Mahabharata
The Mahābhārata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes and their succession. Along with the Rāmāyaṇa, it forms the Hindu Itihasa; the Mahābhārata is an epic legendary narrative of the Kurukṣetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes. It contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or puruṣārtha. Among the principal works and stories in the Mahābhārata are the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, an abbreviated version of the Rāmāyaṇa, the story of Ṛṣyasringa considered as works in their own right. Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahābhārata is attributed to Vyāsa. There have been many attempts to unravel compositional layers; the oldest preserved parts of the text are thought to be not much older than around 400 BCE, though the origins of the epic fall between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE.
The text reached its final form by the early Gupta period. According to the Mahābhārata itself, the tale is extended from a shorter version of 24,000 verses called Bhārata; the Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known and has been described as "the longest poem written". Its longest version consists of over 100,000 śloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines, long prose passages. At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa. W. J. Johnson has compared the importance of the Mahābhārata in the context of world civilization to that of the Bible, the works of William Shakespeare, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the Quran. Within the Indian tradition it is sometimes called the Fifth Veda; the epic is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyāsa, a major character in the epic. Vyāsa described it as being itihāsa, he describes the Guru-shishya parampara, which traces all great teachers and their students of the Vedic times.
The first section of the Mahābhārata states that it was Gaṇeśa who wrote down the text to Vyasa's dictation. The epic employs the story within a story structure, otherwise known as frametales, popular in many Indian religious and non-religious works, it is first recited at Takshashila by the sage Vaiśampāyana, a disciple of Vyāsa, to the King Janamejaya, the great-grandson of the Pāṇḍava prince Arjuna. The story is recited again by a professional storyteller named Ugraśrava Sauti, many years to an assemblage of sages performing the 12-year sacrifice for the king Saunaka Kulapati in the Naimiśa Forest; the text was described by some early 20th-century western Indologists as chaotic. Hermann Oldenberg supposed that the original poem must once have carried an immense "tragic force" but dismissed the full text as a "horrible chaos." Moritz Winternitz considered that "only unpoetical theologists and clumsy scribes" could have lumped the parts of disparate origin into an unordered whole. Research on the Mahābhārata has put an enormous effort into recognizing and dating layers within the text.
Some elements of the present Mahābhārata can be traced back to Vedic times. The background to the Mahābhārata suggests the origin of the epic occurs "after the early Vedic period" and before "the first Indian'empire' was to rise in the third century B. C." That this is "a date not too far removed from the 8th or 9th century B. C." is likely. Mahābhārata started as an orally-transmitted tale of the charioteer bards, it is agreed that "Unlike the Vedas, which have to be preserved letter-perfect, the epic was a popular work whose reciters would conform to changes in language and style," so the earliest'surviving' components of this dynamic text are believed to be no older than the earliest'external' references we have to the epic, which may include an allusion in Panini's 4th century BCE grammar Aṣṭādhyāyī 4:2:56. It is estimated that the Sanskrit text reached something of a "final form" by the early Gupta period. Vishnu Sukthankar, editor of the first great critical edition of the Mahābhārata, commented: "It is useless to think of reconstructing a fluid text in a original shape, on the basis of an archetype and a stemma codicum.
What is possible? Our objective can only be to reconstruct the oldest form of the text which it is possible to reach on the basis of the manuscript material available." That manuscript evidence is somewhat late, given its material composition and the climate of India, but it is extensive. The Mahābhārata itself distinguishes a core portion of 24,000 verses: the Bhārata proper, as opposed to additional secondary material, while the Aśvalāyana Gṛhyasūtra makes a similar distinction. At least three redactions of the text are recognized: Jaya with 8,800 verses attributed to Vyāsa, Bhārata with 24,000 verses as recited by Vaiśampāyana, the Mahābhārata as recited by Ugraśrava Sauti with over 100,000 verses. However, some scholars, such as John Brockington, argue that Jaya and Bharata refer to the same text, ascribe the theory of Jaya with 8,800 verses to a misreading of a verse in Ādiparvan; the redaction of this large body of text was carried out after formal principles, emphasizing the numbers 18 and 12.
