19.2.20

Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata A

Mahabharata A



When a fisherman caught a fish, he released from it two children, the boy, and the girl, living inside. These children were made by the fish swallowing Indra's sperm. 


The girl, Satyavati grows up giving people rides across the Ganges. She grows up a little before brahmin Parashara comes along. He falls in love with her beauty at first sight and asks her to mother his child. In return, he will remove her fish smell, she will smell like perfume for the rest of her life.


Bhishma forfeited his claim to the throne so that his father could marry again. Bhishma is the son of the king Shantanu and the goddess Ganga. However, in this portion of the Mahabharata, Bhishma goes to kidnap the daughters of the king of Benares, Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. 


B
Image depicting Bhishma

A contest is occurring to determine who is fit to marry these women. However, when he decides to steal the daughters he must fend off multiple armies with his skill with the bow. Bhishma takes the daughters back to Hastinapura for his step-brother Vichitravirya, who is currently acting as the city's king.



Amba is the oldest of the princesses that Bhishma kidnapped. She had secretly sworn to marry the King of the Shalwas. She tells Bhishma about her previous arrangement. He sets her free to go marry the King of the Shalwas. 


She goes to the King of the Shalwas. He treats her terribly as he was embarrassed by the kidnapping event when he lost to Bhishma in battle. 


She leaves him to become exceptionally pious. She is so Pious that she attracts the attention of Shiva, who decides to offer her a boon. Amba wants Bhishma dead she is angry and believes that Bhishma had ruined her chance for a happy life. Shiva says that she will reincarnate Amba as a man so that she can kill Bhishma in future life. Amba burns herself alive to be reborn.


Pandu was named as king when he came of age. The two wives each had numerous sons, the two sets of sons came to be known as the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Duryodhana leads the Kauravas and he decides to trick the King Dhritarashtra. 



He asks the king to send the Pandavas away to a wooden palace he's had built, everything in the palace is soaked in oil. He plans to get rid of the Pandavas. The Pandavas are seen as better than the Kauravas in most ways.


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