“Fabulous Four”

For me, to pinpoint the Fabulous Four, I need to dig deep into Indian mythology. But wait a minute, I am not judging these famous characters by their skills and prowess. The underlying factors to pick up these mighty personalities are more based on their honesty, integrity, truthfulness and kindness.

Hanuman

He is the only character that has never come under any criticism or controversy in the entire Indian history, save for an incident where he refused to accept his “son” as his own. That can be partially justified, considering the strange circumstances in which his so called son was born. Apart from that, he isn’t a human. This can also indicate that animals are more honest than humans.

He has never crossed his lines and always maintained the respect for everyone around him, right from his birth. He also had respect for the Brahmastra that Meghanath had thrown upon him, by not defending it and allowing himself to be bounded by it. He was a true devotee of Ram, which was depicted when Hanuman tore his chest out to reveal Ram and Sita in his heart. This amar (immortal) lord continues to be amar in everybody’s heart in this “Kalyug”.

Karna

Karna was a very brave and dexterous person. He was the guy who had met with lot of injustice in his life. Though an upper caste by birth, he was refused proper education, because of lower-caste of his foster parents. He was not allowed to show his skills in front of Pandavas, for the fear that he would outshine them. He was also forbidden to attempt the Swayamavara of Draupadi.

He is the greatest donor ever known in the history of mankind. Even though when he was warned that Indra would come in disguise and ask for his kawach and kundal (his shield and earrings), thus leaving him defenceless, he still readily parted with his life saviour elements, by using his sword to separate them from his body.

Just as a note, he was killed unfairly by Arjun when he tried to remove his wheel that had sunk in the muddy ground.

Eklavya

Eklavya was also one of the characters who could not become famous as a skilled archer, just because he was refused education by Dronacharya on grounds of his lower caste. To add to that, he was also asked to sacrifice his right hand thumb as a token of guru-dakshina. There is not much mention about Eklavya as his growth was restricted. But still, he will always be remembered for the greatest “Guru-Dakshina” ever, in the history of mankind.

Mahabali

Mahabali, the Lord of Asura (devils), was the greatest and the best king on the patal-loka (underworld). Even though an Asura, he always kept his word. To add to his power, he decided to perform a yajna. To stop the yajna, Lord Vishnu had to come to him, disguised as a dwarf (popularly known as Vamana avatara) on the pretext of begging for something. Before Bali (Mahabali) could promise the beggar alms, he was warned by his wise teacher, Shankaracharya, to refuse to give anything, as he had recognized the true identity of the beggar. But inspite of being aware of all this and also knowing that it could be disastrous for the yajna that had been continuing for a long time, he promised the beggar, 3 steps of land.

Even being an asura, he kept to his word and on the contrary, the gods had not kept their word of sharing the amrita (nectar) equally with the asuras, during the samudra-manthan.

These above characters always stood by their principles and words. Although there were many other great characters like Krishna, Rama, Yuddhishtira, Ravana but they all have been accused of deviating from the moral principles as a safeguard measure to protect themselves or their kin. So we find that the people who are portrayed as “good” also have flaws in their character, and the others, who are equally honest, are simply tagged as evil, on the pretext that they are asuras.