Babruvahana

This article is about the Mahabharata character. For the Kannada language movie, see Babruvahana_(film).

Arjuna hugs Babruvahana

Babruvahana or Babhruvahana is a character in the Mahabharata, a Hindu epic. He is one of the son of Arjuna, begotten through Chitrangada, the princess of Manipur (present state of northeast india,Manipur or Kangleipak) during the period of his exile at Manipur.

Babruvahana was adopted as the son of his maternal grandfather and reigned at Manipur as his successor. He dwelt there in a palace of great splendour, surrounded with wealth and signs of power. Later he came to know Arjuna was his father, and when he came to see the his father, Arjuna did not recognise him and said he was a wanderer.

When Arjuna went to Manipur with the horse intended for the Aswamedha, there was a quarrel between Arjuna and King Babhruvahana(who is an avatar of Prabhasa) and the latter killed his father with an arrow. Repenting of his deed, he determined to kill himself, but he obtained from his stepmother, the Naga princess Uloopi, a gem which restored Arjuna to life. He returned with his father to Hastinapura. This was on account of a curse by the Vasus, on account of Arjuna's killing Bhishma(who is an incarnation of Prabhasa) during the Mahābhārata war.

Arjuna is killed by his son Babhnu Vahana in battle

Film Adaptation

The story of Babruvahana has been made into films in Telugu in 1942 and 1964 and in Kannada in 1977. The 1964 Telugu film was written and directed by Samudrala Raghavacharya and starred N. T. Rama Rao, S. Varalakshmi and Chalam.

The Kannada language film, Babruvahana was written and directed by Hunsur Krishnamurthy and starred Rajkumar as Arjuna and Babruvahana in a dual role, B. Saroja Devi as Chitrāngadā, Kanchana as Uloopi and Jayamala as Subhadra.

Bibliography

• Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. Modern Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics.
• Dowson's Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology

External Links

• Babhruvahana in Encyclopedia for Epics of Ancient India