Week 13 Reading Diary B

Vyasa prepares Dhritarashtra for battle. Bhishma becomes Duryodhana’s commander. Thus, Karna disagrees to fight. But Bhishma won’t fight anyone that is / was a woman. Sikhandini was treated as a boy because her father wanted a boy. Vaisravana was MAD when he found out that Sthuna became Sthuni. The battle begins. Duryodhana’s army is much bigger than Yudhisthira’s. Yuyutsu goes to the Pandava’s side. Bhishma kills Virata. Krishna gives Bhishma a peaceful sleep. Drona kills Drupada, but then he is beheaded. Karna and Arjuna duel. Duryodhana is healed by Sanjaya.

Week 13 Reading Diary A

Pandavas chase deer into the forest, but they do not return. Dharma tests his son Yudhishthira. Fast forward, the Pandavas decide to spend their 13^th year of exile in King Virata’s courts. Bhima becomes the head chef.  Kichaka dies. Susharman and Duryodhana, in the wake of Kichaka’s death, prepare to capture / kill all of the king’s cows. The king chased them, but in the wake of his chase, he left the castle unprotected. Sanjaya sees the Pandavas, and each are given a city. Kripa doesn’t like the idea of war, but nevertheless he agrees to engage in war in order to show his support for Duryodhana. Krishna is asleep. He awakes, and he offers Arjuna a choice. He said that he could either be Krishna’s ally, or he can have Krishna’s soldiers. He chose to be his ally, which sent the soldiers to Duryhodhana. Krishna’s side wins.

King Virata = King of Matsya

Kichaka  = one of Virata’s generals, brother of Queen Sudeshna

Week 12 Reading Diary A: Jataka Tales, The Elephant and the Dog

Basically, the Elephant eats his food and gives his leftovers to the dog. Because they share food, they eat every meal together and become great friends. Soon, the dog is sold and the elephant becomes depressed. The elephant won't eat, bathe, or do anything productive. Then, the dog is bought back and the two live happily as friends. It's a simple and happy story!

I love the story because it hinges so much on friendship and the impact that a sense of community can have on a being, even a dog or elephant, and especially people!

Source: The Elephant and the Dog

Week 11 Reading Diary B

Dhritarashtra was a blind king, and he sends the Pandavas away from the city. They end up taking residence with a family, and this family has to give a yearly human sacrifice to Baka. Kunti (who is with the Pandavas) sends out Bhima to fight the demon coming to collect Baka’s yearly sacrifice. Bhima wins.

Krishna tells Arjuna that he remembers their memories together, but Arjuna doesn’t remember anything that Krishna says.

The Pandavas are given Khandava to rule (given by Dhritarashtra).

My favorite part of this section: Agni tries “eating” the Khandava forest, but Indra protects it with rain. The Pandavas end up helping Agni destroy the forest.

Week 11 Reading Diary

Sauti: the sage

Janamejaya: the king

Ganesha: son of Shiva and Parvati (Shiva tore off his head and replaced it with an Elephant head).

Amrita: the nectar of immorality.

The ocean was milk before salt – the serpent churned it.

What emerged: Lakshmi, Rambha, Airavata, Dhanwantari with amrita, and also poison. Shiva took the poison which turned his neck blue.A king falls in love with Ganga. King Shantanu and Ganga are in love.

King Chedi has a sort of wet dream (lol) when he dreams about his wife. The king charges a hawk to carry his semen to his wife, but the dang hawk drops the king’s semen in the water. A fish swallows it, and later on in the book, a fisherman captures that fish and finds a baby inside. The baby was a girl and the fisherman decided to be her father. He named her Satyavati. Later on in the book Parashara falls in love with Satyavati and they have a child Vyasa. Later on, Parashara takes away Satyavati’s fish smell and made her smell like flowers in lieu of fishiness. The king fell in love with her because of the way she smelled.

Bhishma obtains three wives for Vichitravirya: Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. 

The Pandavas are born. Drona is the son of the sage Bharadwaja. Bharadwaja came in a bucket or a "drona" - which is how his son, Drona, was born and received his name.

Week 9: Reading Diary B

Duryhodhana finds out that Pandavas is still alive. Bhishma encourages Dhritarashtra to make peace, but Karna calls Bhishman and Vidura traitors to the state for their advice.

The Pandavas are the 5 sons of Pandu and his two wives Kunti and Madri. They were all married to the same woman, although they each had other wives also.

Dhritarashtra gives the Pandavas a part of his kingdom and the pandavas end up creating an incredible kingdom / city called Indraprastha (p. 41).

Yudhishthira = the son of Kunti and Yama. He becomes king of Indraprastha.

Shakuni urges Duryodhana to leave the Pandavas alone but he can’t.

Fast forward to page 55 – Shakuni goes to play dice in place of Duryodhana. Yudhishthira loses EVERYTHING. He lost his brothers and himself and Draupadi.

The stake on the second game of dice is thirteen years in exile. It is divided up into twelve years in poverty and one year in disguise. Yudhishthira loses, and the Pandavas enter into exile. 

Week 9: Reading Diary A

Notes:

Shantanu = the king from Hastinapura. Falls in love with a woman at the river (we end up finding out that she is the river Ganga incarnated.

Varsus = Ganga’s eight children.

Devavratha becomes Bhishma. Bhishma = Ganga’s eighth son, or the son of Shantanu the king.

Shantanu AGAIN falls in love with Satyavati.

Satyavati = a fisherman’s daughter.

Chitrangada and Vichitravirya = the sons of Shantanu and Satyavati.

Vichitravirya ends up not having any children.

Bhishma says he cannot break his vow of celibacy, so Satyavati proposes another solution: the widows can sleep with her son Vyasa.

Ambika doesn’t like Vyasa, so their son Dhritarashtra is born blind.

Dhritarashtra marries Gandhari.

Durvasa = a sage