In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhishmachaarya narrating the history of how Shikhandi was born and how this person took shape in the years after that. Bhishmachaarya is narrating this to Duryodhana to highlight the fact as to why he wouldn’t fight with Shikhandi in the war that is ensuing now. We’ve seen in the earlier episode as to how Shikhandi was born as a female to King Drupada and how she was treated and brought up as a male, all through her young days. She was in fact married off to the daughter of King Hiranya Varma, projecting her to be a boy! However, as days progressed, King Hiranya Varma understood that he has been cheated by King Drupada, and thus a huge war was about to take place between the two kings. Subsequently, Shikhandi meets a “Yaksha” prince and requests him for a gender change and with this, Shikhandi imbibes the physical characteristics of a male in her and completely transforms into a male. Thus, Shikhandi comes back to both the kings and proves to be a male and not a female, thus, bringing the war clouds between the two kingdoms to an end.
Subsequently, as promised, Shikhandi goes to the forest once again to meet that “Yaksha” prince to exchange her newly-imbibed male characteristics with him to once again become a female. However, that “Yaksha” prince is not to be found anywhere! In the meanwhile, as this “Yaksha” prince changes his gender, the news reaches Kubera, who is the leader of all the “Yakshas”. Upon hearing such an unusual thing happening, Kubera gets angry and straightaway inflicts a curse on this “Yaksha” prince by saying that he will forever remain a female and in any circumstance henceforth, he will not be able to regain his originality! As this happens, now Shikhandi is in a great fix! How will Shikhandi regain her original form? Thus, Shikhandi has no other option now, but to continue her life as a male, and Bhishmachaarya concludes that to this day, Shikhandi lives as a “transformed male” and not as a “real male by birth”. Hence, given this complicated history surrounding Shikhandi, Bhishmachaarya concludes that even though Shikhandi might have become a male in due course, he will still not fight against him in a war. Moreover, Shikhandi has clearly become Bhishmachaarya’s enemy by acquiring some powers from Bhagawan Sumramanya (Muruga), which we’ve witnessed in our earlier episodes as well. Given all these reasons, Shikhandi is also waiting for an opportunity to kill Bhishmachaarya and to seek revenge for what happened during that day when she was rejected by him! With this, we come to the end of the “Amba-Upaakhyaana Parva” of the main “Udyoga Parva”. Interestingly, with this “Charitra”, we also come to the end of the main “Udyoga Parva” as well and after this, we straightaway dwell into the “Bhishma Parva”, wherein the war is set to begin!
So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall commence the “Bhishma Parva” straightaway. We’re now going to enter the context of the Bhagawad Gita as part of this “Parva” only, and I’m sure all of us are quite excited about it! Stay tuned for more updates! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 