Pandavas ruled for 36 years after Mahabharata war. The throne was then passed on to Parikshit followed by Janamejaya. This article discusses various events which happened after Mahabharata war including the end of yadava clan, Pandavas crowning Parikshit as the king, Takshak killing Parikshit and Janamejaya taking revenge.
CURSE AND CREMATION
The lives of a lot of people changed after the war, which brought rise to a lot of curses. Before this, you might also like to read about the Mahabharata War
KARNA’s IDENTITY
When the news of Karna’s death spreads across the city of Hastinapur, the Pandavas were surprised to see Kunti running towards Karna and sobbing on his death. On being stressed upon and continuously being asked Kunti revealed the truth of Karna that he was actually the oldest Kaunteya, Which shocked the 5 brothers and threw them in the sense of remorse. There are some stories which do mention Yudhisthira in the feeling of sorrow and anger after realising Karna was the actual heir to the throne of Hastinapur as he was the eldest son of Kunti, Yudhisthira curses the entire women race of not being able to keep secrets. (This story of curse by Yudhisthira being revoked is discussed again below).
BALRAMA’s ANGER
It is known to many that Duryodhana was hit by Bheema on his thigh as the rest of his body was turned to Vajra. In rules of gada yuddha (Mace fight), a person is not supposed to hit his opponents lower body. However upon realising there is no other way to defeat Duryodhana, Bheema breaks this rule. This angers Balaram who taught both Bheema and Duryodhana. Some stories mention that due to the anguish that the rule was broken, Balram curses the entire gada yuddha claiming that this war has maligned this form of fight, and mace(gada) will not be used by the future generations as a form of weapon. Although the credibility of this cannot be assured, we actually don’t see much of mace fights in kali yuga.
GANDHARI’s CURSE TO THE KRISHNA
Yadavas were the only powerful kingdom which stayed intact after Mahabharata war, who didn’t participate in the war. Both of the Yadava warriors Satyaki and Kritverma who fought amongst Pandavas and Kauravas respectively, survived the war. In total Dwarka faced the least destruction all thanks to Balaram’s firm decision of not participating in the war.
On the other hand, the dead bodies of Kaurava brothers and their armies were lying on the battle fields being eaten by vultures. This raised complete aguishness and jealousy in Gandhari, who claimed that if Krishna was really the incarnation of divine lord Vishnu, then he could have stopped the war. And thus she curses him and the entire Yadava clan that just like how the Kurus fought amongst themselves, Even the Yadava clan would get destroyed by fighting among themselves (which actually got proved to be true after 36 years).
Also, Read about how jayadratha indirectly killed Abhimanyu
DHRITARASHTRA’s TRIES TO KILL BHEEMA AFTER MAHABHARATA WAR
Sobbing on the death of all their son’s, Gandhari and Dhritarashtra felt utter sorrow and misery. Unable to cope up with the situation, Dhritarashtra was filled up with anger on Bheema. Some folklore mention the story that when Pandavas, go to meet Gandhari and Dhritarashtra after Mahabharata war, Dhritarashtra asks Bheema to give him a hug claiming to end all enmity. However, Lord Krishna knowing the reality puts an iron mannequin in place of Bheema, to which Dhritarashtra tightly stiffens his arms so much that the iron breaks up to powder. But eventually, Dhritarashtra does end up all the enmity and blesses the Pandavas, and they themselves take up vanavas, to which Kunti joins and eventually die in forest fire.
ASHWAMEDHA YAGYA
Soon after Mahabharata war, Yudhishthira was made the King of Hastinapur, he realised that treasury was empty as all the resources were used up as expenses in the war. As advised by Vyasa and Lord Krishna, Yudhishthira performs Ashwamedha yaga, where the ashwa was accompanied by a troop of soldiers led by Arjuna, who was instructed to battle mildly by Yudhishthira.
On the journey of the Ashwa, Arjuna was challenged by the successors of Trigartas, Bhagadatta’s son Vajradatta, Saindhavas (Jayadratha’s Successors), Gandharas, Shishupala’s descendants from Chedi etc. An interesting attack was from the ruler of Manipura (present day Vishakhapatnam) Babruvahana, who was actually the son of Arjuna and Chitrangada. And it is believed that Vabruvahana actually defeated Arjuna, However eventually Babruvahana surrendered to the ashwa. Kingdoms which had grudges on Pandavas tried to avenge after Mahabharata war by capturing the Horse but eventually the Ashwamedha yaga was completed successful.
