Reading Notes: Mahabharata, Part C

Riddles At The Lake

I chose to write my reading notes on this part of the Mahabharata because it was so much different. I felt that this was clever in the sense that it showed results in the threats yet people still didn't listen. The seriousness of the voice comes with repetition. I feel that is one aspect I could take into my own writing. I feel that if I were to try to tell a moral story this is a good way to show the seriousness or at least the power of a character. I also enjoy the idea of a character proving worthiness through riddles. This can be seen in multiple stories but I like the format in this story as in each time there were multiple parts along with multiple answers. I think that if I were going to try and write a story based off this one I would try to make it be Dog trying to get a treat from his master. I was thinking about how I could make it into riddles, but I don't want a talking relationship between the two. I was thinking maybe the dog must have to perform a bunch of tricks which other dogs couldn't before him in order to get a bone or what not. One thing I would do in masking this story is try to replicate the repetition to show the seriousness. I was trying to think of a way to make a punishment but I wasn't able to think of one. I thought about however the dog getting a treat for each trick he performed but instead of eating all of them, he gives them to his dog friends kind of like how Yudhishthira wished that his brothers would come back to life.

Overall, I like the style of this story but the writing didn't necessarily impress me other than the great use of repetition to lead to the climax.

This is a dog doing a trick with a ball that I found on  MaxPixel.

Bibliography:

 This is from Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913). The link to the story is above.