Week 10: Narayan's Mahabharata (pp. 83-179)Assignments - Reading Guide A - Reading Guide B - Mahabharata Resources |
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Your Reading B for this week is Narayan's Mahabharata, pp. 133-179.
You might want to read over the previous
reading guide to remind yourself of what has happened so far.
p.
133. Krishna's mission to Hastinapura. Although Yudhishthira wants
to make one last plea for peace, he is worried about whether it is safe for Krishna to
go to Hastinapura as
his emissary. When Dhritarashtra learns
Krishna is arriving as an emissary, he wants a lavish reception. Vidura explains
that what Krishna wants is not a lavish reception but peace and justice. Duryodhana plans
to take Krishna captive. While in Hastinapura, Krishna sees Kunti and
brings her news of her sons. Duryodhana rejects Krishna's plea for peace and
refuses to listen to the urging of his mother Gandhari.
Krishna manifests himself in his divine form to the assembly, and Duryodhana
realizes it is impossible to take him prisoner. Before leaving Krishna speaks
privately with Karna,
explaining his parentage to him and trying to convince him to abandon Duryodhana
but Karna refuses. Karna promises Kunti that the only one of her sons that
he will attack in the coming battle is Arjuna.
p.
145. The war begins. At Krishna's urging, Yudhishthira
makes Dhrishtadyumna,
Draupadi's brother, the supreme commander of his troops. The old warrior Bhishma is
the supreme commander of Duryodhana's troops. The battle is to take place on
the field of Kurukshetra.
When Arjuna despairs at the prospect of fighting his guru Drona and
the members of his own family, Krishna preaches a doctrine of duty and detachment
to him, called the Bhagadvad-Gita,
or "Song of the
Lord." Krishna
manifests himself in his awesome cosmic form, showing all being and creation
and destruction. After this sermon, Arjuna is ready to fight.
The Bhagavad-Gita and the Explosion of the First Atomic Bomb (quote from the PBS program, "Race for the Superbomb" website).
From the Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter 11 (trans. K.T. Telang, 1882; website). Arjuna speaks to Krishna: Seeing your mighty form, with many mouths and eyes, with many arms, thighs, and feet, with many stomachs, and fearful with many jaws, all people, and I likewise, are much alarmed, O you of mighty arms! Seeing you, O Vishnu! touching the skies, radiant, possessed of many hues, with a gaping mouth, and with large blazing eyes, I am much alarmed in my inmost self, and feel no courage, no tranquillity. And seeing your mouths terrible by the jaws, and resembling the fire of destruction, I cannot recognise the directions, I feel no comfort. Be gracious, O lord of gods! who pervadest the universe. And all these sons of Dhritarashtra, together with all the bands of kings, and Bhishma and Drona, and this charioteer's son likewise, together with our principal warriors also, are rapidly entering your mouths, fearful and horrific jaws. And some with their heads smashed are seen stuck in the spaces between the teeth. As the many rapid currents of a river's waters run towards the sea alone, so do these heroes of the human world enter your mouths blazing all round. As butterflies, with increased velocity, enter a blazing fire to their destruction, so too do these people enter your mouths with increased velocity to their destruction. Swallowing all these people, you are licking them over and over again from all sides, with your blazing mouths. Your fierce splendours, O Vishnu! filling the whole universe with effulgence, are heating it. Tell me who you are in this fierce form. Salutations be to thee, O chief of the gods! Be gracious. I wish to know you, the primeval, one, for I do not understand your actions. The Deity said: I am death, the destroyer of the worlds, fully developed, and I am now active about the overthrow of the worlds. Even without you, the warriors standing in the adverse hosts, shall all cease to be. Therefore, be up, obtain glory, and vanquishing foes, enjoy a prosperous kingdom. All these have been already killed by me. |
p.
151. The end of Bhishma.
Dhrishtadyumna tries desperately to kill Drona to avenge his father's humiliation,
but Drona escapes him. Bhishma attacks Krishna and draws blood, which enrages
Arjuna, but when Krishna goes to slay Bhishma with his discus, Arjuna begs
him not to. Ghatotkacha,
the demon son of Bhima and Hidimba,
comes to the aid of his father. Amba has
become reincarnated as a warrior, Śikhandin,
to get her revenge on Bhishma. Because Bhishma recognizes the woman Amba in
Śikhandin, he cannot attack. Arjuna shoots at Bhishma from behind Śikhandin,
and Bhishma falls from his chariot, fatally wounded. As Bhishma is no longer
able to join in the battle, Karna now agrees to fight.
p.
