What Other Story Should Be Made Into A Mythology?

Friends We Always Get Stories Of Lord Krishna While Its Still Good But I Want To See Some Other Story Instead.

Which Other Ones Can Be Good?

Please Answer Someone

Here are a couple of myths from Mahābhārata for which I would like to write fan fiction stories myself someday. If anyone else writes them first, it may be fun to compare.

1. Satyavat's life from his point of view, not Sāvitrī's! These days, everyone remembers Satyavat only as a soft-spoken prince in exile, whose wife Sāvitrī brought him back to life (Āraṇyakaparvan 277-283). However, Satyavat was famous in his own right as an advocate against the death penalty (Śāntiparvan 259). Satyavat was quoted as a philosopher who argued that since the True (Satya, apparently what he called the soul) is virginal, neither virtuous nor sinful, and since all life forms in the world are not capable of feeling pain, let alone pleasure (meaning that the putative effects of bad and good karma cannot be experienced in every lifetime), when any living thing merges into the universe at the moment of death, it is absolved of merit and sin (Śāntiparvan 148.13-15). Did Satyavat get his name from his doctrine of Satya? What is the real story of Satyavat's life and his fascination with death?

2. Sudeṣṇā's relationships with her husband Bali and her dhātreyī (called Auśīnarī - woman from the Uśīnara country - Sabhāparvan 19.5).

The myth (Ādiparvan 98.21-32) is that King Bali asked ṛṣi Dīrghatamas to beget sons for him, and sent Sudeṣṇā to him. Sudeṣṇā made her wet-nurse's daughter (dhātreyī), who belonged to the śūdra caste, take her place with the blind old man Dīrghatamas, and the dhātreyī gave birth to eleven sons beginning with Kākṣīvat. Bali was watching the boys studying, and he said to Dīrghatamas, "They're mine!" and Dīrghatamas said, "No, they're mine, born from a śūdra mother. Your stupid lady Sudeṣṇā, considering me a blind old man, disrespected me and sent her śūdrā dhātreyī to me." Then Bali appeased Dīrghatamas and sent Sudeṣṇā to him again. Dīrghatamas touched Sudeṣṇā's body parts and blessed her to have an energetic and truthful son, King Aṅga.

Reading this myth, I wondered, what would an ancient audience have understood between the lines? Did they find it ironic that Dīrghatamas, who didn't tell Bali the truth until it came out in a cruel way, blessed Sudeṣṇā to have a truthful son?

Did the dhātreyī ever tell Dīrghatamas that she wasn't Sudeṣṇā? Or, does the story imply that Dīrghatamas knew all along, by his spiritual power, and he went on exploiting the śūdra woman and begetting children for himself at Bali's expense?

Why didn't Bali beget his own sons? The text uses the word vīryavān for Bali, which can literally attest a man's ability to beget children. Bali may have wanted sons as scholarly as Dīrghatamas, who learned the Veda and six appendices while in his mother's womb, according to the myth. It's a reasonable guess that Bali abstained from Sudeṣṇā while she was assigned to Dīrghatamas, out of respect for the ṛṣi. However, Bali's failure to notice that Sudeṣṇā wasn't pregnant or post-partum, as many as eleven times, tells us that he had no interest in her as a person. Bali certainly had no compassion for Sudeṣṇā when he sent her to Dīrghatamas again, after finding out how unwilling she was! Bali asked Dīrghatamas to beget sons with his multiple wives (bhāryāsu), although the word for one wife (bhāryāyāṃ) would have fit the śloka metre equally well. So, it seems that Bali had three or more wives, and he chose only Sudeṣṇā to bear his children from Dīrghatamas, over and over. Was Sudeṣṇā the highest-ranking wife, or just the one that Bali didn't want for himself? How did Bali and Sudeṣṇā get married? Was it a political alliance, or a svayaṃvara, or a kidnapping?

Was the dhātreyī willing to take Sudeṣṇā's place out of loyalty? Nursed by the same woman, did they think of each other as sisters? Or, was it purely a relationship of mistress and slave? Did the dhātreyī want to be the mother of educated sons, which would normally have been impossible due to her śūdra caste? As a wet-nurse's daughter, was the dhātreyī expected to be a wet-nurse for Sudeṣṇā's children? Did she end up nursing her own children while having to pretend that they didn't belong to her? How many years did it take to give birth to eleven sons (and any unmentioned daughters), if she was a nursing mother?

