Reading Notes: Mahabharata

One part that seemed really cool in beginning Part A of the Mahabharata was the fact that Ganesha would only write it from dictation if hi pen couldn't stop during the entire time of its telling. Sometimes, I found myself having to stop and look up words (or people), for example, asceticism (which is the avoidancce of any indulgence ). I liked the story where Satyavati was raised by the fisherman's wife and smelled like fish due to a sort of curse. I also really liked the part where she was allowed to lose her fish smell if she saved herself for the person she met on the river. The part when she gives birth to Vyasa but he leaves her is another favorite part of mine. As he leaves, he tells Satyavati that anytime she needs help, all she has to do is think of him and he will be there.

Another story that caught my imagination was the part with Shatanu and Ganga. He see Ganga in human form and immediately falls in love with her. She agrees to marry him as long as he promises to never question her. They get married and she gives birth to their first child. However, Ganga throws her new son into the river. She does this 7 times to her and Shatanu’s children, and he breaks the promise he made when they agreed to marry—he questions her actions. She leaves, but later comes back and tells him why she threw them into the river. (Which is still unclear to me, besides the fact that they are supposedly “the vasus”. When she comes back to tell him this, she brings Shatanu her last child named Devavrata.

Ganga trying to drown last child, Wikipedia 

I also liked the story where Shiva tells Amba to slay Bhishma but she questions him because she is a woman and thinks she can’t fight. I think it’s interesting that she had to change form (into a man) in order to fight Bhishma. Couldn’t she do it as a woman?

The last story that I want to write about is Kunti and her son. She gives birth to her son (whose father is the sun god) and sets him in a basket on the river. He is protected and eventually found by Adhiratha and Radha, who adopt the baby. It is similar to a biblical story where Jochebed sends her baby boy, Moses, down the river to protect him from the killings of baby boys. He is also found (by the Egyptian royal family) and adopted.  

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata