Final Reading Evaluation

My hands down favorite reading we did this semester was by far, The Ramayana.  I'm not really sure what it was that made me like the story so much more than the Mahabharata but I just fell much more attached to that story for some reason.  I loved reading through the Ramayana and following the story line of a single hero with a solid supporting group rather than reading of five brothers that have a feud with their cousins.  I also really liked several of the free-choice stories that we read.  I particularly enjoyed reading the short Jataka tales.  It was a fun switch up to be able to read a bunch of short stories rather than reading one long story.  Overall, I feel that there was a very good balance between reading, writing, and feedback and I would not change this setup for next semester.  For the students who take this class next, I would just recommend keeping up with all of the assignments or even getting ahead when possible so that they don't miss an excessive amount of points.  Even with this however, it is still very doable to achieve the grade you want because of all the extra credit options made possible throughout the course of the semester.

Final Reflections

I really enjoyed the class this semester and I feel like I have learned a lot in this time.  Coming in to this class, I had no background knowledge whatsoever on Indian culture so reading these epics was a very interesting experience.  Overall, I am most proud of the amount of creative writing I was able to accomplish.  My entire writing experience before this class largely consisted of  technical reports heavily based on math and science, so this was a very different experience for me compared to what i am normally used to.  I will take the knowledge and creativity I have gained from this experience and try to apply it a little bit to my every day life, including my engineering coursework.  This type of class has opened up my eyes to the realization that there are very many different points of view for every type of problem and being able to get creative and see the problem from several different angles will greatly increase my chances of solving it.

The Surf and the Collector

There once was a kind and loving king who took very good care of his people.  He was loved by everyone for his tolerance and compassion for the weak.  One day, a poor peasant from a nearby village came running to his throne in desperate need of help, exclaiming that a tax collector had come to his door threatening to kill him.  “Sire, this man wants to kill me and take my land too!”

“For what reason would anyone want to harm you?” asked the king.  “I have no money to pay my taxes as I am only a poor surf that works in the fields outside of the kingdom.  You do not know me, for I belong to another king, but he is cruel and will not help me so I come to you oh loving king, knowing that you take pity on the weak.”

“Bring me this tax collector and I shall talk to him at once, but I cannot guarantee anything”, the king calmly explained. 

The tax collector came to the throne of the king demanding his prize.  “O king, his blood belongs to me and you have no right to keep me from my prize.  This man did not pay his taxes and shall now be punished for it.”

Money Owed to the King

“If it is tax money that you seek then do not fret, I have more money than you could ever possibly imagine and I shall pay his debt” the king explained.  But the tax collector had no desire for this king’s money, as it is a different type of currency than the one used in their native lands and would do no good there.  “As kind as your offer is, sire. Your money will do no good as it is not of use in our lands, and if I show up to my sire empty handed I will surely be slaughtered as well.”

The king, being the kind-hearted man that he was, took pity on both the lives of the peasant and the tax collector, even though he had not formerly known either before this encounter.  “Well we have quite the predicament then, don’t we,” said the king in a calming voice, “If it is flesh that this poor soul owes you, than it is flesh that you shall receive.  I shall give you my flesh instead, equal in weight to the amount of money that he owes and you may then take this to your king and all will be well.”

And with that, the king selflessly gave up part of himself out of love for two strangers that he did not even know and in this sacrifice, he saved the lives of both men and prevented any further suffering or loss of life.

Author's Note: I originally got the idea for this story from the tale "Shibi and the Hawk" from Shovona Devi's Indian Fables and Folklore.  In the original story, a loving king stumbles upon a wounded pigeon that is fleeing for his life from a hawk that was trying to eat him.  Out of love for the pigeon and the hawk both, he gives the hawk some of his own flesh equal in weight to what the pigeon weighs so that the pigeon may continue to live and the hawk does not die of starvation.  This prompted me with the idea of making a similar story about a king who pays the debt of another man with his own weight in flesh.  I kind of got that idea from a movie I was watching where a thief is caught stealing in a setting taking place in the middle ages, and is forced to pay by cutting out some of his flesh in equal weight to the item he stole.  I blended the two ideas together to make this story.

Bibliography: Indian Fables and Folklore, by Shovona Devi

Reading Diary B: Indian Fables and Folklore

For part B, the reading is very similar to part A since this book is not the continuation of one long story, but multiple stories all put together.  I particularly like the story "Shibi and the Hawk" from this week's reading.  This story tells of a noble and courageous king who although mighty and powerful, shares a weakness for the lesser, and a strong love for animals.  He is a kind king that looks after those who cannot defend themselves and one day a defenseless and tired little pigeon lands in his hands.  After a moment, a hawk comes down and says that this little bird is his prey and demands he must be given what he is owed for it is not out of cruelty but for survival and these little pigeons are the only food the hawk is allowed to eat.  The king cannot bare to sacrifice the poor little bird and shares compassion for the hawk as well, so he allows the hawk  to take the pigeon's weight in flesh from his own body.  In this way, the king sacrifices part of himself for the life of both the little bird and the hawk.  I really like this story because it is one of pure selflessness and love and kindness for others.

Shibi and the Hawk

Reading Diary A: Devi. Indian Fables and Folklore

For this week's reading, I began reading the stories in the book "Devi. Indian Fables and Folklore", by Shonova Devi.  The layout of this book reminds me of "Twenty Jataka Tales" in that it is a compilation of dozens of short stories put together in the form of a larger story book.  The stories I have read so far remind me of some of the common nursery rhymes I read as a child.  I look this book a lot so far because the stories are short and as soon as I finish reading one short story, it then jumps to a new one.  I like this because I don't get so bored while reading.  I also like this collection of stories more than the Jataka tales because when I read those stories it sometimes feels like I'm reading the same thing over and over again.  It feels like most Jataka tales include a noble leader who is willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his people, and then a more powerful king notices this and is moved by it and everyone lives happy ever after.  These tales have a little more variety so they are more interesting to me.

The Hare in the Moon

Portfolio Guide

The Golden Bow
This story tells of the mighty Parashurama and why his bow was broken by Rama.

Rakshasa Busters
This story tells of Rama and his brother Lakshmana fighting evil Rakshasas with the help of Parashurama when things get tough.

The Awakening of the Dead
This story tells of a strange little town in Connecticut, where once a year the dead come back to life and visit current inhabitants of the town.

The Loving Goose
This story tells of a loving husband who wished for too much for his family, and a wife that was too greedy in taking the gifts that he bestowed upon her.

The Loving King
This story tells of the brave king who has so much love for his people, he is willing to do just about anything for them, even if it means giving up his own life.

