Shakuni

Shakuni was born in Gandhara to its king, Subala. He had a sister named Gandhari, who was dear to Shakuni. Portrayed as an extremely intelligent, crafty and devious man, Shakuni is often credited as the mastermind behind the Kurukshetra War. Shakuni was one of the greatest illusionists. Shakuni married Arshi and had three sons named Uluka, Vrikaasur and Vriprachitti. The original texts of Mahabharata mention Shakuni as personification of Dvapara Yuga.[2][3]

In the Mahabharata, Shakuni's hatred towards Hastinapura developed when Bhishma approached King Subala with a marriage proposal for Shakuni's sister Gandhari's, to the blind Kaurava prince Dhritarashtra. Shakuni hated the idea of Gandhari's marriage with the blind prince of Hastinapura. Gandhari covered her eyes on her will to share her blindness. Shakuni's anger grew when Dhritarashtra was first denied to inherit the throne of Hastinapura. After the event, Shakuni started to interfere in the matters of Hastinapura.[4][5]

Shakuni is also one of the masterminds behind the Kurukshetra War. His intentions include his desire to avenge the insult Bhishma made. Shakuni's main enmity was with Bhishma, who had brought the proposal of his beloved sister, Gandhari, which Shakuni thought was an insult to Gandhara. Shakuni also stabbed in his own leg and vowed that he will destroy The Kuru Kingdom and later he changed his vow and vowed to make Duryodhana the emperor of Kuru Kingdom but his this oath (or vow) never succeeded.[12]

He mainly worked by inciting hatred between the Kauravas and Pandavas; his plans culminated in the largest war in history. Although he often failed in his tricks against the Pandavas, he never lost faith in his ability to destroy the lineage of Kuru. A far-sighted man, his plan was much bigger than causing plight to the Pandavas; he wanted a full-scale civil war between the branches of the Kuru clan, which would destroy the whole clan, fulfilling his revenge. He feared nobody, except Krishna, whom he considered as an obstacle since he knew that only Krishna had the power and influence to foil his plan. Krishna was a shrewd diplomat and statesman, the only person who matched Shakuni's cunning and intelligence. Shakuni wanted a war between the branches of the Kuru kingdom since the marriage of Gandhari with Dhritarashtra and Krishna also wanted the war when Draupadi was insulted and when the peace talks of himself were rejected by Duryodhana. Shakuni wanted the war to avenge his sister's humiliation and Krishna wanted the war would happen to show that righteousness will always triumph over unrighteousness.

Ways in which Shakuni incited war include:

• Advising an adolescent Duryodhana to mix poison into Bhima's food twice.[13]
• Hiring Purochana to kill the Pandavas in the House of Wax.[14]
• Arranging the game of dice between Kauravas and Pandavas which was responsible for Draupadi's humiliation.[15]
• Before the war, he advised Duryodhana to feed Shalya's army and put Shalya in his debt, making it compulsory for him to fight on the side of Kauravas.[16]

Shakuni's only saving grace is his extreme love for his sister Gandhari. Gandhari was petrified of the dark when she was small and preferred to have well-lit places all the time. Being a dutiful wife, she voluntarily blindfolded herself which meant she had to live every second of her life in absolute terror because of the darkness due to blindfold. This does not go down too well with Shakuni, who constantly advises her to take off her blindfold. Time and again, he expresses the anger he felt for the injustice that Gandhari had to go through by leading her entire life with a blindfold.[17]

Shakuni playing Chausar

Shakuni was an expert of Dice Game and he had dice made out of his father's bones which he could control on his will.[18] Shakuni organized a Dice Game, as he knew that Yudhishthira's biggest weakness is his love of playing it. Rules were set and later using his skills and controlled dice, Duryodhana won Yudhishthira's Kingdom, his brothers- Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva and even Yudhishthira himself. Later, he won Draupadi too.[19] Dussasana on Duryodhana's orders tried to disrobe Draupadi but Krishna saved her. This game was of Shakuni is a very important event in the Mahabharata which led to the Kurukshetra war between Kauravas and Pandavas.[20][21]

On the 18th day before the war, Duryodhana convinced Shakuni to be the Commander-in-Chief of his army but he preferred Shalya. Shakuni participated in the Kurukshetra War and defeated many warriors.[22]

On the very first day of the war, Shakuni, Duryodhana and Dushasana attacked Yudhishthira to kill him but they failed. On the 2nd day, he got defeated by Sahadeva in a Sword Duel and by Satyaki in Archery. On the 4th day, he killed 5 powerful Generals of Magadha. On the 5th day of the war, he got defeated by Arjuna in Archery battle and by Dhrishtadyumna in Sword Duel. On the 7th day, he got defeated by Bhima in Gada-Yuddha and by Drupada in Archery.

