Jacob and The Epics of India

 Notes for Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata pages 51-100 The Pandavas arrived at the gambling hall in Hastinapura. Draupadi went towards the women's area to greet Queen Kunti as well as the other royal women. Dhritarashtra asks what Yudhishthira thinks and he replies that the palace is beautiful. Yudhishthira already knew what was going on when he saw  Duryodhana  being joined by his uncle Shakuni. then asked Yudhishthira if he was ready for their gambling match. He replied that he was.  Prior to this,  Duryodhana  had become jealous of Yudhishthira and his amazing palace at which he made a fool out of himself by falling into a pool. He had plotted revenge with his uncle Shakuni and they decided to challenge Yudhishthira to a game of dice. Shakuni would play and beat him if all went according to plan. Yudhishthira had been warned about this plot by Bhima who said that the invitation was probably a trick.  They then played their dice game and Yudhishthir...

 Notes for Tiny Tales: Mahabharata pages 1-50 The Story of Satyavati: King Uparichara was laying under a tree thought about his wife and...ejaculated :/. He apparently wrapped the semen in a leaf and gave it to a parrot to fly it to his wife. Then, a falcon attacked the parrot and the leaf fell into a river. A fish (that poor fish) then ate the leaf. The fish happened to be an apsara who was cursed. A (probably very confused) fisherman caught the fish and found twins inside. He took the twins to King Uparichara who accepted the boy but gave the girl back to the fisherman. The girl became his daughter named Satyavati.  Not to make fun of this story, but I absolutely love the apparent absurdity of Satyavati's birth. You really never know what is going to happen next. It also kind of reminded me of some Greek mythology birth stories. King Shantanu then marries Satyavati after asking her father for permission and promising that their son would be heir to the kingdom. Harivamsa, Ma...