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Week 6 Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part B

PDE Mahabharata

Sources provided by: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.


#21
This story is a full story in and of itself. I thought it was strange that the prince who made up the plot to burn the Pandavas and Queen Kunti alive hadn't acted sooner. I would think the oil would lose its effect if he waited such a long time, and the presence of the oil would be detected immediately (like if someone sat on the couch or whatever the furniture was at the time). This is a classic villain move where the evil character takes way too long and could have accomplished his goals had he acted sooner. I also thought it was brilliant that they had a miner dig their way out of the house. Essentially, the main characters in this story have also faked their own deaths by accident, so I am really interested to see how that plays out in the rest of part B.

The Pandavas escape. I like how the children all look like tiny adult men. Source: PDE Mahabharata
#27
I liked this story because it let a woman have multiple husbands instead of the normal trope where the king or prince has multiple wives. It seems like that happens a lot in Indian Epics, where men get to be consort to multiple women but not the other way around. 
#33
This is the end of the exile of Arjuna. I think it was an interesting parallel to the Ramayana that Arjuna was exiled due to his own will. However, in his 12 years of exile, he got married at least 3 times and seemed to live in luxury unlike Rama. At the end of the exile I was wondering what would happen with the wife he was taking back home, but it seems like amends were made and they will live pleasantly together.

Uncategorized
It seems like every son born of any of the protagonists goes on to become a great warrior despite their father often leaving. This story is interesting overall because it seems like people get married with no emotional attachment - the only goal is to produce great warrior sons and have as many wives as possible. And nobody is jealous, except the antagonist who is not romantically jealous. I found that strange, but the culture is different.

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