The addition of the latest parts may be dated by the absence of the Anuśāsana-parva and the Virāta parva from the "Spitzer manuscript". The oldest surviving
Matsya
Matsya is the fish avatar in the ten primary avatars of Hindu god Vishnu. Matsya is described to have rescued Manu and earthly existence from a great deluge; the earliest accounts of Matsya as a fish-saviour equates him with the Vedic deity Prajapati. The fish-savior merges with the identity of Brahma in post-Vedic era, still as an avatar of Vishnu; the legends associated with Matsya expand and vary in Hindu texts. These legends have embedded symbolism, where a small fish with Manu's protection grows to become a big fish, the fish saves earthly existence. Matsya iconography sometimes is zoomorphic as a giant fish with a horn, or anthropomorphic in the form of a human torso connected to the rear half of a fish. Matsya is a Sanskrit word and means "fish"; the term appears in the Rigveda. It is related to maccha, which means fish; the section 1.8.1 of the Shatapatha Brahmana is the earliest extant text to mention Matsya and the flood myth in Hinduism. It makes no mention of Vishnu, instead identifies the fish with Prajapati-Brahma.
The central characters of this legend are Manu. The character Manu is presented as the ancestor king. One day, water is brought to Manu for his ablutions. In the water is a tiny fish; the fish states it fears being swallowed by appeals to Manu to protect him. In return, the fish promises to rescue Manu from an impending flood. Manu accepts the request, he puts the fish in a pot of water. He prepares a ditch filled with water, transfers him there where it can grow freely. Once the fish grows further to be big enough to be free from danger, Manu transfers him into the ocean; the fish thanks him, tells him the date of the great flood, asks Manu to build a boat by that day, one he can attach to its horn. On the predicted day, Manu visits the fish with his boat; the devastating floods come, Manu ties the boat to the horn. The fish carries the boat with Manu to the high grounds of the northern mountains. Manu re-establishes life by performing austerities and by performing yajna. According to Bonnefoy, the Vedic story is symbolic.
The little fish alludes to the Indian "law of the fishes", an equivalent to the "law of the jungle". The small and weak would be devoured by the big and strong, needs the dharmic protection of the legislator and king Manu to enable it to attain its potential and be able to help later. Manu provides the protection, the little fish grows to become big and saves all existence; the boat that Manu builds to get help from the savior fish, states Bonnefoy, is symbolism of the means to avert complete destruction and for human salvation. The mountains are symbolism for the doorway for ultimate liberation; the tale of Matsya appears in chapter 12.187 of the Vana Parva, in the epic Mahabharata. The legend begins with Manu performing religious rituals on the banks of the Cherivi River. A little fish called Matsyaka comes to him and asks for his protection, promising to save him from a deluge in the future; the legend moves in the same vein as the Vedic version. Manu places him in the jar. Once it outgrows it, the fish asks to be put into a tank.
The fish outgrows the tank, with Manu's help reaches the Ganges River to the ocean. Manu is asked by the fish, in the Mahabharata version, to build a ship and be in it with Rishis and all sorts of grains, on the day of the expected deluge. Manu accepts the fish's advice; the deluge begins, the fish arrives to Manu's aid. He ties the ship to the fish, who steers the ship to the Himalayas, carrying Manu through a turbulent storm; the danger passes. The fish reveals himself as Brahma, gives the power of creation to Manu; the key difference between the Vedic version and the Mahabharata version of the allegorical legend are the latter's identification of Matsya with Brahma, more explicit discussion of the "law of the fishes" where the weak needs the protection from the strong, the fish asking Manu to bring along sages and grains. According to George Williams, there are many versions of the Matsya mythology in the Puranas; the names of the characters, the details, the plot and the message diverge in this genre of texts.
The Matsya Purana evolves the legend further, by identifying the fish-savior with Vishnu instead of Brahma. The Purana derives its name from Matsya; the legend as it appears in section 1.12 states that when a little fish appears to Manu, he recognizes Vishnu Vasudeva in the fish. The fish tells him about the impending fiery end of kalpa accompanied by a deluge; the fish once again has a horn. The gods build it, they build it big enough to carry and save all life forms, Manu needs to just carry all types of grain seeds to produce food for everyone after the deluge is over. When the great flood begins, Manu ties the Ananta Sesha to the fish's horn; the fish carries everyone to safety. According to Bonnefoy, the Matsya Puranic story is symbolic though quite different; the fish is divine to begin with, needs no protection, only recognition and devotion. It ties the story to its cosmology, connecting two kalpas through the cosmic symbolic residue in the form of Sesha. In another version of the Matsya Purana, the story is closer to the Mahabharata version.