156. Abhimanyu, Jayadratha, and Arjuna. Drona is now
made the commanding general of Duryodhana's armies. At Duryodhana's urging,
Drona attempts to capture Yudhishthira alive and sets up a diversion to lead
Arjuna away from the main battle.
In Arjuna's absence, his young son Abhimanyu is
asked to break through the enemy's formation.
Abhimanyu knows how to penetrate the formation but not how to escape. Abhimanyu
breaks through but Jayadratha,
Duryodhana's brother-in-law, is able to trap Abhimanyu behind the enemy lines
where he is slain. When he learns of his sons' death, Arjuna vows to kill Jayadratha
before the next day is over. Jayadratha hides and only comes out when he sees
the setting sun. But it is a trick - Krishna has used his discus to make it
seem like the sun is setting, but it is still daylight, and Arjuna slays Jayadratha
in fulfillment of his vow. Meanwhile, Karna uses an invincible weapon he had
reserved for Arjuna in order to kill Ghatotkacha the demon son of Bhima.
p.
160. The end of Drona. Krishna proposes that Drona can
be brought down by his devotion to his son,
Aśwatthaman.
Krishna then insists that they lie and tell Drona that his son Aśwatthaman
is dead. Bhima kills an elephant named Aśwatthaman and when he shouts, "I
have killed Aśwatthaman!", Drona hears him.
Drona asks Yudhishthira if this is true, and Yudhishthira says that Bhima has
killed Aśwatthaman, adding just under his breath in a whisper "Aśwatthaman
the elephant." Drona is paralyzed with despair, thinking his son is dead,
and as he sits in a trance, Dhrishtadyumna cuts off his head.
p.
162. Death and savagery. Bhima kills Duhśasana,
Duryodhana's brother, and then mutilates his body and drinks his blood. Meanwhile,
as Karna fights a duel with Arjuna, his chariot wheel becomes stuck
in the mud and he forgets the mantra he needs to use his Brahmastra weapon.
Karna begs for mercy until he is able to free his chariot wheel, but at Krishna's
urging, Arjuna attacks and kills him. After Karna's death,
Śalya is made
supreme commander, and Yudhishthira savagely cuts him down, much to everyone's
surprise. Sahadeva,
meanwhile, kills
Śakuni, Duryodhana's
uncle. Duryodhana despairs and hides at the bottom of a lake. He emerges for
a final duel with Bhima, who smashes his thigh and fatally wounds him. Duryodhana
denounces Krishna's tricks and deceits, but Krishna insists to Duryodhana that
the warriors have brought about their own deaths through their karma.
Duryodhana remains defiant even at the moment
of his death.
p.
167. After the battle. After the battle is over, the Pandavas go
to Hastinapura. Dhritarashtra is so stricken by grief that he wants to kill
Bhima. Krishna substitutes a metal statue for Bhima, and Dhritarashtra crushes
the statue, thinking it is Bhima.
Gandhari can not be consoled in her grief for her sons and she curses Krishna.
The Pandavas together with Vidura, Sanjaya and
Dhritarashtra, along with the women, perform rituals for the dead.
Yudhishthira
tells the sage Narada that
he feels no joy in the victory and grieves over the dead.
Narada explains to Yudhishthira how Karna's guru Paraśurama had
cursed Karna for having deceived him, thus causing him to forget the mantra
for the Brahmastra at the crucial moment. Also, Karna had once killed a hermit's
cow and the hermit had cursed Karna so that his chariot wheel was swallowed
by the earth.
Yudhishthira says that he would rather be a beggar than a king and proposes
to make Arjuna king in his place. All of his family, together with Krishna,
raise objections, and Yudhishthira finally agrees to become king.
p.
177. The end of the story. At Krishna's
urging, Yudhishthira goes to consult the still dying Bhishma who lectures him
about kingship, and then dies. Yudhishthira cremates Bhishma on the shores
of the Ganges.
Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti go to live in the forest and die there in
a forest fire.
Krishna's people destroy themselves in a civil war and his city Dwaraka is
swallowed by the sea.
As Krishna sleeps on the bank of a river he is killed by a hunter who mistakes
the soles of Krishna's feet for birds. The Pandavas die one by one until only
Yudhishthira is left, who departs for heaven in his bodily form.
The child of Abhimanyu, Arjuna's son, grows up to be king at Hastinapura, continuing
the Pandava line.
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Modern Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. The textual material made available at this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. No claims are made regarding the status of images used at this website; if you own the copyright privileges to any of these images and believe your copyright privileges have been violated, please contact the webmaster. Page last updated: January 15, 2005 1:35 AM |