Monday, August 18, 2014

Paternal Aunts (Bua’s) Of Mahabharata


This is the fourth part of the series “Relationships in Mahabharata”. I will recommend to go through the previous parts of this series before reading this one. Paternal Aunts are Sisters of someone’s father and also termed as Bua, Fufi etc. in Hindi language. It’s strange to note that when there are most characters in Mahabharata are someone’s Maternal Uncle (Mamu) but most of the Maternal Uncles are either never married or don’t have any children. So most of the female characters in Mahabharata are Married and have at least one child which brings Maternal Uncles into picture but most of the Maternal Uncles are either never married or don’t have any child listed in Mahabharata. This makes those females listed out from the Paternal Aunts list. Hence this makes the number of characters in Mahabharata as Paternal Aunts as least among the four parts we discussed so far. Listed below are some of the Paternal Aunts.

S.No
Bua
Of
Details
1.
Dushala
Lakshman Kumara and Lakshmana
Dushala is the only daughter of Dhritarastra and only Sister of one hundred Kauravas. It seems in Mahabharata apart from Duryodhana either no one had any children or no name been mentioned for any other children of Kauravas. So being only sister of Duryodhan, Dushala becomes the Paternal Aunt of his Son Laxman Kumara and daughter known as Laxmanna. It’s been mentioned that as Bheema killed all Kauravas so Abhimanyu killed all sons of Kauravas. In any way Dushala was Paternal Aunt (Bua) of All sons of Kauravas including Laxman Kumara and Laxmanna.
2.
Kunti and Srutakriti
Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra
Kunti, Sutrakriti are biological sisters of Vasudeva, father of Balarama, Krishna and Subhadra. This makes Kunti and Sutakriti as Paternal Aunts (Bua) of Balrama, Krishna and Subhadra. Subhadra is also married to Arjuna, one of Kunti’s sons. So Kunti was paternal Aunt of Subhadra before her marriage and became Mother in Law after Subhadra’s marriage.
3.
Shubhadra 
Pradyumna and his 9 Brothers
Subhadra being the only sister of Krishna and Balarama becomes Paternal Aunt (Bua) of their respective children. Krishna has lot of children from his different wives and Subhadra was Bua for all of them. As we had focused only on children of Krishna with Rukmini only, so all the ten sons are  Pradyumna, Charudeshna, Sudeshna, Charudeha, Sucharu, Charugupta, Bhadracharu,  Charuchandra, Vicharu, and Charu.
4.
Shubhadra 
Nisatha, Ulmuka and Vatsala
As already mentioned above Subhadra is the Paternal Aunt (Bua) of Nisatha, Ulmuka and Vatsala, the three children of Balarama and Rewati.
5.
Gandhari
Uluka (उलूक)and Vrikaashur
Shakuni who is the brother of Gandhari had two sons named Uluka and Vrikaashur. There are not many details been provided about Shakuni’s sons in Mahabharata. Whereas Shakuni who was one of the main villain of Mahabharata and Gandhari who married to Dhritarashtra and had one hundred sons known as Karuvas are the main characters in Mahabharata.
6.
Rukmini
Charumati, Rukmavati
Rukmini who is married to Krishna had a brother named Rukmi. Rukmi had two daughters named Rukmavati and Charumati. This relation makes Rukmini as there paternal aunt. Some text mentions Rukmavati is married to Rukmini and Krishna’s eldest son Pradyumna. Rukmi along with Balarama are the only two persons who did not participated in Kurukshetra war.
7.
Karenumati
Children of Dhristaketu
Dristaketu and Karenumati were children of Shishupal (शिशुपाल). Karenumati was wedded to Nakula (One Of The Panadava). Dhristaketu was an army-general in the army of Pandavas in Kurukshetra/Mahabharata War. It’s mentioned in some of the text in Mahabharata that Dhristaketu and his children were slain in battle but no name been provided for Dhristaketu’s children.  Name or No Name if Dhristaketu had any child then Karenumati was there Paternal Aunt (Bua).



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