Duplicate Names In Ramayana and Mahabharata

This is not part of my previous series “Relationships in Mahabharata”. Have you ever wonder if there are any duplicate names that are used in Ramayana or Mahabharata or any other mythologies. Twist to the tale will be father child combination should not allowed e.g.: Son of Vasudeva is also known as Vasudeva Krishna and Son of Pandavas are known as Upa-pandavas. After applying these conditions still there are quite a few names which are repeated either in Mahabharata or Ramayana or Both. Mentioned below are some of the same names used across these two mythologies where both characters are not directly related to each other. Let me know if I had missed anyone in this context. I am starting with the most famous ones and to the lesser known characters in the list of same names. I also created a Just Missed category too, where names are quite similar but not same.

1.      Rama and Balrama - Rama is the incarnation of god Vishnu and Balarama was considered as incarnation of Ananta Sesha (Sesha Naag). Rama is the main protagonist of Ramayana and Balarama is the King of Yadav Dynasty, elder brother of Krishna and Subhadra and one of the major character in Mahabharata. His original birth name was Rama but due to his immense strength he is been called as Balrama. Probably he is the only Nameshake of this list of same and similar names.

2.     Mahabali and Bali – Mahabali is also known as Bali who is the Asura king and grandson of Pralhada in Indian mythologies. He is been sent to Patala by fifth reincarnation of Vishnu i.e. Vamana Avatara. He conquered Underground, Earth and Heaven and Vishnu in his Vamana avatar got Earth and Heaven back and send him to rule Underground. He is considered as one of the seven Chiranjivi’s (Immortals) of hindu mythologies.

Bali is a famous character in Ramayana. He is also known as Vali. He is the vanara king and twin brother of Sugriva. He got killed by Rama on the request of Sugriva, who wants to take his wife back.

3.     Arjuna and Kartavirya Arjuna - Arjuna was one of the pandavas and the greatest warrior of Mahabharata. So Arjuna from Mahabharata needs no introduction hence skipping him and introducing Kratavirya Arjuana. 
Kartavirya Arjuana's power was popularly told in Ramayana. He was the contemporary of Ravana and also defeated him in a one to one combat. After this victory Kartavirya Arjuana actually imprisoned Ravana. Kartavirya Arjuna also killed Parshurama's father. This cause Parshurama, not only to kill Kratvirya Arjuna and his entire clan by his Axe but also rescued Ravana from the prison of Arjuna. He is famously known as Kratavirya mainly due to his father name as Kritavirya and probably extreme popularity of the name Arjuna in Indian mythology.

4.     Krishna and Krishna Dvaipayana - They both are from Mahabharata and if one is the Architect of Mahabharata then other one is the Creator of Mahabharata. If one is god then other one is the devotee of that god. Krishna is the eighth reincarnation of god Vishnu and actually the whole Mahabharata somehow turned out as his own game plan to teach human being the importance of Devotion and Karma.  
Ved Vyasa is the creator of Mahabharata and was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. His lesser known but original name was Krishna Dvaipayana, because of his dark complexion (Krishna) and his birth at an Island (Dweep). He got his name as Ved Vyasa to symbolize the one who classified Vedas in four parts.

5.     Chitrangada and Chitrāngadā - Here the spelling of the names are different but they are actually pronounced in exact same way. The first Chitrangada is the eldest son of Shantanu and Satyawati. He was the most capable king of Hastinapur after Devabrata (Bhisma) but died at very young age while fighting a duel with Gandharva. 
Whereas Chitrāngadā is the wife of Arjuna. Arjuna married to Chitrāngadā during his exile from Indraprastha. The exile was caused because Arjuna was forced to violate Yudhistira and Droupadi's privacy. During this exile when Arjuna reached to ancient Manipura he fell in love with Chitrāngadā and requested to marry her. Her father Chitravahana agreed on the condition that any of their children would remain in Manipur as Chitravahana's heir. In this case same name is used for both Male and Female characters.
Some versions of Mahabharata do mention son of Shantanu and Satyawati as Chitrangad rather than Chitrangada then in that case too there was another person named Chitrangad exists in Mahabharata. He was the Kashi king and father of princess Bhanumati, who later became wife of Duryodhana. Duryodhana was the main antagonist of Mahabharata.

