Yudhisthira is the eldest son of the exiled King Pandu and his first wife Kunti. Born in a forest, life is idyllic, until one day when Pandu and his second wife Madri suddenly pass away. Orphaned at a young age, Yudhisthira and his four brothers go back to Hastinapur with their mother, hoping for some…
Rukmini, the princess of Vidarbha is a charismatic woman. Intelligent, inquisitive and strong-willed, she knows how to question the wrong and do the right. When her arrogant brother Rukma and father, the weak King Bhishmaka arrange her marriage with Chedi prince Shishupal, under the pressure of tyrant Jarasandha, Rukmini puts her foot down. She decides…
The battle of Kurukshetra is nearing its end. Bhisma lies, half-dead on his bed of arrows, waiting for death to embrace him. His entire life has been a series of sacrifices, vows, and responsibility. Yet, there is one last task that he has left, which he is determined to finish before breathing his last… It…
What if I tell you that Draupadi never insulted Duryodhana as Andha Ka Putra Andha in the canonical Sanskrit text of Vyasa’s Mahabharata, contrary to what we see in popular depictions? To understand, let’s go back a little in time. The year is 1989. On a hot, humid Sunday morning on the 9th of July,…
At last, the sixtheenth day of the Kurukshetra War came to an end. The glowing orb reluctantly rolled down the Western sky, putting a much-needed halt to the day-long slaughter of mankind. Bruised and wearied men limped back to their camps, their restless minds contemplating the possibilities of witnessing another sunset. Standing at the entrance…
In the past few years that I have been reading Mahabharata, I have come across various modern retellings of the epic. Some are plot-based, some character-centric. Some are heart-touching but atrociously biased, while others are lucid and illustrated with an almost neutral pen. And Now Let Me Sleep by P.K. Balakrishnan is easily one of…
We have all grown up reading or hearing some version of Mahabharata. Most of the times, our exposure to the epic is limited to condensed abridged versions like Amar Chitra Katha, TV series, famous works of literature on selected incidents or characters by stalwarts like Tagore, Ramdhari Dinkar, etc. And then, there are those wondrous stories we…
There are two kinds of people that read Mahabharat. The traditionalists, who loyally stick to the standard texts and their conventional interpretations. And the skeptics who question and challenge the existing narrations, seeing the primary texts through a prism of cynicism. There are third/fourth sub-categories too, but that is a discussion for another day. Nonetheless,…