Topics: Gatotkacha, Jayadratha. This is the last episode that covers Book 7 of the Mahabharata, called "The Origins". Almost all of the story I have covered so far comes from Book 7. The earlier books are much shorter, and full of geneologies and creation myths that are almost impossible to make narrative sense of, so I left a lot of that out!
I spend some time at the beginning of this episode describing what we're up against in terms of the original Mahabharata as a source. Then the story gets under way, where we This is another eventful episode. Both heroes have forgotten the Gita, so Krishna recalls another dialog along the same lines, which is called the Anugita.
Krishna goes home, while the Pandavas go prospecting for gold in the hills. While they are away, Parkshit is born, or rather still-born.
Krishna arrives in time to make good his promise and revives the kid. When the Pandavas return with Arjun returns home with some bad news and some good news.
The bad news is that they have lost their powers and have lost their friends. The good news is that they finally get to retire. Yudhistira doesn't hesitate. He strips off his fine garments and leads his brothers into retirement. Krpa is put in charge of defense, Yuyutsu is made regent, and Parikshit is king. Parikshit's grandmother Subhadra Krishna's sister is made Dowager Empress.
The Pandavas then take a final tour of India, visiting At the end of the First Dice Game, it really seemed like King Dhritarastra had put everything back the way it was. He restored the Pandava's freedom, titles and wealth. Unfortunately, Bhima had sworn some pretty serious oaths to kill his cousins, and cousin Duryodhana was too filled with hate and fear to allow things to be left the way they were.
The blind king then ordered Yuddistira to return for one final round of dice. The loser would give up his possessions and retire to the forest for Topics: Draupadi, Krishna, Duryodhana, Dushasan. While Arjun remains in heaven, relaxing with his father Indra, news reaches the Kaurava court of Arjun's exploits.
Dhrtarastra then has one of his bouts of regret while Sanjay scolds him for being so stupid. We then cut over to the rest of the Pandavas, who are still living off the dirt in the foothills of Dehra Dun. Bhima is ready to chop off some heads and he takes his frustration out on his elder brother. The sage Brhadashva then shows up with a story of a king who actually had it worse off Topics: Brhadashva, Damayanti, Nala.
We finish the story of Nala. Brhadashva suggested that this story would cheer up the Pandavas, since there was indeed a king who had it worse than they.
But shortly after hearing the story, they get news that Arjun was up on a mountain top starving himself and they were once again plunged into depression and hopelessness. At least Yuddistira learned Nala's dicing secrets, so he need not worry about another match with Shakuni. The story of Nala as it is told in the Mahabharata has some Topics: Dvapar, Dvaparyuga, Kali, Kaliyuga. We finish off the Book of the Forest with a couple of the more famous vignettes from the epic.
He lives up to his claim of complete generosity and literally flays the armor off of his body and hands it all over to Indra. Since transactions with Gods usually go both ways, Karna for his part demanded the "Never-failing Spear", Topics: Karna, Yaksha. This is a long one - over 30 minutes, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out. You might have noticed that I'm still experimenting with the audio, and I think this one came out clearer than the rest.
I'm trying to keep the file sizes under control, so it is a matter of striking a good balance. Also, the story is getting interesting. We've got a few good fight scenes, plus Vyasa intervenes a couple of times to keep the story on track, and we get to meet Krishna for the first time! By the end, The Pandavas send away their hangers-on, and enter hiding at the kingdom of the Matsyas, in the service of King Virata. Things go well for the first 10 months, but then the king's brother-in-law gets smitten with the Queen's new serving girl.
Kicaka takes his infatuation a little too far, and Bhima ends up restoring her virtue the hard way. By the end of this ordeal, everyone is terrified of Draupadi and her Gandharva husbands.
King Virata is so frightened of her that he sends the queen to beg Topics: Kicaka, Sudeshna, Virata. Now that both sides are armed to the teeth and infested with vast armies, they are ready to talk peace terms. The Pandavas start the first round by sending Drupad's unnamed priest as their ambassador. This priest travels to Hastinapur and asks only for the terms of the Dice Game to be fulfilled.
