Reading Notes: Reading B: 51 Lesser Known Tales from The Mahabharata

For the second part of the reading of Sharath Komarraju book, 51 Lesser Known Tales from The Mahabharata, I read fourteen short stories that deal with characters from The Mahabharata. The first story I enjoyed reading was the tale of The Three Men in Amba’s Life. For those that do not remember Amba was the eldest daughter of the three princesses that Bhishma stole for his brother to marry. The problem was she was already in love and promised to be married to another King when Bhishma releases her to marry the other man he rejects her because she was kidnapped by another man. This causes hatred and revengeful mind in Amba that she passes along to her daughter Shikhandini. Because of the hatred, her mother instilled in her when she was young Shikhandini wants to kill Bhishma and follows through with her mother’s plan. But we do not hear how her mother got her to hate Bhishma so much. Instead of getting to hear bedtime stories was Shikhandini forced to listen to tales of how mean Bhishma was to her mother? I think a story could be created about Shikhandini childhood and how she grew up only hearing about the terrible things Bhishma did which is why she has such a strong desire to kill him. The second story I really enjoyed is The Avatar of Convenience: Mohini. So, Mohini is one of Vishnu’s avatars. She is a beautiful woman that uses her beauty to get some of the “villains” in the India Epics world to end their own lives. She seems like a very intelligent woman and would love to get to read some more of her stories in depth. But I also think I could create a story for Mohini that goes into The Mahabharata. Iravan (Arjun’s son) chooses to be sacrificed to help the Pandava’s win the war but before he is sacrificed he wants to marry a woman, enjoy a night of passion, and then have her mourn the loss of her husband. Accordingly, Krishna assumes the form of Mohini and completes everything so that Iravan can sacrifice himself to help the Pandavas win the war. Does Mohini seduce Iravan? How does there one-day whirl-wind romance go down? I think this could be a fun, quirky story to write about a man finding a wife in a day to then die the next day. I am sure the encounter is all kinds of awkwardness.

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Image: Mohini seducing Bhasmasura. Source: Wikipedia by Raja Ravi Varma