6.     Bharata and Bharata - Bharata was the brother of Rama, he was the second son of King Dasharatha and belong to the Solar Dynasty. His mother Kaikeyi actually conspire during his absence and send Rama to 14 years of exile. He tried to convince Rama to come back and Rule Ayodha, when Rama didn't agreed then he actually governed Ayodhya, not as a ruler, but as a Rama's representative. 
Bharata or Emperor Bharata is one of the greatest king from Lunar Dynasty. He is the one whose name is used to name the epic as Mahabharata and also to the country India as Bharat or Bharatavarsha. He was the son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala. He ruled virtuously and earned great fame and was known by the titles of "Chakravarti" (emperor) and after him it was Yudhistira from that Dynasty who got the title of "Chakravarti Samrat" (the emperor).

7.      Ashwathama and Ashwathama - This same character names are referred on the 15th day of Kurkshetra war. Ashwathama is the son of guru Drona and has medium role in Mahabharata. The other Ashwathama was an elephant of Karuva army. First Ashwathama is considered immortal and the second one is been killed by Bheema to plot the death of Guru Drona (The father of Ashwathama). Probably this is the only incident in mythology where a human being and an animal shared same name.

8.     Lakshman and Laksman Kumara - Lakshman was one of the three brothers of Rama, in Ramayana. He was very close to Rama and accompanied Rama in his 14 years of exile. He and his twin brother Shatrughna were borne to Sumitra. Lakshman is believed to be incarnation of Ananta Sesha (Sesha Naag). In Mahabharata, Laksman Kumara or Simply Laksman was the son of Duryodhana. Lakshman got slained by Abhimanyu (Son of Arjuna) on the 13^th Day of Kurukshetra War when Abhimanyu fought inside guru Drona’s chakra view (Circular formation) to stop Kaurava army to capture Yudhishtira.

9.     Sahadeva and Sahadeva - Sahadeva was the youngest Pandava in Mahabharata. Nakula and Sahadeva are twin brothers born to Madri, who had invoked Ashwini Kumaras using Kunti’s boon. Sahadeva was very good in Astrology and had the capabilities to foresee the future. He took oath to kill Shakuni and accomplished this task on 18^th day of Kurukshetra war.

Another Sahadeva is the son of Jayadratha who was placed on the throne of Magadha by the Pandavas on the former's death in a duel with the Pandava prince Bhima. This Sahadeva got killed in Kurukshetra war. 

10. Chitrasena and Chitrasena – Chitrasena was a Gandharva in Mahabharata and taught Arjuna the dancing and singing skills, which Arjuna used in his 13^th year of the exile as Brihannala. Chitrasena also along with lord Indra convinced Urvashi to reduce the curse (to become Eunuch) on Arjuna only 1 year. In one of the incidences during 12 years of exile for Pandavas, Chitrasena defeated Karna and captured Duryodhana, but Arjuna came and rescued Duryodhana because Yudhistira ordered him to do so.

Karna had nine sons, Chitrasena was the third one. Not much been said about this Chitrasena in Mahabharata, except that he got killed by Nakula during Kurukshetra war

11.   Sudeshna and Sudeshna – Sudeshna was the wife of King Virata in Mahabharata. She don’t have much role play in Mahabharata but her son Uttar and daughter Uttara are important characters in Mahabharata along with her husband Virata and brother Keechaka. During 13^th year of exile for Pandavas, Draupadi disguised as her maid Sairandhri. Sudeshna helped her Brother Keechak to get Droupadi by ordering her to get wine from Keechaka’s house alone, which actually triggered events like Keechaka Vadh and Hastinapur’s attack to Virata kingdom etc.
The second Sudeshna is one of the 10 sons of Krishna and Rukmini. This is the case similar to the name Chitrangada where same name is used for Male and female both.

12.  Vajra and Vajradatta – Here both the characters are from Mahabharata and came to picture sometime after Kurukshetra war. Vajra was one of the last surviving members of the yadava dynasty. He was great grandson of Krishna and grandson to Krishna and Rukmini’s first son Pradyumna. Post Yadava destruction and Dwarka submerge, he was proclaimed as king of Mathura at Indraprastha.

Vajradatta was son of Bhagadatta. Being child at the time of Kurukshetra war he did not participated in that war. Post war when Yudhistira organized Ashwamedhya Yangya, Vajradatta made an attempt to hold the horse to avenge his father’s death in Kurukshetra war at the hands of Arjuna. He was defeated by Arjuna, after a prolonged battle.

