Reading Diary B Week 13: The Battle

For part B of week 13 I continue with the reading of Buck's Mahabharata. This part of the diary will cover from page 247 to page 305. This week picked up with the looming battle . Vyasa goes to Hastinapura to warn Dhritarashtra of the preparations being taken. We then see Dhritarashtra admit to Vyasa that he has now ability to control his sons and they will do as they please even if he disagrees with them. Sanjay, who had been bestowed with great vision in order to see the entire battle, narrates the entire battle to Dhritarashtra. Duryodhana has a much larger army than that of Yudhishthira. The major event that happens next is when Bhishma is struck with so many arrows he falls from his chariot. The battle immediately comes to a halt as flowers begin to fall from heaven. Bhishma has the ability to choose the exact moment of his death and decides to wait until the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the year. Krishna places Bhishma into a peaceful sleep so that he feels no pain. Duryodhana promotes Drona to take Bhishma's place and orders him to capture Yudhishthira alive. Arjuna's young friend Uttara asthenia trapped behind enemy lines and killed by the Kauravas. Arjuna in return slaughters Jayadartha and causes Jayadartha's fathers head to explode due to his very own curse. Dona kills Drupada during battle but then finds out his very own son has been killed. Although it is not actually his son that his dead, he believes it is and falls into despair leading to his very own death. Karna and Arjuna then battle each other. Arjuna is able to kill Karna who is attempting to kill all of the Pandavas. The lone survivors on the side of Duryodhana go to find him hiding in a lake. However, the Pandavas hear of this and go to the lake forcing all of the survivors to hide while they confront Duryodhana.

Arjuna and Karna

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary A Week 13: Yudhisthira's conflict

This week I chose to continue reading Buck's Mahabharata. We picked up in week 13 with pages 191 to 246. The beginning of the section is the story of the Pandavas at the lake. Yudhishthira is sending his brothers one after another to retrieve water from the nearby lake. However, none of them return. After a while he himself goes to look for the rest of his Pandava brothers. When Yudhishthira arrives at the lake he finds the bodies of all of his brothers laying by the lake. Eventually, Yudhishthira discovers that this is a test from his divine father, Dharma. He must answer questions before he is allowed to drink any water. Yama the Dharman King, then revives all of the bodies of the Pandava brothers. Next the Pandavas are deciding where to spend the thirteenth year of exile and they decide to do so in the court of King Virata in the Matsya kingdom. All of the Pandavas take on certain roles within the kingdom in order to disguise themselves. We then meet Kichaka, one of Virata's generals, who has a desire for Draupadi. This causes quite the commotion when he assaults Draupadi. However, she gets even with him when she has Bhima crush Kichaka into a ball of flesh. Sanjay then comes to visit the Pandavas by way of Dhritarashtra. It is an attempt to settle the issues between the Pandavas and Duryodhana.

Kichaka and Draupadi

Source: Wikipedia

Week 12 Reading Diary B:

In part B of the week 12 reading we pick up with Arjuna and Urbashi. Urvashi is trying to woo Arjuna, however, he does not fall for her tap and she forces him to live for a year as a eunuch. Indra along with Chitraratha teach Arjuna music and dancing along with the use of divine weapons. Next we return to Yudhisthira and the Pandavas. Yudhisthira has a dream where the Pandavas are ased to leave the forest soon because they are scaring all the deer away. We then learn the story of Mankanaka and Shiva having to end his dancing to save the world. We then learn of Rishyashringa who was the son of Vibhandaka and the deer who had drank the sperm of Vibhandaka. Rishyashringa was growing antlers from his head. The Pandavas, meanwhile, left the forest and went on a journey to Mount Kailasa. However, they were attacked by the mountain when Yudhisthira disrupted the silence. Later on in the same place we see the Gandharvas attack. Duryodhana has to be reduced by Bhima and Arjuna. He is so embarrassed by this that he resolves to die until Kali encourages him to live. While in the woods the Pandavas are visited by Krishna and Vyasa. They tell them the love story of Savitri to please Draupadi.

