Episode 44 - Karna cuts a deal

Episode 44 - We finish off the Book of the Forest with a couple of the more famous vignettes from the epic.  The first is the classic tale in which Karna is forewarned that Indra will come to beg from him his magical armor & earrings, but Karna refuses to prevent it.  He lives up to his claim of complete generosity and literally flays the armor off of his body and hands it all over to Indra.

Since transactions with Gods usually go both ways, Karna for his part demanded the "Never-failing Spear", which he figured would be good enough to take out his nemesis Arjun.  This spear will get used, but the outcome will be quite unexpected.

The second story is probably equally famous-- Yuddistira is tested by his father, who is disguised as a yaksha pretending to be a duck.  Yuddistira passes the test with flying colors, and is granted in return the assurance that he and his brothers would not be discovered during the year in hiding.

Next episode, we'll get started on Book 4, the Book of Virata.

Episode 34 - Monkey's Uncle

Episode 34 - The Pandavas resume center stage as the main characters of this episode.  They continue their trek through the mountains until the going gets too rough for Draupadi.  Bhima summons his half-Rakshasa son, Gatotkacha, who can fly, and they are carried the rest of their journey to the Ashram of Nar-Narayan.
While hanging out at this heavenly retreat, Draupadi sends Bhima off to find her some special lotus blossoms.  Along the way, Bhima meets up with Hanuman, who it turns out is his brother (both are sons of the Wind God).
The quest for the Lotus Blossom finally leads Bhima to Kubera's Pleasure Garden, which is guarded by hordes of Rakshasas.  Bhima makes short work of them and takes a dip in Kubera's pond.
Yuddistira gets suspicious and has Gatotkacha take them to Bhima.  Kubera takes the destruction of his gardens and the death of his guards pretty lightly, and he allows the Pandavas to stay in his garden as long as they like.  We leave them there until next Episode, when Arjun finally makes his return.