At the end of Kalpa, Brahma is resting and the demon Hayagriva steals the Vedas. Vishnu discovers the theft, he descends to earth in the Matsya avatar. One day, the king of Dravida desha named Satyavrata cups water in his hand to offer it to his ancestors. There he finds a
Mahabharat (1988 TV series)
Mahabharat is an Indian television series based on the Hindu epic of the same name. The 94-episode Hindi series ran from 2 October 1988 to 15 July 1990 on DD National, it was directed by his son Ravi Chopra. The music was composed by Raj Kamal; the script was written based on the original story by Vyasa. Costumes for the series were provided by Maganlal Dresswala; each episode ran for 60 minutes and began with a title song that consisted of lyrical content and two verses from the Bhagavad Gita. The title song was sung and the verses rendered by singer Mahendra Kapoor; the title song was followed by a narration by Indian voice artist Harish Bhimani of a personification of Time, detailing the current circumstances and highlighting the spiritual significance of the content of the episode. It is the most successful Mahabharata series produced in the television, it was shown in the United Kingdom by the BBC. It was the first programme broadcast on BBC2 after its 1991 revamp, It has been shown on FBC TV in Fiji and Star Utsav.
It aired on Epic. The series was dubbed in all major South Indian languages, it was broadcast on Sony Entertainment Television from 2001 - 2003 and Star Utsav in 2006 - 2008. Mahabharat Katha Part II - Story of Barbarik and Veer Babhruvahan was a spin-off series which contained portions and stories left out in Mahabharat. Oldest GenerationRaj Babbar as Chakravarti Samrat Bharat, ancestor of Kauravas and Pandavas/ son of King Dushyanta & Shakuntala Ashalata as Rajmata Shakuntala, Bharata's mother / King Dushyanta's wife1st GenerationRishabh Shukla as Maharaj Shantanu, descendant of Bharata Kiran Juneja as Mata Ganga, Shantanu's first wife/ Bhisma's mother/ the holy river of Hindus. Debashree Roy as Rajmata Satyavati, Shantanu's second wife/ Vichitravirya and Chitrangada's mother/ Bhisma's step-mother2nd GenerationMukesh Khanna as Gangaputra Devavrata Bhishma, Shantanu-Ganga's eighth son/ eighth Vasu/ Satyavati's step-son Sudesh Berry as Maharaj Vichitravirya, Shantanu-Satyavati's second son after Chitrangada, Bhisma's step brother Meena Chakrabarty as Maharani Ambika, 2nd princess of Kashi/ Vichitravirya's first queen Menaka Babbar as Ambalika, 3rd princess of Kashi/ Vichitravirya's second queen3rd GenerationGirija Shankar as Maharaj Dhritrashtra, Vichitravirya's son from Ambika/ king of Hastinapur/ father of Kauravas Renuka Israni as Maharani Gandhari, wife of Dhritrashtra/ Queen of Hastinapur/ mother of Kauravas/ princess of Gandhara Tarakesh Chauhan as Maharaj Pandu, Vichitravirya's son from Ambalika/ King of Hastinapur/ father of Pandavas Nazneen as Maharani Kunti, Pandu's first wife/ mother of Karna, Yudhisthira and Arjun/ Daughter of Shoorsen hence Vasudev's sister and Yadava princess/ Foster daughter of Kuntibhoj Roma Manik as Rani Madri, Pandu's second wife/ Madra princess/ mother of Nakul and Sahadev Virendra Razdan as Mahamantri Dasi Putra Vidur, the Mahaa Mantri of Hastinapur / son of Ambika's head maid, Parishrami/ half-brother to the kings Dhritarashtra and Pandu of Hastinapura and the uncle of Pandavas and Kauravas Kamlesh Maan as Devi Sulabha, Vidur's wife4th GenerationPandavasPankaj Dheer as Angaraj Karna, son of Kunti and Surya/ Adhiratha-Radha's foster son/ King of Anga Desh Gajendra Chouhan