Literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages - Summary - 2019
Mahabharata
Unknown
"The Great [Battle of Bharatov]" is an ancient Indian epic, consisting of approximately one hundred and twenty two-folds, divided into 18 books, and including many insert episodes (myths, legends, parables, teachings, etc.), one way or another related to the main narrative.
In the city of Hastinapur, the capital of the country of Bharat, reigned powerful Panda valiant. By the curse of a wise man accidentally struck by his arrow, he could not conceive children, and therefore his first wife, Kunty, who possessed the divine spell, summoned one another God of justice to Dharma - and gave birth to Yudhisthira, the wind god of Vayu, from him - and gave birth to him Bhimi, or Bhimsan, the king of the gods Indra - and gave birth to Arjuna. She then handed a spell to Panda Madri's second wife, who, from the Ashvin celestial brothers (Dioskurov), gave birth to the twins, Nakula and Sahaedev. All five sons were considered by law Panda children and were named pandavas.
Shortly after the birth of his sons, Pandu died, and his blind brother Dhritarashtra became king in Hastinapur. Dhṛtarasrṭra and his wife Gandhari had one daughter and one hundred sons, who by one of their ancestors were called kurawami, and among them the king especially distinguished and loved his firstborn Duryodhana.
For a long time, the Pandavas and Kauraws are brought together in the courtyard of Dhṛtarāsṭra and bring great fame to their knowledge in sciences, arts and especially in military affairs. When they reach the age of majority, their mentor Dron arranges for a large constellation of people's military contests, on which both the Pandas and Kauravas reveal incomparable mastery in archery, fights on swords, sticks and spears, and the management of battle elephants and chariots. Arjuna fights best, and only one of the contestants is inferior to him in the agility and power of an unknown warrior named Carna, who subsequently turns out to be the son of Kunti from the sun god of Surya, born before marriage to Panda. Pandavas, without knowing the origin of Karna, squeal him with ridicule, which he can never forgive them, and Duryodhana, on the contrary, makes him a friend and gives him the kingdom of Angu. Soon afterwards, hostility is gradually flaring between the pandavas and the envious Kauravs, especially since the heir to the kingdom of Bharat should become the custom of Kaurav Duryodhana not pretending to be on him, and the eldest of the Pandas, Yudhisthira.
Duryodhane succeeds in persuading his father to send pandas in the city of Varanavata, located in the north of the kingdom. There for the brothers there is a resin house, which Duryodkhan orders to burn, so that they all burned alive. However, the wise Yudhisthira discovered the villain's plan, and the Pandavas along with his mother Kunti are secretly chosen from the west, and in the house there are accidentally disappearing nayschenka with five of her sons. Having discovered their remains and accepted them for the pandas, the inhabitants of Varanavata were sorrowful, and Duryodkhan and his brothers were gladly convinced that the sons of Panda died.
Meanwhile, having escaped from a resin house, the Pandavas go to the forest and live there unidentified under the guise of hermit brahmons, for they are afraid of the new scum of Duryodkhani. At this time, the Pandavas accomplish many glorious feats; in particular, the brave Bhimi kills the Rakhsha-cannibal Hidibu, who was bitten by the brothers, as well as another monster - Rakshasa Banu, who demanded the daily human casualties of the inhabitants of a small city of Ekachak. One day, the Pandavas will find out that the king of Panchals of Drupada has appointed Svaymvaru - the choice of the groom to the bride - for his daughter, the beauty of Draupadi. The Pandavas go to the capital of Panchal Kampil, where they have already gathered to betray Draupadi's hand, many kings and princes. Drupat offered the bridegroom seekers to send five arrows from the miraculous divine bow to the target, but none of them could even tighten his bow. And only Arjuna was honest with the test, after which, according to Kunti, Draupadi became the common wife of all five brothers. Pandavas have revealed their names to Drupada; and that their rivals are alive, they immediately learned the Kaaura in Hastinapur. In spite of the objections of Duryodhana and Karna, the Dhritarashtra invited the Pandas to Hastinapur and gave them the possession of the western part of their kingdom, where they built for themselves a new capital - the city of Indraprastha.
For many years, Yudhisthira and his brothers lived happily, in contentment and consolation in Indralrastha. They made military campaigns to the north, south, west and east of India and conquered many kingdoms and lands. But along with the growth of their power and glory, envy and hatred towards them became the Kauravs. Duryodhana sends Yudhisthir a challenge to the game in the bone, from which he, according to the rules of honor, was not entitled to escape. In opposition to him, Duryodkhan chooses his uncle Shakuni, the most skilled player and no less skilful deceiver. Yudhisthira loses Shakuni very quickly all his wealth, land, cattle, warriors, servants and even his own brothers. Then he puts on himself himself - and loses, puts the last thing he has left, beautiful Draupadi - and loses again. The Kauraws start to mock at the brothers, who, according to the conditions of the game, are their slaves, and especially the shameful humiliations are subjected to Draupadi. Here, Bhima makes a vow of deadly revenge, and when the vagabond words echo the vows of a predictive trouble jackal, and other terrible oversights are heard, the frightened Dhṛtarāṣṭra frees Draupadi from slavery and proposes to choose three gifts for her. Draupadi asks for one - freedom for his husbands, but Dhṛtarāṣṭra returns with him the freedom of the kingdom and everything else that was lost to them.
