Navigating the site The post below tells you about the structure of the blog and how to navigate it. Navigating the Blog . My posting schedu...
Please note: This is a sensitive topic and not shared here for any controversy. This process of sharing posts is a learning for me. While I share, I learn. If I have shared any information which is not correct or something that may hurt any sentiments, I would like apologize upfront for the same.
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Recap
After the sixty thousand sons of Sagara were burnt by Kapila, Angshuman set forth to look for them and get the horse. There he followed the route of his uncles and met rishi Kapila. The rishi told Angshuman that Ganga needed to be brought down from heaven to liberate the dead sons of Sagara. Angshuman wanted to know about Ganga.
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Recap:
Janamejaya wanted to destroy the brahmins. Vyasa came and admonished him. He then wanted to perform the Ashvamedha yagna, which too Vyasa asked him not to. Undeterred, the king went ahead with disastrous results.
Note:
I refer to a sub parva name of Adi Parva as Kashidas does not separate his work into sub-parvas. I thought of sharing a summary/ brief of which sub-parva contains what.
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Recap
The pigeon king, who with his followers, was trapped inside a net, had reached out to the mouse king, Hiranyaka, for help. The mouse had cut the net thus freeing the pigeons. This had been spotted by a crow, Laghupatanaka, who impressed by this wanted to be friends with the mouse.
The mouse said a crow and a mouse could not be friends and he began telling the crow about the deer, the crow and the jackal.
The jackal wanted to eat the deer but the crow tried to warn the deer, by telling the story of a vulture and a cat.
After that, the deer got trapped in a field and then realized the worth of the crow’s words.
The mouse king ended his story and said a crow and mouse could not be friends.
Recap
The sixty thousand sons of Sagara were cursed to have a short life. When Indra stole the sacrificial horse, these sixty thousand searched the whole earth, looking for the horse and causing destruction. They then dug their way into the earth and ended up in Patala.
There they saw the horse tied in Rishi Kapil’s ashrama. Thinking the rishi was the thief, they struck the rishi, who immediately burnt them to ashes.
Janamejaya: Analysis of his character
The character of Janamejaya is interesting. While his grandfather was a prince in the Dwapara Yuga (Abhimanyu), by the time Janamejaya is the king, Kali Yuga has started. He is the king to whom the Mahabharata is recited. While the Sanskrit Mahabharata shows Janamejaya as a focused, though vengeful king, the Bengali versions—like Kashidas’s work—bring out flaws in his character.
Recap:
Uttanka had been asked to fetch the earrings from the queen of Paushya. When Uttanka had stopped on the way back to perform ablutions, Takshaka had stolen the earrings. Uttanka then went to Patala and retrieved the earrings. He was angry and he went to Janamejaya. There he asked the king to take revenge, after all Takshaka was the killer of Parikshit. Hearing this Janamejaya started the snake sacrifice. It had started when Astika, wanting to save the Nagas, arrived there and had the sacrifice stopped.
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A recap:
A deer had been spotted by a crafty jackal, Kshudrabuddhi. The jackal had just one objective, flatter the deer, gain its confidence and then eat it. It got friendly with the deer. When the deer introduced the jackal to his friend, a crow Subuddhi, the crow warned the deer against trusting strangers, and started telling this story.
Recap
The last post was on the birth of Sagara’s sons and why Sagara banished his eldest son, Asamanja.
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