Reading Notes: Narayan's Mahabharata Part D
Reading C: Narayan's Mahabharata
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| Mahabharata's 18 Day War Source: Google Image |
Recap and Final Thoughts
I found Part D to suffer from the same problems Part C did. Much of the story got lost in the abundance of details in the fights. It was difficult for me to determine who was winning and who was losing. The biggest question I had was why were the men fighting to began with. There is a quote I read a long time ago that was a protester's sign that read, "Fighting for peace is like f****** for virginity." I thought of that quote a lot because it seemed like both sides just wanted peace throughout the country. Duryodhana wanted the Pandavas to remain in exile so he can peacefully rule the kingdom, and the Pandavas wanted the Karavanas to give back their kingdom so they can rule peacefully. In the end, they both lost many men and eventually died themselves. I was hoping the epic would have some sort of twist that didn't end with the Pandavas winning everything. As I expressed in my last reading post, I was not fond of the characters because I do not think they are deserving of their powers. Although they did some charitable things throughout their journey like kill that monster for the village they were staying in, they mostly just opposed their cousins at everything and ended up killing men who shaped them to be then men they became. I also ended up not liking Draupadi very much because her acts towards the end painted women as weak and manipulative. She convinced her husbands to fight when they were on the verge of conceding, and then she hid throughout the entire war only to emerge once it was over. If I were to retell the story, I would have put it from her perspective and had her much more engaged in the plot of the story than she is in the original. Overall, I prefer the Ramayana over the Mahabharata mainly because it was much easier to follow. I didn't connect with the characters very well mostly because I couldn't relate to any of them. With that being said, I can understand how it is a powerful story in Hinduism as there are many lessons throughout the great epic that are worthy of being passed down to generations.
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