Since his birth, Duryodhana had been a trouble maker. Always picking on his brother, crying, and demanding attention at all times. The arrival of his cousins only appeared to him as an obstacle to overcome that chastened even his smallest of desires. He could not wait for them to leave.
However, Kunti had brought with her news that would change Duryodhana’s life forever. It had come to pass that his uncle, King Pandu had died. However, this news did not saddened the cold heart of Durydhana. What angered him was the news that his cousins would be staying, forever. King Dhritarashtra had agreed to accept the Pandavas as his sons, raising them along side the Kausavas as equals. This Durydhana could not accept. How could his father betray his sons in such a way?
As time went on, the Pandavas developed into mighty, valiant young men. Of all the Pandava brothers, Bhima was the most powerful. His presence in the royal city constantly overshadowed the Kausavas, the “natives”. Again, none was more distraught of this development than Durydhana. Now considered the leader of the Kausavas, his hatred for Bhima had grown deep and bitter.
Under the guidance of Durydhana, the Kausavas began plotting their destruction of Bhima. They thought, without their mightiest brother, the Kausavas would soon surpass the Pandavas in glory and triumph.
Finally the day came when the saga of Bhima and the Pandavas was to be put to an end. One day, while the brothers were enjoying a feast on banks of the mighty Ganges, Durydhana poisoned the food Bhima. Shortly after, Bhima dropped dead. Or so it appeared. Durydhana hastily dumped Bhima’s body in the river, ridding his side of this thorn.
Bhima sank into the river and was attacked by a swarm of angry serpants, called nagas. However, ironically enough, the serpents’ venom counteracted the poison he had been fed by Durydhana and he sprang back to life. But it was to late. Once he reoriented himself, Bhima was in the underworld city of the snakes.
Luckily for him, Aryaka, the great-grandsire of his mother, Kunti, inhabited this evil place. In place of certain death, Bhima was bestowed the power of one thousand nagas. After a period of respite, Bhima feasted in the city of snakes and returned to Kunti and his brothers. Telling his brothers the tall of his journey into the underworld, the Pandavas agreed to secrecy, never revealing to the Kauravas what had happened.
Bhima and the nagas: Wiki Commons
Author’s note. This story is primarily based on episode thirteen of the Public Domain Edition Mahabharata, “Bhima and the Nagas”. This episode essentially describes the climax of the tension between the cousins where Durydhana attempts to kill Bhima. I chose this story because of the irony of the situation. Durydhana has been an evil-spirited character since his birth and its bad omens. This makes him the ideal character to carry out an act like this. However, the irony come in because while he tried to get rid of him all together, his actions actually make Bhima more powerful, completely undermining the goals of Durydhana. He sort of “shoots himself in the foot”. I tried to make the episode a little more “story” like by beginning the story with the cousins in their youth. This shows their innocence at the beginning that turns to bitterness as they age. This also highlights the inherent evil of Durydhana. One message that I wanted to take away from this story is that sometimes the good guys win and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Bibliography: The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921)
Kurtis!
ReplyDeleteReally good story! I think that if you could've added a little bit more detail to the context of your story, then it would put the reader in the scene. I like how you turned to story into your own. I wish that you could have expanded a little bit more on why they wanted to take down Bhima other than the fact that he was powerful.
Kurtis, I thought you did a great job of telling the story of Duryodhana and Bhima. I found the Mahabharata to be more confusing than the Ramayana. What do you think? You really did make the story your own as Jordan said, but I would have liked to see some more detail about the actual takedown of Bhima. It was a little vague. You did a great job writing overall and your work shows!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your storytelling piece because I actually imagined the story going the same way when I first read it. I agree that more details and your own twists on the story would have made it more enjoyable, but considering the words limit and the amount of story you covered, I thought you did great! I did have trouble following your writing at some points, but it was mostly punctuation errors.
ReplyDeleteI think you did really good with your story, it was easy to follow and since you did add in the cousins in their younger days it did give it more of a buildup than if it was just in their adult stage of life. I would have liked a little more description of some of the scenes, however, overall it was a very good rendition of the story!
ReplyDeleteHey Kurtis!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story! I like how it was not what I expected. It started out so cheerful and peaceful but then it abruptly became sinister and dark. This caught me off guard – in a good way. I did not expect there to be a murder just because of how the story began. It made me wanting to read more.