Reading Notes Part B: The Mahabharata

For part B of the Mahabharata reading, I found that it was a lot of the same essentially. You see the family still in hiding as Brahmins but yet still getting together and fighting fowl people. Bhima does an assortment of battles with bad men in which he becomes an overwhelming victor in each. It though it was kind of funny when I was reading the story where he fights the demon of the forest and then when he fight the evil ruler that enforces the blood tax. In both cases he fights and wins but what was funny was the way that he won. In both cases he broke the back of his adversary rendering them slain. Just thought that it was funny that the story would use the same death for both characters. One of my favorite stories of this section is " Draupadi's Swayamwara". We have read many different versions of different peoples Swayamwara at this point and this one by far is the most interesting.

The Task 

First, the task is one of the most difficult. It is not just an all out brawl against men, instead is a specific task. Unlike Sita's Swayamwara in the Ramayana which was a task, this one is much more difficult. It not only had a huge gallant bow that had to be bent but also a seemingly impossibly target to hit. There are also so many different ways that the story could have gone. For instance, if I was rewriting the story I could take it a different direction by having all the other Raha's notice who the Brahmins were after they brought attention to themselves. Another direction would to have Krishna become very upset at the fact that he did not have the chance to win the bride. He was one of the only ones to be able to bend the bow and yet he was not allowed to shoot an arrow. He could either be disgruntled at that point or later when he knew who the Brahmins were, instead of calming the Raha's tell them exactly who they were. The story could be changed even by simply giving there more of climax. Instead of hitting the fish on the first shot, since they were given 5 arrows, maybe draw the story out to give more suspense. 

Bibliography 

Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).