Reading Notes: Mahabharata, Part A
Week 6: Reading Mahabharata
I am taking a similar approach to reading the Mahabharata as I did with the Ramayana. Therefore, over the next two weeks I will be reading Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata. Today, for Part A, I have read the first 50 stories. Just like all four of my reading blog posts for the Ramayana, I have selected the three stories that stood out to me most. The first story that I selected is "King Shantanu Gets Married". The king lived in a large palace but unfortunately had no queen. Of course, he wanted one so he was looking for one. One day, when he was hunting, he saw a beautiful woman by the river. It was love at first sight and he asked her to marry him. She agreed but under just one condition. The condition was that he could never question her actions. He agreed and they got married. One year later, their first child was born and the queen took that baby to the river and drowned it. The king was stunned but he didn't say anything and remained true to his word. He never questioned her actions. I believe that this story is a great foundation that I can build upon to make it my own. The next story I selected is "King Shantanu Confronts the Queen" and it goes hand and hand with my first story selection. After the queen drowned her and the king's first child, she drowned their second all the way through their seventh. King Shantanu, again true to his word, said nothing. When the queen gave birth to their eighth child, the King spoke out and forbidden her from killing the child. The queen responds that the child will live but that she must leave the king. She responds that she is the goddess of that river and that she was sent to earth to bear the king's children and drown them as soon as they were brought into this world. In reality their kids were the eight gods of the elements. This story is also a great foundation for me to build on and change up, and it will also me to use both my first and second choices together seamlessly. The last story that I selected is titled "Shantanu Sees Satyavati". This story is another one where King Shantanu sees a beautiful woman by the river. Again he falls in love at first sight and asks the beautiful woman to marry him. This time the woman responds that he must ask her father first. The king agrees! The king goes to ask her dad, who is a fisherman. The fisherman agrees but under one condition. That their first born son will inherit the kingdom. Unfortunately, the king could not agree to this because her had already promised the kingdom to Devavrata. This is another story that I would love to use as a canvas to explore my creativity with!
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| King Shantanu & The Queen (Ganga) - Via Wikipedia |
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