Subhadra
Encyclopedia
Image:Jagannath, Baladev and Subadra in Radhadesh.jpg|thumb|right|250px|alt=|Subhadra, flanked by her brothers Balarama
Balarama
Balarama , also known as Baladeva, Balabhadra and Halayudha, is the elder brother of the divine being, Krishna in Hinduism. Within Vaishnavism Hindu traditions Balarama is worshipped as an Avatar of Vishnu, and he is also listed as such in the Bhagavata Purana...
(far left) and Jagannatha (Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
). Deities of the Radhadesh temple in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. / Subhadra
Subhadra
Image:Jagannath, Baladev and Subadra in Radhadesh.jpg|thumb|right|250px|alt=|Subhadra, flanked by her brothers Balarama and Jagannatha . Deities of the Radhadesh temple in Belgium...
is in middle, Jagannatha is black; third is Baladeva (Click! on image).
rect 407 83 595 387 Jagannatha
rect 253 128 398 389 Subhadra
Subhadra
Image:Jagannath, Baladev and Subadra in Radhadesh.jpg|thumb|right|250px|alt=|Subhadra, flanked by her brothers Balarama and Jagannatha . Deities of the Radhadesh temple in Belgium...
rect 70 59 247 391 Baladeva
Subhadrā (; ) is an important character in the Mahābhārata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
. She is the half-sister of Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
, wife of Arjuna
Arjuna
Arjuna in Indian mythology is the greatest warrior on earth and is one of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Arjuna, whose name means 'bright', 'shining', 'white' or 'silver' Arjuna (Devanagari: अर्जुन, Thai: อรชุน, Orachun, Tamil: Arjunan, Indonesian and Javanese: Harjuna,...
, and mother of Abhimanyu
Abhimanyu
Abhimanyu is a tragic hero in the Hindu epic, the Mahābhārata. He is the son of Arjuna and Subhadra, who is the half-sister of Lord Krishna...
. She was the incarnation of Bhuvaneshvari or Shakti
Shakti
Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes...
Biography
Subhadra is the only daughter of VasudevaVasudeva
In Hindu itihasa , Vasudeva is the father of Krishna, the son of Shoorsen, of the Yadu and Vrishni dynasties. His sister Kunti was married to Pandu. He was a partial incarnation of Rishi Kashyap....
, born to him by his wife Rohini
Rohini Devi
In Hinduism, Rohini Devi is a consort of Vasudeva. She is the mother of Balarama and Subhadra, and played a prominent role in the nurture of Krishna. She was a partial incarnation of Kadru, the mother of the snakes.-Vasudeva's imprisonment:...
. She is born after Krishna rescues their father, Vasudeva, from prison and is thus much younger than both her brothers. Subhadra therefore grows up in comfort as the princess, and escapes the travails that haunted her family before her birth.
Arjuna, the Pandava, once spends one year in exile for breaking a vow. He spends the last portion of this exile in Dwaraka, at the residence of his cousins Krishna, Balaram and Subhadra. They are his cousins because their father, Vasudeva, was the brother of Arjuna's mother Kunti. During his sojourn at Dwaraka, a romance ensues between Arjuna and Subhadra. This matter was abetted by Krishna, who had always been particularly attached to Arjuna, and wished nothing but the best for his sister Subhadra.
As the period of Arjuna's exile draws to a close, and his departure homeward becomes imminent, Arjuna proposes marriage to his cousin, and she acquiesces. Knowing that the entire family would view with disfavour the prospect of Subhadra becoming the fourth wife of her much-married cousin Arjuna, Krishna facilitates the elopement of the couple and their departure for Indraprastha. He gives the couple a crucial piece of advice related to their elopement: it was Subhadra, and not Arjuna, who drove the chariot away from Dwaraka and towards Indraprastha. Krishna later uses this fact to persuade his family that Subhadra had not been abducted; on the contrary, it was she who had kidnapped Arjuna!
Abhimanyu
Abhimanyu is a tragic hero in the Hindu epic, the Mahābhārata. He is the son of Arjuna and Subhadra, who is the half-sister of Lord Krishna...
. Abhimanyu profited from receiving Krishna's tutelage and gain a suitable education, that would prepare him for the struggles and responsibilities that he, Abhimanyu, is expected to bear in later life.
At the end of the period of exile, Arjuna sends for his wife and son. Abhimanyu is wed to Uttara
Uttara (Mahabharata)
In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Uttarā or Anglicized as Uttara was the daughter of King Virata, at whose court the Pandavas spent a year in concealment during their exile...
, daughter of king Virata. To Subhadra's great grief, the young Abhimanyu is killed during the Kurukshetra war
Kurukshetra war
According to the Indian epic poem Mahābhārata, a dynastic succession struggle between two groups of cousins of an Indo-Aryan kingdom called Kuru, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapura resulted in the Kurukshetra War in which a number of ancient kingdoms participated as allies of...
which ensues soon afterwards. Uttara is pregnant at that time and is later delivered of a son, who is named Parikshit.
Parikshit is destined to become the sole surviving dynast of the entire Kuru dynasty, Pandavas and Kauravas combined. When he comes of age, the Pandavas (being his grandfather Arjuna and four grand-uncles) appoint him king of their realm and retire to the Himalayas. Subhadra remains behind to guide and mentor her grandson.
Devotions
Subhadra is one of the three deities worshipped at the Jagannath templeJagannath Temple (Puri)
The Jagannath Temple in Puri is a famous Hindu temple dedicated to Jagannath and located in the coastal town of Puri in the state of Orissa, India. The name Jagannath is a combination of the Sanskrit words Jagat and Nath...
at Puri
Puri
Puri is district headquarter, a city situated about south of state capital Bhubaneswar, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal in the Indian state of Orissa. It is also known as Jagannath Puri after the Jagannath Temple . It is a holy city of the Hindus as a part of the Char Dham pilgrimages...
, along with her brothers Krishna (as Jagannatha) and Balarama (or Balabhadra). One of the chariots in the annual Ratha Yatra is dedicated to her.
See also
- DraupadiDraupadiIn the epic Mahābhārata, Draupadi, also known as ' is the "emerged" daughter of King Drupada of Panchāla and the wife of the five Pandavas. When Yudhisthira becomes the king of Hastinapura at the end of the war, Draupadi becomes the queen of Indraprastha...
- ChitrangadaChitrangadaChitrāngada , was the elder son of Shantanu and Satyavati. Since his elder half brother Bhishma took a vow of not ascending the throne of Hastinapura, he became the king after Shantanu and was very successful. Unfortunately, his success angered a Gandharva king of the same name...
- Uloopi