Entertainment of an Improving Kind
" This is the tale of a tragic dynasty;
a narrative of hatred, honor, courage,
of virtue, love, ideals and wickedness,
and of a war so terrible, it marked
the threshold between one age and the next.
a narrative of hatred, honor, courage,
of virtue, love, ideals and wickedness,
and of a war so terrible, it marked
the threshold between one age and the next.
We approach the story through Ugrashravas,
singer of ancient songs, a traveling poet
who wandered the world free of encumbrances,
worshiping at sacred bathing places;
welcome at every court and hermitage
where people loved spellbinding tales.
He told it
to a community of brahmin seers
at their ashram in the Naimisha Forest.
Engaged in a twelve-year-long sacrifice,
they were, no doubt, avid for entertainment
of an improving kind. "