Sudeṣṇā found Dīrghatamas unattractive. Did Sudeṣṇā consider herself attractive? Was Sudeṣṇā lonely? Did she love Bali? After eleven sons (total number of children not specified) were born to the dhātreyī, Sudeṣṇā was still in her childbearing years. So, how old was Sudeṣṇā when Bali first assigned her to Dīrghatamas?

Originally posted by: BrhannadaArmour

2. Sudeṣṇā's relationships with her husband Bali and her dhātreyī (called Auśīnarī - woman from the Uśīnara country - Sabhāparvan 19.5).

The myth (Ādiparvan 98.21-32) is that King Bali asked ṛṣi Dīrghatamas to beget sons for him, and sent Sudeṣṇā to him. Sudeṣṇā made her wet-nurse's daughter (dhātreyī), who belonged to the śūdra caste, take her place with the blind old man Dīrghatamas, and the dhātreyī gave birth to eleven sons beginning with Kākṣīvat. Bali was watching the boys studying, and he said to Dīrghatamas, "They're mine!" and Dīrghatamas said, "No, they're mine, born from a śūdra mother. Your stupid lady Sudeṣṇā, considering me a blind old man, disrespected me and sent her śūdrā dhātreyī to me." Then Bali appeased Dīrghatamas and sent Sudeṣṇā to him again. Dīrghatamas touched Sudeṣṇā's body parts and blessed her to have an energetic and truthful son, King Aṅga.

Reading this myth, I wondered, what would an ancient audience have understood between the lines? Did they find it ironic that Dīrghatamas, who didn't tell Bali the truth until it came out in a cruel way, blessed Sudeṣṇā to have a truthful son?

Did the dhātreyī ever tell Dīrghatamas that she wasn't Sudeṣṇā? Or, does the story imply that Dīrghatamas knew all along, by his spiritual power, and he went on exploiting the śūdra woman and begetting children for himself at Bali's expense?

Why didn't Bali beget his own sons? The text uses the word vīryavān for Bali, which can literally attest a man's ability to beget children. Bali may have wanted sons as scholarly as Dīrghatamas, who learned the Veda and six appendices while in his mother's womb, according to the myth. It's a reasonable guess that Bali abstained from Sudeṣṇā while she was assigned to Dīrghatamas, out of respect for the ṛṣi. However, Bali's failure to notice that Sudeṣṇā wasn't pregnant or post-partum, as many as eleven times, tells us that he had no interest in her as a person. Bali certainly had no compassion for Sudeṣṇā when he sent her to Dīrghatamas again, after finding out how unwilling she was! Bali asked Dīrghatamas to beget sons with his multiple wives (bhāryāsu), although the word for one wife (bhāryāyāṃ) would have fit the śloka metre equally well. So, it seems that Bali had three or more wives, and he chose only Sudeṣṇā to bear his children from Dīrghatamas, over and over. Was Sudeṣṇā the highest-ranking wife, or just the one that Bali didn't want for himself? How did Bali and Sudeṣṇā get married? Was it a political alliance, or a svayaṃvara, or a kidnapping?

Was the dhātreyī willing to take Sudeṣṇā's place out of loyalty? Nursed by the same woman, did they think of each other as sisters? Or, was it purely a relationship of mistress and slave? Did the dhātreyī want to be the mother of educated sons, which would normally have been impossible due to her śūdra caste? As a wet-nurse's daughter, was the dhātreyī expected to be a wet-nurse for Sudeṣṇā's children? Did she end up nursing her own children while having to pretend that they didn't belong to her? How many years did it take to give birth to eleven sons (and any unmentioned daughters), if she was a nursing mother?

Sudeṣṇā found Dīrghatamas unattractive. Did Sudeṣṇā consider herself attractive? Was Sudeṣṇā lonely? Did she love Bali? After eleven sons (total number of children not specified) were born to the dhātreyī, Sudeṣṇā was still in her childbearing years. So, how old was Sudeṣṇā when Bali first assigned her to Dīrghatamas?

Hopefully We Can See It Turn Into A Tv Show

There Should Be Other Mythological Tv Serials Too.

Originally posted by: SilverBell

Friends We Always Get Stories Of Lord Krishna While Its Still Good But I Want To See Some Other Story Instead.

Which Other Ones Can Be Good?

Hey! Sorry didn't reply earlier.

With the current setup of how our shows are written and how they tend to always lose focus after a while, I would rather they stayed away from mythos for a while. 😆

But yes, we have some brilliant stories that would work great as limited series. For eg.

