Indian Epics Journal

Episode 10 - Pandu's Curse Dhrithrashtha and Pandu get married. Kunti has secret son from Surya. Three of them enjoyed the forest and each other's company. Pandu hunted in the woods. He made a mistake. Shot an arrow at hermit couple making love. Killed him in a moment of passion. Whenever he becomes intimate with a woman, he would die. They made a decision. Pandu would not be returning. Kunti and Madri stayed back too. Dhritarashtra thought throne was his for good. Kunti spoke the mantra and gave rise to Hastinapur's future kings. Episode 11 - Sons of Pandu Pandu kills kermit and gets cursed. Kunti called Yama, God of Truth and Death, gave her son to be embodiment of patience, Yudhisthir. He became mental block of the brothers to be relied on in times of turmoil. Wind god gave Kunti son who was as strong as the wind, named Bheem, known as hero later on. Mantra was called upon to Indra, which gave her a son to become a great warrior. Kunti summoned twins for Madr...

Episode 6 - Satyavati's Secret beloved king Shalwa, who refuses her. The kingdom no longer had a prince or king. Satyavati came forward to Bheeshm about her son with a former man. She summoned him to come and take over the reign of king. He became known as sage Vyasa. Unfortunately, he was no gem to look at and actually, people were terrified by his appearance. The throne of Hastinapur would finally be filled! Episode 7 - Sons of Vyasa Vichitraveerya dies so Vyasa takes over. Vyasa pays visit to Ambika, who closes her eyes when he takes her in an embrace. The child born to them was blind. Ambalika was visited too but she turned pale with fear and so their child was born pale and was in poor health. Servent girl fell in love witht he Sage. Blind child, Dhritrashtra, grew to be kind. Panda was pale and weak but grew to. Vidura grew to be wise and the god of truth and death. There was rivalry between Dhritarashtra and Pandu that Vidura noticed. There were too many contenders to ...

Mahabharata: the epic story of love, heros, villains, war, and importantly, a culture of India. Source: Wikipedia . Episode 1 - Shantanu the Unfortunate King Shantanu of Hastinapur fell in love with river goddess, Ganga, and asked her to marry him. Ganga said yes but made Shantanu promise her that he would never question her decisions. And so Shantanu said nothing as Queen Ganga killed each and every one of their newborn children. Finally one day, Shantanu could no longer bear Ganga's killings, so he interfered with her attempt to kill their eighth son, Devavrat. Ganga explained to him that all of the children she killed were celestial beings and she meant to end their mortality by drowning them in the river. Since Shantanu disregarded Ganga's wishes to never be questioned, Ganga left him and took their only son. Episode 2 - Devavrat returns Sixteen years after Ganga left him, Shantanu was strolling alongside the river when he noticed a young archer had tamed the riv...

Krishna Comes - Intro Kamsa hated Krishna even before he was born. Krishna grew enemies who tried to keep him from being born. But when the enemies failed, they tried to keep him from growing up. But when this failed too, Krishna made allies with kind people and was loved by many. Eventually, he slays his ultimate enemy who is also his uncle, Kamsa. Episode 1 - Kamsa Kunti gave birth to Indra's son, Arjuna. Another birth took place far away... this birthed son would guide the Pandavas into war and bring about victory.. This birth was that of the one and only, Krishna. Kansa is a cruel ruler of Mathura. The gods above demanded that the eighth son of Devaki would slay Kansa. Kansa loved his cousin, Devaki, and decided not to kill her but instead throw her and her husband in jail until he found their son and killed him. He thought killing the eighth child would rid of his doom. Out of pure evilness, Kamsa killed all of Devaki's children, six in total. Vishnu came to Earth as a...

Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories  by C. A. Kincaid (1920),  Krishna and Yashoda, who presumed he was her son. Source: Wikipedia Commons. Chapter 2: Krishna's Childhood Yashoda found Krishna by her side and understandably presumed he was her own son. She loved Krishna with all of her heart. Kansa was incredibly distressed to know the eighth child was born but was not with them. In spire, he called the demons Dhenuka, Keshi, and Pralambasura to join his intent to kill all male children in the kingdom. The entire kingdom was oozing with blood everywhere, following the slaughtering of male children. Prince Vasudeva begged Nanda to take him to Gokula to protect Rohini's son Balarama. In the meantime, when King Kansa had accomplished his intentional massacre, he wished to kill male children outside his borders as well. For this, he called the demon Putana. She disguised herself as a beautiful woman crossing the Yamuuna river. She went from village to village and...

Yudhisthira and the final test before ascending to the heavens. Source: Wikipedia . The Afterlife Once in heaven, Yudhishthira faced one final test of his virtue: he saw only the Dhartarashtra Clan in heaven, and he was told that his brothers were in hell. He insisted on joining his brothers in hell, if that were the case! It was then revealed that they were really in heaven, that this illusion had been one final test for him. The epitome of all that is virtuous and righteous, Yudhishthira refused Indra’s offer. He said he couldn’t travel to heaven without Draupadi and his brothers. To this, Indra told him that they all ascended to heaven after falling to their deaths. It was a test of dharma and Yudhishthira had once again proved his righteousness by not abandoning people who stayed with him throughout. Yudhisthira loyally went to Naraka (hell) to meet his brothers, but the sights and sounds of gore and blood horrified him. Tempted to flee, he mastered himself and remained o...

Life in the Forest Pandavas go into exile in the deep forest. Yudhisthira sobbed with sorrow as he prayed to brahmins about losing the kingdom. He prayed to the sun god, glorifying all the roles he plays. The sun god, Surya, responded by appearing with a copper pot full of food.  During their time in the forest, the Pandavas and their wife Draupadi experienced beautiful sunshine and also, powerful heavy rains.  Riddles at the Lake Before departing the forest after living twelve years in exile, the Pandava faced quite a disaster.  An animal carried away twigs used to kindle a holy fire. The Pandava desired to kill this animal or at least retrieve the twigs. They grew weary after chasing the animal so they stopped to rest.  Yudhishthira told Nakula to fetch water from a pond they discovered nearby.  Nakula was very thirsty and when he stooped low to take a sip from the pond, he heard a Voice, instructing to answer. But Nakula ignored this, since he was s...

Maya showing gratefulness to Arjuna and Krishna. Source: Wikipedia . PDE Mahabharata: The Burning of the Forest Source. The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921). Reading notes focused on character of Mayasura and Vidura. Mayasura - An article with more background information than the Mahabharata contains. Agni, the fire god, requested for Arjuna and Krishna to defeat the god, Indra. This is because everytime Agni would ignite a fire in the forest, Indra would cause heavy rain to extinguish the fire.  After a great battle, Agni burned the Kandava forest with a fire, which killed most of the residing animals. Mayasura is one of the creatures that escaped the fire.  He became incredibly grateful to Krishna from saving his life perishing flames. Because of this, Mayasura promised Arjun and Krishna to build a great palace, as he was the “divine architect of the gods.”  Duryodhana grew jealous of the increasingly prosperous Pandavas.  May...

Public Domain Edition of Mahabharata by  Arnold , Besant , Devee , Dutt , Ganguli , Kincaid , Macfie , Mackenzie , Nivedita , Seeger , and Tagore . Vyasa and Ganesha: Vyasa is the author of the Mahabharata and ordered god Ganesha to write down this story, which contained all the information that needed to be known about Earth and heaven. He set in stone that Ganesha would record everything effortlessly and he ordered told Vaishampayan, who performed the sacred snake sacrifice subsequently. This was conducted by the King of Hastinapura, Janamejaya, who is related to Vyasa. The story of Vyasa’s birth: The King of Chedi, Uparichara, was very powerful; so powerful, the gods feared he would conquer them. They ordered Indra to gift him a one-of-a-kind flying crystal car. One day, while the king was flying in the skies, a droplet of his semen fell into the river. A fish swallowed this, which gave rise to a boy and girl. The girl was left with the fisherman to be raised. Later named Sat...

