Hello Friends, Mahabharata is India's one of the biggest epic. But have you ever thought the war of Mahabharata that we have read that was just a quarrel between two brothers, between two groups of brothers so a land dispute between two sets of brothers became so big that it became "Mahabharata" It was almost an Ancient World War just quarrel between two brothers? So why this fight became "Mahabharata"?
What’s the story behind this What was the impact of this war on the future on India on its (India) Geography; more importantly since India was a civilizational state on its civilization on its literature on its spirituality, philosophy Its impact (the war of Mahabharata) was so huge; far reaching that it changed the history/course of India of that era but even today these effects reverberate I would discuss all these things from today on series on Mahabharata,
Today is the first part of this series so let's begin, In this first part on Mahabharata what all are we going to discuss In this part we would discuss
Who all were the major rulers of the main dynasty involved in Mahabharata Point No. 2 The Area of Influence of this Dynasty was up to what extent in India
Point No. 3 Why this dynasty became so much influential and finally some anecdotes We'll discuss.
Finally Major Rulers of the dynasty The story of Mahabharata's dynasty begins form the king Puru who established the Puru dynasty This was a Chandravanshi (Lunar) dynasty Basically in North India ; that too specifically in UP, Haryana parts of Rajasthan (parts of Bengal; Bihar) were two major dynasties Chandravanshi (Lunar); Suryavanshi (Sun) Dynasties Ramayana (another great Indian epic) that is the story of the Sun Dynasty (Suryavanshi) While Mahabharata is the story of the Lunar Dynasty (Chandravanshi) So the story of this dynasty starts from king Puru King Puru was progeny of Yayati the kingdom of Yayati was divided among its progeny in five parts King Puru got the prime real estate of those times which was the major fertile area which was between the Saraswati ; Dhrisdawati river We shall see this location going forward this is what Puru got as he was considered as First among the equals Yadu's which is the Yadava dynasty made famous later by Krishna got the region towards lower UP and further South Anu dynasty got the region beyond North of Punjab Druhya got the region East of Indus into Gandhara now in Afghanistan and Turvasha which got region to the East towards Bengal The major king's post King Puru is Emperor Bharata on whose name the country (India) is still called Bharat This dynasty is essentially an offshoot of the Puru dynasty Bharata expanded his kingdom geographically; spiritually; Under this king the roots of the Vedic school of thought was firmly established In fact His rule was considered as a great period for this region One of his progeny king Hasthi who established Hastinapur Which later on became the capital of this dynasty.
Later on, we come across the character in this line-up whose name is Sudas, he is important because under him a big battle was fought almost equivalent to the scale of Mahabharata (though earlier) Which is called in Rigveda as Dasarajna or in other words The Battle of Ten Kings After this war the Vedic school of thought which essentially begins from King Bharata that gets established (expands) in this entire region Rigveda gives a detailed description of this war which we shall discuss later Just to summarise that though Sudas defeated ten kings What happened was that the Bharata dynasty was growing in influence in wealth in region (territory) which disturbed nearby kings They (Bharata dynasty) had a guru who because of some reason was changed by Sudas and instead made guru Vashishta as his prime Guru This upset Guru Vishwamitra He collected/encouraged other kings; attacked Sudas (through them) This was was fought West of Punjab along the Ravi river Initially, Sudas faced several reverses; so he retreated After crossing the river while in the process of retreat He (his army) were able to cross but Rigveda says that but his opponents, why they were trying to cross the river, was flooded which led to his opposition suffer severe casualties; they finally lost the war and so we'll observe that Indra Deva is highly revered also because it's important for crops; agriculture but also because the Bharata dynasty prevailed over ten kings; defeated them because of the help of Indra; so Indra Deva has been highly venerated so coming after that Finally comes Kuru king which is again an offshoot of the Bharata clan who along with other Puru clan started the Kuru clan or Kuru dynasty whose finally whose offshoots are finally our characters of Mahabharata again the Kuru king is a highly venerated king The Saraswati Dhrisdawati region which was the prime region of this area He established Dharma there is what is said He established a lot of Yagashalas, Rishis in that region.