13.  Niramitra and Niramitra – Nakula married Karenumati, daughter of Sishupal and Niramitra was there son. Nothing much was written about this character in Mahabharata.
Other one is the Trigata Prince named Niramitra. There are references of Trigata king in Mahabharata where he attacked Virata kingdom on last day of 13 years exile for Panadavas and also took away Arjuna from the battle field on 13^th day of the war so that Drona can form the chakraview (Circular Formation) but in all those context the name Niramitra is missing so assume being a prince of the same Dynasty he was also part of some if not all of those incidences. He actually got killed by Sahadeva in Kurukshetra war.

If we take this context beyond Mahabharata then the last king recorded for Kuru Dynasty or specific Pandava or Arjun Dynasty (Arjuna->Abhimanyu->Parikshit so on) was Kshameka. The third Niramitra was the father of Kshameka. The whole list of dynasty is mentioned here.

Just Missed - Mentioned below is the list of characters from Ramayana and Mahabharata whose names are different due to change of only few alphabets. Starting up with closest dissimilarity to the visible dissimilarities.

1.      Shrutakirti and Shrutakriti – At first look their names seems exactly same but there is one alphabet difference between these two names.

Shrutakirti was the wife of Shatrughna, the youngest brother of lord Rama in Ramayana. She was also the cousin sister of Sita.

Whereas Shrutakriti was mother of Shishupal and sister of Vasudev in Mahabharata. Vasudev was the father of lord Krishna. So Shurtakriti was actually sister to both Vasudeva and Kunti.

2.     Valandhara and Balandhara – Some contexts do mentioned that Valandhara and Balandhara are the same persons, as both are from Kashi Dynasty. Although there are some other contexts available which does not allow to believe in this story. In Mahabharata, Valandhara was one of the wives of Bhima and Sarvaga was their son from this marriage. She was one of the many minor characters of Mahabharata. Same is the case of Balandhara, she was also very fond of Bheema and want to marry him.

Now Balandhara was also the real sister of Bhanumati, the wife of Duryodhana. As there was extreme rivalry between Duryodhana and Bheema throughout the Mahabharata, which caused that marriage would never happen. Some context mention that Bhanumati and Balandhara are from Trigata Dynasty not from the Kashi Dynasty. Which so ever story is true, it has enough reasons to believe that they are different persons and their names are closely matched.

3.     Karna and Vikarna – These two are famous characters of Mahabharata, especially Karna. Like Arjuna, Karna also need no introduction here. He is portrayed as the one of the tragic heroes of Mahabharata.

Vikarna is the brother of Duryodhana. Among 100 sons of Gandhari and Dhritarastra, Vikarna is their third born. Some version of Mahabharata mentioned that he is the only one from the Kaurava camp who raised his voice not only against the dice game as whole but also during the mistreatment of Draupadi. Again Karna and Vikarna are not related but share similar name.

4.     Mahiravan, Ahiravan and Ravan – Ending this blog with brothers and cousins, still didn’t broke the rule of father child combination. Mahiravan and Ahiravan are real brothers and both are cousin brother of Ravan. In ramayanya, Ahiravan and Mahiravan captured Rama and Laxmana to underground location with a plan to kill them. Hanuman came and saved their life. Ravan is the main antagonist of Ramayana.

5.     Rama and Parshurama – Here there name had quite a difference but the similarity is in their birth. Both are incarnation of lord Vishnu. Both born with greater purpose and also to kill many threat of humanity from earth and establish peace. One born to kill Ravan and other born to kill Kratavirya Arjun. Rama is the main protagonist of Ramayana. Parshurama is been referred in both Ramayana and Mahabharata along with his own stories.  They are so much famous in mythologies that any detail I provide will not suffice there glory.

If I find any same or similar named characters in these two or other mythologies I will add them up to the respective list. Also, I found it easier to describe all these characters in my own words rather than copy it from various internet sources. So please pardon me if I had made any mistakes or cut short too much about any character(s) while describing them. Please let me know in comments if you find I had missed any of the pair here in this blog. I originally wrote this article as an answer in Quora and modified it to suite an independent article. Check my original answer here.

©Tapas Majumdar

Mahabharata Blood Relationships - The Complete Picture

This is the last part of the series “Relationships in Mahabharata”. In this series so far we came to know about Maternal Uncles and Aunts along with Paternal Uncles and Aunts of characters in Mahabharata.  If you have not gone through the whole series yet then I will recommend you to go through the previous parts of this series before reading this one. In this article we will know how those characters are actually placed within their direct blood relationships.  
So to represent all major characters I created the complete hierarchy of different dynasties who are involved in the epic Mahabharata. Here I am able to cover many of the major characters but still need to left out many of the characters either due to non-importance or not part of scope for this series. We focused majorly on the characters we used in all previous part of the series, which we have discussed so far. To understand the dynasties, presented below are the hierarchies defined in Mahabharata, I converted those textual hierarchy into pictorial format for better understandings. To understand these pictorial representations legends are mentioned below.

