Sons of Gods: The Mahabharata Retold

(Original year of posting: 2006.) I first read the Mahabharata in 1973, in India. The version I read was the big fat book by Kamala Subramaniam. I stayed up all night to finish it, and when it was over I decided then and there that this was the Book to end all Books. It was simply amazing. I've been a voracious reader all my life, but never had I been so floored by a story. I could say this in spite of the less than stellar writing. Subramaniam tends to write in short, jerky sentences, using an abundance of adjectives and adverbs. She spills the melodrama left right and centre, and is not afraid to overdo it in the emotional sector. In a way, the book seems written for children. But the story she tells in that book is simply magnificent. The Mahabharata is Hinduism's great epic story. It may be the oldest written story in the world, and certainly the longest. It tells the tale of kings and queens, gods and demons. It goes off on tangents lasting hundreds of pages, yet al...

When the good guys play dirty. .. Photo: from the movie The Mahabharata , directed by Peter Brook Here, now, are the Rules of Engagement for the Kurukshetra War; they appear on page 257 of Sons of Gods: 1. Fighting must not begin before sunrise, and not continue after sunset. 2. Multiple warriors may not attack a single warrior. 3. Two warriors may duel only if they carry the same weapons and they are on equal standing, that is, unmounted, or on the same mount: a horse, an elephant, or a chariot. 4. The rules specific to each weapon must be followed; for instance, in mace warfare it is prohibited to strike below the waist. 5. No warrior may injure or kill a warrior who has surrendered; one who has surrendered becomes a prisoner of war, subject to protection through his enemy. 6. The lives of women and farmers are sacred; they must never be attacked or hurt. 7. No warrior may kill or injure an unarmed warrior, or an unconscious warrior, or a person or animal ...

Destiny and Free Will : is Paradise open to dogs? (watch the video below for the answer!) “'You must learn to see with the same eye a mound of earth, a heap of gold, a cow, a sage, a dog, and the man who eats the dog. There’s another intelligence beyond the mind.' Krishna in Peter Brook’s Mahabharata. 'Dharma belies the Western criticism of Hindu thought: that it leaves precious little room for free will, that it binds man upon a wheel of fate, a wheel of reincarnation, rebirth; a wheel that goes round and round and round and round and round. 'Dharma offers the escape from the fate of reincarnation; it is the path detached from this world of illusion, to the quintessential truth which Hinduism seeks. “'From a western point of view it’s impossible to understand that fate, destiny and free will can coexist. Everything in the western mind says if there is fate there isn’t free will, if there’s free will there can’t be such a things as fate or destiny. The M...

Film and Archaeology From the documentary: "Children in School, for example: if there is one child who is very strong or very fat they will say he is exactly like Bhima. And that is the kind of total liveability and contemporariness of the Mahabharata today." Mallika Sarabhai, as Draupadi in P eter Brook's miniseries, The Mahabharata . But a Bhima played by an actor from Africa? Director Peter Brook staged the Mahabharata with actors from around the world, making the Mahabharata accessible to people everywhere. "In all my conversations with Peter I have often asked him why he works with an international group and one of the things he has said is that if in a small group of mixed races and countries we can create something that is harmonious, then the world has a chance. The Mahabharata cuts across everything. It cuts across time, race, colour. It’s the same issues that have continue to face human beings over millennia." -- Mallika Sarabhai Fr...