T h e Ta l k a t i v e To r t o i s e S t o r y

Once upon a time there lived a tortoise  called

Tom in a lake. He was very talkative and used to
talk all day long. Two swans also lived in the same
lake. The tortoise used to talk to anyone including
from a tiny ant to a huge elephant. The tortoise
and the swan became good friends.
One year there were no rains and drought
occurred. Hence the lake in which both swans and
tortoise  lived dried up and no water was available
in any nearby lake. All the rivers and lakes dried
up in the water. There was not a drop of water to
drink for the birds and the animals. Many birds
and animals died due to thirst and scorching heat.
Thus many animals started to move to other
forests in search of water. The swans who were
best friends of the tortoise decided to move to
another lake. The tortoise felt very sad to leave
the company of his best friends so he asked both
the swans “Can i come with you?”
The swans agreed and decided to take the turtle
along with them.  The swans told the turtle that “
we will hold the stick in our mouth and you latch in
the middle of the stick from your mouth. But
please don't open your mouth and talk. If you do
that then you will fall down and die”. The tortoise
understood and promised the swans that it would
not open its mouth while in the air. But the swans
were worried as they knew that the tortoise was
very talkative and couldn't keep his mouth shut for
a long period. 
The three started their journey and the swans
again warned the tortoise as not to open his mouth
at any cost.  The tortoise was very happy to see
the beauty of his land from the top. They crossed
mountains and valleys. Everything looked tiny and
even the huge elephants looked tiny from the top.
As the swans and tortoise crossed the village, the
people in the village were very surprised. The
villagers started to make weird comments. The
tortoise was annoyed listening to the comments
from the villagers.  Unable to control his anger
and anxiety, the tortoise  opened its mouth without
understanding the consequences. It fell straight on
a rock and died. The turtle died due to its foolish
behaviour. The swans felt very sad but they had
no choice other than continuing their journey. 
THE FOUR FRIENDS AND THE
HUNTER

Long, long ago, there lived three friends in a jungle. They were-a
deer, a crow and a mouse. They used to share their meals
together.

One day, a turtle came to them and said, "I also want to join your
company and become your friend. I'm all alone. "

"You're most welcome," said the crow. "But what about your
personal safety. There are many hunters around. They visit this
jungle regularly. Suppose, a hunter comes, how will you save
yourself?"

"That is the reason why I want to join your group," said the turtle

No sooner had they talked about it than a hunter appeared on the

scene. Seeing the hunter, the deer darted away; the crow flew in
the sky and the mouse ran into a hole. The turtle tried to crawl
away fast, but he was caught by the hunter. The hunter tied him up
in the net. He was sad to lose the deer. But he thought, it was
better to feast on the turtle rather than to go hungry.

The turtle's three friends became much worried to see his friend
trapped by the hunter. They sat together to think of some plan to
free his friend from the hunter's snare.
The crow then flew high up in the sky and spotted the hunter
walking along the river bank. As per the plan the deer ran ahead of
the hunter unnoticed and lay on the hunter's path as if dead.

The hunter saw the deer from a distance, lying on the ground. He
was very happy to have found it again. "Now I'll have a good feast
on it and sell its beautiful skin in the market," thought the hunter to
himself. He put down the turtle on to the ground and ran to pick up
the deer.

In the meantime, as planned, the rat gnawed through the net and
freed the turtle. The turtle hurriedly crawled away into the river
water.

Unaware of the plot of these friends, the hunter went to fetch the
dear for its tasty flesh and beautiful skin. But, what he saw with his
mouth agape was that, when he reached near, the deer suddenly
sprang up to its feet and darted away in the jungle. Before he
could understand anything, the deer had disappeared.

Dejected, the hunter turned back to collect the turtle he had left
behind on the ground in the snare. But he was shocked to see the
snare lying nibbled at and the turtle missing. For a moment, the
hunter thought that he was dreaming. But the damaged snare lying
on the ground was proof enough to confirm that he was very much
awake and he was compelled to believe that some miracle had
taken place.

The hunter got frightened on account of these happenings and ran

out of the jungle.

The four friends once again started living happily.

Lion and Camel

Once there was a lion in a jungle. The lion lived with his three
assistants, a crow, a jackal and a leopard. These animals always
took benefit of their proximity to the king of jungle.