Legends:

1. All men in same generations are marked with same colors. 
   So the colors  represents each generations. E.g. Pandu, Vidur and Vasudev are men from same generations symbolized by orange color. So also Duryodhana, Bheema and Krisna represent another set of generation showed in blue color.
2. All women’s of Mahabharata across dynasties and generations are represented with pink colors. 
3. When a circle is cut into half then that person is consider the child of the person defined above. Now if the circle is just touched the line then that person is spouse of person above the hierarchy and mother or father of person below the hierarchy. E.g. based on this picture Rishi Parashar is father of Ved Vyasa and Spouse of Satyawati. Simlarly when Satyawati is used like Rishi Parashar in any other picture she will be the mother of those characters.
4. The solid blue lines are used for child born naturally from those parents. If used dotted red lines then that child is born via Yagna. The child born using Niyoga is represented by dotted purple lines  
   and if the child is born by some Mantra then its represented
   by dotted blue lines.
5.  All Dynasties are started with  to represented there may be kingdoms or dynasties before that too.

The whole Mahabharata is all about Kuru Dynasty so will start with that. The complete dynasty is mentioned below.

If you are wondering what Satyawati and Matsya Dynasty doing here, is to represent the complete underline story of Mahabharata. So Mahabharata starts because Father of Satyawati or Satyawati (In some version) wants only Satyawati’s blood should rule Hastinapur. So what happened due to that ambition is Devabrata being the apt ruler never able to rule and Chitrangada died in Young Age and Vichitra Virya was never capable of ruling and hence triggers the whole Mahabhrata. When everything settled and Yudhistira became king he was not the direct blood of Satyawati as he was the Mantra Prasad of Dharmaraj Yama. Now Aadi parva of Mahabharata mentioned that Satyawati borned with a Twin brother (See picture above), who actually founded Matsya Kingdom and Uttara who was Mother of Parikshit the final ruler of Hastinapur (As per Mahabharata, will discuss the whole lineage later) was from Matsya Kingdom so finally the Ruler of Hastinapur got the blood of Satyawati, even if its indirectly. Hence, the desire of Satyawati is being fulfilled.

There are many other dynasties which had important characters and role play in Mahabharata. Listed below are the most important ones.

There is one Dynasty which is not been mentioned properly in Mahabharata but almost four daughter in laws and one very important character is from that dynasty. In Mahabharata that kingdom is mentioned as Kashi kingdom. Mahabharata does not provide proper lineage or hierarchical relationships so providing what so ever is available and shown here as illustration purpose only.

In case you are wondering what happens  to Kuru Dynasty after Parkshit. Mentioned below is the complete hierarchy till the last Heir known.

Exclusions:

Mentioned below are some of the points that I have excluded while creating these pictorial representations.

1. Birth or Blood Relationship of Drona and Kripacharya is not included in this picture. As per mythology they are born without any mother involved. 
2. Chedi Dynasty is not shown in list of Dynasties as main characters of that dynasty like Upricari Basu, Sishupal etc. are already included here. This helps in avoiding duplicates and simplifies the contents.
3. Only Rukmini and her 10 sons are included in the Yadav Dynasty, remaining all wives and children of Krishna are not included in these pictures.
4. It’s been mentioned in some version of Mahabharata that Gandhari also has 100 brothers along with Shakuni, not included that part here.
5. As mentioned earlier there are many other important characters surfaced in during various Parva of Mahabharata like Ekalavya, Jarashandha etc. I dd not tried to form there hierarchy as they are not Uncles or Aunts of any other noticeable characters. Simply out of scope of this series.

Last but not least, I want to thank various sources of internet and texts which provided me input for all the articles of this series. Please provide feedback and comments in individual or this articles if you find I missed any of the relationships in this series.

Prev: Paternal AuntsOf Mahabharata 

©Tapas Majumdar

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).

Prev: Paternal Uncles Of Mahabharata  Next: Mahabharata Blood Relationships - The Complete Picture

©Tapas Majumdar

Paternal Uncles of Mahabharata

This is the Part III and continuation of series Relationships In Mahabharata. Please go through the Part I and Part II of this series before reading this article.

