Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata, Section A

Stream of consciousness: 

The story that most raised my interest was King Shantanu and Satyavati. I always try to look at the image before I read the stories and this image was very startling for me, as I was not so prepared for nudity. The image was also very creepy as it's like this dude and this young, naive looking, naked girl. So basically this story is about an old man who is prowling the streets looking for a pyt to marry. He finds this girl and then we get a background story about her. Well. Not about her. But about how the men in her life impacted her, as her perspective is never shown. This probably male-identifying fish carries her and her brother as babies. Then a man chooses to keep her. Then a man chooses to impregnate her and make her not smell bad. Then a man decides to grow up really quickly and leave her. Then a man decides to make her a virgin again. Then a man decides to marry her. Then a man decides to not let her be married unless their male son gets the throne. Then a man decides not to marry her and leaves. That's the story folks. And yet her name is in the title. What it should have been is how a woman got screwed over and degraded by like four guys. And then, because she didn't have enough pain. A man decided to paint her and depict her as this innocent child with long-eyelashes ripe for the batting while this rich old dude gropes her. Infuriating. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:  Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

IMAGE:

( here's the obscene image in small - Wikimedia )