Ramayana by  M. Dutt ,  R. Dutt ,  Gould ,  Griffith ,  Hodgson ,  Mackenzie ,  Nivedita ,  Oman ,  Richardson , and  Ryder   Sita is sent into exile by Rama. Source: Wikimedia Commons. The Bridge In order to get to Ravana’s kingdom of Lanka, Rama had to leap over the ocean. So he prayed to the God of the Ocean so that he would be able to accomplish this without being devoured by ocean demons. The King of the Ocean instructed Nala, the son of Vishwakarman, to form a bridge for Rama’s army of monkeys to cross the deep. The beautiful green bridge was set in rocky islands and it was named Rameshwaram.   Rama Attacks Rama and his army arrive at Lanka. Ravana has powers of illusion and uses them on Rama. Monkeys roared with fierce aggression against the rakshasas. The monkeys advised Ravana to surrender Sita, to which he refused. Ravana created the illusion that Rama was slain in the war and brought a semblance o...

Ramayana by  M. Dutt ,  R. Dutt ,  Gould ,  Griffith ,  Hodgson ,  Mackenzie ,  Nivedita ,  Oman ,  Richardson , and  Ryder   link The controversial and in some perspectives, dishonorable, death of Vali. Source: Wikipedia . Sugriva and Hanuman Sugriva: monkey-king living in exile from evil brother Vali, who captured Surgriva’s wife. Hanuman: monkey-god   Rama and Lakshmana wanted to approach Sugriva in hopes that he could help them on their quest to save Sita. Sugriva was alarmed because he is living in exile so he doesn’t want random strangers looking for him. So Sugriva tells Hanuman to ask them what they want without revealing his identity. Hanuman was overjoyed when he realized Rama and Lakshmana came with good intentions. After asking them about their presence wandering in the jungle, Hanuman accepted their request to help protect themselves under Sugriva and responding the similarities between Rama and Sug...

Ramayana by  M. Dutt ,  R. Dutt ,  Gould ,  Griffith ,  Hodgson ,  Mackenzie ,  Nivedita ,  Oman ,  Richardson , and  Ryder   link Dasharatha's funeral rituals performed mainly by Bharata. Source: pinterest . Bharata Returns I think It’s interesting how Bharata wept when he heard Dasharatha had died but Kaikeyi was not visibly upset. Bharata is especially upset because not only is his father gone but his brother is also not in the kingdom.   Dasharatha’s Funeral   Bharata plays a significant role performing the funeral rituals for his father and the story notes how he was “burning with grief.” He was the most skilled in speech and thus, was expected to perform the last rites. He notes how while he was gone, a lot of significant change took place, such as the banishment of Rama which was accompanied by Lakshmana. He then compares the city to being deprived of the moon.   Rama and Bharata Bharata wa...

Ramayana by M. Dutt , R. Dutt , Gould , Griffith , Hodgson , Mackenzie , Nivedita , Oman , Richardson , and Ryder   link Rama and Sita after leaving into exile. Source: flickr   There were once two kings: Dasharatha and Janaka. Dasharatha was the Kingdom of Koshala and lived in Ayodha. King in the Solar dynasty.: father of Rama. Janaka: Kingdom of Videha, lives in Mithila: father of Sita Capital of Koshala: Ayodhya, beautiful and full of prosperous people. King Dasharatha of Koshala was mighty and powerful, but did not bear any sons. So they perform a Ashwamedha horse sacrifice (for the purpose that the gods will grant him heir who would perpetuate his race) and ends up with four sons. It was the chief queen, Kaushalya, who slew the horse. Drama in the heavens: Ravana, king of the Rakshasas, needs to be defeated but only by a human or monkey. So the god Vishnu borns Rama as the son of Dasharatha. Of the four children, Rama was the most beautiful. Great sage Vishvami...