Week 11 Reading Notes: Shri Krishna of Dwarka Part B

I really enjoyed the story about the Syamantaka jewel.  It was neat to see a treasure like that passed around, either cursing or blessing whoever owns it.  It reminded me of Harry Potter--how everyone coveted the elder wand, and whomever had it was generally killed before too long.  This is one of the first and maybe only stories that I can remember where people were suspicious of Krishna and he was suspected of being a murderer.  It would be interesting to write a version of this story where Krishna did kill Satrajit.  I wonder how that story could have played out? It's really just pretty hard to see Krishna in a negative light, though.  One of my favorite stories from this part of the reading was Naraka and Bana.  I always love getting to see heroes fight, and Krishna is the best of the best.  A favorite scene of mine is where Krishna dries up the moat of Muru with his fiery discus, revealing that Muru was under the water.  Krishna is able to take care of the five headed beast with five arrows, each taking out a head of Muru.  After infiltrating Pragjyotisha, Krishna has to take on an army which include Muru's seven sons and the demon Naraka, who had been terrorizing people and was the reason for Krishna's assault.  Krishna is just as easily able to take down Muru's seven sons and Naraka as well to overtake the castle and return all of the stolen goods to rightful owners.  It's kind of fun getting to see Krishna fight people without much of a challenge.  Reading this story, and the ease at which Krishna overtake Pragjyotisha and kills demons, made me think of the story where Krishna fights the Bear King for twenty one days.  This made me think that the Bear King is legit in his power, or Krishna has developed his power a lot over the course of his life and these stories.  But at the same time, Krishna was very powerful when he was young as well, being able to kill demons even when he was a baby! This makes me think that the Bear King truly was a powerful opponent.  I have enjoyed reading the stories from part B of the reading, though I still think I may want to write my story from some of the tales from Part A.  It just sounds too fun to me to write a story about baby Krishna taking on demons!

The wrath of the Syamantaka jewel.  

Source: commons

Bibliography: Shri Krishna of Dwarka by CA Kincaid