#mahabarata

Yeah the party was ruined

This is the funniest thing I've read in a long while. First of all sister/brother however you identify - there is nothing to hate about Karna's guts coz the dude didn't have any (guts I mean). The sheer number of times he has run from battle is disconcerting. One time he abandoned his best friend Duryodhana at the mercy of the Gandharvas and ran for his own life.

Secondly most people who have read the Mahabharata and comprehended it would agree with me on one pivotal thing - even if Karna wasn't inherently evil and supported and at times even incited Duryodhana to violence and driven him further down the wrong path, been a jealous envious insecure man, I would solely detest him for how he addressed Draupadi. He called her a whore, he was the one who suggested Duryodhana to disrobe her in front of everyone and didnt stop at that. He told Draupadi to have physical relationships with the Kauravas. This is considerable as a precursor and intent to rape. (And no, Draupadi stopping Karna from participating in the swayamvara because he was a suta is wrongly interpolated and has been proved to be a propagandist manipulation by caste politics many times over)

Also, hon, the Mahabharata *is* a religious text as much as a literary masterpiece. You can not call it limiting for being a religious text only because it doesn't suit your creative space. Some of the characters of the Mahabharata are Hindu gods and goddesses who are worshipped by us still. It is as religious as the Bible or/and the Quran. I have read a million translations, adaptations, and even fanfictions on the Mahabharata that are utterly fascinating and interestingly different from the main script without them being even remotely disrespectful towards hinduism or its main edicts. If you can not engage your brand of creativity without being insulting to the main premise of the epic or its characters, then it is your inadequacies. Do not call the source material limiting.

Also, Karna is no anti-hero. People love to paint him like that, no doubt about it. In fact, Ashwatthama is much more deserving of most things people have conjured out of thin air and donated to Karna's character. He was a warrior equal to Arjuna's mettle. He never complained, never whined, never blame shifted on anyone. Supported Duryodhana in the war out of respect for his father and because of his friendship with Duryodhana but never took his shit or advocated his evil machinations. He can be called an antihero to some extent.

Oh, please enjoy what you like. No one told you not to like Karna. Creative liberties are well and good as long as one doesn't start confusing it with the actual facts of the source material. Something which I have seen being pretty rampant nowadays.

Im not shitting on your choices, but if you start giving general statements as facts that are utterly incorrect, I will have to debate that.

But I found a sanskrit version of the Mahabharata and I'm not sure which version it is (or publication house if you will)

and i thought you might know about the giveaways

[I have the adi parv (18 parva classification) downloaded rn]

This looks like BORI’s Sanskrit only Mahabharata.

pic for cross checking

Don’t be sorry! If I was not drowning in homework rn I would loooove to talk to you. 💕💕

blessed are the feet of the beloved tyrant Ashvatthana where I rest my battered head

destituted prostitute

tantrized

by his eyes

I sigh

and cry

Ashvatthana Ashvatthana Ashvatthana

please m’lord I do not want to die

why?

why!

I subside at his insistence

that my resistance

is persistence

of a fate

that leads to a gate

where great horrors await

but lord lord do not deny

that my cry of pain

is not insane

but is from a membrane

framed

by a perspective

that is directed

by a psychopathic collective

bound so tightly

that nightly

my bones creak

will not release

oh lord, grant me peace

a surcease

a cease and desist

a slip of paper

stapled to my head

that says

‘Be Free!’