Week 7 Reading: Narayan's Mahabharata

Reading: The Mahabharata by  R. K. Narayan

Duryodhana's obsession with beating the Pandava's becomes quite ridiculous towards the end. They try everthing they can to obtain peace, and he shirks it aside, even attempting tricks like trapping Krishna. In the end, he even brainwashes himself, convincing himself that he wants nothing more out of life and all his suffering was due to the Pandava's greed. It's almost like a story of descent into madness.

That war was a very long 18 days. I found it interesting because it is the first time I know of that Narayan has described, in detail, military tactics, e.g. the lotus formation. Of course, these were integral to the story, but to me it feels unusual for the author.

Bhishma's death was... umm... different. At first, I thought he fell onto the bed of arrows and died a few days later while the war waged on, but no, he stayed alive through the end of the war, a coronation ceremony, and funeral rights. Then, he talked to Yudhishthira for two days straight. That's a long time to sit on the arrows doing nothing. It's probably the greatest feat of discipline I heard of yet.

Bhisma lying on his death bed of Arrows
Source

I like how the Pandavas get around lying to Drona. We killed him (but he was an elephant)! I think that sums up the sometimes silly double standards of honor in this story. The characters will chastise someone for some form of trickery, then turn around and do something even worse themselves.

I kind of wonder why Krishna let his kingdom fall into Civil War. He supposedly all-knowing and should have had plenty of time to prevent it, but he lets it happen, and his entire kingdom disappears as a result. To me, he seems like a terrible ruler, leaving his country all the time to help others and never taking care of his own.