By Lawrence Manzo
An English language re-telling of the ancient epic Mahabharat.
5.0
170170 ratings
Episode 50 - Sanjay returns to Hastinapur with messages and intelligence from the Pandava camp. The king's charioteer delivers this information before the royal assembly, while Dhrarastra, Duryodhana, Bhisma and Karna argue over the significance of these threats. Having gone...
Episode 49 - Now that both sides are armed to the teeth and infested with vast armies, they are ready to talk peace terms. The Pandavas start the first round by sending Drupad's unnamed priest as their ambassador. This priest travels...
Episode 48 - The Pandavas have come out of hiding and are demanding their lands back from the Kauravas. Duryodhana has already indicated that he has no interest in giving these back, so it would be best to negotiate from...
Episode 47 - The brothers formally come out of hiding, and thick-headed Virata finally realizes he has been sheltering the famous Pandavas. To avoid any question of scandal, Virata's daughter is quickly married to Arjun's son, Abhimanyu. The allies are...
Episode 46 - News of Kicaka's death reaches the neighboring kingdoms, and precipitates an attack from the Trigartas and the Kauravas. Virata sends his entire force against the Trigartas and leaves the rest of the country open for the Kuru's...
Episode 45 - The Pandavas send away their hangers-on, and enter hiding at the kingdom of the Matsyas, in the service of King Virata. Things go well for the first 10 months, but then the king's brother-in-law gets smitten with the...
Episode 44 - We finish off the Book of the Forest with a couple of the more famous vignettes from the epic. The first is the classic tale in which Karna is forewarned that Indra will come to beg from...
Episode 43 - Despite the offensive raid on their camp by Jayadratha, old Markandeya is still hanging out with the Pandavas. Yuddistira, feeling sorry for himself and for Draupadi, goes to him for consolation. Markandeya replies with the entire story...
Episode 42 - Vyasa stops by the Pandava camp and tells the story of Mudgala, who turns down the opportunity to go bodily to heaven because it wasn't permanent enough! He chose instead to stay on earth, eking out his miserable...
Episode 41 - This one covers Duryodhana reaction to the humiliation of being captured by the Gandharvas and then released by the valor of his hated cousins the Pandavas. Unable to face his clan after the ignominious defeat, the prince resolves...
Episode 40 - This one starts with some girl talk. Draupadi and Satyabhama get bored of Markandeya's endless mythologies, and sneak off for a more private conversation. Satyabhama wants to know how Draupadi maintains her hold over all five husbands....
Episode 39 - Two more stories from the Sage Markandeya. The first is a rousing fight story, where the king of Ayodhya gets super powers from the god Vishnu and defeats a dragon. I find the second story more interesting....
Episode 38 - The Sage Markandeya continues with his storytelling. He begins with his own version of the Four Ages or Yugas. One interesting point is that in his reckoning, the Kali Yuga lasts 1,200 years in total. Since we...
Episode 37 - While Krishna is still hanging out at the camp, the sages Narada and Markandeya show up. After some prodding, Markandeya finally opens up and gives us his take on reincarnation, sin and the afterlife. He follows that...
Episode 36 - The Pandavas journey south, out of the Himalayas and back to the plains. Along the way, Bhima goes hunting and finds himself captured by a giant magical snake. The Snake takes his time and tells Bhima his life...
Episode 35 - It's deja-vu all over again, as the Pandavas move from the hermitage of Nar-Narayan to another one on the slopes of Mt Kailash, named for Arstisena. Another flower wafts down the hill, and Draupadi again sends Bhima...
Episode 34 - The Pandavas resume center stage as the main characters of this episode. They continue their trek through the mountains until the going gets too rough for Draupadi. Bhima summons his half-Rakshasa son, Gatotkacha, who can fly, and...
Episode 33 These are the last three stories of the long series of tales in the Book of the Forest. The Pandavas are finishing up their pilgrimage across India and are moving northward for their rendezvous with Arjun. The first...
Episode 32 - Two more stories from the Book of the Forest. The first involves another Bhrgu Brahmin with a Kshatriya wife. The second story, about Mahdhatar, is short, but interesting in how it differs from all the other stories we've...
Episode 31 - The Pandavas continue their pilgrimage to all the holy sites of India. With Lomasha as their guide & storyteller, they hear the stories of Rshyashrnga and then the story of Rama Jamadagnya, or "Battle-Axe" Rama, who cut his...
Episode 30 - The four Pandavas who were left in the forest set off on a tour of the sacred sites of Ancient India, with the Sage Lomasha as their guide. At a stopover near the historic hermitage that once belonged to...
Episode 29 - We finish the story of Nala. Brhadashva suggested that this story would cheer up the Pandavas, since there was indeed a king who had it worse than they. But shortly after hearing the story, they get news that...
Episode 28 - While Arjun remains in heaven, relaxing with his father Indra, news reaches the Kaurava court of Arjun's exploits. Dhrtarastra then has one of his bouts of regret while Sanjay scolds him for being so stupid. We then cut...
Episode 27 - We follow Arjun's journey into the Himalayas and beyond. This episode includes Arjun's famous battle with the Mountain Man. He doesn't come out of the fight very well-- Shiva crushes him into a meatball and ends the fight....