Once day, they saw a camel in the jungle. They were surprised
because camels usually live with humans. On enquiring with the
camel, they found that the camel had lost its way. The lion gave
asylum to the camel and assured him of all the safety. Thus the
camel also started living with the lion and his assistants.

Some time elapsed and one day, the lion got wounded in a battle
with an elephant. He became too weak to even kill a prey. His
assistants also had to suffer from shortage of food. They
suggested the lion to kill the camel for meal. But the lion was angry
because he did not want to kill an animal which was under his
security. The assistants said that they would convince the camel to
offer himself as food for the lion and then the lion should not have
any problem in killing the camel. The lion agreed to this.

According to the plan, the crow, the jackal and the leopard offered
themselves to the lion as meal, one by one. They said that it was
their duty to ensure that the king of jungle does not die because of
hunger. But the lion did not kill anyone. On seeing that the lion did
not kill anyone; the camel did the same thing. When the camel
offered himself as a meal for the lion, the lion immediately killed
the camel. After that, the lion and his assistants enjoyed a
sumptuous meal.

MAHABHARATA
( Sanskrit: “ Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty”) one of the two Sanskrit epic poems of
ancient India ( the other being, the Ramayana)
The Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic where the main story revolves around two
branches of a family - the Pandavas and Kauravas - who, in the Kurukshetra War, battle for
the throne of Hastinapura. Interwoven into this narrative are several smaller stories about
people dead or living, and philosophical discourses. Krishna-Dwaipayan Vyasa, himself a
character in the epic, composed it; as, according to tradition, he dictated the verses and
Ganesha wrote them down. At 100,000 verses, it is the longest epic poem ever written,
generally thought to have been composed in the 4th century BCE or earlier. The events in the
epic play out in the Indian subcontinent and surrounding areas. It was first narrated by a
student of Vyasa at a snake-sacrifice of the great-grandson of one of the major characters of
the story. Including within it the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata is one of the most important
texts of ancient Indian, indeed world, literature.

The prelude
Shantanu, the king of Hastinapura, was married to Ganga (personification of the Ganges) with
whom he had a son called Devavrat. Several years later, when Devavrat had grown up to be
an accomplished prince, Shantanu fell in love with Satyavati. Her father refused to let her
marry the king unless the king promised that Satyavati's son and descendants would inherit
the throne. Unwilling to deny Devavrat his rights, Shantanu declined to do so but the prince,
on coming to know of the matter, rode over to Satyavati's house, vowed to renounce the
throne and to remain celibate throughout his life. The prince then took Satyavati home to the
palace so that the king, his father, could marry her. On account of the terrible vow that he'd
taken that day, Devavrat came to be known as Bheeshma. Shantanu was so pleased with his
son that he granted to Devavrat the boon of choosing the time of his own death.

In time, Shantanu and Satyavati had two sons. Soon thereafter, Shantanu died. Satyavati's
sons still being minors, the affairs of the kingdom were managed by Bheeshm and Satyavati.
By the time these sons reached adulthood, the elder one had died in a skirmish with some
gandharvas (heavenly beings) so the younger son, Vichitravirya, was enthroned. Bheeshma
then abducted the three princesses of a neighbouring kingdom and brought them over to
Hastinapur to be wedded to Vichitravirya. The eldest of these princesses declared that she
was in love with someone else, so she was let go; the two other princesses were married to
Vichitravirya who died soon afterwards, childless.

Dhritarashtra, Pandu & Vidur

So that the family line did not die out, Satyavati summoned her son Vyasa to impregnate the
two queens. Vyasa had been born to Satyavati of a great sage named Parashar before her
marriage to Shantanu. According to the laws of the day, a child born to an unwed mother was
taken to be a step-child of the mother's husband; by that token, Vyasa could be considered
Shantanu's son and could be used to perpetuate the Kuru clan that ruled Hastinapur. Thus,
by the Niyog custom, the two queens each had a son of Vyasa: to the elder queen was born a
blind son called Dhritarashtra, and to the younger was born an ostherwise healthy but
extremely pale son called Pandu. To a maid of these queens was born a son of Vyasa called
Vidur. Bheeshm brought up these three boys with great care. Dhritarashtra grew up to be the
strongest of all princes in the country, Pandu was extremely skilled in warfare and archery,
and Vidur knew all the branches of learning, politics, and statesmanship.
With the boys grown, it was now time to fill up the empty throne of Hastinapur. Dhritarashtra,
the eldest, was bypassed because the laws barred a disabled person from being king. Pandu,
instead, was crowned. Bheeshm negotiated Dhritarashtra's marriage with Gandhari, and
Pandu's with Kunti and Madri. Pandu expanded the kingdom by conquering the sorrounding
areas, and brought in considerable war booty. With things running smoothly in the country,
and with its coffers full, Pandu asked his elder brother to look after the state affairs, and
retired to the forests with his two wives for some time off.

