A yatra is simply a journey from one location to another. Even the journey of life can be represented as a yatra. From earlier times, we have many travel narratives describing yatras made by kings, scholars etc. for cultural exchange, friendship, trade, tributes and the like. When we look into the life of Mahatmas like Adi Shankaracharya, Swami Vivekananda and Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, we can see their glorious yatras spreading love, values and knowledge in every step they take. Their yatras make a lot of change in each person’s life, inspiring one to look inwards and find themselves, and to discover the purpose of life.
In the Sabha Parva, Maharshi Narada visits Yudhishthira. In the ensuing conversation, Maharshi praises their Sabha that was built by Mayasura, and describes in detail the various courts of the Devas, in the higher worlds. The court of Indra, Yama etc. among several others, and even the supreme court of Brahma is described. Maharshi narrates the glorious presence of King Harishchandra at the court of Indra. His virtuous karma on Earth that qualified him to attain a seat there is also extolled here. We find that King Yudhishthira is slightly disappointed that his own father, Pandu, was in a lower world. Maharhsi Narada then reveals that he had come here with a message from Pandu himself, of his wish to attain a seat at the court of Indra. Maharshi tells Yudhishthira that he has to conduct a Rajasuya Yajna for this.
Understanding that conducting Rajasuya is a gigantic task, Yudhishthira seeks the counsel of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. However, Bhagavan envisages a bigger and greater scheme. In addition to attaining higher worlds and the position of Samrat in Bharata, Krishna tells him that Rajasuya Yajna should serve a higher purpose. To re-establish dharma in the land by uprooting adharmic kings and replacing them with dharmic progenies if available.
Yudhishthira gladly agrees to this proposition and the preparations for Rajasuya Yajna starts. From Jarasandha to Sisupala, many adharmic kings are either killed or subdued as part of this yajna. On a subtle aspect, possibly even the destruction of adharmic Duryodana started from the Rajasuya mandapa.
Digvijaya Yatra is a major component of this yajna. Before Yudhishthira conducts this Yajna, his younger brothers, the four pandavas set off in four directions, from Indraprastha, to conquer all kings they encounter. In this manner, they achieved suzerainty over the entire reachable lands.
Arjuna’s digvijaya yatra was to the North of Khandavaprastha (It lay to the west of Yamuna river, in modern-day Delhi territory.). He travelled to places like Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, South central Asia, North East Pakistan and Southern Tibet. Bhima headed in the eastern direction. First he went to the ally city of Panchala (city located at the Ganga, Yamuna plain surrounding Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh). Then he defeated Gandhakis and Videhas (Gandaki is a side stream of river Ganga and Videha is the region to the Northeast of Magadha) and some parts of Nepal. Then he travelled to places like Bangladesh, Bihar, Bengal. Then he journeyed through the Ganga basin, traced Bhramaputra (Lauhitya) and reached Arunachal Pradesh. Sahadeva’s Digvijaya Yatra was in the southern direction, with a large army. He first conquered the entire island of Shurasenas, the region around Mathura and then defeated Virata, King of Matsya, which is today’s Rajasthan. Then he covered almost every place in India like Rajasthan, Madhya pradesh, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bengal and from Bengal he sent messengers to Srilanka. Nakula headed towards the western side, taking a large army with him. He first marched to the famous and beautiful Rohitaka, a mountainous country and the capital of Bahudhanyaka (Haryana). He also went to places like Punjab, Pakistan, Rajasthan and Gujarat. At last the four pandavas returned to Indraprastha with all the tributes, wealth, treasures etc, and also uprooted adharmic kings to establish dharma.
The establishment of dharma in the entire kingdom is the primary purpose of this Digvijaya Yatra. Having achieved this, Yudhishthira is crowned the Chakravarti of Bharata.
In Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna says,
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् ।
धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय संभवामि युगे युगे ।।
And Bhagavan has innumerable ways for the same.
What could have ended up as a mega ritual for attainment of swarga and the position of samrat was converted to an opportunity to re-establish dharma in the land!
Author Profile:
Shri Amritesh A.R is currently pursuing PhD in Sustainable development at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus on “Socio-Cultural and Environmental Aspects of Management of Forest”. From 2016, he is also working as Coordinator of Youth Empowerment program AYUDH (Amrita Yuva Dharma Dhara), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus and mentoring students at the university. After completing his post graduation in MBA he worked as a program coordinator at Corporate and Industrial Relations, and has over 9 years experience in research and industry. He has a strong background in Indian culture and ecology. His research mainly focuses on protected areas such as sacred groves and different varieties of forest. He has coordinated many internships, workshops, leadership camps and conferences in the university. In 2017, he was awarded with UNESCO Sahapedia Fellowship for his extensive research on the topic “Special Features, Deities and Rituals associated with Sacred Groves”. He has authored several technical and non technical research papers in reputed conferences. He was the coordinator of Amrita Helpline during Kerala floods in 2018 and 2019 and also published a paper on topic “Dynamic and Time Critical Emergency Management for Level Three Disaster: A Case Study Analysis Of Kerala Floods 2018” in the 21st International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking, Kolkata.
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