However, hardly just the Paldāvs returned to Indraprash, Duryodkhan once again calls Yudhisthira an ill-fated game. Under the terms of the new game - and Yudhisthira lost her again - he must go with the brothers for twelve years to expel, and after that time, another year unrecognized to live in any country.
The Pandavas fulfilled all these conditions: twelve years, overcoming the need and many dangers, they lived in the forest, and the thirteenth year as simple servants spent at the courtyard of the king of the mats Virata. At the end of this year, Kauraw was attacked on the country of Mats. The army of mats, led by Arjuna, reflected this raid, the artillery commander of Kauraw learned about Arjuna, but the expiration of the pike had expired, and the Pandavas could not hide their names further.
The Pandavas offered Dhritarashtra to return their possessions to them, and at the beginning they were inclined to agree to their demand. But the skillful and insidious Duryodkhan managed to convince his father, and now the war between the Pandavas and the Kurawami became inevitable.
To Kuruksheter, or the Kuru Field, on which the great battle was destined to be held, countless hordes of warriors, thousands of chariots, battle elephants and horses are pulled together. On the side of the Kauraws, the duty of Dhritarashtra's subjects, their cousins, the wise Bhishma and the mentor of the princes Drona, the friend and ally of Duryodhana Karna, the wife of the daughter of Dhiritarashta Jayadratha, the son of Drona Ashvatthaman, the kings of Shallya, Shakuni, the Crivatewar, and other mighty and brave warriors fight. The side of the Pandavas is taken by the kings of Drupat and Virat, the son of Drupada Dhṛṣdyumna, son of Arjuna Abhimānjū, but the most important role in the battle is played by the leader of the genus of Kṛṣṇa's jadas, the earthly embodiment of God Vishnu, who by his vow himself has no right to fight, but becomes the main adviser of the pandas.
Before the very beginning of the battle of Arjuna, by circling the troops in a chariot whose crew was Krishna, he sees in the camp the adversaries of his teachers, relatives and friends, and in horror before a fratricidal battle, he drops weapons, exclaiming: "I will not fight!" Then Krishna pronounces his instruction to him, called "Bhagavad-gita" ("Song of the Divine") and became the sacred text of Hinduism. Relying on religious, philosophical, ethical and psychological arguments, he persuades Arjuna to fulfill his military duty, proclaiming that it is not the fruits of the matter - they are bad or good-but they are the only thing that the final meaning of which the mortal judge is not given should be the only one. care of man. Arjuna recognizes the correctness of the teacher and joins the army of pandas.
The battle on the Kura field lasts for eighteen days. In the numerous battles and fights, all the leaders of the Kauraws are killed one by one: both Bhishma, Drona, Karna and Shalya are all the sons of Dhritarashtra, and on the last day of the battle from the hands of Bhhima, the eldest among them is Duryodkhan. The victory of the pandas seems unconditional, only three of the innumerable troops of the Kauravs survive: the son of Dronas Asvatthanam, Kira and Kratavarmand. But at night, these three soldiers manage to get into the sleeping camp of the pandas and destroy all their enemies with the exception of the five brothers-pandas and Krsna. Such a terrible price turned out to be a victory.
On the field, strewn with corpses of warriors, there appears the mother of Kauravov Gandhari, other mothers, wives and sisters of the dead, and bitterly weeping them. There is reconciliation of the Pandas with Dhitarashtra, after which the sad Yudhisthira decides to spend the rest of his life as a hermit in the woods. However, the brothers succeed in persuading him to fulfill his inheritance duty of the emperor and to crown in Hastinapura. After a while, Yudhisthira performs a great royal sacrifice, his army under the leadership of Arjuna conquers the whole earth, and he wisely and righteously reigns, asserting peace and consent everywhere.
Time passes. The elderly king of Dhṛtarastra, Gandhari and the mother of the Pandavas Kunti, who have chosen the part of the hermits, perish in a forest fire. Died Krishna, who was wounded in the heel - the only vulnerable place on Krsna's body - a certain hunter, taking him for a deer. Having learned of these new sorrowful events, Yudhisthira finally fulfills his long-established intention and, having appointed his successor to the throne of his grandson Arjuna Pariksita, with his brothers and Draupadi, abandons the kingdom and leaves the ascetic in the Himalayas. One by one, they can not withstand a difficult path, and Droupadi, Sahadeva, Nakula, Arjuna and Bhhima die. In the holy mountain of Meru, the only survivor of Yudhisthira, the king of the gods of Indra, meets and hears his eyes to heaven. However, Yudhisthira does not see his brothers there, and when he learns that they are tormented in the underworld, he refuses heavenly bliss; he wants to divide their participation, asks him to take him to the underworld. In the underworld, the last test of the Pandavas ends: the darkness of the underworld is dissipated - it turns out to be Maya illusion, and Yudhisthira, as well as his wife, brothers and other noble and brave warriors, will now have an eternal stay in heaven among gods and demigods.