Storybook: Narayan's Mahabharata
Source: Tiny Tales, Laura Gibbs, http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2015/05/week-1-of-2-narayans-mahabharata.html
Author's Note: I am retelling the story from Narayan's Mahabharata.
In the city of Hastinapura, there is a King. Shantanu rules the city. He meets a woman by the river and falls in love. The woman asks for him to never ask any questions and if he agrees, they can marry. With every child they conceive, the woman drowns them one by one. The newborns are drowned in the river. Once the eighth child is born, Shantanu can no longer take it. He protests the baby being drowned. His wife explains to him that she is the river Ganga incarnated to give birth to eight gods. The babies return to heaven after being drowned. The woman takes the eighth child with her and together they disappear into the river. The eighth child is known by the name of Bhishma.
Along comes Satyavati. She is a fisherman's daughter who Shantanu falls in love with. They want to marry, but her father objects. The father objects because of Bhishma. Bhishma is already going to be Shantanu's successor. In order for Satyavati and Shantanu to marry, Bhishma must first renounce his claim to the throne and also the possibility of having children.
Shantanu and Satyavati do have two sons. Their names are Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. Chitrangada becomes king. Unfortunately, he dies, and Bhishma rules as regent for Vichitravirya.
Bhishma finds three wives for Vichitravirya: Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. The problem is Amba has already promised herself to another king. Bhishma sends her away. Amba is then rejected by the other king because she has entered another man's house. Amba vows revenge on Bhisma, but Ambika and Ambalika both marry Vichitravirya.
Vichitravirya soon dies and he dies before creating any sons. Satyavati wants Bhishma to conceive sons with Vichitravirya's widows. She begs him to father sons with Ambika and Ambalika. Bhishma refuses. Bhishma cannot break his vow of celibacy.
Hi Megan!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your retelling of this story. I really liked reading the original version of it, and considered retelling it on my blog. I eventually decided on another story, but I'm glad someone else decided to retell this! You did a great job. Your writing is very concise and I liked re-reading the story as told by you!
Hi Megan! Overall I thought your story was quite good. I think it might be nice to have a slightly expanded author's note. What is the original name of the story you are re-telling? What did you change in your re-telling and why? Also, I think that past tense might work better for this story than present tense- maybe change the tense of a couple of sentences and see how it reads?
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