Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part C

For this part of the Mahabharata reading I decide to once again in typical fashion choose one of the shorter stories that resonates with me and work on taking my reading notes specifically on that story. I find that this helps me be more diligent in my note taking and allows me the best option to write my own story. The story that I chose for part C of the reading is Life in the Forest.  

• The number one thing about this story that I really enjoyed was that as the brothers wandered through the woods they reached out to the sun god. I have always found the different gods to be interesting so I was extremely excited when I read the mention of the sun god in this story. That was something that originally sparked my interest in this class was the differences in beliefs and how they view the gods. I am so excited to maybe embark on writing my own version of this story that includes the sun god. 
• This story had a very spiritual feel which I also really liked. They bathed in holy water and sat aside food for the holy spirits. I just thought that this whole story felt very connected to the spiritual aspect of Indian culture. 
• What was absolutely most shocking to me is that this story started out as the brothers wandering into their exile in the woods. But this stor went so much farther than just the initial exile into the woods. At one point in the story there was mention of their exile lasting 12 years. I thought that this story was much too short to be set over a time period of 12 years. If I do a story inspired by this one I think I will find it hard to incorporate the 12 years of exile. But I'll do my best to stick to some original inspirations from this story. 

This is the forest I would exile the princes too in my story (Image Source Pexels).