From Here To India- My Epics of India Course Blog

     Duryodhana, born to Ghandari, grew up jealous of Bhima. He believed that Bhima was getting all the attention. Everywhere Duryodhana went it was Bhima this and Bhima that. He decided to take matters into his own hands and kill Bhima, so for once the attention would be on HIM. He put his plan into action by inviting the Pandevas to a wonderful picnic by the water. Little did the Pandevas know that Duryodhana had laced the food with a powerful poison. Bhima sat down and ate. And he ate. Eventually he fell into a deep sleep.      Duryodhana, pleased with his success, tied ropes around Bhima's hands and feet while the other Pandeva's weren't looking. "Now we'll see who's Bhishma's favorite," he whispered quitely to his foe, who of course couldn't hear him. Without further ado, he pushed Bhima into the water to drown.      And so Bhima sunk in the water. Down down down... ........... Bhima fighting the Nagas As Bhima sunk, he was...

    Episode Nine opens with a summary of what happened in the last episode, and tells the story of Kunti's secret, that she had a child with the sun god Suryadev. He was born with golden earrings and was armored. Because she was unmarried, she knew that she would be unable to keep him, so she placed him in a basket and floated him down a river.     In the next episode, Pandu and his wives decide to spend some time in the forest together. Pandu decided to go hunting, and while hunting he shot an arrow at a hermit couple who were making love. Because of this, as the hermit died he decided to curse Pandu that the moment he became intimate with another woman, he would die. Kunti decided to tell Pandu of the mantra she'd been give that would allow her to summon any god and bear the god's child. Pandu was glad to hear of this because Hastinapura would be given a line of succession. She had 3 sons : Yuhistira, Bhima, and Arjuna. But Madri was without children, so Kunti ag...

     For this weeks reading's I decided to watch the Epifed version of the Mahabharata. Part A first introduces us to the story, then begins with the Shantanu marrying the river goddess Ganga (on the promise that he'd never question her decisions). She gave birth to eight children, and one by one she drowned them in the river, except for the last one. Davarata, his last son, grew up and eventually was reunited with his father. However, King Shatanu fell in love with a fisherman's daughter. Since Davarata's children would always take precedence in the line of succession, King Shatanu could not marry her. Davarata decided to take matters into his own hands and make a terrible vow. Davarata vowed to never marry or father any children, and became known as Bhisma. Bhisma then toook the fisherman's daughter to his father for his father to marry. Davarata felt, instead of happy, like his heart had doomed them. The fisherman's daughter gave birth to two sons, one of whi...