STORY

INTRODUCTION TO BHARAT

Duration: 90 minutes, Rated U‎‎ - Action/Animation/Family‎‎ - English‎
Film Ratio: 16:9 widescreen

When Diplomacy Fails, there's only one alternative...

Title: Battle of the Ten Kings, Possibly the historic battle that founded the Bharata nation ...

When asked about the ancient classics battles, most would quickly reply with The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. Although this answer is correct, there is an even more ancient battles that has been forgotten by the bulk globally. That ancient story is called the Dasharajnya or ‘Battle of the 10 Kings’. The historic battle that founded the Bharata nation ...

battle of the 10 kings.. is based on events described in the Rig Veda and confirmed by historians and archaelogists as being a true story. It is the seminal tale of the great battle that established the Bharata nation in the sub-continent which is present day India.

"The Vedic war is a question of values, not race. It is a conflict between spiritual values and materialistic values, which occurs in all societies.

The Story goes as follows:-

The 7th Mandala of the Rig Veda tells us of a great and terrible war called Dasarajna: The Battle of Ten Kings. In that legendary conflict, ten major tribal chiefs (kings) of the ancient world sought to displace and destroy Raja Sudas of the Bharata tribe.

Long before the Ramayana, there lived a descendent of India’s eponymous king, Bharata, named Sudas. King Sudas was the 16th generation descendant of Emperor Bharata – whom India is named after. Sudas was the grandson of the powerful king Divodas Atithigva (who had his empire in the regions of Punjab and was married to Madhavi) and he was the son of King Pijavana.

In the Rig Veda, King Sudas is called "Paijavana" (VII.18.21-25), 'Son of Pijavana'. Pijavana means also (like Yavana), 'one who speeds' or a fast mover. Yavana is hence here, an adaptation of Javana, and a Vedic term referring to any great monarch, or peoples that migrated fast defeating others. Divodas earned fame as a warrior by waging a long war with the powerful non-Arya King Sambara whom he ultimately defeated and killed. According to the 8th book of the Rg Veda, “… King Divodasa destroyed the 99 towns of the Dasa Chief Sambara and killed Sambara and Varci in the country of Udabraja. The Vedic Rsis used to ascribe these heroic deeds to the Vedic God Indra by saying that Indra rent the 99 cities of Sambara for Divodasa and “saved Divodasa with wonderful means of safety”…”. Sudas inherited the kingdom from his grandfather and greatly expanded it. In the process, he alienated all the neighboring kingdoms surrounding him. After years of subjugation, a group of roughly a dozen or “ten” (“dasha”) kings and chieftans (“raja; rajnya”) formed a confederacy to combine their strength and defeat King Sudas once and for all. In a war that would span many years with a number of key battles, Sudas was able to defeat the entire confederacy of kings and emerge victorious. His priests, Vishvamitra and Vasishtha eulogized him for his remarkable victory and those words of praise along with details of the war can be found in the Rg Veda.

Sudas is regarded by the Rigveda as a Bharata king of the Trtsu dynasty. The Puranas elucidate the statements of the Rigveda. … As Visvamitra himself informs us, under his guidance, Sudas won many victories in the east, west and north of his kingdom. … The greatest achievement of Sudas was his thumping victory of a confederacy of ten kings.

The ten kings were supported by numerous individual champions and smaller forces, and were instigated by the great seer Vishwamitra. Many of them were allies of Raja Sudas and traded with the Bharatas and were friendly with them. But that fateful day, they turned against Sudas and his small but strong tribe of Bharatas, surrounded them with forces so superior that Sudas could have no chance of survival.

Their intention was to destroy Sudas and the Bharatas, take them as dasyas (slaves) and divide the Bharata lands and possessions as spoils of war. One day, out of the blue, their great army assembled on the banks of the Parusni river (present day Ravi in the Punjab region) and challenged Raja Sudas.

Vastly outnumbered, outmatched, and outplanned, Sudas should logically have surrendered. But he knew he had done nothing wrong, and being a righteous king, with the support of his people who loved him and respected his leadership, kindness and generosity, he chose to fight.

He was also supported by the spiritual mentorship of his guru, the legendary Vashishta.
And so, upon a stormy day by the banks of the Ravi, the battle was fought.

Legend tells us that in fact, Sudas might well have been Raja Bharat himself, son of Dushyant and Shakuntala, grandson of Vishwamitra.

The Rig Veda tells us that against all odds, Raja Sudas of the Bharatas (hence Bharata-Raja) fought that day against the Ten Kings…and won. The battle was impossible, the victory a miracle. The Rig Veda also tells us that the devas themselves watched from above as the battle progressed, and due to the moral superiority of Raja Sudas, Lord Indra chose to support the Bharatas.

Not only did Sudas and the Bharatas win, they routed the enemy in a massacre that was aided by nature itself, when the river and weather came to their aid. Was it Indra himself or merely a brilliant battle strategy by Raja Sudas? Either way, the Bharatas won the day. And as a result they became the dominant tribe of the Indian sub-continent.

Later, Raja Sudas’s descendants split into the Puru and Kuru lines, and waged another great war for Arya supremacy: the Mahabharata yuddh.

In a way, DASARAJNA (Battle of Ten Kings) was the turning point in the history of the sub-continent.
Because it was by winning that war that King Sudas Bharata established his tribe as the ruling tribe of this part of the world.

And it is in his honour that all people of the sub-continent came to be known in time as Bharatas.

That story has never been before been told in all its glorious detail. Indeed, while the Rig Veda tells us some details of the war and its aftermath, very little is known about why the war began, how it became inevitable, and so on.

It’s a rousing tale filled with intrigues, conspiracies, back-stabbing, fierce erotic encounters, brutal court politics, family conflicts, and race against time in the hours before the battle. All the enemies and allies who will face one another on the battlefield are seen in the first half of the novel, playing their shrewd politics and pretenses in the court of Raja Sudas, pretending to be his allies, his friends, his neighbours, well-wishers, advisers, while secretly plotting and preparing to go to war against him. The reason they do this is because they intend to destroy his kingdom from within first – and if that fails, their armies are already assembled and waiting at the boundary of his kingdom, ready to invade. And as the story progresses and Sudas stands firm to his principles – his dharma – they all desert him, one by one, and go to join the other side, until finally Ten Kings stand against him, outnumbering his force more than ten times.

Leading and instigating them is Anu, the longtime arch-enemy of Sudas and the Bharatas, and Anu’s spiritual adviser, none other than the legendary brahmarishi Vishwamitra (of Ramayana fame). Vishwamitra has an old history of enmity with Sudas’ own adviser, Vashishta, and has an axe to grind by instigating this attack on Sudas and the Bharatas.

DASARAJNA is based on events described in the Rig Veda and confirmed by historians and archaelogists as being a true story. It is the seminal tale of the great battle that established the Bharata nation in the sub-continent which is present day India.