The story of the bickering brothers

With D K Shivakumar taking jibes at Siddaramaiah, and the BJP and Congress in Karnataka bickering as usual, I was thinking of a story from the Mahabharata about unity and dissension.

Once, two demons called Sunda and Upasunda were terrorising the world. But we need a little background on them. Sunda and Upasunda were brothers and the best of friends. They walked together, ate together, enjoyed the same kind of music...you get the gist. They were inseparable. They once decided to perform penance to become truly invincible. They sat together in meditation in a faraway forest and refused to let any pleasures of the world distract them. The gods sent thundering rain and many other inconveniences to break their penance, but they continued to meditate on Lord Brahma with an intensity and focus that would make the parents of students writing the CET proud today.

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At long last, Brahma appeared, announced that he was pleased with them, and allowed them to ask for a boon. In the old boring way of the demons, they declared, “We never want to die. Make us immortal.” But if you know how these stories go, you know that Brahma never grants anyone immortality. “I am afraid no one gets to live forever,” Brahma answered. “Anything else you would like?” The brothers were in a conundrum. What they really wanted was to be immortal. But maybe there was a way to get that by asking for something else. They told Brahma, “In that case, no one should be able to kill either of us except the other.” Brahma said, “So be it”, and they were pleased. After all, the two never fought each other or even disagreed with each other. So, they would not kill each other, and now no one else could, either. So, Brahma fooled, immortality achieved!

Understandably, they went about causing havoc in the three worlds. They attacked the heavens and banished the gods from their own divine city, Amaravati. They punished all the good people of the earth, disrupted all acts of charity. Now, sages and other religious people on earth offer sacrifices to the gods, so the brothers sought out all these people, even the sages in lonely caves and mountaintops, and attacked them. Ultimately, even the gods were helpless, and they all went to Brahma to complain.

Brahma thought carefully about how to make Sunda and Upasunda fight each other, and summoned Vishwakarma, the divine architect. Then he instructed Vishwakarma to create a divine damsel by drawing from every beautiful thing in the universe. This luminous beauty was named Tilottama. Assigned the task of causing a fight between the two brothers, Tilottama gave a glimpse of what she could do as she circled the gods in prayer. She was so enchanting that they couldn’t help craning their necks to follow her as she walked by.

Then she descended to the earth and sauntered in the forest where the two brothers were relaxing. As soon as they saw her, they both grasped her hand, and began to fight about who should marry her. One would think it would be easy enough to ask her, but fortunately for us and the story, it seems none of the old demons ever considered this option. Sunda claimed that it was his right as the elder brother; Upasunda disagreed vehemently. The vehemence soon turned into a fight, and both lay dead by the other’s hand.

Back in our world, the Congress decidedly won the Karnataka elections, but who even needs political rivals to send a Tilottama when you have two embittered candidates and the allure of the CM’s chair?