Week 14 Story: Duryodhana's Revenge
By Ramanarayanadatta astri (https://archive.org/details/mahabharata04ramauoft) [Public domain]
All his life Duryodhana had been more susceptible than those around him to the dark emotions that bring unhappiness and violence to people. It was apparent this would be the case when he was born. when Duryodhana entered the world, his terrible screams caused the animals of the kingdom to erupt in thunderous cries and the wind to blow so ferociously that it carried embers from fireplaces and ignited many buildings around the palace. The councilors to King Dhritarashtra, Duryodhana's father, urged him to heed the many bad omens that accompanied his son's birth and cast him aside for the good of the kingdom, but the King was very fond of his first born son from the very beginning and could not abandon him. As predicted by the councillors, Duryodhana grew up to be driven by jealousy, rage, and revenge.
It was no surprise that when Duryodana first laid eyes on his five cousins, the Pandavas, he felt the familiar emotions of jealousy and resentment that had so frequently infiltrated his heart, and as he got to know them, his hatred focused on Bima, the second oldest Pandava, who was the strongest of the brothers and the same age as Duryodana.
By the time they were young men Duryodhana had decided to kill Bhima and thought up many different schemes to accomplish his goal, but none of them were successful. Duryodhana came up with another plan to murder his cousin when a beautiful pavilion for playing water sports was built along the Ganges. Duryodhana invited his cousins and his ninety-nine brothers to spend a day playing sports at the new pavilion.
After a full morning and afternoon of games the Kauravas and the Pandavas sat down for an enormous feast. This was the opportunity Duryodhana was waiting for. The deceitful prince added deadly poison to the meal that was to be served to Bhima. The deadly plate was then taken to Bhima who ate it all.
After the feast the young men headed back into the river for more games, and fueling Duryodhana's hatred, Bhima won them all. When all the games were finished the cousins got out of the water and headed back to the palace, but Bhima was so overcome by exhaustion that he lay down on the bank of the river and fell asleep.
Duryodana had hidden in the tall grass waiting for this moment, and once he saw Bima unconscious on the riverbank he sprang into action. Duryodana tied his cousin's hands and feet and tossed him into the river. Believing that he had successfully accomplished his goal Duryodana headed back to Hastinapura with his brothers and cousins.
A few days past without Bima returning to the palace and Duryodana was sure of his success. Then Bima arrived unscathed at the palace gate looking even stronger than ever. Duryodana was furious that his plan had failed, but he would not learn for some time how severely it had backfired.
Author's Note:
I retold the story of Duryodhana poisoning Bhima from the Mahabharata. I stayed true to the original story, but only told the parts that involved Duryodhana directly. The original story explains that after Duryodhana tosses Bhima into the river Duryodhana is attacked by Nagas, poisonous snake demons, but the Naga poison counteracts Duryodhana's poison. Bhima is revived and fights off the Nagas which impresses their king. The Naga King then lets Bhima spend time in his kingdom recuperating, and before Bhima leaves the Naga King lets him drink a magic nectar that gives Bhima the strength of 1,000 elephants and makes him invincible in battle. When Bhima returns home he only tells his mother and brothers about what Duryodhana did, and from then on they are very vigilant of any possible foul play by Duryodhana.
Bibliography.
The Five Brothers: The Story of the Mahabharata, by: Elizabeth Seeger, Chapter: The Sons of Pandu, Section: The Poisoning of Bima, Source
Hi there, Ryan!
ReplyDeleteGreat story! The imagery you used really helped draw in your reader from the beginning and gave us insight on how your character was feeling throughout the story. I think you could demonstrate this even more by adding in some dialogue. Thank you so much for sharing and I wish you the best of luck on the rest of your semester!
Hey, Ryan, I really enjoyed this story. You have great descriptions that really capture the feeling of the story. Scene and setting are really strong through this story but I found myself missing some sort of dialogue or even inner monologue from Duryodhana. I think it would be cool to know what drives him to poison Bhima through his own words. Anyway, well done, I really liked it.
ReplyDeleteHey Ryan,
ReplyDeleteThat was a great story you wrote! I saw in your author's note that you only include parts of the story that involved Duryodhana. I think that was a good idea to keep the story within the bounds of the word count. You did a great job of capturing the essence of the story here. The picture was well placed as well!