Arjuna

Arjuna

Arjuna (lit. 'bright' or 'silver' (cf. Latin argentum)) is the 3rd of the Pandavas, the sons and princes of Pandu, who with Krishna, is considered to be the hero of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He plays the role of listener in the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita which is a philosophical conversation between Arjuna and Krishna. Arjuna was considered the finest archer and a peerless warrior by many notable figures in the Mahabharata, such as Bhishma, Drona, Krishna, Vidura, Sage Naradha and Dhiritharashtra. He played a key role in ensuring the defeat of the Kauravas in the Kurukshetra War. He is the only undefeated hero in the Mahabharata. Arjuna was an avatar of Nara, who along with the avatar of Narayana, Krishna, established Dharma in the Dvapara Yuga.
He was the student of Drona. He also learned archery with Kirants of Nepal in a disguise as Kirants were renown archers of that time.
The Mahabharata refers to Arjuna by twelve different names. These names are told by Arjuna to Prince Uttar as proof that he really is Arjuna on the last day of his "Agyat Waas" while he was about to fight the Kuru Army. The names and their meanings are as follows.
Once, a Brahmin rishi named Kindama and his wife were making love in the forest when Arjuna's father Pandu accidentally shot at them, mistaking them for deer. Before dying, Kindama cursed the king to die when he engages in intercourse. Due to this curse, Pandu was unable to father children. As an additional penance for the murder, Pandu abdicated the throne of Hastinapura and his blind brother Dhritarashtra took over the reins of the kingdom.
After Pandu's disability, the Pandavas were conceived in an unusual way. His mother, Queen Kunti, had in her youth been granted the power to invoke the Devas by Rishi Durvasa. Each Deva, when invoked, would bless her with a child. Urged by Pandu to use her boons, Kunti gave birth to Arjuna by invoking the Lord of Heaven, Indra. King Pandu and Kunti purified themselves by severe austerities to Indra for one year before he was born. No other birth in the Mahabharata except Krishna's was celebrated by the devas, sages and apsaras.
Along with other Pandava brothers, Arjuna was trained in religion, science, administration and military arts by the Kuru preceptors, Kripa and Drona. Specifically, he became a master in using the bow and the arrow. He was the best archer except a Kirant prince called Eklabya whom Drona tricked into vowing never to raise a bow. Arjuna’s strength lay in his extraordinary levels of concentration. In a famous incident under Drona’s tutelage, Drona deemed none of his students other than Arjuna had the steadfast focus to shoot a bird on a tree and was proved right by Arjuna. In those times Jatrii Kśatriya and Abhira Kśatriya, frequently fought each other. Kriśhńa thought, if he united these two tribes, it would be very easy for Him to bring about Great India. He applied His practical approach. He got His elder sister, Subhadra, an Ábhiira Kśatriya, to marry Arjuna who was a Jat. This He did with a view to make the Játrii Kśatriyas and the Ábhiira Kśatriyas stop fighting.
The Pandavas attended the Swayamvara of Panchala's princess, Draupadi, disguised as Brahmans. Out of all of the great kings and other Kaurava princes, Arjuna was the only one to shoot the arrows to break the golden fish, as demanded by the Panchala King Draupada.Karna could also do the task but Draupadi didn't accept a soota as her husband. This test demanded concentration, sense of timing and precision of an archer. As one of the most skilled archer of his time, Arjun succeeded at the task. When the brothers returned with Draupadi, Arjuna said to his mother that he had brought something brilliant. His mother, Kunti habitually asked him to divide it among themselves (five brothers) without looking at what Arjuna was referring to. As the sign of mother's devotion where every word uttered was a divine command the Pandavas agreed. Draupadi had to marry all five of the Pandavas. Her five sons, one each from a Pandava brother are known as the Upapandavas. Srutakirti was the son of Arjuna.
The brothers followed Narada’s advice on a sharing arrangement with regard to Draupadi: each brother will have exclusive rights over her for a year, after which the mantle will shift to the next brother. Moreover any brother intruding on the privacy of the couple will have to go on a twelwe year Tirtha-yatra. However during a freak incident involving chasing out some bandits, Arjuna was forced to enter into the private space of Yudhistira and Draupadi. He accepted the punishment agreed with Narada and set off on a twelwe year pilgrimage.
Arjuna started his pilgrimage by visiting the source of river Ganga. It was here that he accidentally met the Naga princess, Ulupi. She was deeply infatuated by him and the couple were drawn into days of passionate love-making. Before departing, Ulupi granted him the boon of invincibility in water bodies. Iravan was Arjuna’s son with Ulupi.
Arjuna visited other Tirthas in India, including Kalinga and the ashrams of the Saptarishis, Agastya, Vasishta and Bhrigu. Finally he reached the palace of Manipura. Here he met king Chitravahana’s daughter, Chitrangadaa. He fell in love with her and requested the king for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The king readily agreed on finding out Arjuna’s real identity, but sought a promise from Arjuna that their son would remain in Manipura and take over the reins of the kingdom succeeding him. Arjuna agreed, and later spent time in the palace till the birth of his son, Babruvahana. Then Arjuna again visited manipur and crowned Babruvahana as the king.
Arjuna moved to other Tirthas, including the southern regions in Kerala. Finally he reached Dwarka, the place where his cousin Krishna resided. Arjuna had, in his childhood, heard about Krishna’s beautiful sister, Subhadra. Now he was in Dwarka, he felt an intense longing to see her. Krishna knew of Arjuna’s yearning and devised a plan to arrange their meet. Accordingly Arjuna disguised himself as a “yati” and stayed at Subhadra’s palace. Soon the couple managed to fall in love. They spent a year together in Dwarka. Later they moved to a small ashram in Pushkara where they stayed for another year, before moving to Indraprastha. After a few years Abhimanyu was born to Arjuna and Subhadra.