In India paternal uncles or brother of someone’s father are categorized in two parts. First one who are elder brothers and the other one who are younger brothers of that person’s father. Father's elder brother (paternal uncle) is mentioned as ताऊ (Taauu) or ताया (Taya) or Taat Shri or Bade Pitaji etc. This is how Father's elder brother is acknowledged in most Hindi speaking areas whereas there will be different names for different region, area and languages to address this term. Similarly Father's younger brother (paternal uncle) is mentioned as चाचा (chacha), Chachu or Kaka etc. in Hindi speaking regions. So to avoid any confusion unless otherwise specified, I will use the English term of Paternal Uncle across this article. Like Maternal Aunts this also follow recursion relationships, which means for two brothers one will be paternal uncles of other's children and vice-versa. So listed below are all the Paternal Uncles of Mahabharata.

S.No	Paternal Auncle	Of	Details
1.	Devavrata (Bhisma)	Dhritarastra, Pandu, and Vidur	Devavrata was the grandfather of Pandavas and Kauravas. He was the Half-brother of Vichtravirya, and being eldest he is the Paternal Uncle (Taauu, Taatshri or Badepitaji) of Dhritarastra, Pandu and Vidur. Devavrata was the eighth son of Shantanu and his first wife Ganga.  Bhishma means one with the terrible oath, referring to his vow of lifelong celibacy and service to whoever sat on throne of Hastinapur. He took this oath so that his father can marry Satyavati (सत्यवती). Chitrangada and Vichtravirya were two sons of Shantanu and Satyavati. Dhritarastra, Pandu are considered as son of Vichtravirya actually born through Ved Vyasa through Niyoga. Vidur been born through same Niyoga by Ved Vyasa is considered as half-brother of Dhritarastra and Pandu. Ved Vyasa is the son of Satyavati before her marriage with Shantanu. Ved Vyasa is the original author or first person to write the epic Mahabharata.
2.	Chitrangada (चित्रांगद)	Dhritarastra, Pandu, and Vidur	Chitrangada and Vichtravirya are two sons of Shantanu and Satyavati. Chitrangada ascended the throne of Hastinapur after his father’s death but died childless while fighting a duel with a Gandharva. Dhritarastra and Pandu were son of Vichtravirya through his two wife Ambika and Ambalika via Niyoga. As Vidur is also borned through same Niyoga so Vidur is also considered as there brother. Hence Chitrangada became Paternal Uncle (Taauu, Taatshri or Badepitaji) of all three.
3.	Pandu	Kaurava, Dushala and Yuyutsu(युयुत्सू)	Pandu is Dhritarastra’s younger brother and Pandu had five sons and Dhritarastra had hundred Sons and one Daughter which includes Duryodhan, Dushashan, Vikarna etc. and collectively known as Kauravas and the only daughter named Dushala. Dhritarastra had also one son named Yuyutsu from Maid of Gandhari named Sukhada. In short Pandu is the Paternal Uncle (Chacha) of all Dhritarastra’s children.
4.	Dhritarastra	Pandava	Pandu has five sons named Yudhishthir, Bheema and Arjuna from his first wife Kunti and Twin brothers Nakula and Sahadeva from his second wife Madri. All five sons of Pandu are collectively known as Pandavas. Dhritarastra been elder than Pandu is Paternal Uncle (Taauu, Taatshri or Badepitaji) of all five son of Pandu.
5.	Vidura	Pandava and Kaurava	As mentioned above Vidura was half-brother of both Dhritarastra and Pandu hence Paternal Uncle (Chachu) of both Kauravas and Pandavas.
6.	Yudhistira, Bheema, Nakula and Sahdeva	Abhimanyu, Babruvahana, Iravan, Srutakarman	In Mahabharata Yudhistira, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahdeva are considered as real brothers and son of Pandu even though they were born through Niyoga and from two different mothers. Collectively they are known as Pandava’s. Among Panadava’s Arjuna (The Third Borned) had married the most and had maximum number of children. This makes all his remaining brothers as paternal uncle of his children. Arjuna’s first son Abhimanyu had born from his marriage with Subhadra. Babruvahana by marriage with Chitrāngadā (चित्रांगदा). Iravan with Uolopi. Srutakarman from Droupadi or Draupadi. Hence remaining brothers will be the paternal uncles of Arjuna’s Children. Here Yudhistira and Bheema being elder than Arjuna will be Taauu, Taatshri or Badepitaji and Nakula and Sahadeva been younger than Arjuna will be Chacha of his children. Next four points will follow the similar patterns as remaining four brothers of that particular Pandav are Paternal Uncles of that particular Pandav’s children.