- Budha and Ila

- Shikhandi's life

- Exploration of Vedic deities, we often tend to forget them 😆

Originally posted by: metacrisis

Hey! Sorry didn't reply earlier.

With the current setup of how our shows are written and how they tend to always lose focus after a while, I would rather they stayed away from mythos for a while. 😆

But yes, we have some brilliant stories that would work great as limited series. For eg.

- Budha and Ila

- Shikhandi's life

- Exploration of Vedic deities, we often tend to forget them 😆

Exactly The Writers Always Mess Up Our Mythos.

Budha and Ilā - a very interesting relationship, no matter which version of the story you follow. One version is that Ilā was born full-grown and became pregnant by Budha on her way back from Mitrā-Varuṇa to Manu, and after she gave birth to Purūravas, she was transformed into Sudyumna, who lived the rest of his life as a man and had three sons by his wife. Another version is that Ila was transformed into Ilā, and yet another version has Sudyumna and Ilā changing back and forth every month, unable to remember life as the opposite gender.

Śikhaṇḍin's life also has a lot of potential. Raised as a boy and trained in archery by Droṇa, who had taken over his ancestral city of Ahicchatrā and forced his father Drupada to relocate to Kāmpilya, did Śikhaṇḍin personally identify as a male or a female or non-binary? Bhīṣma narrates the story using exclusively feminine words like "she, the girl" along with the male name Śikhaṇḍin. Sthūṇākarṇa addresses Śikhaṇḍin with feminine words at first (nṛp'ātmaje, bhadre, pārthiv'ātmaje) and then masculine words (pārthiv'ātmaja), and Śikhaṇḍin's words are gender-neutral except the promise, "kany'aiv'āhaṃ bhaviṣyāmi" - "I will be only a girl." When Bhīṣma laughs, "You are exactly what the Creator made you, the same female Śikhaṇḍinī!" (yai'va hi tvaṃ kṛtā Dhātrā sai'va hi tvaṃ Śikhaṇḍinī), Śikhaṇḍin trembles with rage, but replies without specifying his gender.

How did Śikhaṇḍin feel about his mother taking the blame for deceiving his father, although Drupada in fact knew the truth? The princess of Daśārṇa was underage when she married Śikhaṇḍin, and only after some time, she found out that her husband was female. The matter had to be settled by Śikhaṇḍin's father-in-law Hiraṇyavarman sending other attractive young women (yuvatīr variṣṭhāḥ ... sucāru-rūpāḥ) who reported that Śikhaṇḍin was a man of great prowess (Śikhaṇḍinaṃ puruṣaṃ ... mahā'nubhāvam). After that misunderstanding and that manner of clearing it up, how was Śikhaṇḍin's relationship with his wife and with his/their son Kṣatradeva? Did Śikhaṇḍin or his wife or mother or Drupada ever catch Bhīṣma's spies who observed the whole story by pretending to be mentally challenged, blind, and deaf?

Interestingly, although Bhīṣma declines to fight Śikhaṇḍin on several occasions, at one point Yudhiṣṭhira reacts to Bhīṣma breaking Śikhaṇḍin's bow (Bhīṣmaparvan 81.17-21).

And what was the emblem on Śikhaṇḍin's flag that Bhīṣma found so offensive that he didn't want to fight him?

Wow, I didn't know about him/her taking over Ahichhatra. Is there any info as to why he/she did that? I got the fact that his/her relationship with Drupada was rocky, but I didn't know it was this rocky!

Also Bhishma's spies wala info I've been looking for for a long time. 

I was working on a story on Shikhandi a while back, and I was filling up many gaps myself because I didn't find enough information. However, it's affirming to know at least I got the spirit right! 😆

Clarification: I wrote, "Droṇa, who had taken over his ancestral city of Ahicchatrā and forced his father Drupada to relocate to Kāmpilya."

After Drupada lost northern Pañcāla (his ancestral territory) to Droṇa and was left with only southern Pañcāla (which had belonged to the descendants of Brahmadatta until it was annexed by Drupada's father Pṛṣata), Śikhaṇḍin and Dhṛṣṭadyumna both studied under Droṇa. I have not found any evidence of a rocky relationship between Śikhaṇḍin and Drupada, even when Śikhaṇḍin runs away from home to starve to death in Sthūṇākarṇa's house. If you want to imagine tension to create a story, you may.