The main thing that caught my attention in Narayan’s
Mahabharata was the fact that there’s an abundance of new characters introduced
very quickly. I was kind of overwhelmed trying to keep names associated with
their characters but I think as I keep reading I’ll be able to sort it out and
keep it straight in my head.
I was immediately curious at the beginning of the book when
it was mentioned that Ganga would only marry Shantanu, the king of Hastinapura,
if he never questioned her actions. That seemed very sketchy and odd to me
because everyone questions everything. When Ganga starts throwing the babies in
the river I was shocked and then curious to know her reasoning behind doing so.
It’s surprising how it took Shantanu seven drowned babies to finally question
Ganga’s motive behind doing do. Ganga then explains that she is actually the
river Ganga reincarnated as a human to give birth to eight gods, called the
Vasus. The Vasus are being punished by being reincarnated as humans for
stealing a cow. Ganga explains that she is just returning the gods to the
heavens by drowning the babies.
As the book goes on, character such as the Pandavas, are
introduced. The Pandavas are the sons of Pandu, who eventually dies along with
one of his wives. Pandu’s other wife, Kunti, is left to raise the five sons.
The names of the five Pandavas are Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. I’m
excited to finally be reading about Arjuna because I have always been intrigued
by his character. The Pandavas all marry Draupadi, whom Arjuna wins over in a competition.
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| Draupadi and the Pandavas; Wikipedia |
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