Could Mahabharata really have been avoided ?

 

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Mahabharata was not just a fight between brothers for power; it was so much more than that. It was a fight between ‘DHARMA’ and ‘ADHARMA’, a fight for the empowerment of a woman who was humiliated in front of the men of the assembly of Maharaja Dhritrashtra.

Mahabharata did not happen due to a single event, it was multiple events in chronology that led to the greatest fight which lasted for 18 days, and ended with the win of dharma against adharma, win of Pandvas against Kauravas. So, for Mahabharata to be avoided the events that took place for its occurrence also should have been avoided from the beginning.

The very first event that took a step closer to Mahabharata was Satyavati’s avarice.  Satyavati’s wish to see her child on the throne and in power instead of Ganga Putra Bhishma, who was well known for his celibacy, which he pledged on for his father, the Maharaja of Hastinapur Shantanu, so that he can marry Satyavati  was the first step towards this 18 day battle. Satyavati and Shantanu went on to have two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. The elder of the two, Chitrangada  was killed by the king of the Gandharvas. Thereafter, Bhishma consecrated Vichitravirya, who was still a child, to the kingdom. He married Ambika and Ambalika on reaching manhood but died childless after 7 years of marriage due to consumption. Thus, Vichitravirya was not a capable leader.

The second would be the ‘Rajyabhishek’ of Pandu instead of Dhritrashtra, Pandu’s elder brother. As an elder brother, Dhritrashtra should have been crowned as the prince of Hastinapur.  As it was the responsibility of ‘Mahamantri’ Vidhur to take decisions in favour of Hastinapur and not as a younger brother to the person concerned, he thought Pandu would be better suited on the throne of Hastinapur.

The third would be not sending Maharani Gandhari’s brother, Shakuni , back to Gandhar. This, according to me was the main cause because of which Mahabharata occurred. But can we really blame Shakuni?  He was just a brother who loved his sister a little too much. He left everything behind for his sister, because he thought whatever happened with his sister was wrong and she didn’t deserve it. So, he did what he thought was best for his sister and that her becoming the queen of Hastinapur and his nephew becoming the heir to Maharaja Dhritrashtra. For that he did everything in his power from playing mind games to poisoning Duryodhan’s ears against Yudhisthir, the rightful heir to the throne of Hastinapur.

The final nail in the coffin was the invitation to Pandavas to play Chausar and Yudhisthir betting his everything in the game, which resulted in the ‘cheer haran’ of Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas, which everyone saw happening and said nothing. Being a spectator to it was also an act of Adharma and after this the Pandavas pledged to avenge their wife and so was the final event which led to Mahabharata.

Seeing all these events makes it clear that avoiding Mahabharata is just a bleak possibility but still a possibility nonetheless.

What do you guys think? Could Mahabharata had been avoided? What other events do you think lead to Mahabharata?  Comment below!