In the Mahabharata
there is that infamous game of dice in the court of the Kurus, between Duryodhana
(eldest of the Kauravas) and
Yudhisthira (eldest of the Pandavas).
Shakuni mama, the maternal uncle of Kauravas, was a master or sorcery,
played on behalf of Duryodhana. He had a pair of dice that would always throw
the number that he willed. He masterminded the game, where Yudhishthira lost
everything in that gambling match, his wealth, his kingdom, his brother,
himself and his wife. This is the narration of the circumstances that created
the villain in Shakuni mama.
Shakuni is the youngest prince of Gandhara, in modern day city
of Kandahar in Afghanistan. His father was king Subala and mother Sudarma. His
wife was Arsh and had a son by name of Uluka. He had ninety-nine more brothers
and a younger sister Gandhari. He was very fond of her. She was married to the
blind king Dhritarashtra and mother to her hundred sons and one daughter called
Kauravas.
During a war expedition Bheeshma defeated the king of
Gandhara. He intimidated the king into giving away the hand of his daughter in
marriage to the prince. Gandhari had a manglik
dosh in her astrological birth chart,
indicating her first husband will not survive. To overcome this, she was
married to a goat that was latter killed. She was thus made a widow before
being sent to Hastinapur to marry the prince.
When Gandhari found out that her would be husband was born
blind, she blindfolded herself and decided to live a life of a blind herself to
share the life of her husband. Since her childhood, Gandhari was afraid of
dark. She thus leads a petrified life of darkness behind the blindfold. This
did not go well with Shakuni who already felt cheated that his sister was
tricked into the marriage to a blind man by Bheeshma. He called it as an
injustice for his sister to lead a life blindfolded. He swore to punnish
Bheeshma for this.
Latter after his marriage, Dhritarashtra came to know of the
incident of Gandhari being married to a goat and thus he being the second
husband. He was furious and decided to punish her family.
Gandhari’s father, king Subala, and her hundred brothers
were invited as guests to Hastinapur. When they arrived, they were kept is a
dungeon like space. They were given a place to eat, sleep and bathe. Food was served
by servants, but the quantity decreased by the day. Eventually it was just a
few morsel of grains that were served. In the earlier days, social customs did
not allow a guest invited to leave on their own till they were being looked
after and fed by their host, however small or poor the services might be. They
were thus stuck and knew that death would come to them through starvation.
King Subala decided that one of them should eat the whole
food provided for all and survive to take a revenge on Kuru clan. To select the most intelligent of his son, he asked all to
thread a piece of bone. Shakuni was able to do it by tying the thread to a rice
grain, giving it to an ant and passing the ant through the pin hole in the
bone. Shakuni was selected to survive and was asked to eat all the food that
they got. He was even asked to eat the flesh of his brothers one by one to
survive, as the food that was being served decreased by the day. To make
Shakuni remember his purpose, Subala twisted Shakuni’s leg to give him a permanent
limp. Shakuni was thus plump and healthy, and surrounded by his starving family.
When Subala died, Shakuni ate his father’s flesh and carved a set of dice from
his thigh bones. These dices had the magical powers to turn the number that
Shakuni desired. It is said that the soul of his father resided in there.
Before king Subala died, he told Dhritirashtra that if he
would release his sons, they would always protect the Kauravas. It was ignored than. But when king Subala died, Shakuni
was released by intervention of Gandhari. On his release, Shakuni was made the king of Gandhara, but stayed all his time in Hastinapur as the mentor and
guide to Kaurava’s.
Shakuni had nothing against the Pandavas. He simply fanned the hatred between the Kauravas and the Pandavas so that he gets is vengeance. He never lost the opportunity
in poisoning the brothers against each other, for when they will fight each
other, it is the Kuru clan that will
become weaker. And thus the scheming and cunning role of Shakuni in the epic of
Mahabharata.
DISCLAIMER:
This narration is based on the story heard or
read from multiple sources including books and internet sites.