Week 5 Reading Diary: Part A

For this week’s reading, I chose to read the Public Edition of the Mahabharata. I felt that this would be easier to read due to its accessibility online. Thus far, the story has been confusing do to its many characters. Below is what occurred in Part A:

·       Indra is flying through the sky and impregnates a woman fish that gives birth to Satyavati. She then becomes the mother of the writer of the Mahabharata, Vyasa. His name is also Dwaipayana or Island –born. The King below is the father of this son.

Source: Vyasa

·       King Shantanu marries Ganga in human form. She gets pregnant and drowns the first seven of her children. This part is very confusing to me because I do not know why she was doing this. The King disobeys her demands and she leaves him with the last boy alive.

·       King Shantanu desired Satyvati, however, the fisherman demanded that her son must be the heir to the throne. He could not because of the boy from the previous wife Ganga. This boy’s name is Devavrata.

·       The boy helps his father get Satyvati by stating to the fisherman that he will never take the throne. His name changes from Devavrata to Bhishma meaning “Terrible”. I do think that this decision was a terrible one, however, in both the epics the sons do anything for their fathers. I find this to be very unique and something that I want to write in my story.

·       Bihishma takes three princesses in order for them to marry Satyvati’s sons. Both these son’s die, making Bhishma go get the sage Vyasa. He and the two princesses give birth to a pale boy named Pandu and Dhritarashtra.

·       Kunti and Madri both marry the son Pandu. Kunti previously had a son before she married Pandu.

·       Pandu, similarly to Dasharatha, kills someone while hunting and is cursed. This is extremely important in both epics because it usually brings someone into power sooner than they expected. This is vital in the Mahabharata. He has five sons from gods before he ultimately dies from the curse.

·       To die with their beloved king, Madri and Kunti both want to be burned with him. The gods choose Madri to die with the king instead of Kunti and she is burned.

·       The blind son, Dhritarashtra, raises the five sons of Pandu in the royal city of Hastinapura.

·       The son of Dhritarashtra gets jealous of the five sons and plots to kill them. Bhima is poisoned but instead goes into the underworld and obtained the strength of a mighty giant.

·       Drona becomes the teacher of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. As training occurs, the Kauravas become even more jealous of the Pandavas.

·       Kunti son, Karna, comes into the scene of the mock fights and displays his strength. They all prove their skills and become warriors.

·       Duryodhana gets so jealous of every Pandavas feats and wants to set them and their mother on fire.

Overall, this is a great story so far and I am curious to see what occurs in the upcoming sections. Thanks for reading. 


Source: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, , Seeger, and Tagore. Weblink