Reading Notes: Narayan's Mahabharata, Part D

• Dhritarashtra is a weak leader. If everyone has been saying since the beginning to get rid of Duryodhana, then he should have. This whole war could have been avoided if he had just done so.
• Consider a story taking place in the past when Duryodhana was born. Take a route where he is left to die of exposure and either leave it at that or have him survive and cause this was out of revenge for leaving him.
• Is it really fear from which the Pandavas are speaking? U think it is more of a decent thing to try to avoid this war. Where the conflict really is between the Pandavas and Kauravas, there is no need to drag millions of others to their deaths.
• What if one of the pleas for peace works?
• What if the war was only fought five versus one hundred one?
• "Many of you will die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make." -Lord Farquad

• Why is Krishna aware of his divinity whereas Rama was not? Is this a difference in circumstance?
• Duryodhana is described as a snake with eyes as red "as copper from wrath". He almost sounds like a naga, though he more than likely is not one, secretly or otherwise
• Consider something like Duryodhana actually being born as an evil naga, and that is why everyone says they must get rid of him. Treat that as a reason for his evil ways.

• Krishna displays a multidimensional vision? Is that just some fancy way to say 3D in this case? Or even 4D as a glimpse through time? Is he just really big?
• Something about the word "multidimensional" makes me thing of science fiction. Consider rewriting a story under the science fiction genre.
• Think of everything being exchanged for frigates, corvettes, and all of those fun fighter ships.

•  The imagery of killing elephants is depressing, especially when you know that they have a sense of family, friendship, and love similar to us.
• Explore the war from the perspective of an elephant.

•  When you think about it, these sons of the Pandavas, like Abhimanyu, can be no older than twelve years. There are children fighting in this war. I understand that the times were different, but that just adds another level of wrongness to the war.
• Why note a resemblance in the feet between Karna and Kunthi? Of all details, that one is especially odd.
• The curses these people suffer feel deus ex-machina when explain after they happen. If explained or shown beforehand, these curses could offer a nice piece of foreshadowing.
• What if Yudhistira actually just denied the throne against everyone's wishes?
• How do the soles of one's feet look like a bird? Did the arrow hit the soles to kill him or elsewhere?
• Explore this in a story. There is so little information that an expansion may be interesting. It sounds kind of like Achilles heel.

A chakra-vyuha (i.e. lotus formation) that Abhimanyu entered and was lost in

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography. Narayans's Mahabharata, link to Reading Guide D.