Visiting 'Mahabharata' ...2 (revisited in 2011)

King Santanu whose heart was crushed lead an empty life, spent his time hunting (!) or haunting the banks of river Ganga. Sixteen years later, one day, he was amazed to see that the river had stopped flowing. A net work of arrows had barricaded the river and not a drop of water went thru.

 Suddenly he felt he was not alone turned and saw his beloved Ganga  standing beside him. He was overwhelmed and his tearful pleadings for her to stay was of no avail. She had come back to Earth only to leave behind his eighth son, the son who was saved by his outburst but at a cost. 

They heard a roar and river Ganga which was held back was released and was flowing again. In walked a beautiful youth and  Santanu realised that it was his son. Yes! He is our son, concurred goddess Ganga and Devavrata prostrated to show respect to his father. Ganga the proud mother declared that she had taken care to see that their son would be a worthy heir to the throne of Pauravas. She had ensured that he had the best  Gurus the heavens could provide. Ganga then vanished and Santanu who had been lonely so long galloped towards Hastinapura with his son who soon would be his only obsession!

(The second chapter was easy to deal with. Those of us who know our epics can see the ingredients for  future problems.What intrigues my literal mind is the engineering feat of Devavrata. I wonder how many arrows he needed to shoot and how fast, to create this dam. Difficult to visualise.

Sriram wanted to know more about Kamala Subramaniam, actually more about what she thought of her father. Her father Kailasam was unconventional to say the least. I hope someone  knowledgeable about her times will tell us.

She, self-effacing, was a remarkable person as she wrote her version of the Mahabharata after undergoing an operation for cancer. Her most productive time as an author was the last ten years of her life.)