Virāṭa
Sign in to saveVirata (, IAST virāṭa) was the King of Matsya, a prominent figure in the Indian epic Mahabharata, and the titular character of the epic's fourth book, Virata Parva, which recounts the Pandavas’ year of ajnatavasa—incognito exile—in his kingdom. He is best known for unknowingly sheltering the Pandavas during this period, with each of them assuming disguised roles in his court. Virata was married to Queen Sudeshna and was the father of Prince Uttara and Princess Uttarā, who married Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna.
Key facts
- Character.info hdr
- Information
- Character.image
- Virata's Palace.jpg
- Character.alt
- Virata
- Character.caption
- A lithograph of Virata in his court by Ravi Varma Press, 1920
- Character.spouse
- Sudeshna (chief queen)
- Character.family
- 10 brothers including
- Character.children
- Shankha, Uttara (sons) and Uttarā (daughter)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Draupadi humiliated RRV crop.jpg
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~8 min read
Article
7 sectionsContents
- Literary background
- Biography
- Family and early life
- The year of incognito
- Kurukshetra War and death
- See also
- References
Virata (, IAST virāṭa) was the King of Matsya, a prominent figure in the Indian epic Mahabharata, and the titular character of the epic's fourth book, Virata Parva, which recounts the Pandavas’ year of ajnatavasa—incognito exile—in his kingdom. He is best known for unknowingly sheltering the Pandavas during this period, with each of them assuming disguised roles in his court. Virata was married to Queen Sudeshna and was the father of Prince Uttara and Princess Uttarā, who married Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna.
== Literary background == The Mahabharata, one of the Sanskrit epics from the Indian subcontinent, other being the Ramayana. It mainly narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succession between two groups of princely cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. The work is written in Classical Sanskrit and is a composite work of revisions, editing and interpolations over many centuries. The oldest parts in the surviving version of the text may date to near 400 BCE.