Storytelling for Week 9: The Loving King

"Alright children, gather around the fire for one last story," Parashurama said to the young children who had been playing around the fire, awaiting their bed time story.

"This week we will learn about what being a great leader really means, as you will all see from this story about a king who values the lives of his people more than his own." 

There once was a small village established along a flowing river, based right off of the water's edge.  This village was ruled by a great leader, who loved his one hundred followers very much and would do anything for them.  The people of the village lived in peace for many years, eating the wonderful fruits of the land and fishing the near-by river, taking advantage of all that it had to offer.  Life was very good indeed for the people of this small village.

“I have but one thing to ask of you all, my children” said the tribal leader to the villagers.  “Make as many fires as you need for warmth and cooking purposes, but never fall asleep while the fire is burning and always make sure you put it out completely before walking away from it”.

His followers respected him very much so of course they held his statement with respect and agreed to oblige.  For the village leader’s birthday a great feast was to be held, noted by a large boar roasting over the fire.  Everyone danced and sang around the fire as the boar slowly cooked over the flaming coals and all one hundred villagers and their leader stuffed themselves with food throughout the course of the night.  Those in charge of cleaning up tended  the fire and made sure it was put out properly as the chief had requested of them and everyone went to bed happy for the night.

What the villagers had failed to notice was that one single ember from the fire had managed to escape from the water that doused the fire pit as a gust of wind had carried it off just before.  This tiny little ember, so insignificant in strength on its own, landed in a patch of very dry, tall grass and began to catch fire after a few hours of coaxing.  This small little fire then grew into a bigger and bigger fire that suddenly began surrounding the village on all sides.  Shear panic began to break out as villagers cried and feared for their lives.  They were trapped and didn’t know what to do; the river was flowing too fast for anyone to safely swim across and all of the other possible exits from the village were engulfed in flames.

“Everyone stay calm and do as I say” The chief yelled out to his people.  He then quickly began looking for logs or sticks along the river’s edge to make a bridge out of but couldn’t find anything. It seemed there was no hope.  Selflessly, the chief stretched his body out over the river with his arms on one side of the river and feet supporting him up on the other side.  Everyone ran across him to safely cross the other side and all went well until the last villager frantically trampled over his beloved king and in doing so, broke his back.  The chief had sacrificed his life for the love of his people, who did not come to his aid afterwards.  This meant little to the chief as he knew that giving up his life meant losing very little compared to how much he was able to give.  One of the surviving villagers saw this and respected the chief’s final, selfless act so much that he made a temple in his honor so that no one would ever forget this valuable lesson: Lead your people out of love and treat them as if they are your own children.

The monkey bridge 

Author’s note: I based this story off of the story called “The Monkey Bridge” in the book Twenty Jataka Tales.  In the original version, there is a monkey chief who has 80,000 followers and they live in a tree along the side of a river.  The king tells the monkeys to do as they please, just make sure not to drop any of the delicious fruit from the tree into the water or else humans will find it and come searching for their wonderful tree.  All of the monkeys obey this law but one time by accident, a piece of fruit falls into the water and makes its way to a nearby village and the king demands to find the source of this fruit. Once they find the tree they plan to wait until morning and kill all of the monkeys trapped in the tree and then take all of the fruit.  The monkeys hear about this and the monkey king plans to make a bridge across the water for all of the monkeys to escape to the other side.  He tries but to no avail as the cordage needed to make the bridge is just barely too short.  So instead, he uses his body as a bridge and all the monkeys run across and the last one ends up breaking his back.  The human king sees this noble act and decided to honor the monkey king and make a temple for him that teaches people to rule out of love and treat their people as their own children.  I thought this was a great message so I pretty much retold the same story, just in a different context and by changing up all of the details of the original story.  I also added the part at the beginning where the story is introduced by Parashurama in order to fit in with the theme of this portfolio.

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales,Retold by Noor Inayat

Week 13 Review

Vishnu's Bedtime Stories

I liked this link in the most recent list of course activities.  I love classic fairy tales, especially some of the ones that the Disney classics are based off of.  That made this post really stand out for me compared to the others.

Famous Last Words: Week 13

Looking back on this week, I did not get nearly as much done as I had originally planned.  I wanted to get all of my assignments done early and then do a good amount of extra credit points as well.  This way, I could finish the class early and get ahead in this class so I would have less to worry about during dead week when I begin studying for my finals.  I am kind of starting to stress out a little bit as the time to start studying draws near, so getting these assignments done early would have been really nice.  This week was busier for me than I originally thought it was going to be and on top of that, the football game was on Saturday so I ended up not getting very much work done that day due to all the excitement.  As far as my Indian Epics assignments go, I really enjoyed the reading I did this week.  It was a bit more difficult to read compared to all of the other story books, but overall very interesting.  The dialogue was in the form of a poem so the reading just seemed to flow really well and made the experience more enjoyable.  I did not end up writing a storytelling post for this week because I honestly just forgot about it and by the time I remembered, it was too late to do anything about it.  I liked that for this week’s project feedback, we got to vote on which stories written by our classmates we liked the best.  There was one storybook in particular that I thought was exceptionally well written, and by far the best in the class.  With that being said, there were a lot of very good story books and portfolios in this class and I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of them!

Pinterest College Meme

Reading Diary B: Legends of India, by Washburn Hopkins

This story is split up to be read over the course of two weeks, so after finishing Reading part B for this week, I am now half way done with the story.  For Part B of this week, the story begins with telling the tale of the Mahabharata from the perspective of the Kurus.  The reading begins with the Kurus speaking of killing the Pandu brothers and serves to show the hatred and anger the Kurus feel towards their cousins.  The dialogue and way the story is told definitely gives off the impression that the Kurus are much more evil than the Pandus and portrays them as the villains.  I personally do not feel that the Pandus are so virtuous and pure and I also do not believe that the Kurus are entirely bad either. Both sides have done wrong to one another and both sides have goodness within them as well.  The story then goes on to introduce Ulupi, one of Arjuna's wives, as well as Subhadra, the younger sister of Krishna.

Arjuna with Subhadra

Reading Diary A: Legends of India, by Washburn Hopkins

For this week, I thought I would read "Legends of India" as it sounded like an interesting title, and I decided to just jump into reading it without any background knowledge.  Through the reading, I learned that this story unfolds the events of the Mahabharata, but in a very different way than the online PDE version we read previously.  This format of the story feels much more proper and maybe traditional in a way, because of the language style used i the story.  The story isn't written in "pain english" like the PDE versions are, and at times it almost feels like the dialogue between characters is purely a poem.  This makes reading the story a little bit more difficult and turns it into a slower process, but also makes it enjoyable since it feels very different from the original copy and I don't feel like I'm reading the same thing over again.  For this week's reading, the first set of characters and their roles in the story are introduced starting with the Pandu brothers and then Krishna.  The reason for the fight between the Kurus and the Pandus is also explained.

Scene from Krishna's Wedding

Week 12 Review

My favorite item from this week's announcement is the post about the phrase "Achilles' Heel", originating from Greek mythology.  This is my favorite post because I have always loved Greek mythological stories and all of the characters and gods and goddesses that are involved.  Achilles was especially fascinating to me because of his expertise in fighting and his bravery.

Statue of the Dying Achilles

Reading Diary A: Gleanings from Indian Classics: Krishna and Kabir

For this week's reading, I have begun reading a book that introduces Krishna and the Buddha as wise and spiritual leaders.  I thought this book would be perfect for me to read this week since the theme of my portfolio is about Parashurama, the wise spiritual leader, and could greatly benefit from including other powerful spiritual leaders as well. The story begins by explaining the birth of Krishna, as his mother and father were held captive by the wife's evil brother, who is the tyrannical king of their village.  According to prophecy, the king's sister would give birth to eight children and the eighth and final son born would kill the king.  In order to prevent this, he locks up his sister and her husband in his palace and kills the first seven children born but they manage to get the eighth child out safely; this is Krishna.  Krishna eventually returns to this kingdom, knowing that the king wishes to kill him but once he arrives, slays the king on the spot and releases his father from prison to once again rule as a just leader.  This story is very interesting because the later part of Part A for this book merges Krishna with the 5 Pandava brothers from the Mahabharata.  It's like this book is from the same timeline of the Mahabharata, but starts with the point of view of Krishna and his back story, rather than from that of the 5 brothers.  I love this reading so far and can't wait to read more.

Krishna entertaining a maiden

Storytelling for Week 11: The Loving Goose

The young children of the village gathered around the fire as Parashurama settled in to tell his story of the night.  Every night, Parashurama tells a story to the younger children so that they may learn a valuable lesson to think about before going to bed.

There was once a very kind and loving man who had a wife and two daughters, which he loved very much.  He spent all of his days laboring out in the fields in front of their modest little cottage, gathering as much rice and grains as he possibly could as a means for providing for them.  

The problem was this type of lifestyle did not provide very much money or food for his family to live on and he wanted so much more for them. So, in hopes of finding a better life for his loved ones, this man set out into the forest late one night and headed towards the city of Lanka, where he had heard many riches await. 

On his way to Lanka, a little fairy of the forest approached from the distance.  This fairy had a bright yellow glow about her as she whizzed through the air, hopping from one tree branch to the other in quick little spurts. 

“What’s this? What an odd little creature!” the man thought to himself.  “Who are you, little one, and why do you seek me?” he politely asked the fairy.

“I am the fairy that watches over this forest and I came to ask why you might be out traveling alone so late at night.  That’s very dangerous you know.”

“I seek riches and a better life for my family, as I have a wife and two young daughters and I do not have very much to provide for them in the rice fields outside our little cottage”, he then explained.

And with that, the fairy magically transformed the man into a goose!  But not just any goose.  She had transformed him into a goose covered in feathers of gold.

“Oh no, what have you done? Now I will never be able to make it to Lanka and obtain more money!” The man began to say in a distraught manner, before noticing his beautiful golden feathers reflected in a puddle on the ground.

He then realized that he could provide a limitless amount of money for his family and they would never have to worry about any of their troubles ever again.  He immediately flew home, excited to show his family their new-found fortune.  Without realizing that he was not able to speak like a human anymore, the beautiful golden goose approached his old door step and waited for his loving wife to greet him.

Suddenly, as she opened the door and noticed such a sight she thought to herself , “All of our prayers have been answered!  This golden goose’s feathers will provide us with all of the money we need and give us a delicious meal to eat tonight as well!  My husband will be so pleased.”

That was the end of the poor goose who only wanted more for his family.

"So you see, little ones, both the husband and the wife were wrong in their ways and for that, they were both punished."

"But I don't understand wise Parashurama?  I get why the wife was wrong but what ever did the husband do to deserve such an end?"

"Ah, you see, my children, both husband and wife wanted too much and were greedy in their ways.  The husband desired too much for his family and the wife was gluttonous, taking all that the goose had to offer and leaving behind nothing.  And this is why you should always be content with what you have and never desire more."

The Golden Goose

Twenty Jataka Tales

Author's Note: The idea for this story originally came from the old story "The Golden Feathers" in the book, Twenty Jataka Tales.  In the original version there is a man with a wife and two daughters that wants to make more money so he can buy jewels and other material objects for his family to have, so he sets out to the forest in hopes of finding something for them.  On the way he meets a fairy that turns him into a golden goose so that his family may sell his feathers and obtain riches that way.  In this original version, when he returns home, at first the wife takes one feather at a time and sells it and lives off of that money for a little while and then when it runs out, they sell another one.  After some time, though, the wife gets greedy and takes all the feathers at once and then they turn to normal goose feathers again and lose all of their value.  I didn't like this and was going to make my version happier, but then decided that it's more interesting with a dark ending and this way, a more valuable lesson can be taught to the reader.  I edited the end of the story to make the moral more clear to the reader, and I began the story this time with an explanation that Parashurama is telling this tale to young children in a small village.  This was done because not only does it make the story more interesting, but also fits in better to the theme of my portfolio as it is supposed to be related to Parashurama and his wise lessons he has to offer.

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales, Retold by Noor Inayat

Reading Diary B: Twenty Jataka Tales

For part B of this week's reading, I finished reading the rest of Twenty Jataka tales.  The most notable theme throughout the readings of individual stories in this book was that of self sacrifice.  An overwhelming amount of the stories involve a king who sacrifices himself for the better of his followers, and ends with the person or thing putting his people in danger to begin with becoming so moved by the king's love and self sacrifice that he changes his mind and decides to do none of them any harm.  The king and his followers are generally a group of animals, ranging from a broad range of different types of animals, and the things putting them in danger are generally a group of humans acting out of selfish desires.  Other short stories read in this book include stories about self sacrifice for one's family or even for a stranger, as when the hare wishes to sacrifice himself into a fire in order to provide food for a mysterious stranger, or when the father gets turned into a golden goose in order to provide food for his family.  I liked these stories because they promoted good morals and doing the right thing.  The most important moral this book teaches, as mentioned earlier, is to be purely selfless and put all others, not just your loved ones, above yourself.

