Week 12: Buck's Mahabharata (pp. 93-189)Assignments - Reading Guide A - Reading Guide B - Mahabharata Resources |
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Your Reading B for this week is Buck's Mahabharata, pp.
139-189. You might want to read over the previous
reading guide to remind yourself of what has happened so far.
p.
141 Arjuna and Urvaśi. Arjuna refuses Urvaśi's advances and Urvaśi curses
him to live for a year as a eunuch.
Indra orders Chitraratha, lord of the gandharvas, to teach Arjuna music and
dancing, and explains that Urvaśi's curse offers Arjuna a way to disguise himself
in the thirteenth year of exile.
Indra teaches Arjuna the use of divine weapons.
p. 142. The story of Mankanaka. The deer of the forest appear
to Yudhishthira in
a dream and ask the Pandavas to leave because they are destroying the deer.
To illustrate the dangers of eating grass instead of deer, Bhima tells
the story of Mankanaka.
Mankanaka lived in the forest, eating plants and weeds.
When Mankanaka cut himself, grass juice came out instead of blood.
Mankanaka was so happy that grass juice flowed in his veins that he danced
and danced.
Mankanaka's dance made the whole world start to dance with him.
The gods were worried that Mankanaka's dance was going to destroy the earth.
The gods sent Siva to put a stop to
Mankanaka's dancing. When Mankanaka realized that the god had come to visit him,
he stopped his dancing.
p. 144. Rishyaśringa.
Next, Yudhishthira tells the story of Rishyaśringa, whose birth was provoked
by Urvaśi. The hermit Vibhandaka saw Urvaśi while she was bathing and ejaculated.
When Vibhandaka's sperm fell into the lake it was swallowed by a deer.
Rishyaśringa was the son of Vibhandaka and a deer, and he had
antlers growing from his head.
Rishyaśringa had never seen another human being except for his father. Meanwhile,
The country of Anga was suffering from a terrible drought.
King Lomapada's advisors told him that a man with a pure heart, such as Rishyaśringa,
could bring the rains. The king's daughter Śanta offered to help bring
Rishyaśringa to the city. When Śanta visited
Rishyaśringa, he welcomed Śanta to his home.
Śanta kissed and hugged Rishyaśringa and taught him how to play catch and
tag.
Vibhandaka told his son that the pleasant creature which had visited him
was a rakshasa.
When Rishyaśringa came with Śanta to the city, it caused the rains to come
at last. Rishyaśringa married Śanta and lived with her in the king's palace,
but his father
went back into the forest.
p.
154. Mount Kailasa.
The Pandavas leave
the forest and go on a journey to Mount Kailasa.
Near Rishava's mountain, Yudhishthira disturbs the silence and the mountain
attacks them.
Later, a white lotus blows down the mountain and
Draupadi asked
Bhima to go get her some more of the flowers.
Hanuman blocks
Bhima's path and Bhima is unable to move Hanuman's tail. 
Finally,
Hanuman tells Bhima where to find the lotus lake.
Manibhadra,
the lord of the yakshas,
tells the Treasure Lord Vaiśravana that
a human being stands outside his palace.
With his breath, Bhima blows away the armor worn by Vaiśravana.
Vaiśravana allows Bhima to take away the lotus flowers from the
lake. Matali,
Indra'a charioteer, returns Arjuna to earth where he rejoins his brothers.
Arjuna brings heavenly weapons, along with ornaments and jewels for Draupadi.
p. 168. Gandharvas attack. In the twelfth year of their
exile, the Pandavas come down from mountain to Dhritarashtra's kingdom.
Duryodhana wants
to build a pleasure house near where the Pandavas are living in exile. Gandharvas
prevent Duryodhana from building his pleasure house and
Chitraratha traps Duryodhana in an iron net suspended
from the sky. Yudhishthira tells Bhima and Arjuna to rescue Duryodhana from
the gandharvas. At Arjuna's request, Chitraratha agrees to let Duryodhana
go.
In shame for his defeat by the gandharvas, Duryodhana resolves to die but he
gives up this plan when the goddess Kali appears
to him and offers encouragement.
p. 175. Jayadratha. Jayadratha, the husband of Duhsala and brother-in-law of Duryodhana, sees Draupadi in the forest. Jayadratha grabs Draupadi and carries her off with him in his chariot. The Pandavas chase after Jayadratha. Yudhishthira asks Draupadi for permission to spare Jayadratha's life when they capture him, and Draupadi agrees. They release Jayadratha unharmed.
p.
179. The tale of Savitri. Krishna and Vyasa are
both visiting the Pandavas in the woods.
Draupadi asks Vyasa to tell them a love story, so he tells them the story of
Savitri.
Savitri was not impressed by the suitors who wanted to marry her so she
took a golden war chariot to go looking for the man she would marry. In the
forest she found Satyavan,
the son of a blind king living in exile. 
Savitri
decided to marry Satyavan, even after she learned that he had only one year
of life left.
Savitri lived with her husband in the forest and after one year he died. The
god Yama came to
collect Satyavan's soul. Savitri asked for permission to follow Yama.
Yama offered to give Savitri a gift because he was impressed with her courage.
Savitri asked for the blindness of her father-in-law to be cured. When offered
another gift, she asked for her father-in-law's kingdom to be restored
to him. She then asked for her own father to have one hundred sons and finally
she asked to have one hundred sons with her husband. Yama told Savitri she
would have to surrender half her days on earth to get her husband back, and
Yama took half of the days of Savitri's life and gave them to her husband so
that he was able to come back to life again.
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