Reading Notes: Mahabharata, Part C

This week, I will be finishing the online public reading of the Mahabharata. For today's reading notes, I will be focusing on part C of the reading. In particular, I enjoyed the story Riddles by The Lake by Donald A. Mackenzie. This reading reminded me of a story where a troll that lived under a bridge would not let anyone pass until they answered all his riddles correctly. If they happened to fail to answer the troll's riddle, they would then be eaten.

In the story Riddles by The Lake, a Yaksha, which is a celestial being, lives in a river. After a long hunt, the Pandava brethren are tired and thirsty. Therefore, they stop at this river which begins to talk to them saying "answer the question that I present to you before you take a drink from this river." However, Nakula, Sahadeva, and Arjuna overtook by thirst do not head the voice in the river. They take a drink from the water before answering any riddles and they die.

Yudhishthira, the wiser of the brethren, was able to control his temptations and listened to the voice in the river. He asked, "Who are you?" The voice in the river begins to tell him that he is a yaksha and his people died from not heading his counsel. Yudhishthira then listens to the yaksha and answers all the riddles that the yaksha had for him. At the end of all the riddles, the yaksha reveals himself in the form of Dharma, the god of wisdom and justice.

I am going to do a remake of this story relating to the troll under the bridge. The ultimate premise of the story will be that self-control is needed even at your weakest moments. I will probably incorporate other childhood fables into my story as well.   

The Riddler: Deviant Art