ACK-046: Gandhari

[Update- 13 January 2009, 9:30 PM IST] Anon has scanned and provided the cover pages of this ACK. They are being uploaded here. Prabhat sent these in a mail to me. You can add them to the original comic download. Enjoy. - TPH

(May love prevail over hatred, may ACK-47 score over AK-47)

Character info from Wikipedia:

Gāndhārī (Sanskrit: गांधारी) is a character in the Hindu epic, the Mahābhārata. In the epic, she was an incarnation of Mati, as the daughter of Subala, the king of Gandhara, a region spanning northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan, from which her name is derived. Gandhari's marriage was arranged to Dhritarashtra, the eldest prince of the Kuru kingdom.

Gandhari voluntarily blindfolded herself throughout her married life. Her husband Dhritarashtra was born blind, and on meeting him and realizing this, she decided to deny herself the pleasure of sight that her husband could never relish.

Gandhari bore a hundred sons, (collectively known as the Kauravas), and one daughter Dushala who married Jayadratha. The Kaurava, principally Duryodhana and Dushasana, were the villains of the Mahābhārata, and were all killed in their war against their cousins, the Pandava, at Kurukshetra.

Although Gandhari's sons were portrayed as villains, the Mahābhārata attributes high moral standards to Gandhari. She repeatedly exhorted her sons to follow dharma and make peace with the Pandavas. Gandhari was especially close to Kunti (Mother of Pandavas) who respected her like an elder sister.

Gandhari made a single exception to her blindfolded state, when she removed her blindfold to see Duryodhana rendering his entire body except his loins invulnerable to any foe. This was however to prove fruitless as Bhima smashed Duryodhana's thighs in their decisive encounter on the eighteenth day of the Kurukshetra battle, a move both literally and figuratively below the belt.

Gandhari was also devout; in particular an ardent worshipper of Lord Shiva. Gandhari's sacrifice of her eyesight and her austere life was to grant her great spiritual power. Gandhari's anguish in the loss of her hundred sons resulted in her cursing Krishna in effect ensuring the destruction of the Yadavas. It is also said that through a small gap in the napkin in which her eyes were blindfolded, her gaze fell on Yudhisthira's toe. The toe was charred black due to her wrath and power. Gandhari ended her life with her husband and her sister-in-law Kunti in the Himalayas, where they died in a forest fire.

ACK's description of the character:

Stories of many great women, their achievements and their sufferings, are recounted in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Sita, Kunti and Draupadi are among the better known. These women went through many painful ordeals, but they had one hope to sustain them - they had noble children.The case of Gandhari, the mother of the Kauravas is different. She was a good women who gave birth to wicked sons. All around her there was treachery. Her husband was weak and ambitious, her brother Shakuni, was an arch-villain and her sons were full of violence. Among them, she alone stood for virtue and truth - a single lotus in a marshy swamp.

Author: Gayatri Madan Dutt Illustrator: Dilip Kadam

Download ACK_Gandhari

(33 pages, 1280 px wide, 10.7 MB)

Unfortunately, the copy of the comic I am having (and from which these scans are made) is coverless. Prabhat made several efforts to arrange the cover. Ajay has the comic in bounds. He provided the snap from his digital camera. Ajnaabi worked on the low resolution thumbnail available from official ACK site, but I finally kept the one I had created from the same source (thumbnail). It is attached with the comic download link. In case someone has the proper/better quality cover of this comic please send its scan for the benefit of the all fellow ACK lovers.