| Indraprastha Duryodhana paced around the garden, oblivious to the beautiful orchids and begonias he trampled as he absentmindedly stepped off the path into the flowerbeds. Shrubs bent under the weight of his feet, forced to rest their leaves in the dark soil below them. From her balcony, Nirali, one of his many lovers, saw Duryodhana’s stressful walking and called out to him. “Duryodhana, what is the matter?” she said. Duryodhana paced further, smashing a piece of fallen fruit under his foot. Nirali called out louder. Duryodhana turned, looked up, and began walking toward her. “The Pandavas and their palace. This is what causes me grief.” “I heard it was a beautiful place, was it not? Maya, the great architect himself, helped build it.” Duryodhana’s face grew red and rigid, the corners of his mouth curling downward even further than before. “Please, Duryodhana, come tell me what happened.” Nirali smiled sweetly as he sat down in a bench just below the balcony. “It was beautiful, Nirali. Never have I seen work in a palace done so perfectly. Upon entering, one sees the pillars. They stand 50 feet high, 30 of them, each as big around as a large tree. From far away, they are the color of the sky, a blue with hues of red, orange, and gold, like the sun. When you walk closer, they turn to white marble, as pure as an ivory tusk. Nirali, when one touches them lightly, they have a certain roughness like desert sand, but when they are rubbed hard, they are as smooth and polished as your lovely skin. It defies my comprehension.” “Such beauty, and you pace?” “Let me finish. As I walked inside the great arches, I saw a pool of water. When I lifted my robes to step into it, I found it was only a tile. I heard snickering, and I saw Bhima turn his head to laugh, but I paid no attention to it. Nearby was what seemed like another of the tiles. I wanted to examine the beauty of Maya’s work, but when I stepped, it turned to a real pool of water. This time Bhima burst into laughter, as did all who stood around him. This is why I pace.” “Duryodhana, it was a simple prank. You shouldn’t let it bother you so much. What do you plan on doing?” “I will destroy the Pandavas and their kingdom.” From: Narayan, R.K. The Mahabharata. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Commentary For this story, I wanted to focus on showing the beauty and strangeness of maya. There is surprisingly little description of the palace, so it was easy to come up with images on my own that would serve this purpose. One of the first things I picture when I think of a palace are really big pillars. They are objects that tend to stand out, so I gave them some properties associated with maya. I tried to make these pillars' attributes contradictory. They are both smooth and rough, depending on the circumstances. Paradoxes like these seem to blur the boundaries between objects, which can show the illusory nature of objects’ attributes that we normally take as permanent. At the same time, to keep things interesting, I tried to show the emotions Duryodhana felt during this time. He has been tricked, and this acts as a major catalyst for his future actions against the Pandavas. While the reader may not agree with the actions he takes to get his revenge, I think people can better appreciate and understand his motives when there is a strong focus on his emotions regarding the event. Telling the story of what happened at the palace to one of his lovers seemed to be a likely situation. |
