Jacob and The Epics of India

Notes for Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata pages 151-200 The war wages on.  Ghatotkacha, son of Bhima led the Rakshasas on an assault of the Kauravas. Karna launched his celestial spear at Ghatotkacha, killing him. He fell to the ground, crushing many soldiers. The Pandavas plan to tell Drona that his son, Ashwatthama is dead, thus destroying his will to fight. They decide that Yudhishthira will tell Drona of his son's death, and Dhrishtadyumna will kill him once his guard is down. Bhima kills an elephant and names it Ashwatthama so that technically they are telling the truth. The plan works perfectly and ends with Dhrishtadyumna cutting off Drona's head. Ashwatthama, still alive, plots revenge. Ashwatthama then launches the Narayana-Astra which launched fire across the sky. Krishna tells everyone to put down their weapons and bow and that it will spare them. Bhima runs toward Ashwatthama with his mace. Krishna and Arjuna run to him and get him to put down the mace so that he s...

 Notes for Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata pages 101-150 The Story of the lakes at Kurukshetra: The brahmin warrior Parashurama dug five lakes. Samanta-Panchaka. They were filled with the blood of kshatriyas he had killed. There was a solar eclipse before the war at Kurukshetra and kings had come to the lakes to bathe and purify themselves. The pandavas were not there because they were in exile. Krishna, watching the kings bathe, had a vision of them all covered in blood which indicated that a war was coming. The story of Vishnu and Bhudevi: The earth goddess Bhudevi was in the form of a cow long ago. She gave her milk to the people of earth (mother nature?). The kings were greedy and milked her until her udders hurt which caused her to cry out. Vishnu heard these cries and vowed to punish the kings who did this to her. He said that he would return in the forms of Parashurama, Rama, and Krishna and spill their blood. I really liked these stories because they gave some backstory to ...