Week 13 Reading Diary B

Battle preparations are made. Drupada wants a child and prays to shiva about it. Shiva tells him the baby is a boy but it ends up being a girl. Her name is Sikhandini. Drupada was expecting a son so he treats his daughter as if she were a boy. He even arranged a marriage for Sikhandini, but the bride is appalled to find Sikhandini is a woman. She then goes to the forrest and finds a yaksha and asks it to make her into a man. The war begins. Bhisma kills Virata in battle. He also has awesome fighting powers even though he is old. Drona kills Drupada. Drona then thinks his son is dead and falls in despair when in reality an elephant with the same name is killed by Bhima.

(Elephant: wiki)

Reading Guide A Week 12: Nala leaves Damayanti

Yudhishthira accepted the gambling match and stakes gold, pearls, elephants and other material wealth. He then gambles away his brothers and then himself. He loses everything to Shankuni. He even loses Draupadi who is then summoned to work in the kitchen. Dhritarashtra intervenes. Then frees Bhima and the other brothers and restores their wealth. Duryodhana suggest one more throw of the dice loser is exiled to the forrest. Yudhishthira loses and the pandavas are exiled.

(Nala leaves Dmayanti with half a robe: Screenshot)

Then we learn of King Nala and his dice game with Pushkara. Nala lost and had to leave his palace with Damayanti. Both only had one robe to themselves, Nala lost his trying to catch some birds. He decides to adbandon Damayanti while she was asleep. He divided the sole robe in half. Damayanti looked for Nala everywhere. The asectices advised her to go home to her father…but she followed a caravan to the kindom of Chedi where she was attacked. Sudeva saved her. Damayantis father promised he would search for Nala everywhere.

Reading Diary B: Arjuna and Subhadra

Dhritarashtra sends the Pandavas and Kunti away. Then his sons hire Purochana to build a fire trap for the house where the Pandavas are staying. Someone warns them and they prepare a tunnel which will allow them to escape, leaving six corpses in their place. Bhima sets the house on fire. Purochana is killed and they escape through the tunnel. The are disguised as Brahmins.

The Pandavas and Kunti live in a different village. They send Bhima out to fight a demon. He uses no weapons, only his bare hands, and still defeats the demon. Drupada begs Shiva for a son to defeat Drona. Shiva appears in a dream and tells him to pour two cups of butter into the fire. One for a son, one for a daughter. Dhirshtadyumna and Draupadi are born. Arjuna wins an archery test and wins Draupadi. The pandavas are given the region of Khandava to rule. They build the city of Indraprastha near the Khandava forrest. Arjuna falls in love with Krishna’s sister and takes her to be his wife.

(Screenshot: Arjuna and Subhadra)

The fire god Agni comes to Krishna and Arjuna with his mouth smeared with butter. He wants to eat the forrest but the storm-god Indra protects it with rain. They agree to help him. Maya builds a great palace for the Pandavas. Duryodhana is  fooled by the illusion of the palace and they make fun of him. Then Duryodhana challenges Yudhishthira to a game of dice, he accepts. There might be a war on the horizon….

Week 10 Reading Diary A: On the Verge of War

Duryodhana decides to make a royal camp near the Pandavas in order to embarrass them. Duryodhana battles the gandharvas: who takes him captive. The Pandavas rescue Duryodhana which ruins his plan.

 

(Deer; Wiki)

The Pandavas try to help a Brahmin catch the deer that stole his staff. They are unsuccessful. They are thirsty and happen upon a lake. Nakula hears a voice that says before drinking he must answer some questions. He drinks the water anyways and dies. Sahadeva, Arjuna and Bhima do the same thing. Yudhishthira finds his brothers dead. He hears the voice, and answers the questions. This was a test by Yama, the god of death. The brothers come back to life and receive the gift of unrecognizability for their 13 years of exile. The boys spend the 13^th year in disguise at the court of King Virata.

The Pandavas make a bid for peace. Yudhishthira tells Sanjaya to take this message back to Hastinapura: All he asks for is 5 villages, one for each brother and in that way the war can be avoided. Sanjaya wants Dhritarashatra to stop supporting Duryodhana. Vidura pleads with Dhritarashatra his heir and banish his own sons from Hastinapura. Vyasa tells Dhirtarashtra that the war will be their doom! This part is all really confusing. I hate when there are a ton of names and I have to remember who is who!!! At this point I am lost and super confused. Hopefully in the next section there will be something worthy of a storytelling post.

Reading Diary A Week 9: Pandu's curse.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is not what I expected to happen at the beginning of the story! Drowning babies as punishment for stealing a cow…wow. I some how got lost in the whole Shantanu falls for Satyavati king throne debacle….it was complicated so moving on.  Then all I could focus on was that Satyavati smelled like a fish. Then all these awkward love triangles happen…but in the end a flawless child named Vidura is born. Then Dhitarashtra marries Gandhari, who covers her eyes to share her husbands blindness. That is super cute!! I would like to avoid the awkward situation with Pandu but could make for a comic story later, so He has two wives…but cant have children because of a curse. Moral of the story…don’t shoot a dear while its having sex. It was a celestial being in disguise. Then his wife Kunti has a mantra for obtaining suns….and goes into another weird love triangle she had.  They end up having 5 sons called Pandavas. Pandu dies while making love with Madri…leaving Kunti to raise 5 sons. They go to live with Dhritarashtra…and the cousins are all mean to each other. Then a heir is picked…Yudhishthira. They want the Pandavas exile because they are more popular with the people. The Pandavas set fire to the house and escape through a tunnel…everyone thinks they die. Kunti and the Pandavas travel to and live in the forest where Bhima fights some rakshahasa’s. Arjuna wins Draupadi as his bride…then Kunti tells the brothers to share..so now Draupadi had 5 husbands.

Screenshot: Pandu cursed)

This was totally a whirlwind of events… I am overwhelmed and need to reread this section!