Story Week 11 (The Rivalry of Pandu's Son and Their Cousin's)
The Rivalry of Pandu's Sons and Their Cousins
This story begins with the death of Pandu, a king with five tall sons. His older brother, Dhritarashtra, who is blind, becomes the new king. However, it is known that even in the wake of Pandu’s untimely death that Dhritarashtra's death would shortly follow. So, he was simply serving as an interim king. This raised a lot of chatter in the kingdom over who would be the next king and ultimately rule for the next one hundred years. The issue arose in the fact that Pandu had five sons. The eldest was the rightful heir to the throne. However, since Dhritarashtra was now the king technically, he wanted his son to be the next king. This was understandable, but the throne was supposed to be Pandu’s sons birth right.
After a few months of reign, Dhritarashtra, the blind king began to realize that he was getting sick and could not
look after the kingdom any longer. So, he needed to decide who the new king was
going to be and he needed to decide soon. With hardly any time he called both
his son and nephew, Pandu’s eldest to his chamber to discuss who would be the
next king. The two began to argue over who would be a better ruler over the
land.
“We should wrestle a giraffe and
the winner should be the new king shouted!” Pandu’s son.
“Oh, like that’s fair, you’re
literally 8 feet tall,” his cousin replied. “I am the son of the new king and
so I should be the next in line. Plus, you look like a goof by being that tall.
No one is going to want to serve a king that looks so silly.”
“Silence!” the Dhritarashtra exclaimed.
“I have decided to leave it up to the fates. I have had a servant write a circle
and a star on two separate pieces of paper. My son will draw from a straw
basket. If he draws the star will be the next king and that’s final. Whoever
draws the circle will the others servant”
However, it was clear that Dhritarashtra wanted his own son to be the king. Underneath the folded pieces of
paper Pandu’s eldest son could see that both pieces of paper had stars written
on them, so there was no way he could lose.
“But, if you’re blind how will you
know which one of the of the pieces he drew?” he asked. Dhritarashtra agreed and
quickly asked for a servant to come in the chamber to officiate. However,
before the servant arrived, Pandu’s son quickly grabbed for one of the pieces,
knowing that the king had tried to set his son up for success. He quickly
grabbed a piece and cut it with his sword. The king’s son was in disbelief. Why
would we cut up the piece of paper with a star on it? Then, he grabbed the
other piece right before the servant arrived. When it was time to discuss who
would be king. Pandu’s son exclaimed, “I have the piece with a star and whoever
received the circle would be my servant. Since, I have the star, my cousin’s
paper, which I cut up, must have had the circle on it!” From that point on,
Pandu’s son took his rightful throe with his cousin at his side for the rest of
his ruling.
Pandu and his Sons
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Original title: The Five Tall Sons of Pandu
Author: Richard Wilson
Authors note: This is a tale about a man named Pandu who has five tall sons. I really liked this story for many reasons. The whole story can be found at this link and has many bends. But I have written a note regarding the first section of the story. Upon Pandu’s death, his blind brother becomes the new king. Pandu’s blind brother has one hundred sons. One of his sons, hates Pandu’s sons, who are his cousins. It will soon be decided by a tournament who will be the next king. The young princes are reread up to master the arts of war. However, after a tournament is held, a mysterious warrior wins the rights to the throne. One of the things I enjoyed most about this story was that it maintained that the characters were mortal. It was about good old fashioned family rivalry. Not to say that I do not like when the characters are gods or supernatural, however, it was nice to see the story in a different context. On a related, I really liked how the characters used regular weapons. This built-up suspense for me as their weaponry was described. Moreover, I thought it was very interesting that the characters even held a gambling match that is reduced to trickery. This have me the main idea for my story that I will be writing. In my opinion, the simplicity of the trickery gives the story a layer that the supernatural stories lack. However, to reiterate, I really enjoy those sorts of stories, it was just refreshing to see a story that hardly used much of that.
Pandu and his Sons
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Original title: The Five Tall Sons of Pandu
Author: Richard Wilson
Authors note: This is a tale about a man named Pandu who has five tall sons. I really liked this story for many reasons. The whole story can be found at this link and has many bends. But I have written a note regarding the first section of the story. Upon Pandu’s death, his blind brother becomes the new king. Pandu’s blind brother has one hundred sons. One of his sons, hates Pandu’s sons, who are his cousins. It will soon be decided by a tournament who will be the next king. The young princes are reread up to master the arts of war. However, after a tournament is held, a mysterious warrior wins the rights to the throne. One of the things I enjoyed most about this story was that it maintained that the characters were mortal. It was about good old fashioned family rivalry. Not to say that I do not like when the characters are gods or supernatural, however, it was nice to see the story in a different context. On a related, I really liked how the characters used regular weapons. This built-up suspense for me as their weaponry was described. Moreover, I thought it was very interesting that the characters even held a gambling match that is reduced to trickery. This have me the main idea for my story that I will be writing. In my opinion, the simplicity of the trickery gives the story a layer that the supernatural stories lack. However, to reiterate, I really enjoy those sorts of stories, it was just refreshing to see a story that hardly used much of that.
Furthermore, my personal favorite topic was the rivalry between the cousins. Therefore, I was really surprised to see that an outsider would ultimately win the tournament. So, I decided to place an emphasis on the rivalry between the cousins and let them duel in out in my story. Also, I decided to maintain a really simple duel between them to gain the throne.