Dhrtarastra responds well enough, sending his Charioteer Sanjay as the returning ambassador. Sanjay's message is also for peace, but the terms are rather unacceptable. The Kauravas suggested that the Topics: Sanatsujata, Sanjay, Vidur. This is the final installment of the "Krishna Episodes", where I've covered Krishna's back story up to and beyond the point when the Pandavas met him in Panchala.
There are still some interesting details in the Bhagavata Purana which I want to compare with later events in the Mahabharata, so I'm not completely done with that book, but for the upcoming episodes, we'll get back to the Mahabharata and see what the Pandavas do next.
Two more stories from the Sage Markandeya. The first is a rousing fight story, where the king of Ayodhya gets super powers from the god Vishnu and defeats a dragon. I find the second story more interesting. Yuddistira wants to know about the specific problems that women and servants must have in following their dharma.
Markandeya replies with a story about a short-tempered Brahmin Kaushika, who encounters a particularly wise peasant woman, whose devotion to her husband grants her great wisdom Topics: butcher, Kaushika. Drona is dead and a new commander is needed.
Ashwatthaman proposes that Karna be given the position and everyone else agrees. Karna leads the army through a rather desultory day of fighting and then complains that what he is missing is a good driver. Shalya is drafted to be his charioteer. Shalya had promised to cause trouble should things come to this pass, and he lives up to it by constantly bickering with Karna. For some reason, Karna chooses this moment to confess how he deceived Rama Topics: Karna, Rama Jamadagnya, Shalya.
When the king is finally pacified, he leads all the bereaved women of Hastinapur in a great procession to deal with their fallen men. Ashwatthaman heads of to Vyasa's ashram, Krpa goes home to Hastinapur, and Krtavarman also heads Topics: Ashwatthaman, Karna, Krpa, Kunti. A few more stories from Bhisma's final teachings. We learn that Vyasa had a son, named Suka, who really did not seem to be pleased to be born.
And Bhisma himself tells us what he really thinks of Buddhist philosophy! Topics: Buddhism, Janaka, Mithila, Suka. Sanjay returns to Hastinapur with messages and intelligence from the Pandava camp.
The king's charioteer delivers this information before the royal assembly, while Dhrarastra, Duryodhana, Bhisma and Karna argue over the significance of these threats. Having gone a good long while since Karna last washed his feet, the mess must have started getting to him, because he finally blows his top at Bhisma and swears he will not fight until Bhisma is dead. In the course of this debate, we get hints at Sanjay's mission clearly did not accomplish much, so this time Krishna offers to go to Hastinapur as the Pandavas' chief negotiator.
When the Kauravas hear he is coming, Dhrtarastra plans on bribing him, while Duryodhana hopes to imprison him. He also visits with the Pandavas' poor widowed mother Kunti, whom he tries to console.
Surprisingly, Kunti blames her father for all her suffering. Kunti's father, Sura, was Topics: Durvasas, Krishna, Kunti. The Battle Books, but not the battle, begin here. Since we are at the second most important beginning of the epic, aside from the very beginning, there is a lot of unnecessary material stuffed into the narrative. I tried my best to make sense of it, and to leave out the voluminous details that had nothing to do with the story at hand.
I also tried to iron out the repeated descriptions of the armies' dispositions, and the scene of the two sides lined up prior to battle. This is one of the most Topics: Bhisma, Krishna, Sanjay. We begin the famous holy book, the Bhagavad Gita. The scene for this revelation is the midst of the fateful battlefield of Kurukshetra. Arjun surveys the field, seeing his relatives, friends, cousins, uncles, elders and gurus, all ready to draw each other's blood and die for the sake of his dynastic dispute.
