What are the hidden truths about Mahabharat?

What are the hidden truths about Mahabharat? Yudhishtir had another wife called Devika. Duryodhana’s wife Bhanumati was a devotee of Lord Krishna. During the war, Duryodhana accused Bhishma Pitamah as he was not fighting with his full strength as he had a soft corner for the Pandavas. Pitamah became angry and in his anger, he took out five gold arrows filled with mantras. He vowed that he would kill all the five Pandavas with these arrows. Still Duryodhana was not satisfied and took those five arrows with him and told Pitamah that he would give them next day when the war starts. Lord Krishna reminded Arjun that Duryodhana had promised him of boon and he should ask him for five golden arrows .When Arjun asked him of the arrows Duryodhana was shocked and asked him how did he know about those arrows then Arjun replied “Krishna”. Jayadratha was the brother-in-law of the Pandavas and the Kauravas as he was married to Dushala, the only Kaurava princess. One day Jayadratha saw Draupadi in forest and fell in love with her .He proposed her for marrying him but Draupadi refused. Then he forcefully took Draupadi with her toward his kingdom. When Pandavas came , on not finding their wife , Yudhistra ordered Bheem and Arjun to find her .When they came to know about this kidnapping, they overpowered him and wanted to kill him. But Draupati told them not to kill him as he was the husband of their cousin. So they made him slave by shaving his hair. Duryodhana’s real name was Suyodhana. Duryadhana did not participate in Draupadi’s swayamvar because he was already married to Kalinga princess Bhanumati and he promised that he would not marry another girl. Dhrishtadyumna was actually a reincarnation of Eklavya. Lord Krishna blessed Eklavya to reincarnate and take revenge on Dronacharya to honour his guru dakshina and his sacrifice. The blind king Dhritarashtra had taken his wife Gandhari's entire family as prisoners, and treated them very badly. Obviously, the family was not pleased with this treatment. King Subala (Gandhari's father) decided that everyone would sacrifice their share of food to strengthen one chosen member who will be the reason for Dhritarashtra's downfall. Shakuni, the youngest and smartest of the lot was chosen for this task. Bheema's grandson (Ghatotkacha's son), Barbarik was supposed to be a great warrior. By Lord Shiva's blessings, he had special arrows by which he could mark his enemies, mark the ones he wanted to save, and then destroy all his enemies respectively. Thanks to this, he could have ended the war in one minute flat. Krishna however, knew better than to let this happen. Because of an oath to his mother, Barbarik always fought for the weaker side. Krishna appeared to him as a Brahmana, and reasoned that whichever side he took would by default be stronger. That way he would have to keep changing parties till everyone got killed. Krishna then asked for his head in charity because the battlefield must be purified before battle by sacrificing the head of the bravest kshatriya. Barbarik obliged and became the greatest Kshatriya alive. That is how Krishna saved the Pandavas from losing the battle. Edit: More Facts Five thousand years ago, the Kurukshetra war, between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, was the mother of all battles. Nobody could remain neutral. You had to be either on the Kaurava side or the Pandava side. All the kings – hundreds of them – aligned themselves on one side or the other. The king of Udupi however chose to remain neutral. He spoke to Krishna and said, ‘Those who fight battles have to eat. I will be the caterer for this battle.’ Krishna said, ‘Fine. Somebody has to cook and serve so you do it.’ They say over 500,000 soldiers had gathered for the battle. The battle lasted 18 days, and every day, thousands were dying. So the Udupi king had to cook that much less food, otherwise it would go waste. Somehow the catering had to be managed. If he kept cooking for 500,000 people it wouldn’t work. Or if he cooked for less, soldiers would go hungry. The Udupi king managed it very well. The amazing thing was, every day, the food was exactly enough for all the soldiers and no food was wasted. After a few days, people were amazed, ‘How is he managing to cook the exact amount of food!’ No one could know how many people had died on any given day. By the time they could have taken account of these things, the next day morning would have dawned and again it was time to fight. There was no way the caterer could know how many thousands had died each day, but every day he cooked exactly the volume of food necessary for the rest of the armies. When someone asked him, ‘How do you manage this?’ the Udupi king replied, ‘Every night I go to Krishna’s tent. Krishna likes to eat boiled groundnuts in the night so I peel them and keep them in a bowl. He eats just a few peanuts, and after he is done I count how many he has eaten. If it’s 10 peanuts, I know tomorrow 10,000 people will be dead. So the next day when I cook lunch, I cook for 10,000 people less. Every day I count these peanuts and cook accordingly, and it turns out right.’ Now you know why Krishna is so nonchalant during the whole Kurukshetra war. Many of the Udupi people are caterers even today. 2. Fascinating Stories From Mahabharata Ep IX : Shakuni's revenge against the kuru dynasty 3. Fascinating Stories From Mahabharata: Karna's Last Test 4. 12 Commom characters from Ramayana and Mahabharata 5. Arjuna’s Chariot – the untold story