incentive Indra needed to stop the fight.

But he was magnanimous in his loss. He went down on his white elephant, Airavata, and greeted Arjun and Krishna. He not only granted Arjun’s wish for more weapons but he also granted Krishna’s wish that his and Arjun’s wish would last forever.

Agni meanwhile, was playing with fire. Literally. He had burned down the whole forest. Sure the ecological balance of that area was completely ruined, but only temporarily. Forest fires are also nature’s way of restoring balance when things sway too far in the other direction.

One of the consequences of the fire was that Mayasura emerged from hiding in that forest. Mayasura was an extraordinary architect. The builder of massive complicated structures. Like the three flying cities of Tripura that we’ve covered before, as well as Lanka. We’ve also seen him as Ravana’s father-in-law.

Anyway, Mayasura emerged from the forest and Agni seemed to chase him, to run him down and burn him to the ground. Except, Mayasura sought protection from Arjun and Krishna. Which, he readily got. But in exchange, he constructed a fantastic palace for the Pandavas on that very site. Called the Mayasabha, it had a small but important role to play in a pivotal point in the main storyline of the Mahabharata. But we’ll here more about it in a future episode. We’ll end today’s episode here.

Some notes on the show

Links to Previous Mahabharata episodes: https://sfipodcast.com/category/mahabharata/

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll do a folk tale again. This one is from Himachal Pradesh. And though we are used to having Dogs as pets, this one is the reverse, with a Dog who has a human for a pet.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Chatterbox, Samay, Kaira, Attorner for creators – thank you for all your support and your comments.

Samay – you got your wish. I hope you liked this Mahabharata episode.

Thank you for the generous words Amit Yadav.

Yeet and Aarush – I hear you, and I’d ideally like to do more than just 1 episode per week. But it does come at quite a cost, and as it is I have a massive backlog. I’ll see what I can do to try and do some bonus episodes now and then.

Aniver – yes Vikram and Betaal too will come up soon. I do want to add a bit of a disclaimer that there’s only a small number of Vikram and Betaal stories left for us to cover. That is if I ignore the ones that are repetitive.

Hema – yes the Apsara was programmed to fly away if Bhoj gave her an answer that didn’t match Vikramaditya’s actions, regardless of how unreasonable those actions may have appeared to Bhoj.

Aman, glad you liked the episode. Hope you had a good birthday.

Sona – thank you, I appreciate your kind words and I hope to keep bringing you interesting stories. Let me know if you have any requests.

Aarush – yes the Indus Valley civilization story will come up as well. It does take much more time to research that compared to other stories. I appreciate your patience.

Shalu, thank you again for the feedback! Yes, certainly, Swami Vivekanada and Subhash Chandra Bose are both on my backlog, as is a Tenali Raman story.

Hiranmayee, it is indeed a privilege to view all these events in live-action as you’ve put it. The namaskar at the beginning is a new addition based on feedback from some of you listeners.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. You can listen to the show on all podcast apps, and that now includes Youtube. If you want to send me an email it’s stories.from.india.podcast@gmail.com.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!