For the good guys to win, Arjun will personally be responsible for the death of the people he respects the most in the whole world. He simple cannot go on with it. Arjun drops his bow and Let's admit it, we were all impatient for this war to get started.
Like the characters in the story, we concluded many episodes back that there was never going to be a peaceful solution, and it would take nothing less than a massive bloodletting to make sure the bad guys were punished and the good guys got their rightful honors.
But now that the war has started, those frustrating days of exile in the forest are looking more attractive. Sure, we all feel that Duryodhana deserves a good kick in Topics: Bhisma, Kurukshetra, Arjuna.
It is the morning of the first day of battle. Already Krishna has revealed his great song to Arjuna, and now there are some final formalities, as Yuddistira runs to his elders on the enemy side for their blessings.
Krishan tags along and tries to tempt Karna over to the Pandava side, just until Bhisma is dead. It must have been tempting, since it would have given him the chance to even kill the old bugger. But Karna is too loyal to go for such an under-handed thing. He turns Krishna down Topics: Kurukshetra, Yuyutsu.
This is the first of two episodes that take us from the death of the Pandavas down to the Snake Sacrifice, held by Arjun's great-grandson. We skimmed over this back at the beginning of the podcast, because back then we were unfamiliar with who all these people were. But now it makes sense to bring it around to the beginning again. Not much is recorded about the life of Parikshit. We only know about how he died, and the many snakes and Rishis who were involved in the process Topics: Astika, Jaratkaru, Parikshit, Srngn, Vasuki.
This is the final piece that brings us around, back to the beginning. We covered some of this territory before, back in Episode 2, but at the time, it was hard to explain that Parikshit was Arjun's grandson and that Takshaka had an ancient feud with the dynasty going back to the fire at the Khandava Forest. Also, back then we were anxious to get going with the story itself, and all the digressions with angry brahmins and talking snakes only made things confusing at the time.
So now we have This episode, Yuddistira gets it into his head that he should be King of the World! As he has been inclined to do since becoming king, he calls for Krishna to advise him on how to accomplish this task. Krishna tells him to send Bhima and Arjun to Magadha and get rid of his main rival to the imperial title, King Jarasandh. Bhima wrestles the old guy for fourteen days and finally body-slams him, killing him Topics: Jarasandh, Magadha, Bhima, Krishna.
The Pandavas are now settled into their forest encampment and receive a surprise visitor. The Kauravas plot to kill the Pandavas while they are defenseless in the forest. Vyasa himself steps in to put a stop to this outrage, and he then introduces the sage Maitreya, who scolds Duryodhana, and then finally curses him to be struck in the "thigh" by Bhima.
If you ever felt uncomfortable about the fact that Bhima had to cheat and hit Duryodhana below the belt in their final battle, you Topics: Bhima, Maitreya, Pandavas, Duryodhana.
These are the last three stories of the long series of tales in the Book of the Forest. The Pandavas are finishing up their pilgrimage across India and are moving northward for their rendezvous with Arjun.
The first story, Yavakrita, is particularly interesting in that the protagonist is not a Twice-born. In this case, he's a rude and uppity Vaishya, but he's the main character nonetheless. I find the little detail about the Shudra gaurd particularly interesting. He works for Yavakri's father, Topics: Buddhism, Jantu, Yavakri, Yavakrita. The Pandavas journey south, out of the Himalayas and back to the plains. Along the way, Bhima goes hunting and finds himself captured by a giant magical snake.
The Snake takes his time and tells Bhima his life story before proceeding to eat the hero. Meanwhile, Yuddistira sees dark omens and heads off to look for his brother on his own. For the purposes of the later story, Arjun stays at home and Yuddistira does the rescuing.
When Yuddistira gets to the scene, Bhima tells him what is going on, Krishna returns from his mission to Hastinpur with war on his mind. Yuddistira, having spent the last years undergoing massive hardship to prevent this war, is reluctant to accept this truth.
