Reading Notes- Mahabharata, Part A- Reading Notes

Pandu Goes Hunting by Unknown.

Hello!
Section A of the Mahabharata was confusing to say the least. For the reading notes, I will be focusing on my favourite parts of the section since taking it all in at once is a bit more difficult since much of the story is quite sporadic. For this notes section, my favourite parts will be comprised of the stories of "King Shantanu and Ganga" and "Pandu and His Wives". I picked these stories from the public domain of the Mahabharata and they seemed like the most descriptive.

Let's start with "King Shantanu and Ganga".
Immediately, the name was more familiar to me because of my familiarity with the river. While it may not mean much, with the context of a brand new story and the unloading so many names, having at least one name with something ready to attach it in my mind was very helpful. What I really enjoyed about this story was that it was short but it made it easier to process what was going on. Up until this point in the story, all parts were mostly about introducing characters and then explaining their origin. While I'm sure it's a great refresher for other students who may have been exposed to these stories before, it was hard to understand who the new characters were and their relations to the ones that have already been introduced. What I loved more about this story was the description of Ganga. It was an obvious ode to her physical beauty but it also focused a lot on relating her back to the water. This reflected to her origins and impact on the country's culture and physical features.

The second story I, whether I wanted to or not, ended up focusing on was the story of "Pandu and His Wives".
It was strange reading so much about intercourse about not only humans but about deer and its extent to a curse. While I was reading the summary at the top, it was hard to understand exactly what the "enjoying" his mate was until I stumbled into the more significant details of the event. I was even surprised about the transaction of words since there was so much focus on sex and how the deer's pleasure was completely connected to a curse. Fortunately, the factor of surprise helped me understand the scenario better than I expected which helped me gather a sense of who Pandu was and how willing he was to go to keep his favourite wife safe.

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