List of 8 Mahabharata Heroes and their Equivalent Avengers

The Mahabharata is one of the finest texts of ancient India. It tells a vast story of life, war and peace, extending up to several generations. It has a huge literary significance, cultural and religious importance, and even modern interpretations and controversies associated with it. For this article, however, I shall not dive into any of these deeper contexts; and focus only on the simpler descriptions of heroes in the story.

On this day, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has gained huge popularity as a series of stories about larger-than-life heroes. Many of us choose to take rightful breaks form our everyday lives to embrace the beautiful fantasies of our inner child through these stories. Also there are some of us who question the credibility of cheering for on-screen heroes. But once again, I shall not dive into any of these deep contexts; and focus only on the regular descriptions of the MCU heroes.

Having said that, now I shall come to the topic of this article. I have observed some interesting equivalence between some of the MCU heroes — the avengers, and the central Mahabharata heroes. I am going to discuss these here. I shall use the word ‘God’ with a capital-G to refer to the supreme Gods of Hindu mythology. I shall use the word ‘god’ with a small-g to refer to Indra and other deities, Hanumaan and Thor.

1.       Lord Krishna : Thor

In the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna is a human incarnation of one of the supreme Gods — Lord Vishnu. In Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu is the protector of the universe. He has lived a human-life on earth as Lord Krishna with a great purpose. Throughout this human-life he has fought alongside humans, to protect the human race from the evil residing within the human race. He has used the Sudarshan Chakra as his primary weapon, which is one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. Though in human form, Lord Krishna is actually the same divine being as Lord Vishnu. He is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. His true universal form (referred to as Vishwaroop in the Mahabharata) is way beyond human-comprehension.

In the MCU, Thor is the god of thunder, an Asgardian protector of the nine realms. He is the owner and primary user of the enchanted hammer Mjolnir, which he has acquired through a choice of selfless sacrifice. Here you have to understand that I am not going to compare true power levels, because Thor is not omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. (No offence please, Thor fans!) But my point is, among the avengers there is a god — Thor — who has cosmic level powers. He wields Mjolnir and Stormbreaker, which are among the most powerful weapons in the universe. Thor is strong enough to decapitate the mad titan Thanos with a single blow of his Stormbreaker; and to survive the full power of a star. He fights battles alongside human heroes to protect all living beings in the universe. Thus, the characterization of Lord Krishna in the story of the Mahabharata and that of Thor in the stories of the MCU are comparable.

2.       Yudhishthir : Captain America

Yudhishthir is the eldest among the five Pandava brothers. His whole life can be defined by his principles of life. He is the prime symbol of truth and honor in the Mahabharata, with his grandfather Bheeshma being the other person with similar principles. In his lifetime Yudhishthir is known to have lied only once, which was actually a cleverly spoken truth but not a lie. As for fighting skills, Yudhishthir masters in spear-fight and spear-throwing.

In the MCU, Steve Rogers / Captain America is not just an army captain, but a symbol of patriotism. His principles of duty and honor are unmatched. For fighting skills, he has superhuman strength and stamina; and he uses his vibranium shield as his primary weapon. But his true power resides in his principles of life, due to which he finds a place among the very few people in the universe worthy of lifting Mjolnir. Incidentally, he is also the eldest in age among the human avengers. So, Yudhishthir in the Mahabharata and Captain America in the MCU are comparable.

3.       Bheem : The Hulk

Bheem is the second Pandava brother. He is a hulking man, whose specialty is brute strength. Though he is not a match for the ape-god Hanumaan; Bheem is probably the strongest known human in the entire Hindu mythology. With his brute strength Bheem can easily defeat giants and monsters, smash rocks, and do all sorts of things doable by brute strength. He is also immune to poison.

Bruce Banner in his Hulk form is the strongest human on earth in the MCU. (I know, he is not really a human when he is the Hulk!) The Hulk is so strong that a fight between Thor and the Hulk becomes a tie if Thor is not using his special thunder powers. From defeating monsters to smashing alien soldiers — the Hulk can do anything that you can imagine doable with brute strength. And also, he is immune to gamma radiation. So, Bheem in the Mahabharata and the Hulk in the MCU are comparable.

