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Scenes
from the MAHABHARATA |
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Ganesha acts as scribe, and writes down
the whole Mahabharata himself, at Vyasa's dictation; its frame story is
that of Janamejaya's great snake-sacrifice |
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The nymph Menaka seduces the sage Vishvamitra |
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In one of the cruelest and most "caste-ist"
epic stories, the tribal prince Ekalavya cuts off his thumb (thus destroying
his prowess at archery) at Drona's request |
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Arjuna wins Draupadi at her svayamvara through
his extraordinary archery |
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Somewhat accidentally, she becomes the joint
wife of all five brothers |
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Yudhishthira and Bhima confer, in a scene
from an elaborate Persian version of the Mahabharata called the "Razm namah"
(Book of War) |
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The disrobing of Draupadi by Duryodhana
after she is gambled away by her husbands; she is nowadays often shown
as being rescued through divine intervention by Krishna |
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The disrobing of Draupadi, with no sign
of Krishna in the picture (a minority version, but apparently an earlier
one in the history of the epic) |
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"Kurukshetra"-- scenes of the battlefield |
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Krishna threatens to attack Bhishma, and
Arjuna is barely able to hold him back. |
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Bhishma reclining on his bed of arrows,
preparing to offer extensive moral instruction to the Pandavas |
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Abhimanyu takes leave of his wife Uttara,
and goes off to the battle in which he will be killed |
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The slaying of Jayadratha by Arjuna |
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Arjuna and Karna in combat |
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On the devastated Kurukshetra battlefield,
Bhima fulfills his vow to drink Duhshasana's blood |
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Dhritarashtra retires to the forest with
Gandhari, and years later voluntarily dies in a forest fire |
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Raja Ravi Varma, the well-known painter,
portrayed a number of scenes from the Mahabharata, especially those involving
Draupadi |
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A symbolic interpretation of the Mahabharata
family relationships, according to the principles of yoga |
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A thing of beauty and a joy forever: George
Koshy's *ASCII
Mahabharata*! |
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