Reading Notes: Mahabharata part B

For this reading notes assignment, I thought I would try a different approach. When I was doing part A, I tried to summarize the main details of the story but ended up with way too much writing. For part B, I'm going to try the "beautiful sentences" approach and instead copy the most important bits of writing from the story to comment on.

1) "Now there lived in the forest on a shala tree a ferocious rakshasa named Hidimba. He was of grim visage and terrible to behold; his eyes were red, and he was red-haired and red-bearded; his cheeks were of cloud color and his mouth was large, with long, sharp-pointed teeth which gleamed in darkness; his ears were shaped like to arrows; his neck was broad as a tree, his belly was large, and his legs were of great length."

I really liked this passage because the description is very vivid. It makes him sound like a demon, and the reader gets a clear picture of what the character looks like. One thing I've noticed while reading Indian epics is that they describe the mythical characters well.

2) "They lived together beside silvery streams and lakes sparkling with lotus blooms; they wandered through woods of blossoming trees where birds sang sweetly, and by celestial sea-beaches covered with pearls and nuggets of gold."

I liked this passage because I thought the language was really pretty. It sounds like something out of a fairy tale.

3) "Thy daughter, like to a lotus, hath been but transferred from one lake to another. I have spoken what is true."

This one is short, but I liked the idea of a lotus flower being uprooted and moved to a different lake as a metaphor for a women getting married and leaving her homeland. It's succinct, but the gentleness of referring to the bride a a flower makes it reassuring. 

Draupadi and the five Pandavas. 

Bibliography:
Mahabharata, Vyasa, http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/mahabharata-online-public-domain-edition.html