Reading Notes: Reading B: The Five Tall Sons of Pandu p. 98 - 118

War Never has a Winner

For the second part of the reading, I finished up the shortened version of the Mahabharata by Richard Wilson called, The Five Tall Sons of Panda. The endings are the same with the Pandu brothers winning the war but pointing out that no one really won because of all of the lives that had to be lost. Again, I am focusing my reading notes on Karna. I think in the second part of the reading you can still tell that he is angry with the Pandu brothers for how they have treated him. Like someone beneath them. Even when Karna finds out that he is really the oldest Pandu brother, he does not tell anyone and sets out to kill Arjun to prove he is the most skilled warrior. It seems that Karna's anger and jealousy of wanting to be something he does not think he is entailed to fuels his death. It is sad but can also be added to my story. Karna will not feel worthy until he proves himself as a warrior and defeats Arjun. He thinks that all of his troubles will go away and have self-acceptance if he proves that he is the best warrior. I think a story could be created about what lead Karna up to the point that he is at. Something must have happened when he was younger to have made him want to defeat the Pandu brothers. I felt that in this story, unlike the Mahabharata, Duryodhan side was winning most of the war. It seemed that even though they would lose the head of the army the rest did fine and in the overall picture the Pandu brothers side suffered more. I also was surprised that Krishna seemed more like a warrior in this version than the original Mahabharata. In the original story, Krishina was just there for support and to give advice but would not fight. But in this version, he fought alongside the Pandu brothers. He is not considered a reincarnation of Vishnu and therefore does not seem to have a higher power above. He seems more human in this story.

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Image: Arjun kills Karna in thier final battle. Source: Wikipedia