A Tale about Shakuni

Though this may not be directly related to Yuganta I was reminded of this and hence am posting it here. My sources are an old Telugu movie (I am not sure which one) and a Telugu Mahabharata.

When Gandhari was born astrologers had predicted that there was widowhood in her horoscope. As an alternative before her wedding with Dhritarashtra she was apparently married to an animal (a goat I believe) which was killed then. One day when the Pandavas and Dhaartarashtras were playing Duryodhana insulted Bhima by taunting him that he was not the son of his father. Bhima retorted by saying that Duryodhana was the son of a widow. Angered he went back to the palace and found out the truth. He imprisoned his grandfather (Gandhari's father) and all her brothers. Every day they used to get one grain of rice per person. Shakuni was the youngest of them all and so the grandfather and his sons decided that they would contribute their grains to feed Shakuni everyday. Ultimately all of them died of starvation except Shakuni. He made a set of dice from the bones (probably vertebrae) of his father. For some reason Duryodhana released him from prison and Shakuni remained at Hastinapura. But Shakuni did not forget the treatment meted out to him and his family and secretly plotted his vengeance. Thus all the time Shakuni was helping Duryodhana against the Pandavas he was in fact plotting the downfall of the Kuru dynasty itself. It was Shakuni who helped Duryodhana win the game of dice that sent the Pandavas into exile. This was the basis for the Kurukshetra war.