Week 9: Mahabharata Notes - Karmic Revolution Part B

Image of Kunti and Pandu on Wikimedia

This is a continuation of my week 9 Mahabharata notes. I chose to watch the Karmic Revolution videos on YouTube, as I watched a film version of the Ramayana for the second edition of that epic, too. These videos are a great way to quickly learn about the Mahabharata or to refresh one's memory after reading the full version. It might even be a good idea to watch these videos before reading a longer version of the epic in order to become acquainted with some of the characters and key aspects of the tale.

This version greatly helped me in keeping characters’ relationships straight in my mind. Any questions that I had about the birth of the Pandavas was completely eradicated, and I now understand why Kunti is such an important character in the epic. Here are some of the notes that I took while watching Karmic Revolution:

• Kunti tells Pandu about mantra, but not about her first son. Pandu asks her to call upon gods to make sons
• Kunti calls on Yama - Yudhishthir, wise
• Wind god’s child - Bheem, strength and courage
• Indra’s child - Arjun, archer
• Kunti does not want more children and summons Ashwin twins for Madri and gets two sons, Sehdev and Nakul
• Pandu forces himself on Madri and dies. Madri follows him into funeral pyre
• Kunti leaves forest with sons

I do not write usually write in complete sentences while taking notes, and I have always preferred taking notes in list format. While studying both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, I tended to focus on key events that took place and relationships between characters. If I did not take notes in this way, I know that I would forget important names and become confused later.

Watching these videos greatly simplified my note taking. As these videos are only about three minutes in length and were uploaded once a week until the epic was finished, the video makers did not include superfluous details in their storytelling. The Mahabharata is full of various characters' tales, many names that are bizarre to us, and a whole collection of gods and goddesses that is difficult to keep straight. Whether a learner prefers to watch these videos before or after reading the full edition of the Mahabharata, I believe that an overview such as this one will erase any confusion that they might have had.

A suggestion that I would give the audience of Karmic Revolution would be to take special note of characters’ names. Some of the pronunciations are very different than what they look like, but they are not written out in the video. There are some subtitles, yet there are sometimes a bit off when it comes to names. Having a general knowledge of names in the epic or taking careful note is especially important.

You can access the YouTube videos here: link.