Week 7 Story: The Ghost's by the River
Prosperity reigned throughout the kingdom under the rule of Yudhishthira. His brother Dhritarashtra however was unable to over come the death of his first-born. He went out to the woods in order to mourn and live out his days in peace. Those who went with him were Queen Gandhari and Kunti, you may remember Queen Kunti from the story of the Pandavas' escaping an execution by burning their mansion with the beggars inside, Vidura along with many elderly people.
When they reached the woods they rejoined many of their family that was thought long dead like the Pandavas themselves. After a few years, Yudhishthira and his wife and family left to join the others so that finally the whole family could be together. However, Vidura was no where to be found. Vidura had left sometime prior to Yudhishthira's arrival. He had gone to the Holy River in order to seek penance and await for Yama, God of the Dead, to welcome him into the after life.
Missing their kin and wanting to be there at his passing, the whole family set forth to go find Vidura so that he may live out his days with his family. When they found him, he was wasting away and an old man, unable to even speak. As he passed the emotion's felt by his passing brought back old emotion's of missing the death's of those who had fallen during the war.
A sage happened by, Vyasa. He told them he could bring back the spirits of those they loved for a night so that they may ease their pain. He took them to the Holy River and called out to those who had past and chanted a beautiful mantra. The spirits came and helped ease the sorrow and the family rejoiced at seeing their loved ones. Many of the ones who lost husbands chose to go with their loved ones and pass on and were transported to heaven with their husbands. Those that remained returned to the woods.
Many years passed and Yudhishthira was sitting alone when a new sorrow was taking root. The sage Narada came before him and gave him grave news that a great fire blazed through the forest. His entire family and those with them, had died in the fire. It seems that death by fire, had finally caught up to the Pandavas.
Author's Notes: This story was so much fun to read and write. Keeping up with all the royal names a bit tricky as I was trying to remember who it was that wanted to kill Kunti previously, but I was unable to remember. I did however still want to remind the reader about the Pandavas and Queen Kunti from my story last week. As usual there isn't a lot of Dialogue with my stories because I try to tell stories as though I'm right there with you or with my friends and family telling them the story. The Holy River is mentioned as the Ganges in the original story, however as it considered a sacred holy place I thought I'd change that little bit up. Hope you enjoyed the read!
Bibliography: Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).
Hey Jake,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great story! I like how you wrote about what happened after the war and everything. It's kind of sad that they had to die in the fire like that but it sounds like they finally received their karma. I'm glad you kept the names of the original character. It made was nice to read something familiar but different. The way your wrote the story was good to, I could definitely feel the sorrow and guilt as a read through it. It made me feel bad for them in way. The recap in the beginning was helpful too. I didn't even realize their were people inside the mansion when it was burnt! That was very cruel and selfish of them to take the lives of innocent people. I look forward to reading more of your stories!
Hi Jake!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this story, I thought it was wise to keep the original names of the story so we could try and keep track of everyone throughout. In reading the original stories, I always find myself getting confused with the names, so this helped be another perspective to keep track of who's who. You could definitely feel Yudhishthira's pain through your story, the Mahabharata is so full of these heavy emotions between families and I can't imagine going through something like that.
Awesome job!
Hey Jake.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great story and retelling of this section. I liked how in your author’s note you admitted that the names were difficult to keep up with. I agree that sometimes they are so long with so many letters that it can be hard to not only not get them confused, but to remember the spelling of them.
Hey Jake, I really like your retelling of the story. I really appreciate reading things that people actually enjoy writing! Your author's notes were very useful and i very much appreciate the insight you gained by doing this assignment! I do agree that the names get quite tricky in the beginning but after a while I felt like i was able to get the hang of it. Thanks once again for sharing this great story! I look forward to reading more!
ReplyDeleteHi Jake! I had a lot of trouble keeping track of all the names and who was in what generation and all their relationships in the Mahabharata as well. I ended up devoting a couple notes posts to nothing but getting as many names straight as possible.
ReplyDeleteThe way you retold the parts about Vidura's death and the return of the fallen loved ones was touching, and I really felt for Yudhishthira learning about the death of his family all alone.