Episode 66 - Kurukshetra, Days 7 & 8

Episode 66 - The seventh and eighth days of the War.  Bhisma kills a few more Dhartarastras, king Virata loses another son, and we meet Arjun's son Iravat, a Naga prince from Arjun's tour of the holy places, long long ago.

We meet Iravat only to see him killed by the demon Alambusha.  Alambusha is also the son of a famous father-- none other than the peculiar half-deer Rshyashrnga!  In the story we get from the epic, Rshyashrnga's son is the child of a Kshatriya princess, and becomes Raja of the kingdom.  We are not told where or on whom he begot this demon!

Arjun and Bhisma seem ready to get down and fight, but it never seems to happen.  Maybe on day 9?  Duryodhana is quickly losing faith in his general, and Karna is making trouble on the sidelines, so he'd better do something big on day 9...

Episode 47 - The Wedding

Episode 47 - The brothers formally come out of hiding, and thick-headed Virata finally realizes he has been sheltering the famous Pandavas.  To avoid any question of scandal, Virata's daughter is quickly married to Arjun's son, Abhimanyu.  The allies are summoned for the wedding, and the brothers set up a temporary headquarters at Virata's second city, Upaplavya.

This ends the book of Virata.  Next time, we'll start the Udyoga Parva-- the Book of the Effort.

Episode 45 - The Book of Virata

Episode 45 - The Pandavas send away their hangers-on, and enter hiding at the kingdom of the Matsyas, in the service of King Virata.  Things go well for the first 10 months, but then the king's brother-in-law gets smitten with the Queen's new serving girl.  Kicaka takes his infatuation a little too far, and Bhima ends up restoring her virtue the hard way.  By the end of this ordeal, everyone is terrified of Draupadi and her Gandharva husbands.

King Virata is so frightened of her that he sends the queen to beg her to leave town as soon as possible.

Next time we'll find out what happens as news spreads of the killing of Kicaka.