What Is The Story Behind Ashwatthama & 'Kalki 2898 AD'?

The character introduction video of 'Ashwatthama' from 'Kalki 2898 AD' has been revealed recently and it generated a huge response. We see a kid asking him about his whereabouts in the video. This generated a lot of curiosity and it looks like director Nag Ashwin has linked the mythological character to his story. Amitabh Bachchan is playing this role and his look got a positive response as well.

Going into the story of Ashwatthama, he belongs to the Mahabharata time period. He is one of the seven people who don't have death according to our mythology. The list includes Ashwatthama, Bali Chakravarthy, Vyasa Maharshi, Hanuman, Vibhishan, Kripacharyudu and Parasuram. In the movie's intro video, he said he had been waiting for the tenth avatar of Vishnu since Dwaparayuga. He claims that he is the son of Dronacharya.

Dronacharya is the teacher of Pandavas and Kouravas. His wife is Krupi and Ashwatthama is their son. Ashwatthama is born with a holy stone on his forehead as lord Shiva gifts it to Dronacharya in that form. Due to that stone, Ashwatthama is unaffected by hunger, thirst and other human needs to survive. He is equally skilled as Arjuna in archery. He had been on the side of Kouravas since the beginning. Dronacharya is made to fight on the side of Kouravas at the time of Kurukshetra battle. Pandavas find it tough to kill their teacher as he is a great warrior. Krishna devises a plan to kill Dronacharya and asks Dharmaraja who never lied in his life to say that Ashwatthama is killed. Though Dharamaraja doesn't agree to it at first, he follows Krishna's suggestion and says 'Ashwatthama Hataha' loudly and later whispers 'Kunjaraha'. This means that 'Ashwatthama is dead but it is an elephant'. Dronacharya assumes that his son died and leaves all his weapons. Using it, they kill Dronacharya and later end Dhuryodhana, Karna and other Kouravas to win the battle.

Unable to withstand the death of his father and his Kourava friends, Ashwathama gets very angry and gives his word to Dhuryodhana that he will kill Pandavas. He kills the five 'Upapandavas' who are born to Draupadi. After knowing this, the Pandavas and Krishna start searching for him. They don't kill him as he is their teacher's son. Knowing Ashwatthama, Sri Krishna follows him to Vyasa Ashram.

Looking at Krishna with Pandavas, Ashwatthama is filled with rage and he loses his senses and attacks them with the Brahma Sironamaka Astra that his father gave. He uses that weapon and says, “Apandaveeyam Avugaka” which is meant to destroy all the Pandavas. Krishna orders Arjuna to use the same weapon he acquired. He says “Pandavulaku Kshemam Cherugaaka”. If these two weapons collide, the earth gets destroyed. Knowing this Vyasa Maharshi and Narada ask Arjuna to take back the weapon and he agrees. Then, they ask Ashwatthama to take back the weapon and claim that Pandavas will spare his life.

Ashwatthama deceivingly takes back the weapon but immediately says that all the pregnancies of the Pandava clan should be eliminated. This leads to all their wives losing their pregnancies. Sri Krishna gets highly angry due to this and curses him saying that Ashwatthama will drop blood all the time and give a bad odor along with having burning skin all the time while taking the stone out of his head. How such a character that becomes a lesson to everyone ends up helping Bhairava played by Prabhas in 'Kalki 2898 AD' forms the rest of the story.