The Selfless Rabbit

Twenty Jataka Tales

Reading Diary A: Twenty Jataka Tales

This week's reading started with the short story "The Guilty Dogs" in the book, Twenty Jataka Tales.  The story is about seven hundred city dogs that are wrongfully persecuted by the king for a crime they did not commit.  They were accused of chewing up the leather straps of the king's chariot one night when in reality, the royal dogs were the ones who committed the crime.  The city dogs feared for their lives but their noble leader and chief said he would take care of the situation and prove to the king that they were innocent.  He then walks through the city to the king's palace, all the while not being harmed by anyone that saw him out of love for the way he looked.  He then explained to the king that his methods of killing all the city dogs is not just and should be changed, saying that he can prove the royal dogs were the ones actually responsible.  He then proves to the king the city dogs' innocence when they royal dogs begin to throw up the leather straps.  The king develops a great respect for the city dog chief and declares that no city dog shall be harmed and only treated like royalty and served the finest of foods.  There seems to be a recurrent theme with every story I have read in this book so far that includes a group of animals that are going to be killed but have a noble leader that saves them.

The Guilty Dog

Reading Diary B: Twenty Jataka Tales

For Part B of this week's reading, I read the short story "The Swan Kingdom" out of Twenty Jataka Tales.  This story told of a swan community that lived in a beautiful lake in the Himalayas, led by a noble king and his loyal companion.  There is another king that wishes to draw this swan colony in so that he can talk to their king and he lures them in by building a beautiful lake that is even better than the one the swans live in.  He then sends out an invitation to all birds saying they can come live there and eventually word gets to the swan kingdom and they want to leave their lake and move to the new one.  The king's loyal companion warns him that the move might not be a good idea because they don't know what lies ahead, but they move anyways.  The swan king then gets caught in a trap and his companion stays with him while all the other swans flee.  The king that caught them is astonished by the loyalty and lets them go, parting on good terms.  It's a weird coincidence that earlier this week I chose to do a reading about a king that gets hurt and all of his subjects leave, and then this time I read a story about a king that gets caught and has one loyal subject remain with him, both ending with the person holding them captive feeling great admiration for their captive over this and letting them go.  The moral of this story was companionship and loyalty.

Reading Diary A: Twenty Jataka Tales

This week's first reading was over the story "The Tortoise and the Geese" from Twenty Jataka Tales.  In this short story, there is a tortoise who is asked by his two geese friends if he would come to the cave up in the mountains that they live in to stay with them.  He agrees to go and they carry him off into the air by placing a stick in his mouth and grabbing on to either side of the stick before flying off towards the mountains.  When they pass over a small town, children begin to laugh at the tortoise and this makes him angry; so angry that he cannot hold his tongue and begins to yell at them.  In doing so, he lets go of the stick and falls to the ground, landing in the king's court.  The king, who is described as a man with a very kind heart but far too wordy in the presence of others, then comes running out to see what all the commotion is about.  When he asks one of his advisers what happened, he explains that the tortoise could not resist from talking and came crashing to the ground because of it. The king has an epiphany and realizes this as a lesson for him to stop doing all of the talking when around others and from then on speaks only when necessary and says only words of wisdom.

Tortoise being carried off by the geese

Original Online Book Source

Reference: Twenty Jataka Tales, retold by Noor Inayat

Reading Diary B: Public Domain Twenty Jataka tales

For this week I began reading Twenty Jataka tales, retold by Noor Inayat.  This book is a collection of twenty short stories that tie in to Indian folklore as well as the epics themselves.  For this week, I began by reading the first short story in the book, titled "The Monkey Bridge".  It is about a monkey chief in the Himalayas who lives his followers so much that he makes a bridge out of his body in order to allow them to flee from the humans and save their lives.  In doing so, one careless monkey breaks his back and leaves him alone to die.  The human king is so moved by the chief's love for his followers that he comes over to check on him and comfort him in his final hours.  The monkey chief tells him to not be sad and that his death was for a good cause because it freed his followers and allowed them to once again live a happy life.  The monkey tells the king to listen to his words and rule his people only through love and treat them as your own children.  This was a very moving story for me and I absolutely loved reading it.  I enjoyed the imagery of the opening paragraph, depicting the beautiful tree near the river's edge up high in the valleys of the Himalayas where the monkeys lived. Talking about this tree and its amazing fruit definitely gave me a Garden of Eden sort of feeling to it and it was relaxing to read.  I enjoyed reading from this book so much that I want to read from it again for next week.  The fun thing about it is that its a collection of short stories so I can collect a bunch of different material to use as inspiration for my storytelling all from the same source.

Source: Twenty Jataka Tales, Retold by Noor Inayat

The Monkey Bridge

Reading Plan

For the next six weeks I would like to read lots of different Indian stories rather than reading different versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.  This way, I can learn much more about the Indian culture and get ideas for my stories from lots of different sources.  I would like to start with reading Giant Crab by Rouse for week 9 because it sounds interesting.  For week 10, I would like to read Twenty Jataka Tales because it sounds interesting and I think I could get a lot of good inspiration from reading this. I will read The Life of Buddha for Week 11, and then follow that with reading Indian Fables and Folklore by Devi for Week 12.  For Week 13, I will learn more about Krishna by reading Cox's Tales of Ancient India: Krishna and the Gods.  Finally, for Week 14 I will read Legends of India - Arjuna, by Hopkins.

Stack of Books to Read

Reflections: Looking Forward

I have been happy with my performance and progress in this class so far, but there is always room for improvement. As of right now I am still on track with points to get the grade I want, especially if I do about 11 points worth of extra credit assignments before the semester ends.  Looking forward in the second half of the semester, I would like to see myself doing more extra credit assignments and getting my weekly assignments done quicker.  This will allow me to get ahead in the class and not have to worry about getting assignments done on time. Furthermore, as far as my reading and writing skills go, I could definitely use some improvement there.  I feel like my writing skills, especially when it comes to storytelling, are under-developed and need improvement.  For the remainder of the semester I would like to see noticeable improvement in the depth and delivery of my stories that go in to my portfolio project.  I'm sure this is just something that will come with time and I feel like I can already notice small improvements in my storytelling so far, but I hope to be even better by the end of creating my portfolio.

Improvement for the Future

Reflections: Looking Back

This has been an enjoyable, relaxing class so far and I really love reading about different mythical characters in Indian history because before this class I had basically zero knowledge on the subject. I love reading about different cultures and seeing how they are similar and different to my own so learning about all of these different characters and the journeys and struggles they go through has been fun.  My favorite reading so far has been the Ramayana. I'm honestly not really sure why its my favorite but I just loved reading about Rama and his quests he went on.  The most useful thing I have got out of this class so far however, is all of the writing practice.  As an engineering student, I spend virtually all of my time writing out calculations and solving math and physics problems.  I haven't even been in a dedicated writing class since the first semester of my freshman year so I feel as if my writing skills suffered from that. This class gives me a chance to take a break from all of the rigorous math and science and just relax and write about my thoughts on the class readings. This allows me to continue keeping up with my writing technique and writing these stories every week allows me to develop my own style.  I also have benefited from the interactions with other students, as their feedback has proved very useful in improving my stories and letting me know what works and what doesn't work.

