Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Week 5 Reading Diary: PDE Mahabharata

For this week's reading, I chose to read the PDE Mahabharata. Some of my favorite moments are listed below.

Since my story book is centered around Indra it was nice to see a reference to him in the story of Vyasa and Ganesha. Here Indra is sent to bribe Uparichara, king of Chedi, with a celestial car because the other gods thought he was trying to challenge them for power. A story of the conversation between the other gods and Indra about trying to get him to give up his car could be fun. 

Another reference to Indra is made in King Shantanu and Ganga, about his eight attendants (Vasus).  These attendants angered Vashishtha, who condemned them to be born as mortals. I think it would be fun to have Indra be angry about losing his Vasus and having to pick up the slack while they are gone. 

One of the craziest stories that I came across was Pandu and His Wives. This story had a brahmin who was killed by Pandu while having intercourse with his wife in the form of a couple of deer. The brahmin cursed Pandu, much like Dashartha, to never be able to have children because he would die as soon as he was sexually aroused.  Really strange story.

I really liked the story of Bhima and the Nagas. After being poisoned by his evil cousin Duryodhana, Bhima is saved by the counteraction of the nagas poison and gains the strength of a giant from the king of the nagas, Vasuki. 


I absolutely loved the story of how Indra stepped up to defend his son, Arjuna, in the Arrival of Karna. There was great imagery in this story when it said the clouds thickened and thunder and lightning were crashing down behind Arjuna and meanwhile Surya, the sun god, was backing his son, Karna by shining a beam of light off of his golden armor. It must have been a magnificent stand off between these two sides and it would have been filled with tension. I really wish there was a picture for this scene.




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