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Writer's picturejamespederson5

Ganesh, the Mahabharata, and Throwback to Myst

I realized the moment I emptied the trash, the website files would not be restored as I had thought.


Once magnificent drawings, now dispersed into the digital ether.

This was a mistake I had not expected.


However, this unfortunate incident also served as a way for me to infuse my artistic talent into some fresh new drawings I would later upload.


Take, for example, this depiction of the Hindu anecdote of how Ganesh, on instruction from the sage Vyasa, wrote the magnificent epic poem known as the Mahabharata.


Comprised of two hundred thousand verses, it tells the story of a great war between the clans of the Kaurava and the Pandava.


On Ganesh's desk, I have drawn an oil lamp emitting faint light, as in a writing studio glistening with ideas.

Ganesh is said to have used one of his tusks to weave this great work.

With this in mind, it was only logical that he would dip his tusk into an inkwell to use as a pen.

But then, would he not have to sharpen it like a pencil?

Would not his tusk have been reduced to nothing the moment he finished perhaps the largest literary work in human history?


Ganesh himself is looking down at his own work, his eyes deep in thought.

This, remember, is the Hindu god of wisdom...bestowed with the head of an elephant.


As everyone knows, an elephant never forgets.




The way I designed this scene and the narration is a throwback to the Myst series of computer games.

The later Myst games would begin with a scene of the character Atrus writing in his journal and narrating his own words.


As a throwback to the computer games of my youth, I decided to depict the Hindu anecdote of how Ganesh wrote the Mahabharata epic on instruction from the sage Vyasa, I designed the scene like the intro cutscenes in the Myst games.


I even wrote the narration like the journals of Atrus as well!

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