PDE Mahabharata: Riddles at the Lake by Donald A. Mackenzie
Pandava – the five acknowledged
sons of Pandu
Brahmin – one of the classes in the
Hindu system including priests and teachers
Yudhishthira – the eldest son of
King Pandu and Queen Kunti and the king of Indraprastha
Nakula – fourth of the five Pandava
brothers
Banyan – a fig that begins its life
as an epiphyte i.e. a plant that grows on another plant
Sahadeva
– the youngest of the five Pandava brothers. Nakula and Sahadev were twins
Arjuna
– The third Pandava brother. It is believed that Arjuna was the best archer in
the world at their time
Bhima
– is the second born of the Pandavas. Bhima
is responsible for slaying all hundred Kaurava brothers in the Kurukshetra War.
Yaksha
- a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes
mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest,
treasure and wilderness.
Brahma
– a creator god in Hinduism and the creator of the four Vedas.
Dharma
– signifies behaviors that are considered to be in accord with Ṛta, the order
that makes life and universe possible.
Vedas
– large body of religious texts originating in ancient India
When the pandava reach a pond in
the midst of their exile, they are overcome with thirst. In this pond is a
being advising them to not drink the water until they have answered a set of
questions. Yudhishthira is the only one of his brothers to answer the questions
before drinking the water and therefore the only one that does not die. Yudhishthira
requests that his brothers be brought back to life once he had completed the
set of riddles. The brothers are then brought back to life but are
unrecognizable for a whole year. I don’t understand why Yudhishthira requests
that his brothers not be recognizable for a whole year. This story reminds me a
bit of the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they are crossing the
bridge.
(Yudhishthira Statue: Image from Wikimedia Commons)
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