The significance of Mahabharat needs no introduction.
That being said, we can always, always count on Gen Z to reinterpret things their own unique way. Now while the Mahabharat was abounding with bows, arrows, maces, swords and the Divyastra for weapons, the internet’s choice of weapon happens to be — memes!
The crescendo point of the Mahabharat was Lord Krishna’s sermon to Arjun, imploring him to follow the course of his dharma without worrying about the outcome. Now fashion this, Gen Z style — “Arjun bro, no cap, you’re tweaking rn. I know you’re staring at your fam like ‘bruh I can’t smoke my own cousins’, but fam…this ain’t about your feelings, it’s about dharma. Pick up the bow, lock in, and let’s cook.”
Or how about a picture of a huge elephant in a room with ‘Address me’ written at the bottom. The context? Of course, Ashwatthama. Ashwatthama was cursed by Lord Krishna to wander the earth for 3,000 years with incurable wounds after he used the Brahmastra to kill the unborn Parikshit, who would have stood as the only continuation of the Pandava’s lineage.
Our personal favourite memes however boil down to the references to Karna and Eklavya. For Karna, the picture is of a distraught Lakshya (as Aasmaan Singh) from Aryan Khan’s The Ba***ds of Bollywood, the exact moment he finds out who his real father is with the caption, ‘Karna POV: wdym I am also a nepobaby’ — for context, Karna was the son of Kunti and Suryadev, raised by a charioteer Adhiratha and his wife Radha, him not knowing the identity of his real parents till much later.
As for Eklavya, the picture is just of Hrithik waving his hand with the wildly famous sixth finger. The caption reads, ‘ragebait for Eklavya’; the context of course being Eklavya being asked to give up his thumb as gurudakshina for Dronacharya.
Finally, here’s one that forms the very basis of the plot for the Hindu epic, and one that you’ll probably need no context for even if you aren’t a History junkie.
“guys AITA for calling my wife (24F) a gift and then agreeing to share her amongst my four other brothers (25M, 25M, 28M, 30M) just because my mother (54F) told me to???.’
Any guesses?
