Most of us know the Mahabharata from our childhood. We have grown up either reading the epic or watching it on TV or hearing tales from our parents/grandparents. I too belong to that category. I decided to revisit the Mahabharata recently. I have started listening to the original version and am surprised with how my understanding of the same epic from my childhood has changed. For example: I never questioned how can a woman birth 100 children in my childhood. Of course, a part of the reason is because I have never read/seen/heard the Mahabharata in so much detail. It's very fascinating how I am viewing the same epic in a very different light now.
I stand to endorse your view. Our quantum of understanding relishing of epics including Gita depends or relates to the back ground knowledge and experience that we possess which again varies from age to age. Chanting Gita or vishnu sahasranama at the age of 9 is for its rhyme and rhythms. My understanding differs widely now from what I had 60 or 70 years ago.
@gamma50g, It is amazing to review the epics with current technological knowledge. We always believe the ancient period of Tretha Yuga and Dwapara Yuga are conservative and insensitive to the needs of the families. When you read Ramayana, we will wonder how Payasam given as a prasadam produced children such as Rama, Lakshmana, Bharatha and Shathrugna. The ancient wisdom had herbs that would help a woman become pregnant or terminate pregnancy. Similarly, the ancient wisdom had technology to develop what was delivered by Gandhari by dividing them into hundred pieces and make that develop into 100 children in 100 pots. Our current technology only reached a level where an egg and sperm are processed in a lab and replanted into the womb of the mother or alternatively the sperm saved in a sperm bank being used for making the surrogate mother become pregnant. If you carefully review how Dhiridarastra, Pandu and Vidhura were born, you will know the ancient practices existed what was called then as "Niyoga". it is created to ensure continuation of the family lineage and to mitigate the financial and social precariousness that a childless widow would have faced in society. The conditions are created for this Niyoga method: 1) The woman would agree to this only for the sake of rightfully having a child but not sexual pleasure 2) The child thus born would be considered the child of the husband-wife and not that of the appointed man 3) The appointed man would not seek any paternal relationship or attachment to this child in the future 4) To avoid misue, a man was allowed a maximum of three times in his lifetime to be appointed in such a way 5) The act will be seen as that of Dharma and while doing so, the man and the wife will have only Dharma in their mind and neither passion or lust. The man will do it as a help to the woman in the name of God, whereas the woman will accept it only to bear the child by herself and her husband. There is one more condition and that is too graphic to explain in a ladies forum by a 70 year old male and those who are interested can always look up the term Niyoga in wikipedia. But what is interesting to note was how Vyasa (the Sanyasi son of Satyavati) who was chosen to impregnate her daughters-in-law did it to both daughters-in-law plus another servant, just in case, if the daughters-in-law don't get pregnant. Vidhura was born to that servant but still was considered as a lineage son. Vyasa also did it thrice complying with Niyoga. Now let us switch to Pandu's chidren. Because Kundi had a boon from Dhurvasa to gain children from the God of her choice, she used it also only thrice to comply with Niyoga method by giving birth of the children of Yama, Vayu and Indra by giving birth to Yudhistra, Beema and Arjuna and then passed on her Mantra to Mathuri to have Nagula and Sahadeva. Karna was born before her marriage by her mistakenly testing her boon and therefore he was never considered a legitimate child. There is so much to learn from the epics how advanced in thinking the ancient people living in Treta and Dwapara Yuga.
The technology then was so fascinating. When King Brihadratha prayed for a son, he was given a mango and asked to give it to his queen. He cut it into 2 equal halves and gave it to his 2 queens. Each queen gave birth to half a son with one eye, one arm, one leg and it seemed like the whole body was cut in half longitudinally. Both the queens of the king asked their maids to throw the baby in trash. Finally an asuri Jara found the 2 parts and tried to put them together and lo behold! A whole new baby was created. Can we imagine something like this now? Kunti was not supposed to share the secret mantra given to her by Sage Durvasa for invoking any God to bear his child. But due to Pandu's curse, she had to have sons of Gods. Seeing Kunti with sons, Pandu's second wife Madri desired for a son too. Kunti gave her the mantra taking a promise that she will use it only once. Madri invoked the Ashvin twins and had Nakula and Sahadeva. Kunti got angry at Madri for misusing her boon and then took it back. On a lighter vein, I was listening to the concept of Niyoga with my kids and then realized why there's a kids version of Mahabharata
Even though Madhuri wanted children of her own and Pandu can’t give her a child due to curse, Kunti shared her boon with Madhri. But I carry an impression, Kunti didn’t want Niyoga Rule to be broken and hence after 3 children by having 3 different God, she might have decided to share her boon Mantra with Maduri. She also suffered a fate for having an illegitimate child before marriage. When Kundi went to Bhisma to save Karna, he said Karna will never be considered as a legitimate child of his lineage. However out of compassion, he said Karna can not fight the war until he was the chief of Army pretending Karna’s refusal to submit his weapons as the reason.
I agree to lot of things you have mentioned here. I think will be true for most of us. We read bits and pieces of Mahabharata through amar chitra katha, heard stories from elders, read in school books. Things came together through tv shows and reading the entire Mahabharata directed at kids. In our childhood we don't question 100 kids of gandhari just like we don't question how lord Ganesha has an elephant head. With God living among humans or appearing at different places, we don't question anything. I too had a change when I revisited Mahabharata a little while back. Previously, I defended lot of what kauravas did because pandavas were no saints. I thought lord krishna manipulated the war and i questioned most of his actions. But now I know better after my most recent revisit. Earlier karna was my favorite but now of course it is Lord Krishna. While I still like Karna, Bhishma has fallen down the ranks. My conclusion is, While lord Krishna is above all and does not come into the equation, perhaps the most exemplary character who was noble at all times and was above everyone else was vidhura. Everyone else was flawed in some way. Can you share the source you are reading from. I started with the rajagopalachari version recently but it doesn't seem to flow properly to my liking. Would like to read from a good source.
I am listening to The Stories of Mahabharata podcast by Sudipta Bhawmik on Spotify. Not only can I absorb the details better this way, but I also liked the flow and narration.
I think they also have a published book with the same name. I forget the name of the publishing house but they mention it at the end of every podcast episode.
So I don't know if indra is a real god. I don't remember any temples which has indra. While one cannot fault him in Mahabharata his deeds in ramayana ( wrt to ahalya ) and his other mischiefs cannot be condoned. That he is a key figure with one of the important pandava is odd to me.
