Week 9 Reading A: The Princes of Elephant City

I choose the Kincaid version of the Mahabharata. It focuses on the Princes or the Pandavas brothers.

The Princes of Elephant City

King Bharata: this takes places after his reign so I am guessing he is mainly used to establish the setting.
King Vichitravirya of Hastinapura: he had two sons, Dhritarashtra (blind and older) and Pandu (who became king).
Pandu’s 5 Sons: Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna (three by Kunti), and Nakula and Sahadeva (two by Madri); they are said to be the sons of the gods.
Pandu dies >>> Dhritarashtra becomes king. He and his queen, Gandhari, have one hundred sons and their kids grow up with the sons of Pandu. Duryodhana is the oldest of Dhritarashtra’s one hundred sons who are called Kauravas (decendants of Kuru). All the sons of both brothers are called Bharatas (descendants of king Bharata).
Drona teaches the boys and the Pandavas is his best pupils must to the jealousy of Duryodhana.
         >>> Drona leads the boys on an attack against King Drupada of Panchala, who prays until he gets the beautiful girl, Draupadi, to emerge from the fire.
Dhritarashtra names Yudhishthira as his heir instead of Duryodhana, who grows steadily more jealous until he concocts a plot to kill the Pandavas and Kunti (their mother). Vidura, their half-brother, warns them and they escape in a secret tunnel. Their escape is covered by five corpses of guests and Duryodhana is glad to think it is his cousins.


I guess I am curious why they are of the Elephant City, since I can’t recall if that was mentioned before or not. I also think that is it strange that Dhritarashtra chose Yudhishthira as his heir instead of his son since he had been passed over in favor of his younger brother too. Perhaps it did not bother Dhritarashtra to have Pandu named King instead, and was very fond of his sibling and mourned his death. I think this relationship could really be worth exploring.

The Step-brothers

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