as Chakravarti Samrat Dharamraj Yudhishthir, 1st Pandav/ son of Kunti and Yama / Eldest son of Kuru Clan/ King of Indraprastha and Hastinapura/ husband of Draupadi Praveen Kumar as Kuntiputra Bhim, 2nd Pandav/ son of Kunti and Vayu/ Second eldest son of Kuru clan/ Yuvraaj of Indraprastha/husband of Draupadi and Hidimbi/ father of Ghatotkacha Arjun as Kuntiputra Arjuna, 3rd Pandava/ son of Kunti and Indra/ husband of Draupadi, Uloopi and Subhadra/ brother-in-law of Balaram-Krishna/ father of Abhimanyu Sameer Chitre as Nakul, 4th Pandav, son of Madri and Ashwini Kumara/ husband of Draupadi Sanjeev Chitre as Sahadeva, 5th Pandav, son of Madri and Ashwini Kumara/ husband of Draupadi Roopa Ganguly as Samragni Yagyaseni Draupadi, Wife of all Pandav/Also called as Panchali/ Yagyaseni/ Younger daughter of Drupad/ Princess of Panchala/Sister of Dhrishtadhyumna and Shikhandi Aloka Mukherjee as Subhadra, Arjuna's 2nd wife/ Abhimanyu's mother/ Vasudev's daughter hence Krishna-Balaram's sister and Yadava princessKauravasPuneet Issar as Duryodhan, Eldest son of Gandhari and Dhitarashtra/ Elder brother of 99 Kauras/ Husband of Bhanumati Vinod Kapoor as Dushasan, Second son of Gandhari and Dhitarashtra/ Duyodhan's younger brother Dinesh Anand as Vikarna, Son of Gandhari and Dhitarashtra/ Duyodhan's younger brother5th GenerationRazak Khan as Ghatotkach Mayur Verma as Abhimanyu Varsha Usgaonkar as Uttara, Abhimanyu's wife/ Virata princess6th GenerationAyub Khan as Parikshit, son of Abhimanyu and Uttara/ Grandson of Arjuna-SubhadraOfficialsDharmesh Tiwari as Kripacharya, Family Teacher Surendra Pal as Dronacharya, Guru of Kauravas and Pandavas Om Katare as Adhiratha, Charioteer/Karna's foster father Saroj Sharma as Radha, Adhiratha's wife/ Karna's foster mother Pradeep Rawat as Ashwatthama, son of Dronacharya Ram Mohan as Raj Purohit, Head Priest Rafique Mukkadam as Minister Vinod Raut as Purochana, Royal architect Pramod Kumar as Dwarpal Abha Mishra as Maid Servant to Ganga Lalit Tiwari as Sanjaya, Dhritarashtra's advisor and his charioteerYadava ClanNitish Bhardwaj as Dwarkadheesh Bhagwan Shri Krishna, Incarnation of Lord Vishnu/ Devaki-Vasudev's younger son/ Foster son of Nand and Yashoda, Radha's Consort and Subhadra's brother/ Pandavas' cousin, husband of Rukmini and others Ramlal Gupta as Ugrasen, King of Mathura Goga Kapoor as Kans, son of Ugrasen Devidas as Kans's Minister Ashok Banthia as Senapa
Ayurveda
Ayurveda is a system of medicine with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. Globalized and modernized practices derived from Ayurveda traditions are a type of alternative medicine. In countries beyond India, Ayurvedic therapies and practices have been integrated in general wellness applications and in some cases in medical use; the main classical Ayurveda texts begin with accounts of the transmission of medical knowledge from the Gods to sages, to human physicians. In Sushruta Samhita, Sushruta wrote that Dhanvantari, Hindu god of Ayurveda, incarnated himself as a king of Varanasi and taught medicine to a group of physicians, including Sushruta. Ayurveda therapies have evolved over more than two millennia. Therapies are based on complex herbal compounds and metal substances. Ancient Ayurveda texts taught surgical techniques, including rhinoplasty, kidney stone extractions and the extraction of foreign objects. Although laboratory experiments suggest it is possible that some substances used in Ayurveda might be developed into effective treatments, there is no scientific evidence that any are effective as practiced.
