Short Stories from Mahabharata: 15- Shakuni, Villain of Mahabharat

Shakuni was the youngest prince of Gandahar, son of King Subala and brother to Gandhari.

Portrayed as an extremely intelligent but devious man, Shakuni is often credited as the mastermind behind the Kurukshetra War. Shakuni was one of the greatest illusionist.

There are certain facts about Shakuni which will make one reconsider the history which pronounced Shakuni as the curator of Kurukshetra war and fall of Kauravas. 

Shakuni did not hate Pandavas, rather he vowed for the decline of Kuru clan:

In multiple texts, Gandhari is called as manglik, who are considered unfortunate and this astrological scenario often leads in death of the spouse. So Bhishma approached King Subala to marry Dhritarashtra to Gandhari. One disabled for other; this trick was identified by Shakuni who violently opposed the matrimony. But gave in when he saw that his sister wanted to marry Dhritarashtra despite his blindness and decides to tie a blindfold to her eyes. For the sake of Dhritarashtra long life, Gandhari is first married off to a tree and then to the prince of Hastinapur.  Realising that he is a second husband to his first wife, Dhritarashtra orders that King Subala and his entire clan of 100 sons be imprisoned. The planned their slow death by starvation, this is when Subala makes Shakuni promise that he shall avenge his clan by bringing the Kurus down. Hence the animosity was never with Pandavas, rather Shakuni was well aware that Kauravas will not last against them; and hence he set brothers against brothers. 

Unfortunately, neither Dhritarashtra nor Duryodhan ever realised this was Shakuni's plot for revenge. Bhishma and Vidur did but the politics of running the kingdom made them unable to act against the conspiracy. 

The story of faithful dice:

While in captivity, King Subala and his family were given minimum ration; with the purpose of starvation. The family decides that Shakuni was the most intelligent one and they wanted him to survive and avenge their capture and death. Right before death of King Subala, he asked Shakuni to forge dice out of this thigh bone. He gave him the boon that these dices will always obey his command. another version is that, these set of dice, it is said, had magical abilities, as his father's soul resided within them. They would help him win all games of dice he ever played during his lifetime.This was the dice that Shakuni used for dice game with Pandavas, where they lost everything, including themselves and Draupadi, leading to her cheerharan. And later when they were exiled for 13 years. Shakuni was a great warrior as well but his biggest strength were his faithful dices.  

Treacherous Plans leading to Kurukshetra:

Shanuki planned multiple strategies since the childhood of Kauravas and Pandavas. Some of which were poisoning Bheem which led to him acquiring the power of 10,000 elephants. It was Shakuni who planned the building of house of wax for the Pandavas and conspiring to burn them alive, which was futile and led to them acquiring Indraprastha. He also tried to angry the sage Durvasa, by tricking him to become Pandavas guest while they were serving exile. He tricked Shalva (maternal uncle of Nakul and Sahdev) into becoming the charioteer of  Karna in Kurukshetra and hence fighting from Kauravas side. 

The most vile of these initiatives was the dice game Shakuni played on behalf of Kauravas and stripped them off of everything, including their wife. During the war of Kurukshetra, the death of Abhimanyu (son of Arjun) while he had no weapons and by multiple people at the same time was also planned and executed by Shakuni. 

Must say that Shakuni had multiple conspiracies up his sleeve, which finally led to the Kurukshetra.  

Shakuni's penance:

Sehdeva pledged to kill Shakuni and on 18th day of war he carried this forward. Being the wisest of the Pandavas, Sahadeva knew exactly what the latter's motive was, and the actual reason why he waged war against the Pandavas – in order to seek revenge. Sahadeva told Shakuni that he should stop fighting, since he had already achieved what he wanted to. He asked him to go back to his kingdom, Gandhara, and rule, instead of participating in this meaningless violence and killing.

In that moment, Shakuni felt deep remorse and a genuine repentance for all that had transpired in the recent past. He suddenly felt like opening out to this young man standing in front of him – to talk to him, like an elder does to a younger member in a family. 

Shakuni finally revealed his good side – something that no one ever imagined existed! He told Sahadeva that the only thing left for him to do would be to sacrifice his life on this very battlefield. He further stated that it would be an honour for him to shed his mortal coil in a battlefield as great as Kurukshetra; in a place where such great Maharathis (mighty warriors) had fought and been martyred.

Once he had finished saying all that he had to, Shakuni started attacking Sahadeva with arrows. He knew he had to die and so, was spurring on the latter to kill him. After a brief fight, Sahadeva cut off his head. That marked the end of evil – the slaying of Shakuni.

Future generation of Gandhar clan:

 Shakuni had two sons, namely, Uluka and Vrikaasur. These sons, however, were relegated to the background, as his constant focus was on Hastinapur. Uluka always wanted his father to return to Gandhara before the Pandavas returned from their one-year-long Agyaat Vaas (anonymous stay). However, he opted to stay on, in order to put the Kurukshetra war in motion.

Vrikarasur later joined forces with Pandavas when they did Ashvamedha Gyana to expand their empire and friendship. One of Shakuni's most valorous descendants was Ambhi Kumar, ruler of Gandhara. He was also a direct descendant of Prince Bharata (of Ramayana). He and Chandragupta Maurya trained together in Taxila, during their childhood year. Later in life, Ambhi Kumar was deposed and killed by Chandragupta Maurya himself, who then became the Emperor of the Mauryan Empire.

This was Shakuni with some known and some unknown parts of his story from Mahabharata. Should we still say Shakuni was the villain of Mahabharata, may be like Shahrukh Khan from Bazigar.