On the 9th day of the war, he got defeated by Yudhishthira in a Spear Combat and by Abhimanyu in Archery. On the 10th day of the war, he stopped Shikhandi from reaching Bhishma. He also defeated Shikhandi in a battle of Axe-Fighting on the same day. Shakuni also stabbed him in his stomach. On the 12th day, he slew king Sahadeva of Magadha. Later, he defeated Upapandavas and Virata. He also fought with Dhrishtadyumna two times, firstly he defeated him and secondly he got defeated.

On the 13th day, Shakuni and other Maharathis attacked and killed Abhimanyu. Many of them backstabbed Abhimanyu.[23] On 14th day, he fought with Nakula to save Jayadratha but got defeated. After Jayadratha's death, he planned a Night War. In the night war he defeated Drupada, Virata and Satyaki. On the 17th day his son, Vrikaasur was slained by Nakula.

After the Game of Dice episode in the Mahabharata, the youngest of the Pandava brothers Sahadeva had taken an oath to avenge Draupadi's insult and had sworn to kill Shakuni, the mastermind of the episode.[24]

On the 18th day of the Mahabharata war, Pandavas attacked Shakuni, Uluka and their army. As Duryodhana and his other brothers rushed to protect their uncle, Bhima stepped in and fought the remaining Kauravas and killing many of them (except Duryodhana). Meanwhile, Nakula killed many prominent Gandharan warriors and the bodyguards of Uluka. Sahadeva fought Shakuni and Uluka and, not long afterwards, killed Uluka. Shakuni became furious and attacked Sahadeva. He broke his chariot and bow, Sahadeva ascended another chariot and fought Shakuni ferociously. After many attacks and tackles, both of them descended their chariots to settle things in a duel. Sahadeva was then able to smash an axe into Shakuni's forehead, fulfilling his oath.[25][26]

Temple dedicated to Shakuni at Pavithreswaram in Kollam District, Kerala

The one and only temple in the world dedicated to Shakuni is situated at a small village called Pavithreswaram of Kottarakkara Taluk of Kollam District in Kerala State of India as Malanada Maladeva (Shakuni) Temple. Here a granite stone under a huge tree called Kanjira (Strychnos nux vomica) is worshipped as the seat of him. Here he is being in a position of meditating Lord Shiva, one of the Trimurtis of Hinduism.

• In Bhagwati Prasad Mishra's Hindi film Draupadi (1931), Hadi portrayed Shakuni Mama
• In BR Copra's classic series Mahabharat (1988) and Mahabharat Katha, Gufi Paintal portrayed Shakuni.[27]
• In Peter Brook's Mahabharat (1989), Tuncel Kurtiz portrayed Shakuni.
• In Ramanand Sagar's series Krishna, J. P. Sharma portrayed Shakuni.
• In the series Draupadi (2001), Ravi Jhankal  portrayed Shakuni
• In Ek Aur Mahabharat, Prakash Dwivedi played Shakuni
• In Ekta Kapoor's series Kahaani Hamaaray Mahaabhaarat Ki, Kali Prasad Mukherjee played Shakuni
• Vinay Apte's character Babulal in Prakash Jha's Rajneeti was loosely inspired by Shakuni
• Praneet Bhat portrayed Shakuni in Star Plus's successful series Mahabharat (2013)[28]
• In the animated movie Mahabharat (2013), Anupam Kher voiced Shakuni
• In Suryaputra Karna, Ajay Jayram played Shakuni
• Ajay Kumar Nain played Shakuni in Karna Sangini
• Sai Ballal portrayed Shakuni in Star Bharat's popular series RadhaKrishn

• Dutt, Romesh. "Maha-Bharata, The Epic of Ancient India".
• Dwaipayana, Vyasa. "The Mahabharata of Krishna".
• Ganguly, Kisari. "The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa".
• Menon, Ramesh (20 July 2006). A Modern Rendering, The Mahabharata. ISBN 9780595845644.
• The Story of Shakuni, Sribd.
• Was Shakuni Mama’s character in Mahabharat a negative character?, Destination Infinity.
• The Mahabharata: A Synopsis of the Great Epic of India, R. Vemuri, UC Davis.
• Mahabharat, Swargarohan.
• Mahabharata (Veda Vyasa), Hindu Online.