Reading Notes: The Princes of Elephant City

The death of Karna

Source

This week I was prompted with re-reading the Mahabharata, so I chose to read one of the online versions of the Mahabharata, The Princes of Elephant City by C.A. Kincaid. I thoroughly enjoyed this version of the Mahabharata, almost as much as the first version I read during weeks 6 and 7. One of the reasons I enjoyed this story so much is that is was severely condensed. Though I absolutely loved the original, being tasked with reading it is quite the commitment. There are many pages which vary in length and complexity, as well as changes in story telling from page to page. Sometimes the story is told in a traditional way, while on other pages it is told in the form of a song with rhyming couplets taking the place of paragraphs. Also, understanding the family tree is very confusing in this version, as in some pages it throws many names with many relationships at you at once, leading to you having to reread the same paragraph many times to fully understand who is who and how they are related to each other (it also doesn't help that some characters go by different names, so you need to not only memorize their name and relationship to other characters, but also their nicknames.) The Princes of Elephant City resolved many of these issues by condensing the main story down. It turned pages into paragraphs, and severely lessened the extent of the family tree mentioned. In the week 6 and 7 version, it goes into the history and relations of characters that are never mentioned again, whereas in this version the names and relations of characters are only mentioned if it is important to the overall story (for example, we are never told who Karna's parents names are in this version, as they are never brought up again, whereas in the original version we are told their names and living situation, which are complete filler to the story as a whole.)  While I very much enjoyed this version of the Mahabharata, I still think the original is better and I would recommend that version compared to this one. The reason being, is that even though it has many faults, like long and unneeded filler stories and characters, these faults are what helps the reader become even more immersed into the story and world of the Mahabharata. Without pages on pages of Karna's abandonment, I wouldn't understand his motives or his celestial earnings and armor. Or I wouldn't fully understand why Drapaudi was destined to have 5 husbands and why/how she was reborn. These stories, though not essential to the plot, really help the reader better visualize what they are reading and become attached to characters. When it comes to the Mahabharata, I recommend either reading the original first and then reading The Princes of Elephant City afterwards to make sure you understood the story, or skimming over the Princes of Elephant City and understanding characters and their relations to one another and then reading the Mahabharata to embrace the world the story creates.

Bibliography:
C.A. Kincaid
The Indian Heroes: Mahabharata - The Princes of Elephant City
http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/search/label/Guide%3A%20Kincaid.%20Mahabharata