Reading Diary A: Narayan's Mahabharata

Draupadi and Bhimsena Conversation, from Wikimedia

For this week I chose to read Narayan's Mahabharata, for very similar reasons to why I chose to read Narayan's Ramayana. I really like print books over reading online. Reading print, there's a small chance I'll fall asleep, is better than reading on the computer, where I'll definitely fall asleep. Above, the picture shows Draupadi conversing with her five husbands. You go, girl.

Regardless, the Mahabharata is already pretty different from the Ramayana, in that there's quite a bit more in the way of politicking in the reading for tonight. The stories that really stood out were Ganga's story, where she gave birth to and then drowned her children, and then the beginning of Draupadi's story, and her previous life.

It just really seems like a lot of what I read (granted, it's late) entailed who would be king and taking vows and relations passing away to make room for new characters. This is fine, but it definitely didn't grip me as fast as the Ramayana did. I'm interested to read more, especially about Draupadi.

I found it pretty interesting that when the first rakshasa showed up, instead of immediately being killed by Rama, as I had pretty much gotten used to, she stuck around and had a kid with Bhima. That sounds... strange? 

Draupadi choosing her husband was great, because she outright denies the first guy who accomplishes the task. She doesn't like how he looks, so she says 'try again' and then she gets someone she wants. That's a really strong move for a women in this context, so I'm just waiting to read more about her.