Reading the Ramayana

Wikimedia

Storytelling for Week 7: The Awakening of the Dead

Today is a very special day in the tiny little town of Druryville, Connecticut.  This is an odd little town that seems like nothing special at first glance, but its residents hold a very special secret.  Druryville was founded in the times of the witch hunts, and held as a special haven for witches escaping persecution.

As a way of saying thanks to the nice inhabitants of this little town who were gracious enough to take them in, the witches placed a special enchantment on the town that allows one very special night per year.  Every year on October 20th in Druryville, the dead arise from their graves to go join their loved ones at the showing of the moon's first light. Grandparents, old friends, former rivals, all gathered together in harmony for a single night of joy and reunion.

Everyone went about their daily business during the daylight hours; children were at school, adults at work, nothing seemed out of the ordinary to any onlooker.  But as the late afternoon came, everyone walked to the small creek that flowed near the edge of town.  This little creek is where the dead arose from every October 20th, acting as a portal to connect them to the living. As evening drew closer, adults began setting up tables on which they placed foods fit for the finest of feasts.  Large roasted pigs and turkeys and freshly caught fish and lobster adorned every table, along with fruits and desserts and lots of champagne.

All the while children played and set off fireworks anxiously waiting for night to come.  This night was very cloudy so the moon's light did not show for a long while but finally after many hours of patiently waiting, the clouds broke and the moon's bright light touched ground on the little town of Druryville.  Suddenly, old souls began to rise out of the water and rushed towards their loved ones.  Even Parashurama, one of the most ancient souls that used to live on the outskirts of town in its early days showed up.  It was a joyous occasion and everyone feasted and reminisced about old times.  Those who had passed shared with their loved ones the wonders of Heaven and talked at length about the peace they had attained since passing.  Many gathered around Parashurama to listen to the wise advice he had to offer on how to lead a proper life, and all were delighted to hear what he had to say.

Widows rejoined their fallen husbands and longed to be able to go back to Heaven with them.  "It is not your time yet, my love" they would always say in response to their loving wives.  And so the night went on and families were reunited once again, but like all good things, this night had to come to an end.  And with that, another magical October 20th had passed in Druryville and the deceased once again returned to the creek to be transported back to Heaven.

Ascending to Heaven

Author's Note: I loosely based this story off of the part of the Mahabharata where the dead rise from the Ganges and go to meet with their loved ones in the forest.  This sounded like a really awesome idea to me, just thinking about the possibility of being able to be reunited with deceased loved ones for one night and getting to converse for a while and to be reassured that they are okay and at peace.  I was really inspired by that thought and since the version of the Mahabharata that I read this week didn't really go in to any detail at all about this part of the story, I decided I would extrapolate on it.  I also thought this would be a really fun story to do right now since it's October and we are close to Halloween and the Day of the Dead.  This story didn't really fit the typical profile of my other portfolio stories, which also include the theme of involving Parashurama, so to make it fit, I added in Parashurama as one of the dead that came back to visit.  In this story he is described as one of the earliest inhabitants of Druryville and considered as a wise hermit.  Also, the image I chose is kind of unusual and doesn't fit perfectly with my modern version of the story but I loved the way it looked and it includes the transcendence between Heaven and Earth over the Ganges, so in a way it was a great picture to use for the story.  This image is actually the descent of the Ganges from Heaven down to Earth and the man in the middle is Shiva, who is there to soften her landing with his head.

Bibliography: The Indian Heroes, by C.A. Kincaid (1921)

Reading Diary B: The Indian Heroes

I love reading about the five brothers taking on roles as different professions while in disguise at the court of King Virata.  This version of the story does not delve in to the details of their lives while living these alternate lives unfortunately.  It seems like every major Indian epic always ends with an epic battle.  As in the Ramayana, there is a final battle between the protagonists and the antagonists to settle things for good.  Again, many details are left out of this version of the text but it is still entertaining to read.  This version is more of a quick, light reading that introduces the reader to all of the characters and events that happen in the Mahabharata that allows the reader to then go on and delve in to more detail about specific topics that they find interesting.  Also like in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata ends with everyone dying of old age or for other reasons.  I like that at the end, it is shown that Yudhishthira is so loyal that when told he must leave his dog behind in order to enter Heaven, he refuses.  I also like that at the end even Duryodhana makes his way in to Heaven and is relieved of his jealousy so everyone lives in peace and happiness.  Overall, this was a good read and I'm glad I got the opportunity to enjoy it!

Yudhishthira and Draupadi in Heaven

Wikipedia

Reference: The Indian Heroes, by C.A. Kincaid (1921)

Reading Diary A: The Indian Heroes

I found several pros and cons to reading this version of the Mahabharata so far.  Reading this version makes getting to know all of the characters much easier as it says all of the names of the characters within close proximity to one another and introduces their roles relatively quickly at the beginning of the story.  However, while reading this version of the Mahabharata, I find that some details of the story being told are a bit more confusing to follow due to the brevity of the story.  For example, it says at one point in the story "King Dhritarashtra grants Draupadi a boon" but it does not say why she is given the boon at all.  This is also a very significant part of the story too because the boon she is given permits the freedom of everyone and everything taken by Duryodhana after Yudhishthira loses the game of dice against Shakuni.  The lack of explaining details like this leaves me to think that this is not a very good version of the story to read for someone trying to interpret the Mahabharata for their first time.  I do still like this version of the text though, as I have already read the more detailed version of the story and knew what was going on to fill in the gaps left while reading this time.

Arjuna and Krishna

Wikimedia

Reference: The Indian Heroes, by C.A. Kincaid (1921)

Storytelling Week 6: The Humble Farmer

There once was a farmer named Paul who lived with his family on a small plot of land.  He did not have very much in land and gold, but that didn't stop him from feeling like the wealthiest man on Earth.  For this farmer loved his family so much that no material possessions had any meaning to him and he only farmed enough food for what he and his family needed to survive.

Paul's sweet wife, Anne, took care of their modest house and tended to their son and his wife while Paul worked in the fields all day, as there was much work to do when it comes to running a farm, no matter how small.  The farmer and his wife and their son and daughter in-law worked diligently every day as to make sure the crops were growing well and they took such good care of their little farm that there was usually more than enough food to go around.  On more than one occasion did they help others in need who did not plan the seasons as well and take good care of their land.  Paul and his family would give food to the needy and shelter to the homeless passing by whenever in need, regardless of how much or how little they had each year.

