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How Shakuni Got His Magical Dice?
Mahabharata war would not have been fought if it wasn’t for Shakuni and his game of Chausar. It was this game that made the Pandavas lose their kingdom, their wealth and eventually themselves and Draupadi as servants to Duryodhana. It was this game that led to Draupadi’s Vastraharan and all this because of one man and his magical tools, Shakuni and his magical dice.
While it is often understood that the Kauravas did not win the game of Chausar by fair means and that it was Shakuni’s dice that did the tricks to defeat the Pandavas, not many people know what was this magical dice all about? Where did Shakuni get it from?
After the death of all his relatives, Shakuni did as he was told by his father. He picked the bones of this father and created a pair of magical dice that would always obey him. This dice would later be instrumental in Shakuni's revenge plan.
The story begins before the marriage of Dhritarashtra, when he was just a Prince. When Gandhari was of marriageable age, her father the King of Gandhar also known as Gandhar Naresh, showed the horoscope of his daughter to better understand her future and prospects of marriage. It was later known that Gandhari had a Dosha (fault) in her horoscope and it indicated that her first husband would die, leaving her a widow. To avert this, on an astrologer’s advice, Gandhari was married to a goat. Later this goat was killed to fulfill the predictions of the horoscope and resolve the problem in her destiny. Upon this event, she was free to marry anyone of her choice and that would be considered her second marriage, thus saving the life of her real husband.
When Pitamah Bhishma brought Dritarashtra’s proposal for Gandhari, she readily accepted to be the wife of the Prince. Her father wanted her to reconsider her decision of marrying a blind man, but Gandhari was sure about her decision. Her youngest brother Shakuni was the one who was extremely unhappy with the match for two reasons. One being Dritarashtra’s blindness, and the other because Dritarashtra had been overlooked to become the King of Hastinapur due to his disability. Despite being the elder brother, his younger brother Pandu was given the throne of the kingdom. Although he expressed his disagreement in the decision, eventually the decion was Gandhari’s, so there was not much he could do.
Then he talked his way out of prison, became close to Duryodhana and started on his evil plan of revenge which included the destruction of Dhritrashtra's 100 sons to avenge the death of his family.
As interesting as this story may seem, this is not a part of Ved Vyas’s Mahabharata, but is found in many local and regional versions of Mahabharta.
In another version of this story, Shakuni’s dice was made up of Ivory. His dice were not magical, but it was Shakuni’s power of trickery and creating an illusion that enabled him to win the game of Chausar.
Are there other versions to this story? Which version do you think is true and why? Let us know in the comments below.
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28 авг 2024