Ayurveda medicine is considered pseudoscientific. Other researchers consider it a trans-science system instead. In a 2008 study, close to 21% of Ayurveda U. S. and Indian-manufactured patent medicines sold through the Internet were found to contain toxic levels of heavy metals lead and arsenic. The public health implications of such metallic contaminants in India are unknown; some scholars assert that Ayurveda originated in prehistoric times, that some of the concepts of Ayurveda have existed from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization or earlier. Ayurveda developed during the Vedic period and some of the non-Vedic systems such as Buddhism and Jainism developed medical concepts and practices that appear in the classical Ayurveda texts. Doṣa balance is emphasized, suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy and claimed to lead to illness. Ayurveda treatises describe three elemental doṣas viz. vāta, pitta and kapha, state that equality of the doṣas results in health, while inequality results in disease.
Ayurveda treatises divide medicine into eight canonical components. Ayurveda practitioners had developed various medicinal preparations and surgical procedures from at least the beginning of the common era; the earliest classical Sanskrit works on Ayurveda describe medicine as being divided into eight components. This characterization of the physicians' art, "the medicine that has eight components", is first found in the Sanskrit epic the Mahābhārata, ca 4th century BCE; the components are: Kāyachikitsā: general medicine, medicine of the body Kaumāra-bhṛtya: the treatment of children, pediatrics Śalyatantra: surgical techniques and the extraction of foreign objects Śhālākyatantra: treatment of ailments affecting ears, nose, etc. Bhūtavidyā: pacification of possessing spirits, the people whose minds are affected by such possession Agadatantra: toxicology Rasāyantantra: rejuvenation and tonics for increasing lifespan and strength Vājīkaraṇatantra: aphrodisiacs and treatments for increasing the volume and viability of semen and sexual pleasure.
The word "ayurveda" is Sanskrit: Āyurveda, meaning knowledge of life and longevity. The central theoretical ideas of Ayurveda developed in the mid-first millennium BCE, show parallels with Sāṅkhya and Vaiśeṣika philosophies, as well as with Buddhism and Jainism. Balance is emphasized, suppressing natural urges is considered unhealthy and claimed to lead to illness. For example, to suppress sneezing is said to give rise to shoulder pain. However, people are cautioned to stay within the limits of reasonable balance and measure when following nature's urges. For example, emphasis is placed on moderation of food intake and sexual intercourse. Ayurveda names seven basic tissues, which are plasma, muscles, bone and semen. Like the medicine of classical antiquity, Ayurveda has divided bodily substances into five classical elements, viz. earth, fire and ether. There are twenty gunas which are considered to be inherent in all matter; these are organized in ten pairs: heavy/light, cold/hot, unctuous/dry, dull/sharp, stable/mobile, soft/hard, non-slimy/slimy, smooth/coarse, minute/gross, viscous/liquid.
Ama is used to refer to the concept of anything. With regards to oral hygiene, it is claimed to be a toxic byproduct generated by improper or incomplete digestion; the concept has no equivalent in standard medicine. Ayurveda names three elemental bodily humors, the doshas, states that a balance of the doshas results in health, while imbalance results in disease. One Ayurvedic view is that the doshas are balanced when they are equal to each other, while another view is that each human possesses a unique combination of the doshas which define this person's temperament and characteristics. In either case, it says that each person should modulate their behavior or environment to increase or decrease the doshas and maintain their natural state. In medieval taxonomies of the Sanskrit knowledge systems, Ayurveda is assigned a place as a subsidiary Veda; some medicinal plant names from the Atharvaveda and other Ve
Arjuna
Arjuna is a central character of the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata, who plays a key role in the Bhagavad Gita alongside Krishna. It is believed. Arjuna was the son of Pandu in the Kuru Kingdom. In a previous birth he was a saint named Nara, the lifelong companion of another saint, Narayana, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu who took rebirth as Lord Krishna, he was the third of the Pandava brothers and was married to Draupadi, Chitrāngadā and Subhadra at different times. His children included Srutakarma, Iravan and Abhimanyu. Arjuna was equal to 12 maharatha class warriors; the name Arjuna means "white", "clear" or "silver" in Sanskrit and is cognate to Latin argentum, meaning "silver." Epithets for Arjuna include: Vijaya: always invincible or undefeated. Dhanañjaya: one who brings prosperity and wealth in the region wherever he goes to. Savyasāchin: ambidextrous, only Arjuna is expert in using both hands in archery. Shvethavāhana: one with milky white horses mounted to his pure white chariot. Only Arjuna had this.
