This week we are starting to read Narayan's version of Mahabharata and the beginning was a little confusing to me. There are a lot of affairs going and and birthing of children that I need to slow my reading to get the names in my head. The start of the chapter began with Shantanu and Ganga, where Shantanu the king falls in love with a woman who drowned her children... wow talk about being a great mother but good thing the King stopped that from happening on the eighth child Bhishma.
The story goes on about Shantanu and him falling in love with the fisherman's daughter but the father objected and then later they both have children. An interesting part of the book and it made me laughed a little bit was the part of Satyavati smelling like fish and Parashara changed her smell into a perfume. I wonder if Shantanu would still be with her if Parashara didn't change her smell, would he still like her for who she is?
I thought the part of Pandu was pretty sad, he was cursed because he shot the deer while it was having sex. The deer happened to be a disguise and cursed Pandu that he would die having sex. Now Pandu cannot have children with his wives which is pretty sad because they can't start a family because of a curse. How awful is that curse? Not being able to make love to your significant other or in this case "others" but have to die while doing so. What a horrible curse!
So far I enjoyed reading the first part of the book, although there are some warming up to do with the names. I can get the different characters down. First part caught me by surprise because there were so many affairs going on and birthing of the gods that I had to pace my reading and go back and read the reading guides. I am so thankful for the reading guides! It was such a big help.
The Mahabharta: Mahabharata
No comments:
Post a Comment