First encounter with Mahabharata

When and how did you came to know about Mahabharata ??

I have to confess that the first time i got to know about mb was through ekta s KHMK.

I remember watching the vh sequence that s was how I came to know about mb drapaudi and everyone else.

Then star mb happened and I started reading about drapaudi and other Mahabharata characters. But specifically drapaudi and krishna why ? Because i was in awe of them

But it was only during karan sagini that i read kmg and a bit of CE. Still in process though

That s how i came to know these two wonderful character and my awe/love/respect for these two has only increased over the year. Other characters that i came to like are bheem abhimanyu arjuna subdhara vikarna. Etc

I read other takes and interpretation on mb like jaya , AC, Arjuna without a doubt, krishna the god who lived as a man indrajit bhandopadhy s articles.

Also have to confess that i use to like karna based on how he is potrayed in popular culture but now i absolutely loathe him and yudhishtra.

I was a child when parents bought me a small Mahabharat book with pictures. 😂 That was my first encounter.

Then in 5th standard, it was part of our text but we never finished. Then I heard many small stories of MB which were not part of abridged versions from my grandparents and parents.

Started reading the Bengali MB unabridged version. Then watched serials and started reading more about it.

Much of the material I read was in Bengali, now I do read up any interpretations and books on it.

Nani maa's wedding gift wala abridged MB....Mom gave it to me because I had finished all my books and just wouldn't shut up! 🤣

School curriculum

There was a subject named 'Sadachar' and it had 10 Mahabharata stories as chapters

I don't remember a time I wasn't digging into MBh😆

Originally posted by: HearMeRoar

I don't remember a time I wasn't digging into MBh😆

Have you been interested in it since childhood??

Seems you are too much into it

I have a very vague memory of reading a chapter in moral science book (I think class 2) about a lady in white saree roaming in forest with her 5 sons.

It was my mom who told me tales from Mahabharata and as a child the tale of Draupadi's endless saree fascinated me a lot.

I also remember my family watching MB and I was way too young to understand whatever was happening. 😆 But I'm glad that I got to watch it fully now!

My parents bought me ACKs when I was a kid

My parents and relatives gifted Amar Chitra Katha to me in my childhood. ❤️

When I was as small as 4-5 my grand mother Nani used to tell me the story of Ramayana and Mahabharata, so got interested in it. Although these were all folklores as she herself had never read Mahabharata.

Later I got interested in SriKrishna as a show and Krishna ji was my first crush ever, I wasn't even 7 then. I started fasting for Janamashmi when I was only 8 years of age and after having seen how neighbours prepared a still (using cotton, sticks, toys, dolls etc) for Christmas, started doing the same for Krishna Janam.

It used to be pathetic, I used to fill water in a Tiffin box and say it is Yamuna, took a sweets cardboard, put two dolls (one male and one female) in it and sticked small wooden sticks on the open end to symbolise a jail

Then on the other side of the water filled Tiffin box took a soap case filled it with cotton and put a small doll in it surrounded by some other dolls.

I know it wasn't anything worth mentioning but somehow the 8 year old me felt it as some great achievement. Especially because the news about ne having prepared this somehow spread across and the neighbourhood aunties were congratulating my mom that her daughter is interested in our tradition and knows so much about Ram and Krishna although the kids of these days(those days) were only interested in Christmas and modern things

I got more interested in it since then and seeing my interest my parents got a book by Geeta press on Krishna Lila (it was for kids) and my interest was enhanced.

But it was not easy to research in those days since internet became handy only after 2010. Post that I started researching more into Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Till the time I was in college, I was considered Ramayana Mahabharata queen with everyone coming me for answers.

It was around 2015 when I visited IF Mahabharata forum I realized how less I know and how much others have knowledge about, since then got more info studying MB