Kauravas & PAndavaS

A few years later, Kunti returned to Hastinapur. With her were five little boys, and the bodies
of Pandu and Madri. The five boys were the sons of Pandu, born to his two wives through the
Niyog custom from gods: the eldest was born of Dharma, the second of Vayu, the third of
Indra, and the youngest - twins - of the Ashvins. In the meanwhile, Dhritarashtra and
Gandhari too had had children of their own: 100 sons and one daughter. The Kuru elders
performed the last rites for Pandu and Madri, and Kunti and the children were welcomed into
the palace. All of the 105 princes were subsequently entrusted to the care of a teacher: Kripa
at first and, additionally, Drona later. Drona's school at Hastinapur attracted several other
boys; Karna, of the Suta clan was one such boy. It was here that hostilities quickly developed
between the sons of Dhritarashtra (collectively called the Kauravas, patronymic of their
ancestor Kuru) and the sons of Pandu (collectively called the Pandavas, patronymic of their
father).

Duryodhana, the eldest Kaurava, tried - and failed - to poison Bheem, the second Pandava.
Karna, because of his rivalry in archery with the third Pandava, Arjuna, allied himself with
Duryodhan. In time, the princes learnt all they could from their teachers, and the Kuru elders
decided to hold a public skills exhibition of the princes. It was during this exhibition that the
citizens became plainly aware of the hostilities between the two branches of the royal family:
Duryodhan and Bheem had a mace fight that had to be stopped before things turned ugly,
Karna - uninvited as he was not a Kuru prince - challenged Arjuna, was insulted on account of
his non-royal birth, and was crowned king of a vassal state on the spot by Duryodhan. It was
also around this time that questions began to be raised about Dhritarashtra occupying the
throne, since he was supposed to be holding it only in trust for Pandu, the crowned king. To
keep peace in the realm, Dhritarashtra declared the eldest Pandava, Yudhishthir, as the
crown prince and heir apparent.

THE FIRST EXILE

Yudhishthir's being the crown prince and his rising popularity with the citizens was extremely
distasteful to Duryodhan, who saw himself as the rightful heir since his father was the de facto
king. He plotted to get rid of the Pandavas. This he did by getting his father to send the
Pandavas and Kunti off to a nearby town on the pretext of a fair that was held there. The
palace in which the Pandavas were to stay in that town was built by an agent of Duryodhan;
the palace was made entirely of inflammable materials since the plan was to burn down the
palace - together with the Pandavas and Kunti - once they'd settled in. The Pandavas,
however, were alerted to this fact by their other uncle, Vidur, and had a counter plan ready;
they dug an escape tunnel underneath their chambers. One night, the Pandavas gave out a
huge feast which all of the townsfolk came to. At that feast, a forest woman and her five sons
found themselves so well-fed and well-drunk that they could no longer walk straight; they
passed out on the floor of the hall. That very night, the Pandavas themselves set fire to the
palace and escaped through the tunnel. When the flames had died down, the townsfolk
discovered the bones of the forest woman and her boys, and mistook them for Kunti and the
Pandavas. Duryodhan thought his plan had succeeded and that the world was free of the
Pandavas.

