C for Chitrasena, the Gandharva - Mahabharata Mashup

Namaste,

Gandharavas are celestial beings known for theirbeauty, musical expertise, and magic. They are semi-divine and have the powerto gift or curse humans. They are skilled in sixty-four arts and are efficientin warfare. Gandharvas prefer to keep to themselves and dislike being disturbedor intruded upon. 

Chitrasena is a Gandharva (celestial being excelling in music and dance) who belongs to the courtof Indra (King of Heaven). He is first mentioned in Sabha Parva, where he andother Gandharavas played musical instruments and entertained everyone during the Rajasuya. 

However, Chitrasena’s major role is in AranyakaParva when Arjuna goes to Swarga (Heaven) to stay at Indra’s court and learnvarious arts. After Arjuna trained in using the celestial weapons, Indra (hisbirth father) told Arjuna to learn other skills like music and dance. Chitrasenawas Arjuna’s tutor. The duo became fast friends during this period. It was thesame time Urvashi cursed Arjuna for rejecting her advances (we’ll read moreabout this during letter E’s post). 

Later, Arjuna got back with his family and wasliving in the Dvaita forest when Dhuryodhana, Shakuni, and Karna, with somearmy, arrived. They planned to attack and kill the Pandavas during the exileand used the ruse of counting cattle to set on the quest. However, before theycould attack the Pandavas, Dhuryodhana and others insulted the Gandhavarascamping in the region. This led to a war headed by Chitrasena, who capturedDhuryodhana and planned to kill him. 

Here, Yudhistira asked Arjuna and Bheema to save theKauravas. The two brothers have a small battle with the Gandharvas. But whenChitrasena realized it was Arjuna, they settled it peacefully and came to atruce. Chitrasena agreed to free Dhuryodhana only because of Arjuna’s requestand their close bond. 

Of course, Dhuryodhana’s ego took a hit and made himmore determined to defeat the Pandavas. 

Check out a few short stories from Mahabharata. 

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The AI images are made on Bing.