He begs for more information, trying to find any way out of this situation. So Krishna obliges by giving us the details of a few more speeches made in the Kuru court, but none of it helps. War is truly inevitable. So both sides round up their armies and march on Kurukshetra. When they arrive, each Topics: Bhisma, Drupad, Kurukshetra. As if intending to seal his fate, Duryodhana warms up the Pandavas by sending over an odious gambler Uluka as a messenger to goad them into fighting.
Then Bhisma kindly gives us an inventory of the fighters who will take place in the coming battle. There are a bunch of guys who I've never heard of, and do not seem to have any important role to play in the story, so I've left them out, trying to keep the cast of characters under control. As for the rest, they are all rated between Rathas and Topic: Uluka. Earlier in day 15, Drona is killed by Dhrstadyumna. The Kaurava army literally comes unraveled until Ashwatthaman hears the news.
The boy is outraged at the way his father was treated and swears revenge on both Dhrstadyumna for killing him , and Yuddistira for betraying his trust. Drona's son then pulls the army together and rushes to battle waving his WMD. First he tries to use the Narayana weapon, but Krishna is too tricky for that-- he knows its weakness, which is that it is ineffective This episode covers the final day of the great war.
If you were expecting things to go out with a bang, you'll be disappointed. Once the Kaurava general Shalya is killed, things just sort of disintegrate.
Duryodhana's remaining brothers are all killed. Shakuni is killed. Karna's sons are exterminated. The Pandavas make one final sweep over the field, killing literally everyone who was left standing. They spend the rest of the day sifting through the corpses in search of Duryodhana. By this Topics: Duryodhana, Yuyutsu. We get treated to a last handful of the Final Teachings, and then Bhisma dies. The poor guy set quite an objective for himself. It must have been mid autumn when he was shot through with arrows, yet he clung to life until the Winter Solstice before finally giving up the ghost.
He says he lived on the bed of arrows for a total of 58 days. Krishna is dead. Balaram is dead. The city of Dwarka sinks beneath the waves, and the refugees of that once-great city are making their way to Indraprastha with only Arjun as their protector.
But the influence of the Kali Yuga pervades the earth, and Arjun is not the man he once was. When the vulnerable procession is attacked by bandits, his magic quivers run out of arrows and his magical weapons no longer obey his command. Only a fragment is saved, along with Krishna's grandson Vajra, who is Topics: Arjun, Indraprastha, Vajra, Vyasa. This one starts with some girl talk.
Draupadi and Satyabhama get bored of Markandeya's endless mythologies, and sneak off for a more private conversation. Satyabhama wants to know how Draupadi maintains her hold over all five husbands.
Draupadi then advises us on the behaviors a woman should perform to keep her husband from straying to other women's beds. Krishna too finally gets bored of Markandeya and decides it is time to head for home. He loads up the wife and they head out. If he knew of Topics: Draupadi, Satyabhama.
The peace talks break down completely. It starts well, when no one can come up with a rebuttal to Krishna's speech. Narada and Kanva tell a couple of parables to help with the decision making, but Duryodhana was not interested. It seems he believed that the terms of the Dice Game were that the Pandavas were to go to the forest forever, not just 13 years. Maybe it's true? This episode begins the voluminous Last Teachings of Bhisma. Yuddistira poses the questions, which mostly revolve around Dharma and kingship, and Bhisma answers.
These teachings are exceptionally difficult to convey in the form of a podcast, mostly because they are so boring. There are very few stories, and most of the stories revolve around conversations in which one character instructs the other Topic: Bhisma. The Sage Markandeya continues with his storytelling. He begins with his own version of the Four Ages or Yugas. One interesting point is that in his reckoning, the Kali Yuga lasts 1, years in total. Since we are told elsewhere that the Kali Yuga began for us on the death of Krishna, then the Kali Yuga must have ended centuries ago, and we happy people have made it into the next Golden Age!
After an apocalyptic vision of the future, Makandeya gives us the Tale of the Frog, which culminates in Topic: Markandeya.
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