Originally posted by: AWanderingSoulJoin in this new thread & tag your respective teammates. R2 Bonus Results to be posted tomorrow @8 PM IST. FINAL ROUND DEADLINE is 4th August 10 AM IST.
Team Duryodhan, please join the new thread!
Our scores so far (Round 1, bonus, Round 2):
BrhannadaArmour : +25, +45, +15 = +85
Rubabbb: +18, +45, +6 = +69
infinity101: +18, +45, -30 (didn't submit, two days after I made safe from swapping) = +33
opsora2090: +46, +45, +6 = +97
Bodhianveshika: +4, +45, +51 = +100
NautankiSaali17: +4, +95, -12 = +87
Chiillii: 0, 0, +15 = +15
Namita-M: +4, +95, +24 = +123
Pribz: -3, +95, +15 = +107
Kulasya.: +18, +95, +33 = +146
By adding Namita-M, Pribz, and Kulasya. to Team Duryodhan, we lost the scores of these swapped teammates:
Shividhadkndilk: 0, 0, +24
Dipsdj: 0, 0, +42
Rani_Sahiba: 0, 0, +42
Sorry, I was busy earlier, and so I couldn't tag/discuss the Round 2 answers in thread #3.
Kaṃsa was originally not an evil character; he is among the Viśvedevas in heaven alongside Ugrasena and Vasudeva (Mahābhārata: Svargārohaṇaparvan 5.14). When Kṛṣṇa narrates why he killed Kaṃsa (Sabhāparvan 13.29-33), he only says this: Kaṃsa subdued his cousins, married Asti and Prāpti, daughters of Bārhadratha (Jarāsaṃdha) and younger sisters of Sahadeva, and with that power, won presidency over his relatives, which was a really big injustice on his part; so, the elders chose Kṛṣṇa and Saṃkarṣaṇa to kill Kaṃsa and Sunāman, while getting Ugrasena's daughter Sutanu married to Akrūra. If Kaṃsa had ever tried to kill Kṛṣṇa, let alone killed Devakī's babies, wouldn't Kṛṣṇa's narration have included that provocation? The genealogy in Harivaṃśa (critical edition) doesn't mention Devakī bearing more than one child. So, the characterization of Kaṃsa as a serial baby-killer whom Kṛṣṇa killed with his bare hands because he didn't deserve a heroic death seems to be a later development.
Members who reason that Rāvaṇa didn't kill innocent babies might be interested in versions of the story in which Rāvaṇa has to dispose of newborn Sītā because she will cause his ruin. For example, in Vasudevahiṇḍī, written in the Māhārāṣṭrī Prākṛta language and dated as early as the 4th century C.E. (Chapter 14: Mayaṇavegā-lambha):
aṇṇayā kayā'i Ma'o nāma vijjāharo duhiyaṃ ghettūṇa se sevā-puvvam uvatthi'o Mandodarī nāma. Some other time, a wizard named Ma'a approached him with tribute, bringing his daughter named Mandodarī. daṃsiyā lakkhaṇa-vi'usāṇaṃ. She was shown to physiognomists. tehiṃ bhaṇiyaṃ - jo imī'e paḍhama-gabbho bhavissa'i so kula-kkhaya-he'u tti. They said - this one's first baby will be the reason for the family's ruin. sā ya a'īva rūvassiṇi tti na paricattā. Yet she was extremely beautiful, and so she was not rejected. jāyam avaccaṃ paḍhamaṃ ca'issāmo tti vivāhiyā. When the first offspring is born, we'll abandon it - thus, she was married. ... Mandodarī ya Rāmaṇa-gga-mahisī dāriyaṃ pasūyā. And Mandodarī, Rāmaṇa's chief lady, delivered a girl. tato rayaṇa-bhariyāe mañjūsāe pakkhittā. Then she was dropped into a casket filled with jewels. saṃdiṭṭho Mandodarīe amacco - vaccasu, ujjhasu ṇaṃ ti. Mandodarī instructed a commander - go, discard this.
My reason for holding Kaikayī more responsible than Mantharā is one that no one has mentioned so far: Kaikayī had influence and Mantharā was just a servant. If Mantharā had gone directly to Rāma and said, Daśaratha promised his kingdom as the price (rājya-śulka; Ayodhyākāṇḍa 99.3) to marry Kaikayī, so you have to go into forest exile, would Rāma have obeyed Mantharā? No, the question of royal succession would have been resolved without anyone going into exile. True to character, Bharata would have said no ... Kaikayī would have said, Bharata's turn comes after Rāma's centennial ... Daśaratha and Aśvapati would have agreed that the promise was moot ... Śatrughna would have retaliated against Mantharā ... And since Mantharā never even mentions the rājya-śulka to Kaikayī, and Kaikayī never reminds Daśaratha of it, we can infer that Mantharā and Kaikayī didn't know about it.
Maybe the rājya-śulka was just a lie that Rāma told to make Bharata feel better. If we imagine that Rāma somehow knew about an agreement between Aśvapati and Daśaratha from long before he was born, we have to wonder whether the whole time Bharata was in Kekaya, he was hearing about it from witnesses to the agreement who wanted him to rule Kosala.
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