Everyone knew of Paul's family and the good deeds he had performed with an open heart, but no one ever seemed to return the favor for him when bad luck would destroy his crops or the rainy seasons would flood his house.  Regardless, this did not bother Paul and his family was always cheery and positive in the bad times because they were always so happy just to be together.

This last rainy season had completely wiped out everything the farmer's family owned.  Every crop they had worked so hard to plant this year had been ripped from the ground and washed away, with only a few grains and seeds remaining where the healthy crops had once laid.  "No matter, the gods will provide and we will live happily as always" Paul said to his wife as he bent down to pick up a few seeds from the ground and placed them in the basket his wife was holding.  Nothing ever phased Paul, he had great faith in the gods and the beliefs of the Dharma.

But days turned in to weeks, and weeks turned in to months with very little to no food at all and after some time, the farmer and his happy little family began to whither and grow weak, nevertheless maintaining their happiness the whole while. A point came when their last days were near and their bodies looked like frail sheets of paper covering nothing but bone.  "We have just enough grain for us each to get a small handful" Paul said to his son and daughter in-law as he handed them their shares of grain from Anne's basket and they graciously took what they were given and sat at the table.

As suddenly as they all sat down with their food, a knock came at the door with a stranger standing there begging for food and a place to stay as the rains had damaged his farms too.  "We too have been hurt by the floods" Paul said while barely able to stand from his hunger, "but I would be more than honored to give you my food to help you with your struggle".  And with that, the polite stranger took the meager handful and stuffed it into his mouth.

"I could not bare to watch you starve while the rest of us eat" Anne said to her loving husband and gave the stranger her food too, with the son and his wife following her lead.  "I thank you all for your kindness" the stranger humbly spoke to the family with a soft voice. "Your acts of kindness have truly moved me and I think you are more deserving of a better life, so I shall reveal my true nature to you" and with that, the stranger turned in to the god Dharma and brought Paul and his happy little family up to heaven with him, where they never worried about starving and were able to be together for all eternity.

Symbol of Dharma

Wikimedia

Author's note: I took the idea for this story from the tale told in the Mongoose short story of the Mahabharata where the mongoose tells of a tale about a farmer and his family that were so starving they were near death when a stranger in need came by and they gave him all of their food anyways.  This story really moved me because I love hearing about the goodness humans can be capable of and this act of unselfishness moved me enough to write a story about them.  In this story, the family's back story is explained in more depth and the reason for the famine is explained as well.  I like the idea of this family being so loving and caring that they were well-known for their acts and I wanted it to be known that they performed these acts of kindness even for those who never returned the favor.

Bibliography: The Story of the Great War, by Annie Besant (1899)

Reading Diary B: The Mahabharata

I really loved reading the story of The Afterlife at the end of the Mahabharata.  Something about the journey the soul might take after one dies is really fascinating to me so I am always intrigued to read anything having to do with that sort of thing.  I just imagined putting myself into Yudhishthira's perspective of having the choice to pick between eternal bliss or to stay in the depths of hell with the ones he loved.  That would be a very intense situation and it would be very hard for me to choose what to do, but Yudhishthira chose to stay in misery with his loved ones instantly without even hesitating for a second.  This would be very hard for a normal person to do and it takes lots of courage.  I thought it was very clever though that this was just a test to see if he was worthy of staying in heaven.  That would truly be a good test to see if someone is worthy of achieving eternal bliss because that is probably the hardest decision anyone would ever have to make.  I also find this section of the Mahabharata interesting because it is interesting to see how the idea of heaven and hell is viewed between all different cultures and time periods.  No matter how different two cultures might be from one another, it seems that they still generally have a very similar version of their descriptions of heaven and hell.

Yudhishthira

Reading Diary A: The Mahabharata

I really enjoyed the part of this week's readings where Arjuna is living as a hermit in the Himalayas and has an encounter with the great god Shiva. I absolutely love the image that is set up of Arjuna spending his days in peace, worshiping and gaining mental strength while in the midst of the serenity of the mountains.  I also loved reading this part of the story because I have a strong fascination with the god Shiva.  I think Shiva is one of the most interesting gods to read about for me because of his power and strength and because of his magical weapons.  I once played a video game where one of the weapons was "The bow of Shiva", but it was actually a special type of round able to be shot be a tank and it was so powerful that it would destroy everything in the game, including the one who used it. I think that's another reason I liked this story so much because it makes me feel like that must be where the creators of that video game got the idea of that weapon from, since in the story Shiva even says to never use this magical weapon unless everything else fails as it is so powerful it could destroy the whole universe.  That was really exciting to read because I was finally able to see where Shiva's mythical universe-destroying weapon came from.

Vyasa telling Arjuna of Shiva's powers

Wikimedia

Thought about Comments

I enjoy reading through the comments that people leave on my stories and introduction because it gives us a way to connect with one another even though this is an online class. All of the comments I have received on my stories so far have been really positive and complimenting to my writing techniques.  I enjoy when people tell me what they like about my stories so I know what I'm doing well but I actually prefer it when people leave comments telling me their thoughts on what might make the story even better.  I also like suggestions on possible style suggestions, like deciding on what perspective to tell the story in and things like that.  As far as my own commenting goes, I think I have done a fair job as I always make sure to tell the writers what I enjoyed about their stories so they know which elements of their story were most enjoyable.  However, I could do a better job of implementing more constructive criticism and give suggestions on maybe where they could take the story next time if they ever decide to revise and re-tell it.

Reading Diary A: PDE Mahabharata

My very first impression of this story was that it might be more challenging for me to keep up with simply because of how many characters there are.  It seems like the Mahabharata has many more characters than the Ramayana and all of their names are much longer and harder to read so keeping up with the plot line is harder to do. To circumvent this, I have had to write down all of the names as I read along and write out what their role is so I can keep track of everything.  As far as the beginning of the story goes, I find it very strange that Uparichara "dropped his semen" in to the river so that a female fish may be impregnated by it.  I don't understand why he would do this and I find it very puzzling, as I have never read anything like that in a story before. Perhaps there is more insight in to why he did this and I should read about it on the internet. Something that really caught my attention was the part of the story that talks of Ganga's marriage with King Shantanu. It really strikes me that a female character has such influence and dominance over her marriage as compared to every other female character I have read of in the epics of this time period. That was very fascinating for me and makes me wonder why Ganga has such power. I really want to know the reason why she drowned her first seven children into the river before finally halting to King Shantanu's plea to stop with the eighth child. It says in the story that she gave the reason why she did this and then disappeared, never to return again, and does not explain what exactly she said her reason was. I want to do some research on this outside of the reading to figure out what she was doing. The next thing I noticed was the fact that Bhishma captured the three girls he planned on taking as wives for Vichitravirya, instead of winning them over in a contest. This is dissimilar to the style of the Ramayana in my opinion, because it seems that all of the main characters in the Ramayana are much more honorable in their ways and would not take any maidens by capturing them in battle.