Arjuna & Draupadi

Meanwhile, the Pandavas and Kunti went into hiding, moving from one place to another and
passing themselves off as a poor brahmin family. They would seek shelter with some villager
for a few weeks, the princes would go out daily to beg for food, return in the evenings and
hand over the day's earnings to Kunti who would divide the food into two: one half was for the
strongman Bheem and the other half was shared by the others. During these wanderings,
Bheem killed two demons, married a demoness, and had a demon child called Ghatotkach.
They then heard about a swayamvar (a ceremony to choose a suitor) being organised for the
princess of Panchal, and went at Panchal to see the festivities. According to their practice,
they left their mother home and set out for alms: they reached the swayamvar hall where the
king was giving away things most lavishly to alms seekers. The brothers sat themselves down
in the hall to watch the fun: the princess Draupadi, born of fire, was famed for her beauty and
every prince from every country for miles around had come to the swayamvar, hoping to win
her hand. The conditions of the swayamvar were difficult: a long pole on the ground had a
circular contraption spinning at its top. On this moving disc was attached a fish. At the bottom
of the pole was a shallow urn of water. A person had to look down into this water-mirror, use
the bow and five arrows that were provided, and pierce the fish spinning on top. Five attempts
were allowed. It was evident that only an extremely skilled archer, such as the now-
presumed-dead Arjuna, could pass the test. One by one, the kings and princes tried to shoot
the fish, and failed. Some could not even lift the bow; some could not string it. The Kauravas
and Karna were also present. Karna picked up the bow and strung it in a moment, but was
prevented from taking aim when Draupadi declared she would not marry anyone from the
Suta clan. After every one of the royals had failed, Arjuna, the third Pandava, stepped up to
the pole, picked up the bow, strung it, affixed all of the five arrows to it, looked down into the
water, aimed, shot, and pierced the fish's eye with all of the five arrows in a single attempt.
Arjuna had won Draupadi's hand.
The Pandava brothers, still in the guise of poor brahmins, took Draupadi back to the hut they
were staying at and shouted for Kunti, "Ma, Ma, come and see what we've brought back
today." Kunti, saying, "Whatever it is, share it among yourselves", came out of the hut, saw
that it wasn't alms but the most beautiful woman she had ever set her eyes on, and stood
stock still as the import of her words sank in on everybody present.
Meanwhile, Draupadi's twin Dhrishtadyumna, unhappy that his royal sister should be married
off to a poor commoner, had secretly followed the Pandavas back to their hut. Also following
them secretly was a dark prince and his fair brother - Krishna and Balaram of the Yadava clan
- who had suspected that the unknown archer could be none other than Arjuna, who had
been presumed dead at the palace-burning incident several months ago. These princes were
related to the Pandavas - their father was Kunti's brother - but they had never met before. By
design or happenstance, Vyasa also arrived at the scene at this point and the Pandava hut
was alive for a while with happy cries of meetings and reunions. To keep Kunti's words, it was
decided that Draupadi would be the common wife of all of the five Pandavas. Her brother,
Dhrishtadyumna, and her father, the king Drupad, were reluctant with this unusual
arrangement but were talked around to it by Vyasa and Yudhishthir.

Indraprastha & the dice game

After the wedding ceremonies at Panchal were over, the Hastinapur palace invited the
Pandavas and their bride back. Dhritarashtra made a great show of happiness on discovering
that the Pandavas were alive after all, and he partitioned the kingdom, giving them a huge
tract of barren land to settle in and rule over. The Pandavas transformed this land into a
paradise. Yudhishthir was crowned there, and he performed a sacrifice that involved all of the
kings of the land to accept - either voluntarily or by force - his suzerainty. The new kingdom,
Indraprastha, prospered.
Meanwhile, the Pandavas had entered into an agreement among themselves regarding
Draupadi: she was to be wife of each Pandava, by turn, for a year. If any Pandava was to
enter the room where she was present with her husband-of-that-year, that Pandava was to be
exiled for 12 years. It so happened that once Draupadi and Yudhishthir, her husband of that
year, were present in the armoury when Arjuna entered it to take his bow and arrows.
Consequently, he went off in exile during which he toured the entire country, down to its
southernmost tip, and married three princesses he met along the way.

The prosperity of Indraprastha and the power of the Pandavas was not something that
Duryodhan liked. He invited Yudhisthir to a dice game and got his uncle, Shakuni, to play on
his (Duryodhan's) behalf. Shakuni was an accomplished player; Yudhishthir staked - and lost
- step by step his entire wealth, his kingdom, his brothers, himself, and Draupadi. Draupadi
was dragged into the dice hall and insulted. There was an attempt to disrobe her, and Bheem
lost his temper and vowed to kill each and every one of the Kauravas. Things came to such a
boil that Dhritarashtra intervened unwillingly, gave the kingdom and their freedom back to the
Pandavas and Draupadi, and set them off back to Indraprastha. This angered Duryodhan,
who talked his father around, and invited Yudhishthir to another dice game. This time, the
condition was that the loser would go on a 12-year exile followed by a year of life incognito. If
they were to be discovered during this incognito period, the loser would have to repeat the
12+1 cycle. The dice game was played. Yudhishthir lost again.

