Arjuna

Arjuna (Sanskrit: अर्जुन, "bright", "shining", or "silver"), also known as Phalgun, Jishnu, Keeriti, Shewetvaahan, Vibhatsu, Vijaya, Pārth, Savyasachinn (also referred as Sabyasachi), and Dhananjaya, is one of the major heroes of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Arjuna is a central figure in Hindu mythology whose name means . The third of the five Pandava brothers, Arjuna was one of the children borne by Kunti, first wife of Pandu. Arjuna was a master archer and played a central role in the conflict between the Pandavas and their adversaries, the sons of Dhritarashtra known as the Kauravas. He also played the key role in killing Karna, his arch-rival, in reality an unknown brother, on the side of the Kauravas. He is most famous for his role in the Bhagavad Gita, a poem within the Mahabharata text wherein his charioteer Lord Krishna counsels him concerning the nature of the universe.

Arjuna in the Mahabharata

Birth

Before Arjuna's birth, Pandu, putative father of the Pandavas, was unable to sire a child since he had been cursed not to have sexual relations. Pandu and his first wife Kunti decided to make use of this boon she had been given in her maiden days from the sage Durvasa, which enabled her to invoke any deity of her choice in order to beget his child. Kunti invoked in turn Yama Dharmaraja, Vayu and Indra and gave birth to three sons. Arjuna was the third son, born of Indra, Vedic king of the demi gods devas. As the son of Indra, Arjuna is said to have been well-built and extremely handsome, with a proclivity for combat.

Accordingly, The foundation for Arjuna's career as a warrior was laid young. He was an outstanding and diligent student of the combative arts, learning everything that his guru Dronacharya could teach him, and early attaining the status of "Maharathi" or outstanding warrior. He was particularly skilled in archery, with much of his proficiency being attributable to his habit of practicing in the dark. As Dronacharya's best pupil, Arjuna received instruction in the use of the Brahmasira, an immensely powerful weapon of mass destruction. Despite his skill, when Arjuna tests his prowess in a competition, he is defeated by Karna, who, unbeknowinst to Arjuna, is the sixth Pandava who was abandoned by Kunti at birth.

Marriage

Arjuna's skill in archery proved to have an unlikely utility when it won him the hand of Draupadi, his first wife. Draupadi was the daughter of Drupada, king of Panchala, who held contest in order to choose a suitable match for his daughter. A wooden fish was suspended high above a pool of water and rotated in a circle. Contestants were required to string a heavy bow and then use it to hit the eye of the rotating fish. They were allowed to take aim at the eye of the fish only by looking at its reflection in the pool of water. Many princes and noblemen vied for the hand of the princess of Panchala. Some (including Karna), were disqualified on grounds of supposedly low birth. However, although the Pandavas and their mother were in hiding at that time, Arjuna had prudently dressed as a high-caste Brahmin and was allowed to compete. This was just as well, since it was eventually Arjuna, the peerless archer, who alone was able to accomplish the set task and win the hand of the princess.

All the five Pandava brothers had attended the tournament without informing Kunti, their mother, about it. They returned home in triumph, bringing the princess Draupadi with them. From outside the house, they shouted out to their mother so she would come and see their winnings. Busy with her work, Kunti refused to be baited and dismissed them by saying "whatever it is, share it between yourselves equally, and do not quarrel over the matter" she said. So seriously did the brothers take the command of their mother that they agreed upon making Draupadi their common wife, Arjuna included. However, despite marrying all five brothers, Draupadi loved Arjun the most and always favoured him over the others; likewise, Arjun loved Draupadi more than his three other wives Chitrangada, Ulupi and Subhadra (by whom he had his only son, Abhimanyu), whom he went on to accumulate during his exile.

