Authors: John Mandeville Macfie (1)
Donald A. Mackenzie (2,3,4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,18,19)
Sister Nivedita (5,6)
Elizabeth Seeger (11,12)
Romesh Dutt (17)
C. A. Kincaid (20)
Reading notes:
I generally like origin stories for this very reason, they are so strange and creative that it couldn't possibly ever be true. I think the idea of a river goddess becoming human so she can save the cursed celestial beings is pretty cool. Even more so neat that the beings then granted her human son an either each of their power. It made me laugh that she agreed to marry the king so long as he treated her well. It makes sense! Thats what anyone wants in a relationship! But I can imagine that after watching your wife drown seven sons, that would be a lot of rage pent up not saying anything. I don't know if the river goddess character will come back into play, but I like that she came, had her story, and then was no longer needed. Unnecessary characters are frustrating.
The story of Satyavati is an interesting one. I like the line, "If ever thou hast need of me, think of me, and I shall come to thine aid.". That idea of her son being so devoted to her even though he wasn't there for very long is sweet to me. I also appreciate that Shantanu didn't disinherit his own son just to wed the other beautiful maiden. Thats pretty noble of Bhishma to basically disinherit himself so that is father could marry the woman he wanted. It was already his destiny to not marry or bear children of his own, but it was still a very noble thing to do for one's father. This is a pretty cool dude. Hes going to fight to seize bride for his younger brother who is on the throne that he should have. He is making such an effort to secure the throne for his half-brother. I think so far he is my favorite character!
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and in this case Amba is the woman scorned and she is going to get her revenge on Bhishma it sounds like. The set up of this plot it very intriguing and I would definitely use it somehow in my stories! It sucks that the younger brother died before he could have any successors. I really liked how they bring back in the slightly forgotten actual first born child to Satyavati. While it is sad that Vyasa was so horrid to behold, I find it interesting how the sons came to be and how their names relate to their characteristics.
The play fight turning deadly is another image that I really like and feel like it would be fun to use in one of my own stories. Arjuna would be another celestial being, seeing as he is the son of the Sun God.
I feel like I could do a cool story with all of the celestial born characters in this epic. So far we have Kunit, who's mother was a nymph, Vyasa, who was gifted an eighth of power from eight celestials, Vidura, who is the reincarnation of the god of justice, and Ganga, who is a river goddess. And any of the sons of Vyasa and any of his son's sons are all technically celestial beings by being related to Vyasa. I also like the idea of having omens surrounding the birth of certain characters, I feel like that is something I could easily add into my stories.
I am not surprised that there is competition between the sons of the two kings. I am excited about the ideas of the nagas though and how they give Bhima supernatural strength. I could use that in a story with the other celestial beings! I like the relationship between the sons and their teacher Drona. Starting with friendship and turning to disdain is an interesting relationship that could lead to many different paths.
Bibliography: Since each chapter has a different author the links to each chapter are listed with their respected author at the top of the page.
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