The Mahabharata
Mahabharata is a treasure trove of wisdom and leadership lessons for all walks of life. Every character, main lead characters or even the smaller and lesser known characters, all are designed to convey one or the other aspect of life. One can lessons from their ideals, actions and circumstances they went through.
Shikandi: The Transgender who is the cause of Bhishma’s Death
Let us look into the role of Shikandi had to play in this magnanimous Indian epic. Shikandi is a character in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. The son of Drupada, he fought in the Kurukshetra war on the side of the Pandavas.
Shikhandi is neither man nor woman. Born a woman as the eldest child of king Drupad (the father of Draupadi) and elder sibling to Dhrishtadhyumna and Draupadi – the twins – Shikhandi struggled all his or her life with the sex assigned at birth. How she came to be the cause of death of Bhishma – the mightiest warrior – has a long back story to it.
Born in an earlier lifetime as a woman named Amba, who was rejected by Bhishma for marriage. Feeling deeply humiliated and wanting revenge, Amba carried out great prayers and penance with the desire to be the cause of Bhishma’s death. Amba was then reborn as Shikhandini.
From her birth, a Divine voice told her father to raise her as a son. So Shikhandini was raised like a man, trained in warfare and eventually married. On her wedding night, her wife insulted her on finding out the truth. Contemplating suicide, she fled Pancala, but was saved by a Yaksha who exchanged his sex with her. Shikhandi came back a man and had a happy married life with his wife and had children too. After his death, his masculinity was transferred back to the Yaksha.
In the battle of Kurukshetra, Bhishma recognised him as Amba reborn, and not wanting to fight ‘a woman’, lowered his weapons. Knowing that Bhishma would react thus to Shikhandi, Arjuna hid behind Shikhandi and attacked Bhishma with a devastating volley of arrows. Thus, only with Shikhandi’s help could Arjuna deal a death blow to Bhishma, who had been virtually invincible until then. Shikhandi was finally killed by Ashwatthama on the 18th day of battle.
Back-story of Shikandi
Before Shikhandi’s reincarnation, in a previous life he was born as a woman named Amba. Amba was the eldest of the three daughters of the King of Kashi along with her sisters Ambika and Ambalika. Bhisma, abducted the princesses and presented them as brides to his sickly brother Vichitravirya, the crown prince of Hastinapura.
Amba was brave enough to protest. She told Bhisma that she had fallen in love with Salva, another warrior, and was not willing to marry anyone else. The code of honor among the kshatriyas (warriors) prohibited the taking of a woman who loved another. Therefor Vichitravirya married only her two sisters and Bhisma sent Amba back to Salva.
However, Amba paid dearly for voicing her resistance. In a cruel turn of events, Salva used the same kshatriya code to reject Amba. Salva refused to marry Amba, who he considered soiled by contact with another man (Bhisma).
The distraught Amba then returned to Hastinapura, but the crown prince Vichitravirya wanted nothing to do with her. Amba demanded that Bhisma marry her himself, but he had sworn an oath never to enter matrimony. “When you took the vow never to be with a woman, what gave you the right to abduct me?” Amba cried as Bhisma ignored her.
Amba implored other warriors to kill Bhisma in her name, but no one would stand up against Bhisma, the most powerful and respected warrior of his generation. Except for one man; Parashurama, a great warrior and Bhisma’s own mentor. However, even he failed in his mission.
Amba renounced all hope and commenced a life of the most severe austerities, living only on fresh water and air. One day, the god Shiva took pity and appeared before her. Amba recanted him her woeful tale and her wish to avenge herself on Bhisma. “Make me the cause of his death,” she begged him.
In response Shiva blessed her: “In your next life, you will remember all the sorrow that Bhisma caused you. You shall be born as the son of Drupada and become a maharatha (master of all battle formations and strategies). You shall cause the death of Bhisma.”
To accelerate this process, Amba immediately leapt into a funeral pyre. However, she was not reincarnated as a man – she was reborn as Shikhandini, the daughter of King Drupada of Panchala.
Bhishma’s death
Shikhandi (the Amba of last birth) had two siblings – the twins Draupadi and Dhrishtadhyumna. Draupadi then married Arjuna – the son of Ambalika’s son Pandu. Meanwhile, Shikhandi had appropriated the garland she had left on the doorway in her last birth, thus enabling herself to become Bhishma’s slayer. Now that she had the element of man in her, she qualified to carry out the task.
On the 10th day of the war between the Pandavas and Kauravas during the battle at Kurukshetra, the invincible Bhishma was proving to be too much of an enemy and Lord Krishna (also charioteer to Arjuna) Conceded that Bhishma must die for Arjuna to make any headway in the war,
But how can even Arjun try taking aim at Bhishma when he would not lower his weapons? They thought quickly. Arjuna hid behind Shikhandi, seeing whom Bhishma lowered his weapons – not to strike a woman. Arjuna saw the window of opportunity as Bhishm lowered his bow and arrow. He sent forth a volley of arrows that finally killed Bhishma.
Thus Shikhandi – a Kinnar – a person neither man nor woman – became the cause of Bhishma’s death.
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