Parantapa: one who concentrates the most. Gāndīvadhanvan: one who possessed the mighty bow named Gandiva, created by Lord Brahma. Gudākesha: one who had control oversleeps. Bībhatsu: one who always fights wars in a fair manner. Kapidhvaja: having the flag of Kapi in his chariot. Lord Hanuman stayed on Arjuna's flag during Kurukshetra war. Kirītin: one who wears the celestial diadem, presented by Lord Indra. Gāndīvadhara: Gandiva-holder. Jishnu: triumphant. Pārtha: son of Pritha known as Kunti. Kaunteya: son of Kunti. Phalguna: born under the star Uttara Phalguni. Madhyapāndava: the middle of the Pandavas, younger than Yudhisthira and Bhima and elder of Nakula and Sahadeva. Arjuna's birth is a most celebrated one and he was born seven months after the birth of Krishna. After the death of Pandu, the Pandavas and their mother lived in Hastinapura, where they were brought up together with their cousins, the Kaurava brothers. Along with his brothers, Arjuna was trained in religion, science and military arts by Bhishma, their granduncle.
One day, when the princes were playing a game, they lost their ball in a well. When the rest of the children gave up the ball as being lost, Arjuna stayed behind trying to get it. A stranger came by and extracted the ball for him by making a chain of "sarkanda"; when an astonished Arjuna related the story to Bhishma, Bhishma realised that the stranger was none other than Drona. Bhishma asked Drona to become the Kuru princes' teacher. Seeking refuge from Panchala, Drona agreed. Many asuras were killed by him. Under Drona's tutelage, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, along with the princes of Hastinapura's allies and vassals, learned weaponry. Arjuna became Drona's most accomplished pupil. In a famous incident, Drona deemed that out of all his students his own son Ashwatthama, none but Arjuna had the steadfast focus to shoot the eye of a bird on a tree. One day, on being questioned by Ashwatthama, his intention was clear that he loved Arjuna but didn't ill-treat anyone. He ordered Ashwatthama to gather all of his students including Ashwatthama to assemble at near by lake that evening.
They did. Drona was taking bath. Nobody except Arjuna were dare to enter into lake. Arjuna jumped into lake & began attacking the mighty crocodile with bare hands. Crocodile disappeared. Drona told everyone that the crocodile was just illusion and created by himself to test all the princes & Ashwatthama. Drona scolded the rest that they were not ready to save their teacher except Arjuna, thus Drona proudly declared that Arjuna was his pet student. Pandavas secretly went from Varnavrat after saving themselves from evil plan of Shakuni. Still in hiding, the Pandavas disguise themselves as brahmins and attend the Swayamvara of Panchala princess Draupadi. Out of all of the great kings and other Kaurava princes, only Arjuna is able to do the established challenge; the test is to lift and fire Pinakin to pierce the eye of a golden fish whilst only looking at its reflection. All kings including Karna and Shalya were defeated in the task. At last Arjuna came forward and lifted bow with just one hand and hit the target hence he won Draupadi.
Karna attacked Arjuna out of jealousy but Arjuna defeated him Karna asked about his real identity, Arjuna smiled and said that he is Brahmin Karna praised him by comparing him with Lord Vishnu. Arjuna threatened to kill Karna; when the brothers returned with Draupadi, Pandavas joked to his mother. Dismissively, without looking because she was preoccupied, Kunti asks him to share it with his brothers. Holding his mother's orders as a divine command, he requested his elder brother to accept Draupadi. Draupadi had to marry all five of the Pandavas, her five sons, one from each of the Pandava brothers, are known as the Upapandavas. Srutakarma is the son of Arjuna. At this point in the Mahabharata, the Pandavas revealed. With both Duryodhan
Narakasura
Narakasura was an asura, the legendary progenitor of all three dynasties of Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa. He is considered to be a son of Bhudevi, fathered by either Vishnu in his Varaha incarnation or Hiranyaksha according to different texts, he is claimed as one. He was killed by Krishna and his son, Bhagadatta of Mahabharata fame, succeeded him. In the 10th-century Kalika Purana he is claimed to have come from Mithila and said to have established the kingdom of Pragjyotisha after overthrowing the last of the Kirata king Ghatakasura of Danava dynasty, it was foretold that he would be destroyed by a incarnation of Vishnu. His mother, the earth, sought the boon from Vishnu that her son should have a long life, that he should be all powerful. Vishnu granted these boons; the legend of Naraka is important in the history of Assam Kamarupa. A hill, to the south of Guwahati is named after him, he is associated with the Hindu belief of the shakti goddess and place of worship Kamakhya. Narakasura and his kingdom, find mention in both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, in the sections which were written not before the first century, where he is not depicted as the son of Bhudevi and Varaha incarnation of Vishnu.
