Manava Jeevanasya Darpanam means Mirror of human life. It is not the story of royalty or war. It has all the emotion that a human can experience. The human experiences are embellished with supernatural narration. There are innumetable characters and everyone can relate to many of these characters and their emotions.

What is our history, what was our geography, how did our ancestors live. The entire history of Bharata is also captured in Mahabharata. Every person can dip into this treasure and take what they want to take.

Guru Bhakti. The cowdung is Amruta. Agni in disguise tells Uttanka to eat and drink these. Agni also tells him that his Guru has also done the same. This is an indirect test of the Guru Bhakti of Uttanka. As soon as Uttanka heard that his Guru has also eaten these, he also eats them without hesitation. Thereafter, he is constantly helped in his quest for the Kamandala by all the Devatas (night and day, the seasons and months, dhata, vidhata, Agni and Indra) and he is eventually successful. He manages to get the Kundals from Pousya’s wife and also manages to reach the ashram of his Guru within the deadline.

Pousya willingly agrees to give the Kundala of the queen to Uttanka. He requests Uttanka to go to the Andappuram and meet the queen. However Uttanka could not see the queen as he was impure and therefore the queen became invisible to him. This was because after eating the cowdung and drinking Gomutra, Uttanka did not do a proper ahamanam. In a hurry, he did the achamanam in standing posture and not sitting properly as required. Pusya tells Uttanka that if he is impure due to any reason, the queen will not be visible to him. He asks Uttanka to recollect if he has done anything impure. He does not ask Uttakna for anything else and gives the Kundala as an offering to a Brahman.

Utanka is searching for the Kundala in the Nagaloka. He kept singing praises of Takshaka and his son Shrutasena. Two ladies were weaving black and white thread in a 12 spoked wheel which was being rotated by six boys. There was a beautiful horse and a rider next to it who liked like Indra. Uttanka sang in praise of the rider who was pleased and offered to help Uttanka. The rider asked Uttanka to blow in the backside of the horse. When Uttanka did so, sparks and fumes came out of the horse and burnt the entire Nagaloka. A frightened Takshaka handed over the the Kundalas to Uttanka.

Uttanka carries the grudge that Takshaka interfered while Uttanka was carrying the Kundalas for his Guru’s wife. As a Brahmim he was not powerful to take on Takshaka. Therefore he incites Janamejaya. He tells Janamejaya that instead of enjoying his return from Taxila, he should instead take revenge on Takshaka. He adds that Janamejaya’s father Parikshit was a Dharmic king and he was needlessly bitten to death by Takshaka. To take revenge, Janamejaya must kill the entire snake species, that too through Sarpa Yajna.

Brahma did a Varuna Jayna. Brighu came out of the Agni of the Varuna Yajna. Chyavana, Pramati, RuRu, Sunaka are all in the lineage of Brighu. The Kulapati Sounaka is a descendant of Sunaka.

The Rakshasa Puloma kidnapped the wife of Brighu, also called Puloma. She was pregnant with the son of Brighu, Chyavana. The child got angry at the Rakshasa and slipped out of the womb. He had such Tejas that the Rakshasa got frightened and was burnt to ashes. A distraught Puloma picked up the new born child and walked with tears. Brahma converted the tears into a river and made the river follow her. The river is called Vadhusara.

Brighu was upset that Agni betrayed Puloma, even though that was not so. Brighu cursed that Agni will devour everything in the world. Agni got angry that for no fault of him, he has been cursed. In anger, Agni left the world. Om, Vashat, Swaha and Swadha are all offerings made in Homa, Yajna and for Pitrus. Without Agni, these offerings could not be made and benefits did not accrue to living beings.

RuRu is the grandson of Chyavana. He fell in love with Pramadvara who was born to Vishwavasu and Maneka but was brought up by Rishi Stulakesha. Just before their marriage, Pramadvara died of snakebite. A distraught RuRu was told by devatas that if he is willing to exchange half his life for Pramadvara, she would be revived. Thus Pramadvara was brought back to life and got married to RuRu. Pramadvara is a beautiful name which means a woman who is worthy of being choosen.

RuRu carried a grudge againt snakes as his fiancee was bitten to death by a snake. He vowed to kill all snakes. Sahasrapad had been cursed to be born as a harmless snake. This is since he played a prank on his friend Khadamaha by throwing a snake made out of grass when Khadamaha was doing Agnohotra. The curse would dissolve when Sahasrapad comes into contact with RuRu.

Sahasrapad teaches RuRu the merit of not hurting other lives. He mentions that Brahmins have the duty not to hurt others’ lives. He specifically cites the example of Janamejaya and Astika. Janamejaya was killing all snakes through Sarpa Yajna (like RuRu was killing snakes). Astika saved the lives of snakes which were about to be killed in the Sarpa Yajna. When RuRu asks Sahasrapad about the details of the story, Sahasrapad mentions that he should learn it from pouranika Brahmanas and disappears. RuRu then goes to his father Pramati and asks for the story.