- Right off the bat, I can see a scary side to this story. Santanu sees a woman and asks her to be his wife. She agrees only if he promises to never question her about anything she does. That just spells trouble, especially once she starts drowning their children (page 1).
- But alas, it is none but Ganga in human form who has a purpose for doing so.
- Devaratha (Bhishma) reminds me a lot of Rama. He promised his stepmother’s father that he would remain celibate so that her children could succeed the throne, and kept to that promise even when it was needed for him to come forward and marry his deceased brother’s wives (page 5).
- And then Satyavanthi’s third son, Vyasa (conceived in quite a story) is asked to come and take the wives of his younger brother and they have children that have things wrong with them. But, his child with a maidservant is a normal one, it is Vidura. (Pages 6 and 7)
- Wow, the first chapter introduces quite a few characters and stories.
- The conglomeration of cousins are raised and trained together, and then Kunti’s long lost son appears and fights with his family in a performance (pages 16 and 17).
- So the family does not quite get along very well, and the Pandavas have to fake their deaths to run away (page 26).
- And Bhima ends up with a child born from a rakshasa mother. That’s something that would definitely not happen in The Ramayana.
- I kind of like Bhima’s character. He is quite the trickster, and his fight with Baka is interesting (pages 29-30).
- And Draupadi has to marry all five brothers? What must that poor woman think of that? (Pages 35-39)
 |
| Image Information: Bhima Fighting Baka; Web Source: Wikimedia Commons. |
No comments:
Post a Comment