I am surprised at your choice of Duryodhana, although so many have pointed to the large number who were loyal to him throughout as indicating his charisma. As far as the narration is concerned, he was a rich man's spoilt brat, used to having his own way, resentful and envious of his better endowed cousins, a thorough woman-hater, to a vindictive degree that bordered on the psychopathic, murderous and open to any ruse or strategy that would kill a hated opponent, manipulative and adept at using emotional blackmail on his elders - really find it difficult to understand your choice.
On Jul 2, 2013, at 7:43 AM, Deepa Mohan <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 7:35 AM, Ashwin Kumar <[email protected]> wrote: > Karna and Duryodhana are my >> >>> favourite characters from the Mahabharata. >> >> Interesting choice of characters. Why them? > > > > Karna...made his way in life, through the worst odds possible. I liked both > the Tamizh movie about him and R S Manohar's play about him (no matter how > much the melodrama.) He lost to Arjuna, only because of his promise to a > mother who never did, or could, publicly recognize him as her son. Now,to > drift my own thread, I enjoyed the mythological plays of R S Manohar very > much, with their lavish sets and loud declamations....I saw him, just > before his death, in one of the re-staging of his plays, and it was very > pathetic. > > Duryodhana...though he is so reviled, I think that some of the things that > the angelic Pandavas did were much worse than any of his actions. And he > recognized Karna and honoured him for his qualities,not for his birth, when > everyone else talked only about his being the son of a charioteer. In our > caste-ridden Indian society, that's an example to emulate :) > > I am a hopeless romantic at heart!
