Ath Shri Mahabharat Katha

This is what many of us were used to listen to for 94 Sundays Ath-Shri-Mahabharat-Katha. This is one of the great epics. It has everything in it. Moral values, Romance, Comedy, Tragedy, War, Love, Hate, You name it and its there....... But the best thing I like is the trivia, the turns and twists, links of different stories/reasons for one event... Here is a list of facts/trivia that I know of (from conversations, reading, watching TV, listening to harikatha etc etc).

• Yudhisthira's chariot used to float an inch above ground and when he lies (half lie) about Ashwatthama's death it falls on ground and never floats.
• Sahadeva was a great astrologer and was supposed to have known the events of the Mahabharata war aforehand but was cursed that if he disclosed the knowledge, his head would split in pieces.
• Ganga gave birth to eight gods, the Vasus, who are being punished with a human incarnation for having stolen Vasishtha's cow. By drowning the babies, Ganga returns them to heaven.
• Vyasa (one who recited Mahabharata and written by Ganesh) is son of Satyavati and rishi Parasara. Vyasa was conceived by Satyavati when she had ferried Parasara across the river
• Drona and king Drupada were been friends, but Drupada had betrayed Drona. To take revenge Drona wants asks his students to capture King Drupada as guru dakshina. Drupada is captured and brought back as a prisoner to Drona. Drona keeps half of Drupada's kingdom and returns half to Drupada.
• Draupadi in her previous lifetime prayed to Lord Shiva to grant her a husband with five desired qualities. Lord Shiva tells her that it is very difficult to get a husband with all five qualities. Then Lord Shiva grants her wish saying that she would get the same in her next birth.
• The Gandiva bow was the gift of the fire god Agni to Arjuna as a reward for having trapped the birds and animals in the forest so that fire could burn the forest and Agni could consume the fat of all the animals.
• Jayadratha's father had given him a boon who ever shall lay his head to ground will be killed instantly so when Arjun struck his head off and made it land on his fathers lap (Krishna helps by using his Sudarshan chakra) who is meditating somewhere and his father is killed.
• Dhritarashtra is so stricken by grief that he wants to kill Bhima. Krishna substitutes a metal statue for Bhima, and Dhritarashtra crushes the statue, thinking it is Bhima.
• Karna tels his guru Parasuram that he is not a Kshtriya and gets the education. Once Parasurama was taking a nap with his head on Karna's a bug bites Karna and starts sucking his blood. Karna to avoid any disturbance to his Guru swallows that pain. When Parasuram come to know about this he realises Karna is Kshtriya. For lying Parasuram cursed Karna for having deceived him, thus causing him to forget the mantra for the Brahmastra at the crucial moment.
• Uparichara is the ruler of the kingdom of Chedi. One day, far from home, he dreams about his wife and his semen spurts out. Uparichara asks a hawk to carry his semen back to his wife, but the semen instead falls into the river where it is swallowed by a fish. Later, a fisherman catches a fish with a baby girl inside. He raises the child as his own daughter and names her Satyavati.
  
• Gandhari was pregnant for two years. After two years, Gandhari gives birth to a hard ball of flesh. Vyasa cuts the ball of flesh into one hundred pieces that are sons, plus one piece that is a daughter. He seals the pieces of flesh in separate jars for two more years. Another story says that Gandhari was jealous of Pandu having five kids so she sqeezed her womb so hard that one embryo broke into hundred. Whatever it is this is a very goos reference of testtube babies!!
• Yuyutsu is a son of Dhritarashtra and a maidservant, born on the same day as Duryodhana.
• Kauravas's raid the cattle of king Virata. During the battle with Kauravas to rescue the cattle Arjuna (disguised as Brihannala) fights on behalf of Uttara Kumar. Arjuna makes the entire kaurava army sleep (Bhishma has no effect). Uttara Kumara takes pieces of anga vasthra from each great warrior on the field. Later he presents those cloths to his sister to make dress for her dolls.
• Shiva told Drupada that his wife was carrying a son, yet his wife gave birth to a daughter, named Sikhandini. But because Drupada was expecting a son, he treated his daughter Sikhandini as if she were a boy. He even arranged a marriage for Sikhandini, but the bride of Sikhandini was appalled to find out Sikhandini was a woman, not a man. SIkhandini then went off into the forest, where she met a yaksha named Sthuna. Sikhandini asked the yaksha to make her into a man. The yaksha agreed to trade genders with Sikhandini so Sikhandini could become male. Sex change was mentioned during Mahabharatha...
  
  

(This is work in progress... there will be lot more added to this list)