7.	Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahdeva	Prativindhya and Yaudheya	Yudhistira the eldest son of Pandu had a son named Prativindhya (Named as Shrutavindhya In some texts) from Draupadi and another son named Yaudheya from Devika the daughter of Govasana of the Saivya tribe. Remaining four Pandava’s will be Paternal Uncles (Chachu) of Yudhistira’s two sons.
8.	Yudhistira, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahdeva	Ghatotkacha, Sutasoma and Sarvaga	Bhima had three sons. Ghatotkacha from Hidimbi or Hidimba. Sutasoma from Droupadi and Sarvaga from Valandhara the daughter of the king of Kashi. All Bheema’s brothers are there paternal uncles. Yudhistira will be Taauu, Taatshri or Badepitaji and Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva been younger than Bheema will be Chacha of his three children.
9.	Yudhistira, Bheema, Arjuna and Sahdeva	Satanika and Niramitra	Nakula had two sons named Satanika from Droupadi and Niramitra from Karenumati, the daughter of Sishupal. In this case Yudhistira, Bhema and Arjuna will be Taauu, Taatshri or Badepitaji and Sahadeva will be Chacha of his two children.
10.	Yudhistira, Bheema, Arjuna and Nakula	Srutasena and Suhotra	Sahadeva the youngest son of Pandu also had two sons Srutasena from Droupadi and Suhotra from Vijaya, the daughter of Dyutimat, the king of Madra. All four of his brothers are Paternal Uncles (Taauu, Taatshri or Badepitaji) of his children.
11.	Balarama	Pradyumna and his 9 Brothers	Krishna and his wife Rukmini had ten sons. Eldest of them is Pradyumna. Balarama is the elder brother of Krishna which makes him Tatshree or Tau of all ten of them. Krishna did have many other wives and their children. I have not included them in this article but Balarama will be there paternal uncle too.
12.	Krishna	Nisatha, Ulmuka and Vatsala	It’s mentioned in various text that Balarama and his wife Revati had two sons and one daughter. Nisatha and Ulmuka were the two sons and Vatsala was the only daughter. Krishna been the younger brother of Balrama becomes there lovely chachu. In one of the tale of Mahabharata, Abhimanyu (Son of Arjuna) Married Vatsala with the help of Ghatotkacha (Son of Bheema) and Krishna because Abhimanyu loves Vatsala where as Balrama wants to marry his daughter to Laxman Kumara (Son of Duryodhana).
13.	Devapi, Balkika	Devavrata (Bhisma), Chitrangada and Vichtravirya	Shantanu who was the father of Devavrata, Chitrangada and Vichtravirya was the youngest son of King Pratipa. His two brothers Devapi and Balkika have very small role in Mahabharata. Shantanu became default ruler of Hastinapur after his eldest brother Devapi (देवापि) abdicated his inheritance to become a hermit. According to the mythology he is an immortal sage.
14.	Yudhistira, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahdeva	Vrishasena, Vrishaketu, Chitrasena, Satyasena, Sushena, Shatrunjaya, Dvipata, Banasena and Prasena	Who are they? These are the nine sons of Karna (कर्ण). Kunti, the mother of Pandavas before marriage to Pandu had another son named Karna. This makes Pandavas as Karna’s brother and Paternal Uncles (Chacha) of Karna’s children. Identity of Karna’s wife is not fully clear, some version mentioned he has only wife named Vrushali and had Nine children from her. Whereas some version mention about a second wife and some of these nine children belongs to that wife. All of Karna’s eight children died in the war and Vrishaketu was the only son survived the war. He was offered to be the King of Indraprastha because of Karna being the eldest brother of Pandavas.
15.	Karna (कर्ण)	Prativindhya, Yaudheya, Ghatotkacha, Sutasoma, Sarvaga, Abhimanyu, Babruvahana, Iravan, Srutakarman, Satanika, Niramitra, Srutasena and Suhotra	Listed here are all sons of Pandavas, and Karna been the eldest brother is the paternal uncle (Tatshree or Tau) for all of them. Among them Ghatotkacha is the eldest.

16.

Dushashana, Vikarna, 96 Brothers

Laxman Kumara and Laxmanna

Duryodhana had One son named Laxman Kumara and Daughter named Laxmanna. His 96 borthers including Dushashana and Vikarna are Paternal Uncles (chachu) of these two characters.

Note: I have only listed direct paternal uncles only. Like been the cousin of Pandavas, all the Kauravas are also paternal uncle of Pandavas children and vice versa.

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