4.       Arjun : Iron-Man

Arjun is the third Pandava brother. He is one of the highest skilled warriors not only in the Mahabharata, but also in the entire Hindu mythology. In some sense you may say Arjun is a skilled archer. But an uninitiated reader will not be able to comprehend Hindu mythological archery simply by the word ‘archery’. So let me first describe this mythological art of archery.

In Hindu mythology, there are regular arrows; then there are mystic arrows which can defeat the enemy in all ways you can imagine; there are mystic arrows which can control weather and other natural phenomena; and then there are arrows of the Gods (the Brahmastra, among others), whose descriptions in the mythology match those of modern day nuclear missiles. A warrior does not need to carry these weapons all the time, but can summon them to appear in the warrior’s hand whenever necessary. So, a warrior not only needs to have access to these arrows, but also has to know how to summon each of them.

Arjun masters the skills of using all these arrows. He has even received some of the extremely powerful arrows as gifts from the gods. Most importantly, he owns one of the most powerful bows, the Gandeev, with which he can shoot arrows of all power-levels. This bow is also a gift from a god. Arjun is known to have defeated Indra, the king of the deities. His warrior skills probably makes him more important than even his elder brothers in the Kurukshetra war.

In the MCU, Tony Stark / Iron-Man is a person with a genius-level intellect. Over the years he has acquired great knowledge and expertise in physics and computer science. He has built the AI powered Iron-Man armor (several upgraded versions of it), which is an all-purpose battle suit. The word ‘armor’ usually gives us the sense of a bulletproof armor. But for the Iron-Man armor, being bulletproof is just a rather added advantage. The actual function of the armor is way beyond our regular knowledge. So let me first describe the power of this sophisticated armor.

The older mechanical version of the armor has discrete components, which are programmed to arrange themselves to build the armor within seconds. These components include protective metal plates, various missiles, lasers, thrusters; and most importantly the AI circuitry with a holographic user-interface. Now, the newer nano-technological version has nano-particles confined in a small chest-piece, which are also programmed to arrange themselves to build the armor. But the point is, the use of nano-particles gives a huge advantage of making a lot many types of components. Except for the most essential components like the AI circuitry and protective plates, most of the components need not be present in the armor all the time, but can be created in seconds by rearranging the nano-particles whenever necessary. All computational actions in the armor can be initiated by voice commands; the AI takes care of the rest. This armor essentially bridges the gap between science and magic via nano-technology. And finally, there is a Hulk-buster version of the armor, which is specially design to fight the Hulk.

The genius creator of this armor is also the sole user of it. Iron-Man has perfected his battle skills with this armor. He can fight Thor, the Hulk and Captain America. He has also fought a battle with the mad titan Thanos for a reasonable amount of time, even when Thanos was using his infinity gauntlet with four out of six infinity stones attached. Great knowledge and skills with highly advanced weapons makes Arjun of the Mahabharata and Iron-Man of the MCU comparable.

       

5.       Nakul and Sahdev : Black Widow and Hawkeye

Nakul and Sahdev are the two youngest Pandava brothers. They do not have superhuman strength and sophisticated weapons. But they have exceptional combat skills. Their primary weapons are swords and axes. With these weapons and their combat skills they can easily defeat hordes of enemy soldiers. Also, they have great knowledge about medicines.

Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow and Clint Barton / Hawkeye are like best buddies. They do not have superhuman strength, god-like powers or sophisticated weapons. But their combat skills are unparallel. Black Widow uses guns an several other gears as her weapons of choice. Hawkeye uses custom-made bows and arrows; with explosives and other gears attached to the arrows as necessary. With these weapons and combat skills they can easily fight alien soldiers and killer robots. So, the two youngest Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata and the two best buddies among the avengers are comparable.

Now if you ask me for an individual comparison here, I would say Nakul and Black Widow are comparable. Nakul in the Mahabharata has charming looks; and so does Black Widow among the avengers!