Episode 26 - We begin this episode with the tale of Krishna's adventures when he might otherwise have helped his friends in their distress. At least he got a few good fight scenes out of it, including his son Pradyumna performing...
Episode 25 - The continuing adventures of the Pandavas in the forest. The story picks up with Maitreya's curse and angry departure from the court at Hastinapur. Dhrtarastra, apparently tired of all the dire predictions decides it is time for a...
Episode 24 - The Pandavas are now settled into their forest encampment and receive a surprise visitor. The Kauravas plot to kill the Pandavas while they are defenseless in the forest. Vyasa himself steps in to put a stop to...
Episode 23 -This episode covers the Pandava's departure for the forest and the initial fears of theKauravas as they considered what they had done. As things washed out, only the five brothers, Draupadi and a gaggle of Brahmins went into the...
Episode 22 - At the end of the First Dice Game, it really seemed like King Dhritarastra had put everything back the way it was. He restored the Pandava's freedom, titles and wealth. Unfortunately, Bhima had sworn some pretty serious...
Episode 21 - This is a big one; this episode covers the tangled details of the incident that sets off the rest of the story. At the heart of it, it is about Duryodhana and Shakuni cheating at dice to win...
Episode 20 - The Pandavas range the Four Directions and conquer the world, bringing home mountains of treasure. Soon after, the Rajasuya Sacrifice commences. Krishna is given the top honor among the guests and this causes a tumult of disgruntled kings...
Episode 19 - This episode, Yuddistira gets it into his head that he should be King of the World! As he has been inclined to do since becoming king, he calls for Krishna to advise him on how to accomplish this task....
Episode 18 - This is a longer, pithy episode, covering the way the brothers decided to prevent future conflicts over their shared wife, and Arjun's subsequent adventures when he breaches those rules. Despite the punishment he receives for breaking the oath...
Episode 17 - With this episode, we finally get back to the main characters and the main storyline. The news of the Pandava's emergence from obscurity has reached Hastinapur, and King Dhrtarastra has to make a decision-- does he go along...
Episode 16 - This is the final installment of the "Krishna Episodes", where I've covered Krishna's back story up to and beyond the point when the Pandavas met him in Panchala. There are still some interesting details in the Bhagavata Purana...
Episode 15 - This episode is about Krishna's spectacular entry into international politics. Having established his manhood by cuckolding the entire tribe of cowherders, Krishna returns to Mathura to get his revenge on Kamsa. Killing Kamsa has repercussions, however, because Kamsa...
Episode 14 - Things get hot and heavy this episode, when Krishna plays a tune on his magic flute and all the girls come running. The association of religious devotion with carnal love is found in Sikhism, Sufi Islam and even mystical...
Episode 13 - The further adventures of young Krishna. This time we cover his youth and teenage years. He kills a bunch of demons, imitates every boy in the clan plus all the calves, kicks Indra's butt, and then compels the...
Episode 12 - We finally get started with Krishna. His mother and father were both of the house of Yadu in Mathura-- Krishna's mother Devaki was King Ugrasena's daughter. Unfortunately, Devaki's brother, Crown Prince Kamsa was a bad guy, and...
Episode 11 - This episode is the first in a series that will break away from the Mahabharata and use the Bhagavata Purana as the primary source instead. This is necessary if you want to find out Krishna's life stories. Up...
Episode 10 - This is a long one - over 30 minutes, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out. You might have noticed that I'm still experimenting with the audio, and I think this one came out clearer than...
Episode 9 - This episode begins with Drona's revenge against King Drupada for reneging on a promise to share his wealth with his former schoolmate. The princes have come of age, and perform a demonstration of their battle skills. The pageant is...
Episode 8 - This is the last episode that covers Book 7 of the Mahabharata, called "The Origins". Almost all of the story I have covered so far comes from Book 7. The earlier books are much shorter, and full of...
Episode 7 - This episode covers the marriage of the three princes Dhritarastra, Pandu and Vidura. Here's the map I promised of India during the time of the Mahabharata. What's important to notice is that first, the Kuru nation was in...
Episode 6 - In this episode, Bhisma's extreme oath comes back to bite them all, when both his brothers die childless and there is no one to continue the Dynasty. But never fear, because Satyavati has another son, the very...
Episode 5 - I briefly give my opinion of the previous episode on Shakuntala and Dushanta, and then get going with the birth of mighty Bhisma and his two not-so-mighty brothers. This is an important episode, because in many ways, it is Bhisma's...
Episode 4 - The episodes are getting a little longer now, as the stories get more detailed. Before the book gets to the "direct line" of characters, it takes a bit of a detour to introduce some of the important ancestors...
Episode 3 - Vaisampayan begins telling the Mahabharata, beginning by telling us that Vyasa spent three years daily working on the poem. Following that, we hear about the Fishy-Fragrant Satyavati and Vyasa's birth.
Episode 2 -The story begins. In this episode I describe how the Mahabharata begins, with the storyteller Ugrasravas telling the hermits in the forest about the great Snake Sacrifice of King Janamejaya, and how Vyasa's composition was told during the...
Episode 1 - I'm excited to announce that the first episode of my podcast about the Mahabharata is now available. There are more episodes to come shortly. This one is just a brief introduction to let you know what this project...