Ganga

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Storytelling for Week 4: The Golden Bow

There once was an archer named Parashurama, and with his magical golden bow he could perform unimaginable feats. This special bow, in all of its glittering splendor, was originally created for the god Shiva, but fell into Parashurama's possession because of a wish owed to him for saving Shiva's life .
"With this bow I am completely unstoppable!" Parashurama thought to himself as he took aim at an apple hanging from a tree off in the distance. And as he loosed one of his magical arrows, it whirled through the air and split off in to three arrows that fell upon the apple like a hailstorm, bringing it hurling to the ground.

Parashurama was filled with excitement.  He could not wait to show off his new bow and compete in the next Contest of the Heroes, a competition in which all of the bravest heroes of India would show off their skills in battle in hopes of winning over the daughter of the king Janaka. There was not a doubt in Parashurama's mind that he would win this contest and marry Janaka's daughter. The only problem was that this competition was many miles away and started in only a few days, so Parashurama needed to make haste and travel quickly to get there in time. With that, he gathered his belongings and his magical golden bow and headed to King Janaka's palace, where the festivities would be held.

The journey to King Janaka's palace was no easy venture. The road ahead entailed rivers and swamps and haunted forests that no man dare enter, but Parashurama had no fears as no Rakshasa could withstand the might of his bow and its magical arrows. When he was almost at the end of the last forest he had to travel through before getting to the kingdom, a horde of a dozen Rakshasas and Rakshasis surrounded him, looking greedily at his bow as if they wanted it for themselves.
"Oh, so it's my bow and arrows that you want then, huh?" Parashurama shouted at them in a mocking way.
"Well here, have some arrows then!" And a hundred arrows were sent zipping in the evil horde's direction.  And with that, a dozen Rakshasas fell instantly and Parashurama carried on as if nothing happened, with King Janaka's palace in sight barely peeking over the hills in the nearby distance.

Parashurama's bow

Wikimedia

After a long and tiring travel filled with fighting, Parashurama finally made it into the palace just in time to compete in the Contest of the Heroes, which was to be held the very next morning. All of this travel and excitement had Parashurama feeling very weary and tired, so with that he headed off towards his designated guest room in the King's palace (he and King Janaka go way back so he always has a place to stay there).

"Hey, excuse me, sir, you can't take that bow into the living quarters area. You gotta check it in at the weapons desk and they'll hold on to it for you." one of the guards explained.

"It's a new rule in place for the palace this weekend, just as an added safety precaution because of all the new faces wondering around these halls," the guard added.

Parashurama was rather understanding of the situation, so without argument he took his bow and checked it in at the weapons counter. Parashurama then went up to his comfy bed and dozed off, hoping to get some well needed rest for a few hours.  Suddenly, just as he was getting comfy and dozed off, he heard a loud snapping sound and felt a heartache that had never been felt before.
"My bow!" he shouted as he jumped out of bed frantically racing towards the downstairs lobby he could sense through its magical powers that his bow had been destroyed. As he raced towards all the commotion he saw a man standing in the middle, holding one half of the bow in his left hand, and the other half of the bow in his right.

The name of the young man who did this deed was Rama, a strange-looking blue-skinned man from a village far away, and he looked so proud of his accomplishment. In snapping this magical bow, Rama thought this would surely be the type of impressive display of strength that would win Sita. Parashurama was left stunned and in horror, as he watched this Rama character from the top of the lobby staircase. Flooded with an overwhelming rage, he began to walk towards Rama with hate in his eyes.

Author's note: I took the part in the story of the Ramayana where Rama goes to King Janaka's palace to win Sita and take her hand in marriage by impressing King Janaka, and turned it into a spin-off story with a slightly different plot. I liked the idea of merging the key elements of the original plot line of the Ramayana with an entirely new plot line of my own, in which that bow belonged to one of many heroes, competing to win over the love of Sita. This story was also unique in that Rama comes off as somewhat of a bad guy, which is kind of fun to write about since he is portrayed as being so perfect and noble in the Ramayana stories. Parashurama's character is also very different in this story because he is actually good friends with the kings and royalty and does not wish any harm on them, whereas in reality, he is their bitter enemy that kills and hates them with a passion. I thought it would be fun to play out the events of the actual story where he breaks the bow, but put a different spin on how it happened and why.  I also added some additional information from a different point of view to give an idea as to how Parashurama fits in. In the Ramayana version of the story, Parashurama's character isn't really explained and there is no back story on why he appears or why the bow once belonged to him.

Bibliography: The Divine Archer, by F.J Gould (1911).

Reading Diary B: The Divine Archer

My first impression while reading part B of this week's reading was the part about Hanuman having to use the bridge to get to Lanka, where Sita was being held prisoner. When I was reading this part of the story on the PDE version of the Ramayana, I interpreted the beast as something evil that was trying to kill or eat him.  In this version, it was very clearly stated that the serpent was only sent by the gods to test Hanuman's courage, and then let him travel on towards Lanka. The next thing I noticed was that the scene with Sita sitting in the Asoka grove was played out somewhat differently than the PDE version.  In this version, instead of Ravana telling Sita that she has two months to decide if she will marry him or be killed, he initially raises a sword as if to kill her but then at the last second decides not to and walks away.  Also, in the PDE version the Rakshasis are mocking and harassing Sita while in the grove, but in this story, instead of mocking her they bowed to her out of fear and left quickly after Ravana. That is because in this version (The Noble Archer), one of the Rakshasis has a prophetic dream of Hanuman's attack and of Ravana's fall and Vibishan's rise to power.

Sita sitting in the Asoka grove

Wikipedia

Changing the story in that way adds a pretty different effect for the reader while reading through that scene.  In the PDE version, I felt sorry for Sita and she comes off as much more lonely and sad about being held captive.  In this version, she seems stronger as she even commands Ravana to kill her, and instead of Rakshasis tormenting her, they fear her and leave the grove after bowing down to her! It's very interesting how even when two stories follow the same plot, they can still leave a very different feeling in the minds of the reader just by describing the little details a bit differently.  It has been very interesting discovering differences like these as I read the two different versions of the same story.

