First encounter with Mahabharata - Page 2

One thing all the serials did was to force me to dig at the source, when something in the show didn't look right. Like when Ramayan first showed Hanuman meeting Bharat, I thought WTF, until I read somewhere else that it was in Tulsidas' version. Once I could access online versions of Valmiki's and Vyasa's work (KMG for the latter), I'd use that to verify anything I saw. I also did that excessively w/ DkDM when that ran

To be honest I don't know when my journey started as it was in steps.My grandmother used to tell me little stories related to our puranas but my main interest was to know our culture (which is misunderstood a lot as something misogynist and discriminatory and without sense)which started when our teacher told us about varna system (before that I didn't even know what was varna) and then I asked my grandmother about our varna.Then I watched brc and started reading about our culture.I still remember as it is a recent thing that I used to tell people that I am an atheist as I was totally frustrated by the people misquoting our puranas for their benefits and praying to God only for asking something and shamelessly boasting about these things but now it only hurts little as now I have fully understood that I shouldn't worry about their deeds as God will see to it and should see to my deeds only which should be service to my fellow humans and to God.

Arjun's bird eye test was the first story my father told me when I was a child. That was the beginning.

Then my parents bought a comic version of the Mahabharata. I got interested.

In school too, Drona's coming to teach the princes and his display at the well to get the ball was a chapter we read in Hindi subject. Ekalavya's story was there in the curriculum too.

So, bit by bit, year by year, my interest grew until I watched BRC when I was in 10th. I got completely hooked and started researching the characters.

I didn't know the actual sources and relied mainly on Wiki, Quora or articles.

Then SPMB happened and I got to know how little I knew. I came to know of KMG , BORI, northern recension and Southern recension, the contradictions in different versions.

Well, now I love the epic with all its interpretations, interpolation and contradictions.😃

I've vague memories of the first encounter. It must have been the DD Mahabharata.

During my very first bits and pieces viewings of the DD MB I used to get confused between Yudhisthira and Arjuna due to the similarity in their costumes and used to say that Bhishma sounds like Shaktimaan. But I knew it's the same actor.

At that stage I only knew Krishna, Draupadi, Bhishma, and Duryodhana. But, I wasn't aware of Krishna's role in MB and couldn't figure out the relationship between Bhishma and the other characters.

Then, at the age of 7, I received a children's book on MB. It had chapters on certain characters. And our Sanskrit textbook had a chapter on Bhishma Pratigya.

Mahabharata intrigued me due to its vast complexities and grey areas.

SPMB, no matter how much I loathe it, triggered my subconscious interest and pushed me to read the texts.