Adiparba - How it all began...

It was a morning at Naimesharanya. The King Shounak had arranged for a yogya (a certain kind of Puja /worship) here, and all the Rishis were sitting after their work, talking to each other. Suddenly, there came Souti, the son of a charioteer. He was a great historian, and had travelled many places to learn about the Puranas, the Vedas and all the stories of the great races that ruled the Earth. When the Rishis saw him, they were very surprised but welcomed him heartily. He was very respectful towards the Rishis and touched their feet. The Rishis were very interested in learning all that Souti had learned in his travels, and they stood surrounding him. They asked him where he was coming from. 

He said, "I have been to the Sarpayogya arranged by King Janamejaya where I heard the great story of the Mahabharata from Baishampayan, the holy student of Sri Vedavyasa. Then I went to see the holy battle field of the Mahabharata, where the Kurus and the Pandavas fought with each other. On completion of that, I went to various other holy places and finally I came here, as I respect all of you. Now tell me, my holy Fathers, which story should i tell you all? Should I recite the stories of the Gods and Goddesses, or should I narrate the histories of the great Kings that ruled this land? Or should I describe the society that existed?"

The Rishis said then, "We want to hear the story of the Mahabharata, the great creation of Maharshi Vedavyasa. It is said that it is the greatest literary work ever produced. We would like to bless ourselves by listening to this great epic!"

And so Souti, the great historian, started to narrate what he had heard from Baishampayan. He said, "We must first say our prayers to the Lord Brahma, the greatest of all Gods, to Narayan, to Shiva, to Devi (Shakti), and to Saraswati before starting with this great journey that I am about to take you on."

So they all prayed to the Gods and Souti started narrating his tale of the epic Mahabharata.

Introduction

Hi everybody! Welcome to this new blog! I am starting with this blog in order to retell the story of the Mahabharata, the greatest epic of India, as I keep reading it. 

It is a huge story, rather a history that describes the social, economic and cultural traditions of India in an age that is not just forgotten, but for which the historical evidence is pretty scarce. It also gives a detailed outline of an ideal society, showing every possible type of character, leaving it to the reader to reason out which  is the best. It shows the downfalls of dishonesty, the treasures that a virtuous character brings with it. It also has subtle humour to be enjoyed by the reader. It is an epic story with many branches and sub branches, many anecdotes that digress from the main storyline. I will try to reproduce these stories in my own way. I might not be able to put up to the reader the exact meaning that Vedavyas may have proposed when he wrote the great poetry. However, I will bring up the meaning these stories convey to me.

The stories will not be verbatim translation of the great epic tale, it will be presented in simple language as a story that can be enjoyed by the mass.

The versions of Mahabharata usually read by the people is a very concise tale that briefly outlines the main storyline, keeping all the branches aside. However, what I am proposing to present here is a complete depiction of the entire Mahabharata, with all its branches and sub branches. In order to do this, I will be following the Mahabharata written by Kaliprasanna Singha in Bengali in the 18th century A.D. I will keep adding the stories as and when I read them. I have been very curious about the entire story, and I want everyone to be able to know the tale.

I hope this blog brings to everyone a revival of the story they heard from their mother in their childhood, as well as explore further by getting a deeper insight into the story as it diverges. I do not intend to break any copyright laws and my postings will be purely for the public benefit.

~ Kaushani