He further reinforced the Vedic school of thought and so part of that region was called Kurushetra (region of Kuru) Now we'll see what was the influence area of this dynasty so I would put the link in this video of an older video wherein I have tried to show the flow of the Saraswati river so the region between the Saraswati river in Haryana and the Dhrisdawati river was the prime real estate of this period Two big rivers Saraswati which was the biggest (among rest of the rivers of this region) and Dhrishdawati which was also a pretty big river and was one of the tributaries of the Saraswati used to flow from this region so Saraswati river at that time used to flow from the North of what's today called as Kurushetra; passing from Sirsa entered the now state of Rajasthan Dhrishdawati used to flow from the South of (now) Kurushetra and passing from close to the cities of Hansi/Hisar also entered Rajasthan and then merged into each other later so this region if we join Sirsa-Kurushetra; Hansi-Kurushetra this, the region was called the prime real estate of that period This region was also known as Bhramavarta at that time Part of this region was also called Kurushetra.
Even now we have the Kurushetra town/city of course as the time passed the area of influence extended from this region and beyond the Yamuna river up to the Ganga river. So from near Sirsa if we move to the east and touch the Ganga river so this was the width or the extent of the influence of this dynasty Let's move forward What was the reason of the prominence of this dynasty What was the reason for influence of this dyansty Coming back to the map as I told you before Two big rivers of that time; Saraswati river was the biggest of this region used to flow from here; Dhrisdawati was also a big river that used to flow from here ; its tributary when two big rivers flow so close to each other so economy of that time which was largely agriculture-based so obviously one can see how fertile ; productive that region must have been Big rivers also provide a natural defense in those times So due to this reason This dynasty controlled the most productive part (prime real estate) of this region and then apart from This dynasty also controlled region along the Yamuna river; access to the Ganga river so basically broadly all the major rivers of that region was under the control of this dynasty One more thing we must keep in mind which we would discuss later on Saraswati river which has since dried but at that time during during its peak flow So Satluj river which is now a tributary of the Sindhu/Indus river used to also flow into the Saraswati river.
So Indus river was not that big at that time than what was Saraswati river Further discussion on this we would do later in detail but briefly I must tell you that actually what happened why rivers changed courses so dramatically obviously these are largely conjectures Can't be claimed with absolute certainty (but high probability).
The Aravalli range goes underground coming from Rajasthan From Delhi to Haridwar the underground Aravalli range moves on this is known as the Delhi Haridwar ridge now this ridge few thousand years back rose because of some seismic; geological activity which led to the Yamuna river shifted to the East Saraswati shifted to the West There was later on a tear in the Himalayan range also because of which the tributaries changed their course and due to all these geological changes the entire topography of the region changed We would discuss about this in detail later in other words Slowly the settlements of this the region started losing their importance; people started migrating to East-West; South from here In fact When the kingdom during the Mahabharata was divided then Pandavas established their kingdom in the now the city of Delhi (Indraprastha).
When they went in exile for 12 years and 1 year in incognito and after their return they demanded 5 villages Which were these 5 villages. These were Panipat Sonipat, Baghpat which is again close to the Yamuna river towards the East of The Yamuna currently Indraprastha (Delhi); Tilapatha which is now known as Faridabad Clearly indicating that area to the East of Saraswati river gained in importance during the period of Mahabharata So before ending this discussion let me share an anecdote with you this region of Bhramvarta between Saraswati-Dhrishdawati rivers Now in India there are not many temples of Brahma (except Pushkar; handful others) He has not idolized greatly Its real primary reason which in mythology is popularized /morphed into other reasons Its main reason is that the region of Brahmavarta where these two big rivers flowed on each side Both these rivers dried up thus this region became deserted and so Brahma is not idolized in India in a big way.
So that's all for today Till next time, in part 2 some other things in more detail...
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