His son, Bhagadatta, is said to have fought for the Kauravas in the Mahabharata battle. Though the boar Prajapati finds mention as early as the Satapatha Brahmana and the Taittriya Aranyaka from the mid first millennium BCE, the avatars were associated with Vishnu and became popular in the Gupta period and that the contact with Bhumi engendered a son is first mentioned in the Book II of the Harivamsa, assigned to the fifth century; this theme, that of the son Naraka, is further expanded in the Vishnu Purana. In the 7th-century copper place inscriptions, Naraka is claimed as the originator of the Varman dynasty and that he lived three thousand years earlier; the Bhagavata Purana, composed later, expands the story further. The Naraka myth gets the most extensive elaboration in the Upapurana called Kalika Purana, composed in Assam itself. Here the myth of Janaka of Videha, the father of Sita, is embellished and added to the myth of Naraka. According to other accounts, Naraka is not the son of Vishnu but of an Asura.
The pious Naraka became evil, in association with Asura named Banasura and'asura' was added to his name. Once Naraka, motivated by his carnal desire, wanted to marry Devi Kamakhya; when proposed, the Goddess playfully put a condition before him that if he would be able to build a staircase from the bottom of the Nilachal Hill to the temple within one night before the cock crows to indicate Dawn she would marry him. Naraka tried all with his might to do this huge task, he was about to accomplish the job before it was dawn. When Kamakhya Devi got this news, panic-stricken she strangled a cock and made it crow untimely to give the impression of Dawn to Naraka. Duped by the trick Naraka thought that it was a futile job and left it half way through, he chased the cock and killed it. Now the place is known as Kukurakata situated in the district of Darrang; the incomplete staircase is known as Mekhelauja Path. Drunk with power, as he knew himself to be unrivalled in prowess, he brought all the kingdoms on earth under his control.
Next, he turned his eyes towards Swargaloka. The mighty Indra could not withstand the assault of this son of Vishnu and had to flee the heavens. Narakasura had become the overlord of earth. Addicted to power, he stole the earrings of Aditi, the heavenly mother goddess, usurped some of her territory, while kidnapping 16000 women. All the Devas, led by Indra, went to Vishnu to ask him to deliver them from Narakasura. Vishnu promised them; as promised to Mother Earth, Narakasura was allowed to enjoy a long reign. At last Vishnu was born as Krishna. Aditi, a relative of Krishna's wife Satyabhama, approached Satyabhama for help; when Satyabhama heard of the Narakasura's ill treatment of women and his behaviour with Aditi, she was enraged. Satyabhama approached Lord Krishna for permission to wage a war against Narakasura; as promised to the Devas and Aditi, Krishna attacked the great fortress of Narakasura, riding his mount Garuda with wife Satyabhama. Lord Krishna used the Agneyastra against the army of Narakasura.
The battle was furiously fought. Narakasura possessed 11 Akshauhinis. However, the Lord slew them all with little effort. Lord Krishna killed Mura, Narakasura's general, thus Krishna is called'Murāri'. Narakasura used several divine weapons against Lord Krishna, but Krishna neutralised all those weapons. Narakasura used the Brahmastra against Lord Krishna, but Lord Krishna neutralised it with his own Brahmastra. Narakasura used the Agneyastra against Lord Krishna, but Lord Krishna neutralised it with the Varunastra. Narakasura used the Nagapasha against Lord Krishna, but Lord Krishna neutralised it with the Garudastra. In desperation, Narakasura launched the Vaishnavastra on Lord Krishna, but Lord Krishna neutralised it with another Vaishnavastra. At last, when Narakasura tried to kill Lord Krishna with a trident, Lord Krishna beheaded him with his Sudarshana Chakra. Before Narakasura's death, he requested a boon from his mother, that everyone should celebrate his death with colorful light, thus this day
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce desired characteristics in domesticated horses. Furthermore, modern breeding management and technologies can increase the rate of conception, a healthy pregnancy, successful foaling; the male parent of a horse, a stallion, is known as the sire and the female parent, the mare, is called the dam. Both are genetically important, as each parent provides half of the genetic makeup of the ensuing offspring, called a foal. Contrary to popular misuse, "colt" refers to a young male horse only. Though many horse owners may breed a family mare to a local stallion in order to produce a companion animal, most professional breeders use selective breeding to produce individuals of a given phenotype, or breed. Alternatively, a breeder could, using individuals of differing phenotypes, create a new breed with specific characteristics. A horse is "bred".
