We all have taken Shakuni as the main villain of Mahabharat. But is Shakuni a villain or is he a victim of circumstances?
Shakuni, also lesser-known as Saubala, was the prince of the Gandhara Kingdom. The brother of Gandhari (wife of the blind King, Dhritarashtra), Shakuni is the maternal uncle of Duryodhana (the eldest son of Dhritarashtra and the leader of the Kauravas), and also the central negative character in the Mahabharata. He was greatly devoted to Lord Shiva.
But who was Shakuni in reality? Did he have a better side to him? Was it merely his karma and that of the Kuru Dynasty that scripted his role to spearhead the Kaurava clan to their steep decline and ultimate decay?
According to legend, Gandhari was a Manglik. According to Hindu Astrology, a Manglik is a person considered inauspicious for marriages. It is believed that the marriage between a Manglik and a non-Manglik can give rise to disasters, failure of the marriage or even death of one partner. A Manglik marrying another Manglik, however, would cancel out the adversity arising out of that marriage.
It is believed that the negative consequences of a single Manglik marriage can be resolved by conducting a ceremony called "Kumbh vivaah", that is, getting the Manglik "married" to a banana tree, a peepal (sacred fig) tree, a silver or gold idol of Lord Vishnu or, rarely, to a sacrificial animal.
Gandhari hence was first married off to a goat, before being married to Dhritarashtra, the blind prince of Hastinapur. Her family supposed that it would be safe to marry her off to Dhritarashtra, once they sacrificed the goat after getting them married.
Dhritarashtra got to know about this much after their marriage and was enraged, as her secret first marriage technically made him her second husband. As a punishment, he decided to put Gandhari's family in prison, including King Subala. He intended to gradually starve them to death and so, each of them was given only a fistful of rice to eat every day. Predicting that they would not live long on this diet, Gandhari's father asked his youngest son, Shakuni, to consume all the food given to them, so that at least he would survive to avenge their death. To make sure that he would forever remember to take revenge, his father twisted his leg. This twisted leg gave him the permanent limp that typically characterizes Shakuni.
Before his last few moments, Subala requested Dhritarashtra to set Shakuni free and also to take care of him, promising him that his son, in turn, would always take care of and protect Dhritarashtra's sons. Dhritarashtra had a hundred sons and one daughter by that time. He took pity on his father-in-law and agreed to fulfil his request.
For certain, Shakuni survived and vowed to vent nemesis on the Kuru dynasty as a whole. It is said that he used his father's thigh bones and backbones to create the dice, using which he was able to defeat the Pandavas in the 'Game of Dice'. This set of dice has his father's soul residing within them. They would help him win all games of dice he ever played during his lifetime.
