Reading Notes: Narayan's Mahabarta, Part C


This week we picked back up the Mahabharata and continued where we left off last week. The first half of the story focused on the rift and the competition between the two sets of brothers. The Pandavas were banished from the kingdom previously and now they live at the edge of a River. Dhitarashtra, with his multitude of spies, keeps tabs on the Pandavas. He learns where they are living and that Arjuna has acquired magical weapons. He consults with his son Duryodhana, and they try to work out what to do because they are scared by the weapons that Arjuna possesses. Duryodhana thinks that they should attack and destroy the Pandavas, but Sakuni thinks this is foolhardy and suggests that Duryodhana embarrass the Pandavas by showing his royal splendor. Duryodhana does this but is attacked and is saved by the Pandavas.

After this story, the setting switches to the Pandavas in the forest. They are engaged by a brahmin who tells them that a deer stole all of his tools and asks them to find the deer and his tools. The brothers search for the deer, but do not find it. Instead they wind up tired and thirsty and look for a lake. One of the brothers finds a lake and approaches it and drinks from it and falls dead. Three of the other brothers while searching for him do the same. Yudhistira found all of them and was distraught. He stepped into the lake and heard a voice in his head. He answered some questions and restored his brothers to life. They were all given the gift of remaining incognito for their thirteenth year of exile.

The Pandavas then go to live in and work for the kingdom of Virata. One of the most unsettling things to happen in all of the stories so far, and something that caught me off-guard, was the rape of Draupadi. Kichaka raped her and was then killed by Bhima in revenge.

This section of the Mahabhrata continues, and even throws some more curveballs at us. It seems to be building up to a war between the two sets of brothers.

Yama the god of death. Source

Bibliography
R.K. Narayan. Mahabharata. Kindle

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