The brothers agreed upon a number of protocols governing their relations with Draupadi. One of the foremost points of this agreement was that no brother would disturb the couple when another brother was alone with Draupadi. The penalty for doing so was exile for a year. Once, when the Pandavas were still ruling over a prosperous Indraprastha, a brahmin came in great agitation to Arjuna and sought his help, informing him of a pack of cattle-thieves had seized his herd. Arjuna was thrust into a dilemma: his weaponry was in the room where Draupadi and Yudhishthira were alone together for the night, and disturbing them would incur the penalty he had agreed upon earlier. Arjuna hesitated for but a moment; in his mind, coming to the aid of his subject in distress, especially a brahmin, was the raison d'etre of a prince. The prospect of exile did not deter him from fulfilling the duty of aiding the brahmin, and so he disturbed the conjugal couple, took up his weaponry and rode forth to subdue the cattle-thieves. Once he had finished the task, he insisted upon going away on exile, despite opposition from his entire family including the two people whom he had disturbed.

Obtaining the Gandiva

Arjuna is banished to exile for twelve years. Over the course of this time he travels, and, in addition to meeting his three additional wives during this time, he also consolidates his relationship with cousin Krishna. Shortly after his return to Indraprastha, Krishna accompanies Arjuna on his visits to the Khandava forest. Here they encounter Agni, the fire-god, who must burn down the forest to relieve a sickness he suffers from, and asks for their help in consuming the forest in its entirety. Agni has failed repeatedly in this task because Takshaka the serpent-king, a friend of Indra, has been residing in it, and so Indra has caused rain whenever the fire-god tries to burn the forest down. Arjuna tells Agni that although he has well-trained in the divine weapons, he must have an exceptionally powerful bow to withstand the power of Indra's astras. Agni then invokes Varuna, who gives Arjuna the Gandiva, an unbreakable bow, which affords its user sure victory in battle and plays a significant role in Arjuna's later battles. Additionally, Varuna also gives Arjuna a divine chariot, with powerful white horses that do not tire, can withstand wounds by earthly weapons. Arjuna tells Agni to proceed, and meanwhile takes up a duel with his father Indra. The ensuing battle lasts several days and nights, until finally a voice from the sky proclaims Arjuna and Krishna the victors, and tells Indra to withdraw. And so, the forest is burnt and Agni is sated.

In Exile

While the forest burnt, Arjuna chose to spare one asura by the name of Maya who was a gifted architect. Once Yudhisthira, eldest of the five Pandava brothers, is crowned the emperor of India after conquering the country in its entirety, Maya builds him a magnificent royal hall as a token of his gratitude. This hall triggers the pinnacle of Duryodhana's envy. Duryodhana’s uncle Shakuni concocts a ruse to destroy the Pandavas involving a game of dice. Shakuni invites over the Pandavas and he wins everything from Yudhishthira, including himself, his brothers and Draupadi through the use of a trick. The Kauravas insult their cousins in the wake of their defeat and even attempt to disrobe Draupadi in front of the entire court, an embarrassment from which she is saved by the grace of Krishna. When the elders intervene and order than Dhritarashtra return everything to the Pandavas, Shakuni forces the brothers into another game of dice, and he wins again. This time, the Pandavas and their common wife are forced into exile for 13 years, and on the 13th year they must remain hidden. If discovered by the Kauravas during this time, they will be forced into exile for another 13 years.

Arjuna's training during this period is particularly significant in the War to come. During the fifth year of their exile, Arjuna leaves the others and proceeds to the Himalayas to do tapas to Lord Shiva for purposes of obtaining the Pasupata, Shiva's personal astra (i.e. "weapon"), which cannot be countered by any other weapon. Arjuna penance is stretched over a long period of time until Shiva, pleased with his penance, appears before him as a motley hunter and challenges Arjuna to a duel. An intense battle follows, during Arjuna realizes the hunter's identity, and immediatly falls before his feet. Shiva subsequently grants Arjuna knowledge of the Pasupata.

After obtaining this astra, Arjuna then proceeds to Indraloka (heaven) spending time with his biological father, and acquiring further training from the devas. Additionally, he destroys the Nivatakavachas and Kalakeyas - two powerful asura clans that had menaced the gods from the skies. The clans had obtained boons from Brahma as to be undefeatable by gods and so Arjuna, being a mortal man, readily destroyed them with his training.

