Mahabharata Podcast Episode 32 - Sukanya and Cyavana
Nov 15, 2010
00:00
Episode 32 - Two more stories from the Book of the Forest. The first involves another Bhrgu Brahmin with a Kshatriya wife. The second story, about Mahdhatar, is short, but interesting in how it differs from all the other stories we've had so far from Lomasha.
The first story in this series, Nala, is about a King and his very loyal wife. The subsequent stories were by and large about Brahmins with very loyal (Kshatriya) wives. So each story so far has the element of an obedient wife despite hardship. Mandhatar breaks strongly from this pattern in that the boy doesn't even have a mother (he is born from his father's side), and Indra gives the boy his finger to suckle, thus the boy was entirely free from any female influence.
If this lack of a woman's touch had any influence on his life and later events, we cannot say, because we are given a very stereotypical summary of his later career. He's just another super king who conquered the world, far back in the past.
The first story in this series, Nala, is about a King and his very loyal wife. The subsequent stories were by and large about Brahmins with very loyal (Kshatriya) wives. So each story so far has the element of an obedient wife despite hardship. Mandhatar breaks strongly from this pattern in that the boy doesn't even have a mother (he is born from his father's side), and Indra gives the boy his finger to suckle, thus the boy was entirely free from any female influence.
If this lack of a woman's touch had any influence on his life and later events, we cannot say, because we are given a very stereotypical summary of his later career. He's just another super king who conquered the world, far back in the past.