Thus a colt conceived in England but foaled in the United States is regarded as being bred in the US. In some cases, most notably in the Thoroughbred breeding industry, American- and Canadian-bred horses may be described by the state or province in which they are foaled; some breeds denote the state, where conception took place as the origin of the foal. The "breeder", is the person who owned or leased the mare at the time of foaling; that individual may not have had anything to do with the mating of the mare. It is important to review each breed registry's rules to determine which applies to any specific foal. In the horse breeding industry, the term "half-brother" or "half-sister" only describes horses which have the same dam, but different sires. Horses with the same sire but different dams are said to be "by the same sire", no sibling relationship is implied. "Full" siblings have both the same sire. The terms paternal half-sibling, maternal half-sibling are often used. Three-quarter siblings are horses out of the same dam, are by sires that are either half-brothers or who are by the same sire.
Thoroughbreds and Arabians are classified through the "distaff" or direct female line, known as their "family" or "tail female" line, tracing back to their taproot foundation bloodstock or the beginning of their respective stud books. The female line of descent always appears at the bottom of a tabulated pedigree and is therefore known as the bottom line. In addition, the maternal grandfather of a horse has a special term: damsire. "Linebreeding" technically is the duplication of more distant ancestors. However, the term is used more loosely, describing horses with duplication of ancestors closer than the fourth generation, it is sometimes used as a euphemism for the practice of inbreeding, a practice, frowned upon by horse breeders, though used by some in an attempt to fix certain traits. The estrous cycle controls when a mare is sexually receptive toward a stallion, helps to physically prepare the mare for conception, it occurs during the spring and summer months, although some mares may be sexually receptive into the late fall, is controlled by the photoperiod, the cycle first triggered when the days begin to lengthen.
The estrous cycle lasts about 19–22 days, with the average being 21 days. As the days shorten, the mare returns to a period when she is not sexually receptive, known as anestrus. Anestrus – occurring in the majority of, but not all, mares – prevents the mare from conceiving in the winter months, as that would result in her foaling during the harshest part of the year, a time when it would be most difficult for the foal to survive; this cycle contains 2 phases: Estrus, or Follicular, phase: 5–7 days in length, when the mare is sexually receptive to a stallion. Estrogen is secreted by the follicle. Ovulation occurs in the final 24–48 hours of estrus. Diestrus, or Luteal, phase: 14–15 days in length, the mare is not sexually receptive to the stallion; the corpus luteum secretes progesterone. Depending on breed, on average, 16% of mares have double ovulations, allowing them to twin, though this does not affect the length of time of estrus or diestrus. Changes in hormone levels can have great effects on the physical characteristics of the reproductive organs of the mare, thereby preparing, or preventing, her from conceiving.
Uterus: increased levels of estrogen during estrus cause edema within the uterus, making it feel heavier, the uterus loses its tone. This edema decreases following ovulation, the muscular tone increases. High levels of progesterone do not cause edema within the uterus; the uterus becomes flaccid during anestrus. Cervix: the cervix starts to relax right before estrus occurs, with maximal relaxation around the time of ovulation; the secretions of the cervix increase. High progesterone levels cause the cervix to become toned. Vagina: the portion of the vagina near the cervix becomes engorged with blood right before estrus; the vagina becomes secretions increase. Vulva: relaxes right before estrus begins. Becomes dry, closes more during diestrus; the cycle is controlled by several hormones which regulate the estrous cycle, the mare's behavior, the reproductive system of the mare. The cycle begins when the increased day length causes the pineal gland to reduce the levels of melatonin, thereby allowing the hypothalamus to secrete GnRH.
GnRH: secreted by the hypothalamus, causes the pituitary to release two gonadotrophins: LH and FS
