Week 12: Reading Diary B - Arjuna Comes Back

Reading Diary Pg. 139-189
The Mahabharata by William Buck

• The reading begins with Arjuna being cursed off because he refuses Urvashi's advances. I wonder, what exactly his advances mean? Is there something behind it? His punishment is that he has been cursed to live an entire year as a eunuch. 
• Chitrathara, lord of the gandharvas has been ordered by Indra to aid Arjuna in music and dancing. This is interesting to me because I wonder what exactly the tie to music and dancing is. I feel like there hasn't been a lot of this aspect included into the books we've read thus far.  I found this part really interesting. He also aids in helping Arjuna disguise himself, which would help him since he is exiled for thirteen years. He also teaches him the use of divine weapons - I wonder what exactly are "divine" weapons?
• The story of Mankanaka is told - Mankanaka lived in a forest and lived off of eating plants. When he would get a cut, instead of blood coming out, grass juice would come out. The fact that grass juice was coming out of himself made him so happy that he would jump up and down and dance. His dance was contagious and soon the whole world was dancing with him! Some gods were worried that all of this dancing would destroy the earth. So, god Shiva was sent down to earth to tell him to stop dancing. As soon as Mankanaka saw that god Shiva had come down to see him, he stopped dancing.
• The story of Rishyashringa is told - Rishyasringa's birth was induced by Urvashi. Vibhandaka had seen Urvashi bathing causing him to ejaculate into a lake and a deer had drank the water from that same lake. Rishyashringa ended up being the product of Vibhandaka and the deer, hence why he has antlers. The King of Agna was told that only a man with such a pure heart at Rishyashringa could cure the drought. So, his daughter Shanta offered to bring him into the city. He came to the city, bringing along rain with him and ended up marrying Shanta. 
• Meanwhile, the Pandavas venture on a journey to Mount Kailasa. Near Rishava's mountain, the Pandavas are attacked by the mountain. Hanuman comes back into the story. He blocks the path that Bhima is trying to go on, but then Hanuman tells Bhima where he could find the Lotus lake. Bhima ends up taking the Lotus flower from the lake and Matali returns Arjuna to earth where he is finally rejoiced with his brothers! He brings along with him heavy weapons.