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| R.K. Narayan's The Mahabharata |
I am working through R.K. Narayan's Mahabharata, A Shortened Modern Prose Version of The Indian Epic, and finished reading Part B, Pages 41-83 this evening.
A warning to the 5 Brothers that sharing one wife could be troublesome. They are warned with the story of Sunda & Upasunda, brothers who shared everything, until their destruction by sharing one woman, Tilottama.
Arjuna becomes exiled after transgressing against his brothers and his wife, by intruding on his wife and brother during a year that was not Arjuna's year to be with his wife. He is exiled for 12 years, and during that time, he also marries Ulupi, a princess of the Serpent World, and Subadhra: sister of Krishna.
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| Arjuna and Subhadra, by Raja Ravi Varma |
Page 82 - Urvashi's Curse -- While Arjuna is in the celestial realm of his father, Indra, learning song and dance and acquiring many new weapons, an apsara named Urvashi noticed Arjuna and comes to like him. With the permission of Indra, she goes to Arjuna at midnight, dressed in a see-through silk-sari and knocks on his door, practically offering herself to him. He refuses, as he is under a vow, and cannot partake of women until his duty is over - she curses him to become a eunuch, and to be unnoticed by women everywhere that he goes. Later, she reduces this curse to only one year of his choosing, which he chooses to use during his thirteenth year of hiding, which works to his advantage.
- I'd like to write a story spinning off of this, perhaps.
Page 64/65 - Draupadi's Sari Miracle -- she has been gambled off by her husband and is led in front of her captors wearing only a single cloth, during her menstrual cycle. In shame, she has been touched by a man, and they are leering at her, and begin to attempt to undress her. Her FIVE WARRIOR HUSBANDS do nothing, and she is left humiliated. She prays to Krishna to save her, and he alone comes to her aid, replacing each piece of cloth that is unraveled from her body with another piece of cloth, leaving her original sari in place to cover her appropriately.
Arjuna: Invincible, honored by gift of Gandiva, the inexhaustible quiver
- Gandiva is a gift from Agni, the fire god, when Arjuna set the Khandava Forest on fire with his astra. Agni needed to consume animal fat for his own well-being.
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| Statue of Arjuna in Bali |