6.       Draupadi : Captain Marvel

I know I am not making a one-to-one comparison in power levels. But still this comparison may look odd. Draupadi, the wife of the Pandava brothers, is not described as a warrior in the Mahabharata. Whereas, Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel in the MCU is equivalent to Thor in power level. The power of the lightspeed engine (actually powered by the space stone) was absorbed in her body. She has god-like strength and the power of photon blasts. She can fly through space and hyperspace really fast. She is so strong that she can fly through huge alien spaceships to turn them into exploding junks, but then she comes out without a scratch. She scouts through planets across the universe to help all known civilizations to fight evil and survive.

So, the comparison between Draupadi and Captain Marvel looks odd at first. But somehow the list of central Mahabharata heroes feels incomplete without Draupadi! And that is when the true role of Draupadi in the Mahabharata comes to our realization.

The true role of Draupadi is there in the battle of life. Her life is probably the toughest one in the Mahabharata. She has stood strong in all adverse situations of life. She has always happily shared the fate of the Pandava brothers. She has stood bravely at the game of dice when the Pandava brothers lost. She has stood by the side of the Pandavas during the exile. She has seen deaths of her five children in the Kurukshetra war, and has beard this without breaking. Thus, in the battle of life, she is probably a greater winner than the Pandava brothers themselves. Her strong determination, willpower, bravery and sacrifices make her one of the strongest characters in all of Hindu mythology. This is the same unbreakable spirit, which is described beautifully in a compliment to Captain Marvel from her best friend : ‘you were the most powerful person I knew, way before you could shoot fire from your fists.’ So, the characterization of Draupadi in the Mahabharata and that of Captain Marvel in the MCU are comparable.

7.       Abhimanyu : Spider-Man

I am going a little off-grid here, from the central heroes of the Mahabharata to a not-so-central one. But I cannot escape noticing this comparison, and that’s why I am including him in this list.

Abhimanyu is the son of Arjun and Subhadra. To take forward the legacy of his father, Abhimanyu has become a skilled warrior in a very young age. He has participated in the Kurukshetra war very soon after finishing his training. He is not an extremely skilled and experienced warrior like the Pandava brothers; but still he has joined the war to make whatever contribution he is able to make. He has chosen to ignore his own fate to join the ultimate battle of saving the humanity. Finally, at the face of a cruel death he has happily stood strong.

In the MCU, Peter Parker / Spider-Man has started his journey as a local hero. His motivation is his uncle Ben’s quote : ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ (not shown in the MCU movies; but we all know it, right?) Later he has found Iron-Man as his mentor. He has learnt a lot along the way, and he keeps learning from new experiences. He already has extreme combat skills, unparallel reflexes and his very special spider-sense. And then, he has also received the AI powered Spider-Man and Iron-Spider suits as gifts from Iron-Man. These suits have greatly enhanced his overall power-level and fighting abilities. He may not have god-like powers or extreme weapons; but with his limited abilities and experiences he is willing to come out of his neighborhood, and fight larger battles to save the universe. This willingness brings him one of the greatest rewards of his life as a compliment from Iron-Man himself : ‘You are an avenger now.’ In the long run Spider-Man will have the responsibility to carry forward the legacy of Iron-Man.  Such selfless willpower to fight the ultimate battles even with limited abilities and experiences makes Abhimanyu of the Mahabharata and Spider-Man of the MCU comparable.

Do you agree with my list? Do you have your own thoughts about the different characters? Let me know in the comments below. Also, click here to read my alternate storyline of Avengers Endgame. 

P.S.  Arjun : Hawkeye? Draupadi : Black Widow?

Some people compare Arjun to Hawkeye, because both are archers. Some compare Draupadi to Black Widow, because both are female characters. I can see their point. But personally, I have focused mainly on the relative impact of the characters. I feel that the true weight of Arjun in the Mahabharata can be represented by Iron-Man, but not by Hawkeye. The same goes for Draupadi, Captain Marvel and Black Widow.