The second exile

For this exile, the Pandavas left their ageing mother Kunti behind at Hastinapur, in Vidur's
place. They lived in forests, hunted game, and visited holy spots. At around this time,
Yudhishthir asked Arjuna to go to the heavens in quest of celestial weapons because, by
now, it was apparent that their kingdom would not be returned to them peacefully after the
exile and that they would have to fight for it. Arjuna did so, and not only did he learn the
techniques of several divine weapons from the gods, he also learnt how to sing and dance
from the gandharvas.
After 12 years, the Pandavas went incognito for a year. During this one-year period, they lived
in the Virat kingdom. Yudhishthir took up employment as a king's counsellor, Bheem worked
in the royal kitchens, Arjuna turned himself into a eunuch and taught the palace maidens how
to sing and dance, the twins worked at the royal stables, and Draupadi became a
handmaiden to the queen. At the end of the incognito period - during which they were not
discovered despite Duryodhan's best efforts - the Pandavas revealed themselves. The Virat
king was overwhelmed; he offered his daughter in marriage to Arjuna but he declined since
he had been her dance teacher the past year and students were akin to children. The
princess was married, instead, to Arjuna's son Abhimanyu.
At this wedding ceremony, a large number of Pandava allies gathered to draw out a war
strategy. Meanwhile, emissaries had been sent to Hastinapur to demand Indraprastha back
but the missions had failed. Krishna himself went on a peace mission and failed. Duryodhan
refused to give away as much land as was covered by the point of a needle, let alone the five
villages proposed by the peace missions. The Kauravas also gathered their allies around
them, and even broke away a key Pandava ally - the maternal uncle of the Pandava twins -
by trickery. War became inevitable.

The Kurukshetra war & aftermath

Just before the war bugle was sounded, Arjuna saw arrayed before him his relatives: his
great-grandfather Bheeshm who had practically brought him up, his teachers Kripa and
Drona, his brothers the Kauravas, and, for a moment, his resolution wavered. Krishna, the
warrior par excellence, had given up arms for this war and had elected to be Arjuna's
charioteer. To him Arjuna said, "Take me back, Krishna. I can't kill these people. They're my
father, my brothers, my teachers, my uncles, my sons. What good is a kingdom that's gained
at the cost of their lives?" Then followed a philosophical discourse that has today become a
separate book on its own - the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna explained the impermanence of life to
Arjuna, and the importance of doing one's duty and of sticking to the right path. Arjuna picked
up his bow again.
The battle raged for 18 days. The army totalled 18 akshauhinis, 7 on the Panadava side and
11 on the Kaurava (1 akshauhini = 21,870 chariots + 21,870 elephants + 65,610 horses +
109,350 soldiers on foot). Casualties on both sides were high. When it all ended, the
Pandavas had won the war but lost almost everyone they held dear. Duryodhan and all of the
Kauravas had died, as had all of the menfolk of Draupadi's family, including all of her sons by
the Pandavas. The now-dead Karna was revealed to be a son of Kunti's from before her
marriage to Pandu, and thus, the eldest Pandava and the rightful heir to the throne. The
grand old man, Bheeshm, lay dying; their teacher Drona was dead as were several kinsfolk
related to them either by blood or by marriage. In about 18 days, the entire country lost almost
three generations of its men. It was a war not seen on a scale before, it was the Great Indian
war, the Maha-bharat.
After the war, Yudhishthir became king of Hastinapur and Indraprastha. The Pandavas ruled
for 36 years, after which they abdicated in favour of Abhimanyu's son, Parikshit. The
Pandavas and Draupadi proceeded on foot to the Himalayas, intending to live out their last
days climbing the slopes heavenwards. One by one, they fell on this last journey and their
spirits ascended to the heavens. Years later, Parikshit's son succeeded his father as king. He
held a big sacrifice, at which this entire story was recited for the first time by a disciple of
Vyasa called Vaishampayan.

Legacy
Since that time, this story has been retold countless times, expanded upon, and retold again.
The Mahabharata remains popular to this day in India. It has been adapted and recast in
contemporary mode in several films and plays. Children continue to be named after the
characters in the epic. The Bhagvad Gita is one of the holiest of Hindu scriptures. Beyond
India, the Mahabharata story is popular in south-east Asia in cultures that were influenced by
Hinduism such as Indonesia and Malaysia.