Alex's Epics of India Blog

PORTFOLIO LOCATION --  https://sites.google.com/view/crayonandonand/the-bowling-showdown Onc e upon a time, there were five brothers, all alike in stature and skill —skill at bowling. These five brothers were renown for their strikes, but no bowler was as accurate as Arjuna, who could thread the ball into the one-three pocket and guarantee a strike whenever he stepped up to the lane. Arjuna was so good that, after a while, his fame spread so that everyone in the land thought he was unbeatable. One day, when the five brothers were displaying their skill on the lanes against their cousins —all 100 of them —a mystery challenger approached, claiming that his skill throwing and spinning a bowling ball exceeded that of Arjuna. This man's name was Karna, and upon his challenge, Arjuna agreed to go frame for frame against this mystery man. The two bowlers battled furiously, each of their bowling balls hooking into strike after strike. While Arjuna threw to hit the normal strike...

I liked the way that Wilson wrapped up the narrative here. There are a few things that stuck out to me, though. First was that Karna was a much less sympathetic character in the second half of the story than he was in the first half. Also, the continued emphasis on Arjuna being the greatest warrior among the Pandavas was interesting, as in the Mahabharata , I did not get a sense that he was clearly more skilled than his brothers. Also, in the Mahabharata (or at least Narayan's version) Yudhishthira was much more of a focal character than Arjuna, and this makes me wonder which brother commanded more space in the original epic. Other parts of the second half of this story that stuck out to me were the mentions of the prince who was born a princess -- this took me out of the realist mode of storytelling, more than the gandarvas in the first half of the story did. However, otherwise the battle scenes were enacted well and in accordance with what I have read before, just withou...

I really liked this succinct retelling of the events of the Mahabharata . I think my favorite part is that the events of the Mahabharata have been de-mythologized in Wilson's version, and everything that happens is plausible. Arjuna's skill with the bow and arrow still seems unlikely, and Krishna's decapitation of the one king who dissented when Krishna was named the wisest (also, not really fair to kill the guy? Just my thought) seemed pretty unrealistic, but plausible nonetheless, I suppose. The biggest change to the Mahabharata's narrative, that Draupadi was won by Arjuna and given only to Yudhishthira, was a good touch, in my opinion. For a story to be more realistic, as it seems to be Wilson's goal, to have a more conventional marital situation than the traditional Mahabharata marriage of Draupadi to all five Pandavas works in Wilson's favor. Lastly, I really liked how Wilson shortened certain scenes and not others while still evoking the essence...