A manuscript of Sarala Mahabharatahas a slightly different story of King Gandharasena but the difference is both quite interesting and significant. This story is about his greed and punishment. Pleased with Gandharasena, goddess Ganga had given him divine dice sticks and dice cubes and told him to return those to her on the completion of …
CONCERNING DURYODHANA’S KILLING OF HIS MATERNAL GRANDFATHER
Here my main purpose is not to retell a story from Sarala Mahabharata but only respond, by way of story-telling, to some important questions that friends have asked, who – in particular, Dr. Pradip Bhattacharya and Dr. Vineet Chaitanya, both eminent Mahabharata scholars - have been kind enough to read the post on why there …
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HOW THE PANDAVAS CAME TO LIVE IN INDRAPRASTHA
One day the Kauravas and the Pandavas were playing a game which, today, we would most likely call “kabaddi”. When there is jealousy, malice and hatred in the mind, a game like this could turn into a mini battlefield. This was precisely what happened that day. Misusing the rules of the game, Dussasana hit Yudhisthira …
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HOW BHIMA KNEW ABOUT "GOLAKAPUTRA"
Kunti and the Pandavas had just settled down at Indraprastha. Every morning Yudhisthira would pay respects to Kunti and then proceed to Hastinapura to pay respects to bada baapaa (father’s elder brother) Dhritarashtra and bada maa (father’s elder brother’s wife). His brothers would join him, although Bhima did not like it at all. He didn’t …
I AM SITTING, O SON OF GOLAKA
(aho golakaputra mu basuchi) said Bhima to Duryodhana as the latter invited him to take his seat in the Kuru court, saying, “take your seat, O son of Pavana (pabanaputra basa)”. The family elders, Bhishma and Bhurishrava, clapped and laughed loudly. ‘How on earth, did you get to know of this secret?”, they asked Bhima, …
KANSA MAMU, NO SAKUNI MAMU
The The maternal uncle or manu in Odia culture is someone who is very affectionate and caring towards his nephew (or niece) and mamu ghara (maternal uncle’s house) is a place where the nephew spends a happy time, where he eats dudha bhata (rice with milk), which stands for delicious food in the language. But …
RAI’S STORY
(This post is not about Sarala Mahabharata. It is about a ritual in Shri Jagannath Temple in Puri and the story associated with it. The ritual continues but the story is all but forgotten. The inspiration for this post has come from some observations of Ms. Sewa Bhattarai regarding some fading worships in Karnali and the …
DHRITARASHTRA: A NOTE IN SADNESS
In swarga, where Yudhisthira went without passing through death, he found himself in the company of those he knew in the mortal world. There were his own brothers, there were Duryodhana and his brothers, there were Sanjaya, Vidura, Duryodhana’s son, Lakshmana Kumara, Abhimanyu, Ghatotkacha, Virata, Drupada, Shikhandi, Dhristadyumna, and a few more, who the poet …
THINKING ABOUT DURDASA
Ten years ago I read Durdasa’s story in Sarala Mahabharata and for ten long years he has been in my thoughts. In the battlefield of Kurukshetra, responding to Yudhisthira’s call to join him and fight for dharma, he chose to abandon his Kaurava brothers and join the Pandavas. When the angry Duryodhana ordered his army …
SARALA MAHABHARATA AS A NOVEL PRISON – REVENGE STORY
Note: This piece, published in The Political and Business Daily on July 17, 2016, Sunday, is authored by Dr. Vikas Kumar ( vikas.kumar@apu.edu.in) who teaches at Azim Premji University, Bangalore and me. Dr. Kumar is the first author. This piece views an aspect of the Sakuni episode in Sarala Mahabharata from the larger perspective of "prison-revenge" …
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Sarala Mahabharata 