See the part about its dating based on astrological stuff aslo.
Coming to the point today I saw on www.mhznetwork.com the serial Mahabharat - produced in 1986-7 by BR Chopra . Today they were showing the scene when Strong Man Bheem is humbled by Hanuman disguised as a sick old monkey on the ground. That was while he was going to get perfumed flowers for his wife Draupadi -while in exile.
This scene many would recall having read in even abridged versions of Mahabharat.
However, today they showed another scene which I had not read in the abridged version (of 3000 pages) of Mahabharat . That was about how Bheem shows his moral side and rebukes a (so-called Brahmin) family - which does not show familial love
when confronted by a demon who wants to take away one member of their family to be sacrificed to Goddess Kali by the demon's mom.
However, Bheem offers himself for sacrifice (undoubtedly planning to beat the demon after learning more about it) . They go to the altar where the mom is sitting praying to the Goddess . She turns to recognize Bheem as her husband. The demon is none other than their son Ghatotkach (famous in Mahabharat war for his valor and destruction of the enemy and getting killed by Krishna's strategy to save Arjun from death - by the divine Shakti weapon of Karna).
Bheem again shows his ethics knowledge and rebukes her for perpetrating this evil which has no religious sanction. (she had said that it had been going on for ages).
Again this shows that Mahabharat was set at a time of enormous change -- when God took birth as Krishna (as per Hindus) to remove evil
which had become widespread in the world. (Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya ..... is the shloka regarding this --from Gita I think) .
Any comments - in connection with human sacrifice etc or anything about Mahabharat?
Umesh
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
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