During his time in Indraloka, Arjuna was propositioned by the apsara (nymph) Urvashi. Because Urvashi had once borne a son named Ayus who was a distant forbear of Arjuna, he regarded Urvashi as he would his mother. Arjuna reminded Urvashi of this connection while rejecting her advances. Urvashi grew annoyed at this rejection, saying a nymph is not a sister or mother to anyone, and is not concerned with earthly relations of any sort. Yet Arjuna would not overcome his scruples, and in her chagrin, Urvashi cursed Arjuna with impotence. Upon receiving rebuke from Indra, Urvashi modified her curse so it would last only one year, and a year of Arjuna's choosing, at that. This curse proved fortuitous, and Arjuna used it as a very effective disguise for the thirteenth year he spent in exile along with his brothers and Draupadi in the court of Virāta under the pseudonym Brihannala.

At the end of this year, Arjuna single-handedly defeated a Kaurava host that had invaded Virāta's kingdom. In appreciation of this valour, and having been appraised of the true identity of the Pandavas, King Virāta offered the hand of his daughter Uttarā to Arjuna. Arjuna demurred on grounds of age as well as the fact that Uttarā had become like a daughter to him while he tutored her in song and dance. He proposed that Uttarā should marry his young son Abhimanyu, and the wedding duly took place.

Arjuna at War

Upon finishing the period of their exile, the Pandavas seek the return of their kingdom from the Kauravas, who staunchly refuse to honour the terms of the agreement. This causes a war to break out. Krishna's elder step brother Balarama, ruler of Dwaraka, decides not to take sides in the war, as both Kauravas and Pandavas are kinsmen of the Yadavas. However, Krishna in his personal capacity gives the warring sides a choice: they can be given the benefit of either his counsel or his army. Arjuna chooses the companionship of Krishna while the Kauravas get the army. Krishna becomes Arjuna's personal charioteer during the 18-day war and protects Arjuna upon numerous occasions from injury and death.

The Bhagavad Gita

To begin with, Arjuna is reluctant to take part in battle, an internal conflict which provides the central problem of the Bhagavad Gita or "Song of God", a dialogical poem between Arjuna and Krishna self-contained within the larger body of the Mahabharata. Riding into the Kurukshetra battlefield upon his chariot, piloted by Krishna, Arjuna looks upon the faces of his Kaurava cousins and is filled with trepidation:

There saw Arjuna standing fathers and grandfathers, teachers, uncles, brothers, sons and grandsons as also companions.

And also fathers-in-law and friends in both the armies. When the son of Kunti (Arjuna) saw all these kinsmen thus standing arrayed

He was overcome with great compassion and uttered this in sadness;

When I see my own people arrayed and eager for fight O Krishna,

My limbs quail, my mouth goes dry, my body shakes and my hair stands on end.

The bow slips from my hand and my skin too is burning all over. I am not able to stand steady. My mind is reeling.

Because of the slaughter he knew he would cause in the enemy ranks, including many of his own relatives, Arjuna lays down his arms and decides that he will not enter the battlefield. Krishna uses the following seventeen chapters of the Gita to counsel Arjuna and convince him that the difficulties are merely delusions, and that he has no choice but to fight. The godly charioteer explains that the nature of the soul is eternal, and while Arjuna may kill the fleshly bodies of his relatives, their souls live on. In addition, Krishna also expounds for Arjuna the importance of following caste duties without consideration of personal loss — since Ajuna is amember of the warrior caste, it is his duty to fight. The discharge of one's moral duty, he says, supersedes all other pursuits, whether spiritual and material, in life. Later on in the dialouge, Krishna explains that he is an incarnation of God, and reveals himself to Arjuna in his fully divine manifestation. By the conclusion of the dialouge in the eighteenth chapter, Arjuna has accepted his duty and enters the battle to fight, essaying a vastly important role in the winning of the war by the Pandavas. The Gita has been and is one of, if not the most important scriptures in the entire Hindu canon.

The slaying of Jayadratha

In another memorable battle came about after the strongest warriors of the Kaurava Army collaborated to attack Abhimanyu when he was exhausted and weaponless. Arjuna held the Sindhu king Jayadratha, husband of Dushala, the sister of the Kaurava brothers, principally responsible for the attack, and pledged to end his own life if he failed to kill him by the end of the day. Arjuna goes on to kills an entire akshauhini comprised of more than 100,000 of Jayadratha's soldiers. In the climactic moment of this battle, the sun is close to setting and thousands of warriors still separate Arjuna and Jayadratha. Seeing his friend's plight, Lord Krishna raises his Sudarshana Chakra into the sky and covers the Sun, giving everyone on the battlefield the impression that the sun had set. The Kaurava warriors promptly rejoice over Arjuna's defeat and imminent death, and Jayadratha is exposed in a crucial moment. Upon the Lord's urging, Arjuna sets loose a powerful arrow that decapitates Jayadratha.