Savitri 

Source: Wikipedia

Week 12 Reading Diary A: Gambling & The Fallout

In the reading diary of part A for week 12 we are reading pages 93 through 138. It picks up rather quickly with the game of dice set to take place. They begin the match with Yudhisthira representing the Pandavas and Shakuni representing Duryodhana. Shakuni is now to be a skilled dice thrower. They begin to bet many things that you would imagine such as gold and other valuables. However, when he starts losing Yudhisthira gambles away all of his brothers, himself, and eventually Draupadi. Draped is set to work in the kitchen. Then she is summoned to Assembly Hall with Dushashana who strips her dress off, however, thanks to Krishna overtime a dress is removed another one appears. Dhritarashtra intervenes freeing everyone and restoring them of their riches. Then after the final throw of the dice, the Pandavas and Draupadi agree to go into exile. Vyasa then reappears in the forest to tell Yudhisthira the story of King Nala, the king of the Nidasha people. Nala was chosen by Damayanti, as they were madly in love with each other, to be her husband. The evil spirit Kali was also in love with her and vowed to ruin their happiness. Kali eventually found a wy to take everything from Nala and eventually forced him to try and get Damayanti to return to her father's house instead of stay with Nala. However, instead she decided to search for Nala against all advice received until she was attacked. Only then did she return to ask her father for assistance in the search for Nala. Eventually the two were reunited and Nala won back his kingdom and wealth in a game of dice. Visa then taught Yudhisthira the science of gambling with dice.

Nala and Damayanti

Source: Wikipedia

Storytelling Week 11: The Pandavas Escape

Dhriarashtra, the blind king, knew he had to get the Pandavas, who were the sons of his brother Pandu. He wanted to get rid of them so he forced them out of the kingdom. However, he put in charge of tracking the Pandavas his sons Duryodhana and Dushasana. These two sons had a very strong dislike for the Pandavas so they decided they would figure out a way to get rid of the Pandavas for once and for all. Duryodhana approached his brother, Dushasana, and presented him with a plan to kill off the Pandavas. His brother thought the plan was outstanding and decided they needed to present the plan to Purochana, the man they had chosen to keep guard of the Pandavas house, to see how he felt about executing their plan.

The brothers told Purochana, "Purochana, we must get rid of these Pandavas and we have devised a great plan. When we put the Pandavas into their new house of exile we will need you to set it ablaze. Is there any way you will be able to execute this without people knowing we are responsible?" 

Purochana acknowledged their plan and assured them he would take care of it. "Trust me, I am the smartest man in the land when it comes to trickery. I will design the house so that when it is set to fire there will be no way to get outside if the Pandavas are inside." 

The brothers were pleased as they returned to their father and informed him that everything was ready for the Pandavas. They then took the Pandavas to their new home. The brothers informed the Pandavas that this would be where the Pandavas would stay until they could come up with a more severe punishment for the Pandavas. The Pandavas were in good spirits. They did not seem fazed by the new home at all and instead they were excited. This reaction made the brothers question if something was going on they did not know about but instead they let it go as they knew their plan would be executed that night. 

The Pandavas were not down in their spirits for a very particular reason. They knew the house was going to get burned and they would be stuck inside. They knew because Vidura had come and warned Yudhisthira, the head of the Pandavas, what was going to happen. Once the Pandavas were inside their new home, they immediately began digging tunnels from the inside to the outside that were not visible from the exterior of the house. They also gathered corpses to place in the rubble in order to trick Purochana when he came to make sure they were dead. 

Purochana in the middle of the night set fire to the home of the Pandavas. The Pandavas immediately went to the tunnels and removed the dead corpses they had gathered to represent themselves. They then headed down the tunnel and out to the forest where they escaped into freedom. 