END OF THE YADAVA CLAN
According to some scriptures, Samba the mischievous son of Lord Krishna and Jambavati, once dressed up as a women and along with his friends went up to prank sage Vishwamitra pretending himself to be pregnant and asks Sage Vishwamitra to predict the gender of his baby. Sage Vishwamitra angry on this mischief curses Samba that he is actually pregnant with a Mausala (Iron bar) and that Mausala will be the cause of the destruction of the entire Yadava clan. And this actually proved to be true as an iron bar does come out of his body. To avoid this curse the Yadava leaders powder the iron bar and threw it in the ocean.
35 years after Mahabharata war, when the yaduvanshi’s were in the ocean shore enjoying wine, Satyaki and Kritaverma taunts each other. As the process goes on, people started taking sides, and it reaches a point where the two groups started fighting amongst each other. Since they had no weapons they started using the grass in the shore. Each grass stem turned into the iron bar thus killing each other and Gandhari ‘s curse turning into reality. Balaram seeing this condition of his clan mates understood that it was his time to leave the earth.
Lord Krishna also left everything and was resting in the forest waiting to leave his human form just when a tribal shoots an arrow which hit Lord Krishna’s thumb toe. That tribal was then revealed to be the re-incarnation of Bali from Ramayana.
Thus ended Yadava clan, and Dwaraka was submerged into the ocean.
PANDAVA’s MAHAPRASTHANA
When the Yadava clan was about to end Krishna called upon Arjuna to take the women, widows and kids of the Yaduvanshi’s and safeguard them in Hastinapur. Enroute to Hastinapur some pirates and thugs attacked Arjuna who wasn’t able to defend the women who had to give up their ornaments upto the jewels. As They reached Hastinapur, the Pandavas remorses the end of Dwaraka and realised that their power and valour ended with Lord Krishna and decided to go to Swarga loka alive.
They crowned Pariskhit as the next king of Hastinapur and left for Heaven. It is said that On this route they built the Kedarnath temple in the Himalayas. Eventually only Yudhisthira was able to reach swarga alive along with a dog who followed them. rest of the brothers and Draupadi died in the journey. However Dharmaraja didn’t allow the dog to enter into the swarga, to which Yudhisthira didn’t agree. Eventually it was said to be a test to Yudhishtira. Finally Dharmaraja gave a boon to yudhishtira to which he asks to free women from the curse he gave of not being able to keep secrets.
PARIKSHIT’s REIGN
Pariskshit just like his grandparents ruled with utmost wisdom and righteousness. However once Kali Yuga who was weak and feeble at that time asked Parikshit for a place to live. Parkshit disallowed Kali to live with the normal people and asked him to stay at places where the people did bad practices, where people were greedy of gold and ornaments to which Kali accepted and started residing in Parikshit’s crown.
After which the thirsty King Parikshit reached the ashram of sage Shamika and asked for water. however the sage didn’t reply as he was in deep meditation. Possessed by Kali, Parikshit in pride of himself threw a dead snake towards Shamika. This act angered Rishi Shringi(Son of Sage Shamika) and cursed Praikshit that a snakebite would cause him to die within 7 days. Scared Parikshit was recited a brief version of bhagvata purana by Shuka the son of Veda Vyasa And eventually Parikshit was killed by takshaka, the snake king.
After this Kali officially started staying amongst common people.
JANAMEJAYA’s REIGN
Janamejaya brave and powerful was the son of Parikshit, who was crowned was the next king. Rishi Uttanka who was also been cheated by takshaka, explained Janamejaya in detail about his father’s death. Janamejaya along with sage uttanka decided to take revenge against the people of Naga clan by performing Sarpa satra a yagna to which they decided to give the entire snakes as offering. Thus small, big, strong, weak all nagas started falling in the fire pit.
Takshaka scared by this yaga, asked help from Indra, who had once promised him to protect. the scared Naga king hid himself under Indra’s throne. It is believed that the Sarpa satra was so powerful that it pulled takshaka along with Indra’s throne into the fire pit. However he was saved by Sage astika and thus Janamejaya stopped the sarpa satra.