Showdown with Karna

Karna, Arjuna's childhood rival and uterine brother, also grew to become a formidable warrior, although he aligned himself with the Kauravas. Their rivalry only grew when Karna played an indirect albeit significant role in the murder of Arjuna's son Abhimanyu upon the battlefield. Their personal vendetta reaches its climax when they meet in a battle of immense proportions on the Kurukshtra on the seventeenth day of battle. For a long, long time, powerful weapons are discharged by the two warriors at terrifying pace without relent. The prowess and courage of both warriors is marvelled by the millions of other soldiers looking on. Realizing that he cannot kill Arjuna by any means, Karna takes out his snake arrow to kill his brother. However, Lord Krishna intervenes and rescues his devotee Arjuna at this crucial juncture, allowing Arjuna to send a barrage of arrows at Karna and wound him severely. Krishna urges Arjuna to kill Karna, reminding Arjuna of Karna's ruthlessness against Abhimanyu, and Arjuna complies.

This act of fratricide was committed while still in ignorance of Arjuna's true relationship with his fifth brother. After Karna's death, Kunti informs the Pandavas of the long-kept secret that she was Karna's mother, and that he was the eldest of the Pandava brothers. This elicited much grief from the Pandavas. Yudhisthira was particularly incensed upon learning that his mother had kept Karna's true identity from him and his brothers, and he cursed all women, stating that from that day forward they would never be able to keep secrets.

Later Years

After the conclusion of the war, the Pandavas take charge of Hastinapura, the undivided realm of their ancestors. Their great victory and the political power it afforded them gave them the confidence to hazard a further venture: the performance of the Asvamedha Yagna, or "horse sacrifice", whereafter the title of Chakravarti ("Emperor") may be assumed. The sacrifice required that after preliminary rituals, a horse is let loose to wander where it will. The kings upon whose lands the horse wanders have a choice: they may either accept the master of the horse (in this case, Yudishthira, eldest of the Pandavas) as their own lord and offer their submission to him, or they may offer resistance and wage war. Arjuna led the armed host which followed the horse around its random wanderings. He had occasion to receive the submission of many tribes andKingdoms , sometimes using armed force, sometimes using none. He was thus instrumental in the expansion of the Pandava domains. In course of time, the Pandava brothers including Arjuna decide, at an advanced age, to renounce the world. They entrust the kingdom to Parikshita, the son of the deceased Abhimanyu and grandson of Arjuna who represents the sole surviving dynast of the entire Kuru clan, then they retire to the Himalayas and eventually depart the world.

Significance

Arjuna is perhaps the most important human figure in Hindu mythology. Wholesome, devoted and magnanimous, he bears all the most valuable qualities of a human being. His theological significance is also immense. In his dialouge with Lord Krishna wherein the nature of the universe is unravelled for him, Arjuna embodies the qualities of the ideal student. His willingness to accept the word of Krishna, even though it involves raising his weapons against his kinfolk, illustrates ideal devotion to God. Together, the inserperable friendship between Krishna and Arjuna represent the cosmic inseperability of Brahman and atman, the essence of the universe and the soul, one of the fundamental ideas of Hinduism. In a more general sense, Arjuna also represents the archetypal reluctant hero, who is called to a task of great import and initially shirks his duty, only to reconsider and perform his task effectively. As such, Arjuna is a hero not only for Hindus but also for the entirety of humanity.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Hiltebeitel, Alf. "Arjuna" in Encyclopedia of Religion. Edited by Mercia Eliade. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1987. pp. 412-413. ISBN 0029098505
• Katz, Ruth Cecily. Arjuna in the Mahabharata: Where Krishna is, There is victory. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1989. ISBN 0872495426
• Segal, Robert A. Hero myths: a reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2000. ISBN 063121514X

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