Reading Notes: Epified Mahabharata Part A

Part A: Epified's Karmic Revolution

Epified's Cover of the Mahabharata
Source: Google Image

Structure

I was very excited to see a film version of the Mahabharata because I knew visualizing every episode in the epic would help tremendously with my understanding of what happened. Although I took my time and read every page of Narayan's Mahabharata, I finished the story with a very confused understanding of the famous Indian Epic. Through illustrations, Epified has made it incredibly easy to tell who is who and what relationship each person has with eachother. I espcecially appreciated the recaps that cleared up any confusion I had about one episode before starting a new one. I also like how detailed this version is, and it does not speed through some stories and drag out other one's like Narayan's did. 

Characters

As you have gather by now, I am very critical of the way women are portrayed in these epics. In the first part, we see two women are forced to sleep with their ugly ex-brother-in-law, and they are punished for not being 100% happy about it. I think this sends a very wrong message to young girls learning about this story as it shows women are punished if they do not comply with what a man tells them to do. I also did not like how Amba felt her life was ruined simply because she was rejected by two men. If I were to re-write this story, I would definitely not let Amba's self-esteem rely on the affection of a man regardless of his title. 

Plot 

When I first started watching part A, I was extremely confused as to where in the Mahabharata had the authors started. It wasn't until the two "defected" sons were born that I was able to become with the familiarity. I believe this demonstrates the complexity of the epic and the many details within the story that can easily confuse the reader. Even with the visuals, I was constantly having to pause the episode and recap who was who. In my own stories, I plan on clearing up a lot of confusion when retelling old stories and keeping the character's very simply in order to not add any more complex to an already difficult story. 

Bibliography: Epified's Karmic Revolution