Asvatthama is depicted as a great villain. On the other hand, he went to live in Badarīkāśrama and will become one of the seven great sages in the next manvantara. How to reconcile these two sides?
1) In a previous article I believe you wrote Krishna was 88 during the battle of Kurukshetra? If I've remembered that correctly, then how were the pandavas' sons only teenagers at that time?
2) If our varna is born of our nature, and thus dictates our dharma, how were Drona and Ashvathama able to fight militarily and it not be adharmic?
3) Were there no other living sons of the Pandhavas to their other wives?
I'm not a specialist in the chronology of the Mahabharata, but Krishna left the planet when He was 125, and that was about 37 years (or 36, if I'm not mistaken) so it brings it to around 88 years. It seems most sources put the age of the Pandavas also around this.
The Pandavas conceived their children before going into exile, so that's about 14 years before the battle of Kuruksetra. I don't know about reliable sources on their exact ages, but Prabhupada mentions they were teenagers, even using the word "infanticide" so I followed this line. Maybe the word "young" would be better.
Thank Prabhu, I've been having a challenge with the chronology for a while, as it doesn't seem to make sense (to me) the ages in which the Pandavas had children. Extrapolating from the ages we know, they would have had their children quite late in life, rather than young, as you would have expected of royalty and of when they married Draupadi and the timeline when they went into exile. But that then leaves many years not really accounted for.
On the second question, Drona was a great person, and that was the reason he didn't become degraded. In the case of Asvatthama we can see that he is also an exalted personality, but he had some problems, to put it mildly.
About other sons of the Pandavas, as far as I know, the only other who survived was the son of Arjuna with the princess of Manipur. I have no idea why he was not considered as a potential successor.
Very interesting, thank you prabhu.
A couple of questions please:
1) In a previous article I believe you wrote Krishna was 88 during the battle of Kurukshetra? If I've remembered that correctly, then how were the pandavas' sons only teenagers at that time?
2) If our varna is born of our nature, and thus dictates our dharma, how were Drona and Ashvathama able to fight militarily and it not be adharmic?
3) Were there no other living sons of the Pandhavas to their other wives?
Thank you 🙏
I'm not a specialist in the chronology of the Mahabharata, but Krishna left the planet when He was 125, and that was about 37 years (or 36, if I'm not mistaken) so it brings it to around 88 years. It seems most sources put the age of the Pandavas also around this.
The Pandavas conceived their children before going into exile, so that's about 14 years before the battle of Kuruksetra. I don't know about reliable sources on their exact ages, but Prabhupada mentions they were teenagers, even using the word "infanticide" so I followed this line. Maybe the word "young" would be better.
Thank Prabhu, I've been having a challenge with the chronology for a while, as it doesn't seem to make sense (to me) the ages in which the Pandavas had children. Extrapolating from the ages we know, they would have had their children quite late in life, rather than young, as you would have expected of royalty and of when they married Draupadi and the timeline when they went into exile. But that then leaves many years not really accounted for.
On the second question, Drona was a great person, and that was the reason he didn't become degraded. In the case of Asvatthama we can see that he is also an exalted personality, but he had some problems, to put it mildly.
About other sons of the Pandavas, as far as I know, the only other who survived was the son of Arjuna with the princess of Manipur. I have no idea why he was not considered as a potential successor.
Thank you for your replies Prabhu.