Week 7 Reading Diary B: Nivedita's Mhabharata

The feud continued between Drona and King Drupada. The king begged Shiva to give him a son to defeat his rival. So then Shiva said, "Yeah no big deal except I'm going to grant you a daughter who will then turn into a son." Fair enough. The daughter, Shikhandini, was raised as a boy named Shikhandin. Shikhandin was married off to a princess, but then her dad realized that his new son-in-law was actually his new daughter-in-law. Bummer. So then the king wages a war on Drupada. Feeling sad that everything was her fault, Shikhandin ran away and found a male spirit. They traded genders (so now Shikhandini became Shikhandin). Bhishma found out that Shikhandin was the reincarnation of Amba, a woman who was plotting revenge on him. Why? Because Bhishma was supposed to marry Amba who was already engaged to another man. So he let her return to her lover, but that guy rejected her as well as the king. She became angry, ran away, and vowed to kill Bhishma in the next life (after jumping into a funeral fire). Then the huge war between Duryodhana's army and the Pandava's army ensued. During the war, Shikhandin attacked Bhishma, and he died. Actually, a lot of people died so they had a huge funeral.

Yudhishthira and his dog. Source.

A chapter that I found interesting was the pilgrimage of death. The Pandavas and Draupadi left the world, and a dog followed them. While climbing the Himalayas, only Yudhishthira and the dog survive. Indra was prepared to take Yudhishthira to heaven, but no dogs were allowed in heaven. Yudhishthira refused to leave the dog, who turned out to be Dharma, Yudhishthira's father. So then Yudhishthira went to heaven, but noticed that his brothers, wife, and friends were in hell. He vowed to stay in hell with his family. I guess this action brought Yudhishthira and his family back to heaven.