Epics of India

The Silk Merchants by Edwin Lord Weeks, via Wikimedia Commons Two traveling merchants boarded a ferry in a large city with the goods they hoped to sell. The ferry pushed off into the flowing water and headed down the river to a smaller town. During the trip the merchants discussed their views of their profession. The first merchant explained that he values a fair exchange of equally valued goods. The second merchant chuckled and with a patronizing smirk told his colleague that he will never become rich with an approach like that. The second merchant continued his self-righteous speech by explaining that he plans to accumulate wealth by selling his goods for much more than they are worth or trading inexpensive items for much more valuable items. The first merchant was not impressed with the other merchant's philosophy. The first flaw he found with his fellow merchant's plan was that he can only do business with people who do not know what products are worth. Then once...

Draupadi and the Pandavas Draupadi her swayamvara was attended by many princes and brahmans, including the Pandavas and Kauravas the challenge at her swayamvara was to shoot an arrow into the eye of fish that was painted on a wheel turning above a bowl of oil without looking at anything other than the reflection of the fish in the oil none of the princes (even Duryodhan) could even lift the heavy bow provided by the king until Arjuna Arjuna successfully completed the challenge and won Draupadi's hand in marrage married all 5 of the Pandavas at once because she had prayed in a past life to have a husband with 5 virtues Karna - king of Anga attended Draupadi's swayamvara, but Draupadi refused to allow him to attempt the challenge because of the low class he was raised in was so humiliated by this that it set him on the path to cause a lot of destruction in the future Krishna - avatar of Brahma  attended Draupadi's swayamvara, but did not attempt the ch...

Arjuna and Karna in War via  WikiMedia Commons This week I'm continuing my viewing of Epified's retelling of the Mahabharata and taking notes on character's. I have had a lot of trouble keeping all the characters' plots straight in my mind so writing out a cheat sheet has made it much easier to understand. Karna biological son of Kunti and Suryadev , the sun god who Kunti sent down the river in a basket raised by  Adhiratha , a charioteer, and Radha had enchanted armour and golden kundals all his life that grew with him wanted to be a Kshatriya , elite warrior, and asked Drona to teach him, but Drona refused because he was not born into that class student of Parashurama excellent archer and could use very powerful celestial weapons When Karna silently withstood the pain of a scorpion sting, Parashurama became convinced he was a Kshatriya and banished him. cursed by Parashurama to forget his battle skills when he needs them most outshone Arjuna in arch...