The next morning Purochana took the two brothers to the site of the Pandava's house and showed him the remains. They dug through the remains together and found the deceased remains of the Pandavas. The two brothers could now report to their father, the blind king, that they had accomplished their mission. 

Purochan and the Pandavas

Source: Wikipedia

Bibliography: Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata. 

Author's Note: This story comes from part B of the week 11 readings in Buck's Mahabharata. I chose this story because I thought it was a very interesting aspect and wanted to add some of my own dialogue and details to bring more of the story out. The Pandava's characters can obviously be portrayed as the "good guys" from the story. However, I also feel there is more of a "'bad guys" conflict with the brothers and their father, the king, that I wanted to present. Since he is the blind king, I wanted this to be as if they were misleading their father in order to carry out their own desires of getting rid of the Pandavas. In doing so, we got a sense of karma as the brothers now realize not only are the Pandavas alive but their father will not be able to trust them to carry out any of his wishes in the future. Also, I intended to leave it open with the Pandavas as to create a sense of them drifting off into the future as "victorious." 

Reading Diary B: Pandavas Journey

Reading part B for week 11 picks up with the Pandavas and Kunti being sent away. When the Pandavas arrive at the house they are staying in there is a plan to kill all of the Pandavas. Fire will be set to the house and trap all of the Pandavas inside. However, the Pandavas are warned and escape through a tunnel leaving six decoy corpses behind. There is a boatman waiting for them as they flee disguised as Brahmins. They arrive in a other village and decide to live there with a family that offers to take them in. However, the family is charged with paying the yearly sacrifice to king Vaka. Instead, Kunti sends Bhima out to fight the king and he defeats him with no weapons. Visa then arrives and announces he will be taking the Pandavas to Draupadi. When they arrive there, Drupada has made an archery test that only Arjuna can pass. Therefore, Arjuna wins Draupadi. Draped then marries all five of the Pandava brothers. Arjuna next takes Subhadra as his wife, the sister of Krishna. Then Agni, the fire god,  comes to burn the forest of Khandava however, Indra, the storm god, continues to save the forest. Arjuna and Krishna help hold off the storm god as the forest burns. Maya, architect of the gods, was inside the forest though and needed protection from Agni. Therefore, Arjuna protects him. In return, Maya builds the Pandavas a great palace. The part B then ends with a game of dice being planned.

Arjuna and Subhadra

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary A: Starting Buck's Mahabharata

For my reading diaries in week eleven I will be using Buck's version of Mahabharata. Buck immediately introduces many characters into his version of the story. From the beginning we see reference to Vishnu, Krishna, Arjuna, and Saraswati. Also, he introduces the origins of the Mahabharata with the composer, Vyasa, and his scribe, Ganesha. We learn that Vyasa composed the entire story in his head without writing it down. When he needed a way to write it down he recited the entire thing to Ganesha to put it on paper. Ganesha was the son of Shiva, he also had an elephant because when he was younger Shiva got mad at him and ripped it off. He then chose to replace his human head with one of an elephant. After the lesson of the origins Buck continues on to the Mahabharata. It begins with the ocean being milk before it turned to salt. Vishnu wanted the gods to churn the ocean to get out the nectar of immortality. While doing this they churned out many things including: Lakshmi, Rambha, Airavata, and the wish giving cow. However, there was also poison that came out and Shiva had to swallow it in order to save the world. Later on, Bhisma obtains three wives for Vichitravirya. The three women were Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. Amba, however, has already vowed herself to a king. Vichitravirya unfortunately dies before being able to have children with the other two wives. Visa then goes to father children with the two women. This results in Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura. Bhisma appoints Pandu as king. Panda then marries Kunti who had already obtained the ability to have a son with a god. This resulted in Karna but she sent him away down the river. The next big development is the introduction of the Pandavas, the five sons of Pandu.

Pandu and Kunti 

Source: Wikipedia