What made a mama, the Shakuni Mama? Interesting things about the Mamashri of Mahabharata.

You will be surprised to know that Shakuni had no enmity with Pandavas. He was enemy of Kauravas. Yes. He was the one who was behind the events which led to Mahabhaarata and ultimately got all Kauravas killed. Interesting. Isn’t it?

Two Incidents made him for what he is known today.

Who was Shakuni: He is recognized as most venomous villain of Indian history / mythology. Subal, the king of Gandhar also had 100 children. Among them one was Gandhari (who became Mother of Kauravas & Wife of Dhritrashtra) & youngest son was Shakuni. He was the reason of developing enmity between Kaurava and Pandvas since their childhood.

Incident 1: Ancestators of Kaurvas had put Shakuni, his father and brothers in Jail. For survival, they used to get only one grain of rice. This way all of them could have died so they all decided to give their grain to the youngest of them: Shakuni. Eventually, all died but Shakuni was alive. He came out of jail using his wit and was having revenge in his mind.

Few believe that reason of sending them behind bars was: Ancestators of Kauravas wanted to conquer Gandhar state and hence put the king and all sons behind bars after victory.

According to others: Gandhari was cursed that her first husband would die. So she was married to an animal first and then she was married to Dhritrashtra. When Dhritrashtra and his family came to know that Gandhari was married earlier, furiously, they sent Gandhar King and all his sons (including Shakuni) behind bars.

Incident 2: Bhishma Pitamah had asked Gandhar King for her daughter Gandhari for marriage of Dhritrashtra. Gandhar King agreed without thinking further. However, later family and Shakuni came to know that Dhritrashtra is blind from birth and to support him, his sister had also blindfolded herself till death, he became furious and decided to take revenge.

The thoughts of revenge coming out of these incidents made a mama, the Shakuni Mama. Although he was also killed in Mahabhararta with Kauravas.

What we learn:  Wisdom>Power. Wisdom if used in wrong direction can be harmful to oneself.

More about the Mamashri: He was killed by Sahadeva on last day of war. Sahadeva took oath to kill him after Draupadi’s insult.
Shakuni’s dice were made from his father’s bone as asked by his father to him. Thus dice always obeyed and showed what Shakuni would ask for. Some believe dice were of ivory and Shakuni was expert in creating illusion and thus created illusion of required numbers on dice.
Because we see good even in bad, Shakuni has a temple in his name in Kerala.