Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata, Part B


As I continue to read more, I find it odd that a queen is acting as a beggar with her sons. When they escaped the palace that was set to burn, there was a family of beggars that took the queen and her sons place. They burned with the palace and everyone mistook their bodies for the queen’s and her sons. After escaping, a rakshasa fell in love with Bhima and completely abandoned her brother. Her brother happened to be the chief of the forest and after finding out she had disobeyed his orders, he threatened to kill them all including his sister. Bhima fought him and seemed to have been playing with him until his brother said to defeat him before the rakshasa gains more power from the sun rise. Bhima defeated him pretty easily and then defeated a “pest” in the next town. His mother, the queen, only had to think of him being there and he appeared to help them. Once again, the queen was living in a home of another family as a beggar. After leaving that town, they came across a large crowd who were travelling to see Nalayani, a woman who was famous for being fair and wanted as a wife. In her past life, she had a husband who was very happy, and they had a great life together. At one point, the husband decided that he would refrain from sexual desires and would not give in to her sexual desires. This made her upset and protest to Shankara. She said “I want a husband, I want a husband, I want a husband, I want a husband, I want a husband.” After protesting, Shankara said that in her next life, she will have five husbands because she asked five times. She did not like that response and tried to protest, but he said that it must be that way. Of all the men gathering to become her husband, five would be chosen because of her actions in her past life.

Source: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie

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