Vaishampayana said,1.
Why stack scripture like treasure?
When Gita voiced through Padmanabha's lotus lips are pleasure.
2.
Hail, Hail.
From Gita scriptural worth - From Sri Hari Devas.
Hail, Hail.
From Ganga ritual on earth - From Manu Vedas.3.
Now know the four 'ga's that liberate rebirth from mankind.
Keep Gita, Ganga, Gayatri and Govinda in heart and mind. [1]
These are the first three verses in an as it Rhymes Translation from Bhishma Vadha. This begins the opening narrative of the war. I liked these lines as an example of how densely layered the context in Mahabharata can be! - the Gita, Ganga, Gayatri, Govinda, Manu, Sri Hari, the Devas, the Vedas - each of these facets has much to explore. From Manu hails the Vedas, the Vedas are knowledge - knowledge is a construct of man. Devas are divine beings, their form is established by Sri Hari, Vishnu. The Bhagavad Gita explains all the important points of scripture. Govinda is another name for Krishna. The Ganga river is the wellspring of the sacred. Life is established on the flow of water. Bhishma is considered the son of the Ganga. And so on.
I figured I could share these three lines of Bhishma Vadha because these may be all she wrote in Bishma Vadha as it rhymes! I have a different idea in mind for the for the war books (Bishma Vadha, Narayana Astrika, Drona Vadha, Abhimanyu Vadha, Gatotkacha Vadha, Shalya Vadha, Karna Vadha, etc). Instead of trying to carry on a line for line verse in those I have an idea in mind to document the action as described in graphical form - i think that would be more interesting for those books.[2]
The As It Rhymes approach is still a work in progress for the plot and character driven books like Virata, Jatasura, Baka, Hidimba, and so on following the already established Bhagavad Gita, Digvijaya and Svayamvara as it rhymes translations.
Notes
[1] M.N. Dutt’s translation (for comparison)
w/ anglicized phonetic Sanskrit to English.
[2] Diagramming notes such as -