Reading Notes Epified: Mahabharata Part A

For my reading this week I did the Mahabharata series of YouTube. This is a series of short videos that narrate while an artist draws. I did another series like this a few week ago and liked it a lot. I was interested in this reading immediately. The first story is about the king Shantu and his wife the river goddesss Ganga. Ganga married him under the stipulation that Shantu could never question her decisions. This is put to the test when she has his child. She kills the child immediately. She does this for their first 7 children. Before she kills child number 8 Shantu questions her. Shantu explains that she had to give birth to the 8 Vazus. Celestial spirits cursed to live as mortals. Ganga agreed to kill them at birth to release them from the curse. Because Shantu questioned her Ganga left with the 8th child. This story reminded me of a lot of fantasy style writings like lord of the rings. I can see using this material in a lot of different types of stories. Some ideas I have is telling a story with animals. I also could see this story working in a sci fi setting. A Post apocalypse world where live births are very rare. I will need to think of why the first few will need to be killed. I also think having someone who does ridiculous things, but can not be questioned would be another story direction. Maybe have a boss or military leader who does increasingly crazy things. In the end it is revealed to be for an important purpose. A Nazi life regime where questioning your commander is death. One underling finally cant take it anymore and has to question his orders. A lot of the other stories did not have a lot of striking details for me to latch onto. The last story the Blind Bride was also interesting. A blind king must marry. A suitable candidate is found but her family does not want her to mark a blind man. She knew she was destined to marry a blind man so she decided to blindfold herself for life. Another story detail is the kings younger brother actually has most of the power.

Ganga leaving with child 8

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Epified: Mahabharata