Once when roaming in the Khandava Vana, Arjuna and Krishna met the god of fire, Agni. Agni was in great hunger and needed to burn down the entire Khandava Vana to quench his hunger. But Takshaka, the serpent-king lived in the same forest and was a friend of Indra’s. So the latter brought down heavy rains to thwart Agni’s plans to burn the woods. Agni requested Krishna and Arjuna to help him realize his goal.
The three of them then invoked Varuna, the God of the oceans, who blessed them with the Gandiva â€" the moon bow created by Brahma. Agni also gave Arjuna an incandescent chariot with four horses yoked and bearing a flag of Hanuman. Arjuna uses the weapon and chariot to fight the Kurukshetra War during the later parts of the epic. Agni presented Krishna with the Sudarshana Chakra. Together with these weapons, Arjuna and Krishna waged a successful battle against Indra and helped Agni burn down the entire Khandava Vana including all its demons and evil spirits.
In their demolition of Khandava Krishna and Arjuna had saved one demon, Mayasura. Mayasura told that he would build a palace for Yudhishtra because Arjuna had saved him from krishna and Agni. As Mayasura was a great architect he soon constructed the Maya assembly hall â€" a gigantic palace for the Pandavas in Indraprastha.
Arjuna was sent north by Yudhisthira to subjugate kingdoms for the Rajasuya Yagya, after crowning as the Emperor of Indraprastha. The Mahabharata mentions several kingdoms to the east of Indraprastha which were conquered by Arjuna. Some of them are as under.
After Yudhisthira succumbed to Shakuni's challenge in the game of dice, the Pandavas were forced to be in exile for 13 years, which included one year in anonymity.
Indra had promised Arjuna to give him all his weapons sensing an impending war with the Kauravas, on the condition that he would receive the Pashupatastra from Lord Shiva. Following the advice of Sage Vyasa to go on a meditation or "tapasya" to attain this divine weapon, Arjuna left his brothers for a penance. Arjuna travelled for a while before reaching the mountain Indrakila. Here he sat in meditation in the name of Lord Shiva. Shiva appeared soon enough in the guise of a hunter, who challenged Arjuna to a fight. Although he defeated Arjuna, Shiva was very pleased with the bravery and prowess of the prince. Consequently, Shiva transformed himself to show his real avatar and blessed Arjuna with the Pashupatastra. Other Devas like Kubera, Yama, Varuna and Indra followed suit and blessed each of their potent weapons to Arjuna. Indra also invited his son to his palace in the Heaven. Arjuna was amazed at the splendor of his father’s palace at Amaravathi. Dancers like Urvashi, Tilottama, Rambha and Menaka entertained him. There was a huge banquet serving different varieties of heavenly dishes. Arjuna learnt song and dance from the Gandharva, Chitrasena. Indra himself taught him to wield the divine astras and also gifted him with his own Vajra.
Indra had noted the passionate glances exchanged between Arjuna and Urvashi during his stay. He commanded Urvashi to spend a night with Arjuna. However Arjuna alleges that he has heard of her relationship with his ancestor Pururava, and hence she had the status of a mother, equal in respect to Kunti. Urvashi, annoyed at this, cursed him that he would become a eunuch who would have to live among women, singing and dancing. On Indra’s request, Urvashi reduced her curse to a period of one year, which was fated to become the thirteenth year of the Pandavas’ exile, where Arjuna lives as Brihannala.
Arjuna gets the opportunity to test his skills with the divine weapons at Indra’s palace itself. Arjuna was taken to the palace of the Nivatakavachas, a tribe of Rakshasas who had a magnificent palace under the oceans. Arjuna used the mohini-astra and the madhava-astra to demolish these asuras.
He was also taken to Hiranyapuri, a palace in the sky created by a witch Puloma and his asura tribe of the Kaalakeyas. Here Arjuna uses the Pashupatastra and annihilates the demons.
Along with his brothers, Arjuna spent his last year of exile in the kingdom of Virata, Hastinapura. This is the place where Urvashi’s curse is implemented and Arjun becomes a eunuch called Brihannala. At the palace, he teaches song and dance, qualities he had learnt from Chitrasena, to the king Virata's daughter, Uttarā. Later Arjuna arranges for Uttara to become his daughter-in-law by marrying his son Abhimanyu to her. At Virata, a host of Kaurava warriors that included Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Ashwattama and Duryodhana attack Virata. Arjuna single handedly defeats this legion of Kaurava warriors with only the prince of Virata (who was only a mere boy) as a charioteer.
As the battle draws close, Arjuna is overcome with self-doubt about the righteousness of the war against his own kith and kin. He is aggrieved at the thought of having to fight with his dear teacher, Drona and the fatherlike Bhishma. It was then that Krishna took charge and explained the necessity and inevitability of the war to Arjuna. This conversation is a key part of the Mahabharata known as Bhagavadgita, and is considered as a holy scripture of Hinduism.
After the conclusion of the war, the Pandavas take charge of Hastinapura, the undivided realm of their ancestors. Yudhishira appointed Arjuna as the in-charge for the army and security forces of Hastinapura.
Upon the onset of the Kali yuga and the departure of Lord Krishna, Bhima and other Pandavas retired, leaving the throne to their only descendant to survive the war of Kurukshetra, Arjuna's grandson Parikshita. Giving up all their belongings and ties, the Pandavas, accompanied by a dog, made their final journey of pilgrimage to the Himalayas. It is also to be noted that the listener of the Mahabharata is Janamejaya, a son in the lineage of Arjuna.

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