In this episode we will follow the life journey of Shakuni who played a pivotal role in shaping the events that led to the war in the Indian Mythology of Mahabharat. In this episode, you will know all about the events from his youth that led Shakuni to play such a pivotal role in starting the great War between the Princes of Hastinapur. This story is set in the ancient kingdom of Hastinapur led by the Kuru family which was said to be located in northern India, encompassing present day Delhi and Haryana. It follows the story of Prince Shakuni who suffers such a harsh punishment in his youth that he devotes the rest of his life to bringing down the family that caused his suffering. Shakuni does so by instigating a war of succession among the princes of the kingdom of Kuru that results in the eventual annihilation of almost all members of that royal family- this war and the legends surrounding it are chronicled in the epic of Mahabharat.

As always, all stories for this episode will be based on research done over a period of years from various written and folk sources. Minor variations exist between texts and no one author has sole accepted canonship of these religious scripts- I’m simply using the text I am most familiar with.