Monday, October 3, 2011

Episode 75 - Kurukshetra, Day 15: Ashwatthaman goes Ballistic!

Episode 75 - Earlier in day 15, Drona is killed by Dhrstadyumna.  The Kaurava army literally comes unraveled until Ashwatthaman hears the news.  The boy is outraged at the way his father was treated and swears revenge on both Dhrstadyumna (for killing him), and Yuddistira (for betraying his trust).

Drona's son then pulls the army together and rushes to battle waving his WMD.  First he tries to use the Narayana weapon, but Krishna is too tricky for that-- he knows its weakness, which is that it is ineffective against unarmed men.  The Pandavas all drop their weapons and the bomb is a dud.  One other problem with the Narayana weapon: it's only good for one shot.  So much for that.

Next, he pulls out his Agneya weapon, which is pretty much like a thermonuclear device.  Without a second thought, he gets into range with Arjun and sets the thing off.  It wipes out perhaps half of the Pandavas' remaining army, but Arjun & Krishna simply brush off the ashes and resume fighting.  Not even nukes can take out the incarnated Rishis Nar & Narayan!

Ashwatthaman asks heaven why his nuke failed to have the desired effect, and Vyasa shows up to explain that while his power derives from Shiva, Krishna's power derives from Narayana, so there's no comparison.

Finally, we find a funny reference to Sanjay rushing back to Hastinapur to report on the war.  What happened to his divine vision?  My guess is that originally the author had him running back & forth from the battle to the palace to report to the king what had happened.  This proved to be too limiting for the author's desires, so he switched the premise to include divine sight.  But then he forgot to expunge the earlier device from the books he'd already written! 

3 comments:

  1. One small correction-- it was Vyasa who actually granted Sanjay his divine sight. This is strange, because before Vyasa arrives and does this, Sanjay is already reporting on private conversations between Krishna & Karna, but no explanation is given how he knew of this!

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  2. I would like to have a small clarification. Arjuna is also known as Savyasachi, which means ambidexterous. Arjuna is being said to be left-handed by you in your podcasts. Please tell me which attribute is correct. Thanks

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  3. Good point. I've been working with about six different translators and they all translate Savyasachin as "Left-Handed Archer", so I've read it so many times that I took it literally.

    Still, while it weakens my case just a little bit, I still think the fact that Arjun has this association with the left hand & generative organs contrasts with Bhima's association with eating and the right arm... Thanks.

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