This is a new series. Which, I may not complete. Unable to… or stopped.
Sourav Kumar | April 12, 2026, India
And a different way of writing.
It is still within the lens I use. The neologism “mythoscopy”.
But slightly less. Less apologetic. Less conciliatory. Less smooth. Less patient.
Or more. More unapologetic. More confrontational. Rougher. More impatient.
This comes from the detritus of all the smoothening, all the apologies, and all the conciliation. This material may not be reconciliable with the texts available. Not without time travel.
I am signing my name below. To ensure people know whom to blame. No one else is to blame for this. No collaborator. No text. No teacher.
No AI model even. Other than the one’s that live on this blogging portal and my browser. When they say “long sentences”, “complex words” or “unconfident words”… and propose something. That looks better than the outpourings of my human idiocy.
The ellipses (…), the em-dashes (—), and the Oxford commas (see before the “and”) have been my signature go-to’s before the AI revolution. So, those remain… though (ironically) the AI’s keep asking me to replace/remove them.
Oh, and apostrophe pluralization is acceptable as per the AP style guide. It seems AI models prefer Chicago Manual of Style.
For those who would like to attempt to forgive me, consider this a fictitious fiction. A fantastical fantasy.
Of a world, where the one’s who win rarely do so the right way.
And the one’s who lose, were not always the one’s who deserved to.
A fantasy world, where there are no gods.
Or a God, who takes specific care for the preservation of “good”.
No devils.
Or a Devil, who goes out of the way to spread “evil”.
Notice the wordplay? No? Awesome!
Has to be a “fantasy” world. Right? Just, there would be names. Which may mean something in THIS world. Coincidence? Yes…
Oh… and I will write in streams of consciousness.
And post when tired.
Or when… if we start the next idea, it would confuse… or be tiresome to read/write in one post.
And whenever things get convoluted later, I will come back and edit out the discrepancies.
Based on comments and feedback received. If any…
Or not…
So, apologies to the subscribers, who get emailed the first version. That won’t be the final version.
Good thing no one pays for this, right?
At least not yet…
The King was winning.
As always!
That was expected. He was the scion of the dynasty, or kula, ruling the most powerful city-state, or janapada, of his times. And he had the resources. And the large(ish) standing army that came with that position was also a factor.
What was unexpected was that he was fighting! Not just that, he was fighting those who could not fight back. Think of it… even that wasn’t THAT unexpected.
The King’s advisors called them many names. None of them are quite nice.
The most widespread moniker for them referred to one of their defining racial features—their eyes. They were called the ‘hooded snakes’… or Nāgas.
So… long breath…
The heartless genocide was not even termed a war. Or a military operation. Like Operation Epic Fury.
It was called a religious sacrifice, a yajña. A sarpa-satra.
To further literalize this charade, the King presided over a sacrifice ground, a yajña shālā. There, to the intonation of mantrā’s, priests poured clarified butter (ghṛta) into huge fire pits.
Every once in a while, a “nāga” was led into the main area. And killed by ritualistic burning.
The main priest, the one who was given the first benefit (purohīta) or fees, explained that by the power of the divine mantrā’s, intoned perfectly, the nāgas were being pulled from all corners of the earth. To their destruction.
He would have liked to say more. But the screams of the dying man snake drowned out his learned words. Very uncivilized!
The King’s name?
He was called He who makes people (‘janam‘) tremble (‘ejaya‘). Or Janamajeya.
Not He who is Unconquerable (‘ajaya’) from Birth (‘janma‘). But that would have been more apt.
Why?
Because… he was the trueborn scion of the only dynasty… which, after The Great War, had any trueborn scion left.
Actually… there were two such dynasties. The other one had perished (or at least been severely diminished) due to a major civil war AFTER the Great War. And King Janmajeya could claim (matrilineal) descent from that dynasty as well.
While the “yajña” went on, the King needed to be entertained. So he asked the bards (suta) and the poets (ṛṣi) to tell him stories.
The bards and the poets decided to tell him the story of the victory.
A poem about a war.
A poem named Jaya.
Which was also one of the epithets of a Hero.
Who, in turn, was the great-grandfather of the King.
An expanded form (with pre- and post-war parts) was called the Bhārata.
The Descendant of Bharata.
As the story which had started as the ode to the exploits of this hero.
Who was also called Bhārata.
He was a member of the dynasty, which claimed descent from the tribe Bharatas.
The fabled tribe which had once defeated a coalition of Ten Kings. In another Great War. The Dāśarājña War.
Interestingly, the actual genealogy pointed out the uncomfortable fact that in the war, the ancestors of these Bhāratas (the Pauravas) had been on the losing coalition.
The epic version (with interesting stories added) was called the Mahābhārata.
The Great Descendant of Bharata.
Same person. Bhārata. Jaya.
Great-grandfather of the King Who Made People Tremble.
Also known as The Silver One.
Arjuna.
There were many bards and ṛṣis who could have narrated the story.
The great sage and poet who was credited as the main composer of the poem was present.
The Dark-Complexioned One.
Kṛṣṇa.
The One Who Was Born (or came from) an Island.
Dvaipāyana.
Best known as The Classifier of Knowledge.
Veda Vyāsa.
But the great poet delegated this task (and the honour) to one of his disciples.
The Descendant (‘āyana’) of the Protector of People (‘viśampa’).
Vaiśampāyana.
The Compiler (Vyāsa), with humility mixed with pride, told his disciple:
जनमेजयस्यराजर्षेरास्तिकस्यचसंनिधौ।
यथावत्कथयस्वाद्यकुरुवंशोद्भवंमहत्॥
Quick translation:
In the presence (saṃnidhi)
Of the royale sage (rājaṛṣi)
Called The One Who Makes People Tremble (Janamejaya)
And the One Who Exists (Astika)
Narrate (kathavasya)
Now (ādya)
Exactly as it happened… or as I taught you (yathāvata)
The great (mahata)
Origin … or history (udbhavaṃ)
Of The Dynasty (vaṃśa) of the Kurus
While we have mentioned the genealogy of the main narrator (Vaiśampāyana), and the main audience (Janamajeya), there are quite a few more attendees of this ‘yajña’.
All are important.
Two are important for this version of the tale.
The first is mentioned above. Astika. The One Who Exists. His name and his genealogy are important. Not for this yajña, but (spoiler alert) for its closure. Yes, this genocide yajña ended, before it ended those whom it intended to.
The second. Ugraśrava Sauti. He was called The Loud Voiced (ugraśrava). He was a bard (suta). Son of a bard (sauti). He was the son of another bard. Lomaharśana. The One Who Causes Goosebumps (by his recitals). The father was dead by the time of this gathering. Killed. How was he killed? Why was he killed? And how did those close to the one who killed die? These are important questions.
If we can, let’s explore them later.
Random Mythoscopy 