The royal palace had two families. The Kauravas and their cousins Pandavas. They were raised together, because the father of Pandavas passed away from a curse from long years past. As they grew, Bhima, the second eldest of Padavas, was the undisputed strongest. Despite their growing up together without any prejudice, the eldest of the Kauravas, Duryodhana could not help but become jealous of Bhima's mighty strength. He started cooking up a sinister plot to kill his cousin.
Duryodhana finally got the chance when he went to the banks of Ganges with Bhima to feast. Duryodhana put poison onto Bhima's food. Bhima never suspected such treachery from his cousin and succumbed to the poison. While Bhima was unconscious Duryodhana chained him and threw him into the Ganges river so that Bhima would die for sure. Duryodhana then returned to the palace with self-inflicted injuries and claimed that they've been attacked by nagas and that Bhima fell in battle, dragged in to the depth of Ganges by the heinous monsters.
Kunti, the mother of Bhima had some suspicions, however, since she knew that her great grand-sire dwelled in the underworld which was the world of nagas. She knew that they wouldn't attack her son nor would they randomly come onto the banks of Ganges to attack two princes for no reason. She decided to wait for Bhima to return as she had hope that her strongest son would survive.
True to her belief, Bhima overcame the poison. However, it was quite amusing that he overcame the poison by being attacked by the nagas that his mother believed in. The nagas' poison counteracted the poison already present in his body and thus he overcame his plight. He unchained himself then attacked the nagas around him and his mighty strength reached the ears of Vasuki, king of the nagas. Kunti's great grand-sire Aryaka accompanied Vasuki to meet this mighty warrior and knew at first glance that Bhima was related to him.
Aryaka begged Vasuki for a boon for Bhima and Vasuki easily agreed since he already respected Bhima for his strength. Bhima was able to drink a special naga potion that greatly increased his strength. He drank eight such potions and he grew stronger eight-fold. He returned to the palace with his newfound strength and he greatly desired take revenge onto Duryodhana. However, his mother got to him first and told him to wait for a better chance to overthrow the entire Kauravas as his revenge. Bhima heeded his mother's advice and walked back to his own room with swagger while Duryodhana looked at him with anxiety.
Author's Notes: This story is from the Bhima and the Nagas. I don't know why but Bhima returning from the underworld after Duryodhana's treachery reminded me a lot of the movie Django Unchained. So I thought to title my own version of the story Bhima Unchained, since he was thrown into the Ganges River chained but came back unchained stronger than ever. Similar to how Django was able to unchain himself from slavery and become badass.
Bibliography: Bhima and the Nagas
Hi Shaun,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting read! I liked how you made it to where poisons negate each other. I don't know why, but the first thing that popped into my head was math. It seemed like Bhima’s mother was very instrumental is egging Bhima on to get revenge. However, I can understand why revenge was heavy on his mind, he had just been attacked! Thank you for sharing, I really enjoyed reading!
Hey Shaun, I think you did a great job of connecting the original story to a movie that you have previously watched. This is the first story that I have read with this technique and I made note of it because I think it would be an easy way to get started with a story remix for the following weeks. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteHi Shaun,
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought the story was going to be a Western type of story due to the Django Unchained reference, great movie choice by the way, but I like how you stayed more true to the original story. I also like you mention the "swagger" that Bhima has to further relate him to Django. I enjoyed this story, and now I want to rewatch Django.