Continued from Same story and different interpretations................

Ravana had a large support of Asura, Preta, and Yaksha and thus he acquired half of kingdom of Kubera. At one time, most of Preta Asure, Manava, and Gandharva followed Kubera and were called Yaksha.  Later they all got separated from each other because of internal conflicts emerged in their society. Pandavas also had a few conflicts with Yakshas in Mahabharat. It seems Yakshas were loosing trust amongst people and they needed to incorporate changes otherwise they would be thrown away from the system. Kubera was disassociated from the mainstream Deva and given an alone kingdom at polar region.

Gandharva was the heterodox and free cultural society and very different from the rigid central Indian kingdoms. They were distributed all over India and we see the major conflicts in society and the consequential Kuru-Panchal war—Mahabharat. Yaksha, Raksha, Daitya, Danavas, Manavas and anybody could be Gandharva based of their cultural preferences.  Yadavas and Panchalas societies had incorporated Gandharva culture. Yadavas was the confederation of many clans so they had divided opinions on many things. Many Gandharva rishis had created Brahmans, Arayanaka, and Upanishads on the land of Panchalas and majority of cases their mothers were Apsaras (Belonged to Gandharva community).

There are some of the allegories that are most frequently used to degrade the ancient past and thus questioned the whole civilization. Overwhelming character of Soota Putra Karna and Ekalavya are the most famous!

Soota caste to whom our modern, rebellious, and literary gem superhero Karna belonged was actually more responsible job than the Brahmin. They used to be the royal herald and the record keepers of Puranas and Vedas. Now a day, the Soota caste is reduced to a petty charioteer. Charioteer was highly revered in ancient society that’swhy the profession was adopted by Krishana, Shalya (Madra king), and Adhirath (Anga royal prince & Karna father).  They would the royal entourage who get the donations by the kings after the Aswamedha or Rajsuya Yagna. The medieval century’s editors and copiest translate the term ‘Sootaputra’ as son of charioteer. While the early English translations by English in Europe, French and Dutch all translate the term Sootaputra as “Son of Royal Herald. No curse of Parshuram was for non-brahmin status as he had plenty of non-brahmin students in his ashram including Bheesma. 

Eklavya was the Nishada, who was the son of Brahmana and Sudra. Nishada lost status by 2 nd century AD but Mahabharat is much older text. Eklavya sons were fought for Pandavas in Kurukshetera, whose father has lost his thumb because of Arjuna! As per Agni Puranas, the thumb is useful for good archery, but it is not necessary. Ring finger is more important in the science of archery. 

In Ramayana, Guha (the king of Nishada) brought 50,000 warriors to fight for Rama assuming that Bharata is going to attack Rama. The ruling family of Nishadas was the Kshatriya. Nishadha King Nala and Damyanti story is most famous. Many Yadava princes were adopted in Nishada family and Eklavya was the cousin of Krishana and not the poor tribal man victimized by Brahmana (Drona) and Kshatriya (Arjuna).

In ancient time, throne was something to be acquired by merit and not by birth. Yudu was the Yayati’s elder son and still he hadn’t got the throne because the youngest son Puru was the most appropriate for the throne. Yadu, despite of Devyani son and Sukracharya grandson didn’t deserved the throne and the son of a maid has got the throne without any socio-political hurdles. Puru was the son of Sarmishtha, who was Devyani’s maid. Dushyanta’s royal sons hadn’t got any rights on throne and Bharata (belonged to Kanva family) got the throne. His later descendant adopted his General’s son and made him king.  Shantanu and Bheesma were the General (Senapati) blood and not the Bharata.  

There are many cases can be found where the original bold or the eldest son had been denied and merits ascended the genes. Cousins and cross-cousins adoptions were wide spread and most of the times they have ascended the throne than the own sons of kings.  Pandu, Dharistara, and Vidura were the Parashara blood and they changed the original bloodline of Kuru to whom Bheesma belonged.  Societies were very vibrant and people were joining any culture and ideologies as per their intellects and beliefs and this process continuously refreshing the old ideas and dead practices.

Some customs had continued for a long time and it’s no surprise if we see the similar bride price incident at the time of Chandragupta Maurya which happened thousands of years later from the time of Pandu. Pandu got Bhalika princess (Madree) when he defeated Madra king and Chandragupta Maurya got the princess Helena after defeating Selecus Nicator! As per Armenian text, Bhalikas were the master of 15 lands. They could be as close to Madra land and stretch as far to Greek island.

Yudhistera was unanimously declared as Dharamraja after the war because of his stand against the unprogressive approach of Kuru, rigid and dead norms of society, inactive and stagnant ideas of society, oppression of people, and adharma.  He emphasis on ability and deeds rather than birth or status. Why do you think that no one in Kuru Sabha had spoken a word against Draupadi’s tragedy; Bheesma and Drona and all other elders and powerful rulers and nobles let that happened? Why Pandavas were denied throne every time and they spent most of their times in forest dwellings? The old patriarch nobles and statesmen didn’t want any change in the stale old rules, they had become comfortable with the current social norms through generations and didn’t want any vibration to the stagnant water.

This led the tendency to controlling and exploiting lives and many generations of Pandavas suffered this.  Yudhistera redeemed from his past mistakes of trusting people, to stake all of his belongings without thinking of future, to having a mild attitude for all misdeeds and to possessing the wavering ideas. The same Yudhistera who was ready to reconcile on 5 villages later was firm as rock to rage the war. 

The forest lives (Vanvassa)was the period of redemption, period of learning, period of acquiring knowledge, period of gathering strength and most of our philosophical texts, like Brahmana, Arayanka, Upanishadas, and Vedantas were the outcome of this learning and exploration.

India had been a witness of several movements that were raised against the oppressive dharma and brought out renaissance in the society. Mahavira, Buddha, Ajivakas, and several other cults and practices were the results of these revolutions