Reading Notes: Epified Mahabharata, Part B.

(Ekalavya)

If I remember correctly, I believe that is was a Brahmin had cursed Pandu for shooting him. He cursed Pandu to died in the arms of his loved one. In the epified version however, Pandu is cursed to die whenever he becomes intimate with a woman. It is interesting to see the slight variations in the different versions of the Mahabharata. I did not know that this was a curse that had haunted Hastinapur for many generations.  I was under the impression that it was a curse that was uniquely created for Pandu due to his actions. Yama is the the god of not only death but also truth. Pandu named his first son Yudhishthir. It was funny to see that their second son, Bhima, broke the rock he had fallen onto. Kunti refused to use the mantra anymore after the birth of their third son, Arjun. Kunti helped Madri have 2 sons and there were the 5 sons of Pandu. Madri took the leap of faith as she jumped into the fires with her dead husband. I was shocked to see that Ghandari had given birth to a lump of flesh. Vyasa did not want to harm the lump so he divided it into 100 pieces and placed them all into vats of oil. The first son to emerge was Duryodhana. They all looked demonic. Durodhana became jealous of all the love that Bhima was receiving. Duryodhana tries to push Bhima into the lake while he was in a deep sleep due to the laced food that he had eaten. Vasuki, the ruler of the serpent world, gives Bhima powers. They met Drona while trying to retrieve a ball from the well. Bhishma makes him their teacher. They all met Ekalavya  in the forest when they saw how he had shut a dog up by jamming a bunch of arrows in the dog's mouth. It turns out Ekalavya had learned his archery skills from Drona, well kind of, he hand crafted an image of Drona after being rejected by him and practiced in front of that and became the world's best archer. Drona did not want him to beat Arjuna so he made Ekalavya cut off his right thumb and he did not hesitate to follow the orders of his guru.

Bibliography
Epified TV (India), The Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution. Link to video online.