This week, we continue reading the Mahabharata, I read the Public Domain Edition stories 41-60. The interesting parts of this story cover the exile in the forest, and how the cope with being away from society for the extended periods of time. One interesting thing is how imagery and descriptions are used.
For example, when they describe Arjuna decreasing the amount of food he intakes until he no longer needs any, and he can live on the air alone, they immediately then launch into his bathing habits and how that makes him look very shiny, so bright as lightning. Then, he picks a fight with a great deity that can survive arrows and immediately put its opponent in a death lock, but the deity is happy that after nearly being killed by Arjuna that Arjuna decides to worship instead, so the god leaves him alone. Finally, he gives Arjuna a deus ex machina in the Gandiva bow. None of this makes any sense whatsoever.
Then, not only do more gods come down from the heavens to meet Arjuna, but they all give him different gifts and weapons. Even more interesting, Indra takes Arjuna to a special city and teaches him song, music, and dance. This leads Arjuna to wage war against demons, monsters, and parting the seas so that he can fight them. The entire time that this occurs, one has to ask, does his family even know what happened? Do they long out for him or even wonder where he went? Additionally, this brings up an interesting point, what is the penalty for returning from exile early, or what prevents them from just going to a different city?
Interestingly enough, Hanuman appears out of nowhere in the story to teach Bhamin about different Yugas, but perhaps even more interesting is the account that is given before of Bhamin about killing different animals by using different animals as weapons to kill the other animals.
Overall, the part of the story attempts to explain parts of the culture better, and it does a great job explaining how different parts of the Ramayana interact with lore.
Bibliography: Mahabharata, Public Domain Edition, Link.
For example, when they describe Arjuna decreasing the amount of food he intakes until he no longer needs any, and he can live on the air alone, they immediately then launch into his bathing habits and how that makes him look very shiny, so bright as lightning. Then, he picks a fight with a great deity that can survive arrows and immediately put its opponent in a death lock, but the deity is happy that after nearly being killed by Arjuna that Arjuna decides to worship instead, so the god leaves him alone. Finally, he gives Arjuna a deus ex machina in the Gandiva bow. None of this makes any sense whatsoever.
Then, not only do more gods come down from the heavens to meet Arjuna, but they all give him different gifts and weapons. Even more interesting, Indra takes Arjuna to a special city and teaches him song, music, and dance. This leads Arjuna to wage war against demons, monsters, and parting the seas so that he can fight them. The entire time that this occurs, one has to ask, does his family even know what happened? Do they long out for him or even wonder where he went? Additionally, this brings up an interesting point, what is the penalty for returning from exile early, or what prevents them from just going to a different city?
Interestingly enough, Hanuman appears out of nowhere in the story to teach Bhamin about different Yugas, but perhaps even more interesting is the account that is given before of Bhamin about killing different animals by using different animals as weapons to kill the other animals.
Overall, the part of the story attempts to explain parts of the culture better, and it does a great job explaining how different parts of the Ramayana interact with lore.
A conch is blown, signaling the end of war. Source: hi.Wikipedia
Bibliography: Mahabharata, Public Domain Edition, Link.
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