Reading Post A: Divine Archer

Overall, this story followed the plot very closely to the online public entry version of the Ramayana that I finished reading last week. The only differences were in the minor details as the story was being told. For instance, the version of the Ramayana that I am reading this week went into detail on explaining the omens that foreshadowed Rama's supreme powers when he was a baby. In the Divine Archer, it is explained that Rama had several marks on his feet. This version also talks about the vajra, dhvaja, and ankusha, which I don't remember reading about in the PDE version.  I also don't remember reading anything about Rama being able to convert back and forth between a cosmic being and baby, which is also described in this week's version of the reading. There is also nothing mentioned about the world being held up by elephants on the back of a turtle in the PDE version, which is mentioned in this week's version of the reading.

All in all, I enjoyed this version of the reading much more as it still followed the same plot line almost exactly with no deviation, but it also provided more details for the reader to learn about Rama and other parts of the story in more focus.  It seems like the PDE version was just a short, simplified version of the story that was meant to make reading easy for beginners, while the book version gives more detail and makes it more fun to read for me.

Parashurama

Wikimedia

Gurus, Yogis, and Rishis: Styles Brainstorm

Topic: My portfolio will be about Gurus, Yogis, and Roshis. Possible ways to set this kind of portfolio up could be to tell a new story about the same Guru each time, and if I did it that way, the Guru I would most likely pick to tell the stories about would be Parashurama since there is so much information on him and he plays a big role in the Indian epics. I think a more fun way to set this portfolio up though, would be to tell a story about a new guru each time, so that the reader can learn more about the different Indian epics characters instead of just learning a lot about just one.

Bibliography: 
Parashurama, from The Divine Archer, by F.J. Could (1911).
Shabari, from the Ramayana, University of California Press (2000).

Possible Styles

First Person. One possible way to tell these stories would be to do it from the point of view of the gurus themselves, as their dialogue is used to tell the story each time. This would be kind of interesting as you get a story told from a different perspective each time and everything feels new to the reader. The problem with this style is that it might get too cluttered going through all of the different stories being told in first person but from a different character each time, that might be way too confusing to follow. Another problem is that I tend to struggle telling stories in first person, it's hard for me to get the flow of dialogue just right for some reason.

Stories told around a Campfire. I think it would be really fun if the anthology of stories were told from the perspective of an elder, or mother/father, etc telling stories of the different mighty gurus to young children late at night around the campfire before going to bed. This way, it would be like every story comes from a new night that the parents are telling these stories to the children, and each story contains a moral so the children have something to learn and take from the story each time. This also sounds appealing because I think I could do a good job of putting together a portfolio of stories in this fashion.

Quest/Journey. Another cool way to tell the stories of the different gurus could be to tell stories of the different gurus and yogis and rishis from the perspective of Parashurama as if he is personally recalling all of these stories from past events that he personally witnessed. He would be reliving and telling all of these stories of the different heroes to someone that is accompanying him on a journey or quest as a means of passing the time. Maybe the events of the journey or quest will actually tie in to the portfolio too, or maybe it will just be entirely focused on the past stories themselves. Either way would be a really neat idea.

Yoga Class. The most creative idea I have for telling these stories is through the voice of a yoga instructor, teaching her students the history behind this art form and its spiritual importance. Maybe there is a student that starts complaining about the exercises being too difficult or maybe she starts every yoga session off with a story about different yogis and their paths to enlightenment.

Parashurama

Wikimedia

Reading Diary B: Public Domain Ramayana

I really enjoyed reading of Indrajit early on in this section of the reading.  I am very fascinated in learning more about Rakshasas and as Ravana's powerful son, he sounds intriguing to learn more about.  Reading the part of the story about the great battle between the monkeys and the Rakshasas, led by Indrajit, kept me very interested.  Again, I couldn't help but be reminded of one of my favorite stories of all time, The Lord of the Rings, while reading this part of the Ramayana.  As the battle scene was being described, it reminded me of the humans led by Gandolf fighting in their last battle against the orks who were led by the With-king of Angmar, who also had magical powers just like Indrajit.  This battle too, was fought between good and evil, and both the heroes and villains fought with magical weapons, as in the Ramayana battle.  I also enjoyed reading of Garuda, the winged beast mount of Lord Vishnu.  It is really fascinating reading about a hero's mount being able to do great works and save other heroes, because in most types of mythology and stories, this role generally does not get to perform such heroic feats.  Again, I was reminded of the Lord of the Rings while reading of him, because in the Lord of the Rings epic battle, when the heroes were starting to get hurt and their armies were pushed  back by the evil army of orks, Gandolf's allies, the griffins (winged horse with the head of an eagle), came to their rescue and began fighting the evil army to drive them back and protect Gandolf and the other heroes.

Going back to Indrajit, another thing that really fascinated me about him were his choices of weapons.  The nagastra, a serpant weapon, is extremely unique to anything that I have ever  read before, because it is a bow that shoots magical arrows that can turn into snakes.  There was so much information and interesting topics in this half of the reading, I could write a story based off of Indrajit and his nagastra weapon alone.

Indian Epics Possible Topics

1. Possible Topic: Rakshasas and Asuras.
The idea of demons and demon warriors is so fascinating to me, so the idea of doing a project based around them sounds pretty appealing. Another thing that draws me in to the idea of doing a project based around rakshasas and asuras is the fact that they are so prevalent in the Ramayana.  Ravana, king of the rakshasas, is a major character in the Ramayana and there is endless information on him and stories about him that can be found on the internet, making it easier to do the research for this project. I would like to possibly learn more about the origins of Rakshasas and how they were first created.  I would also like to learn more about Ravana and read more stories about him.
Research so far: At this point, I have read lots of stories involving Rakshasas and Ravana through the Ramayana readings, so I have a little bit of background knowledge through the reading.  I have also read some of the Wikipedia article on Rakshasas in general, as well as the article on Ravana, along with reading one of the past story books based on Rakshasas.

2. Possible Topic: Geography Stories: Traveling India.
My personal interests are very centered around being out in nature and enjoying the mountains, so I would be very interested in doing a project based on any of these features.  I like the idea of doing a project on the Himalaya mountains due to their significance and impact on the physical geography of northern India as well as the role they play in the stories of the Indian Epics.  My own personal love of the mountains draws me in to the thought of writing about this topic, as I have always wanted to some day travel to the Himalayas. I would like to learn more about how the Himalayas and Mount Kailash play in to the stories of the Ramayana. It is very fascinating when myths and stories draw on real life geographical locations that you can actually visit, it makes the connection to the story more tangible.
Research so far:  I have done a little bit of reading about Mount Kailash on Wikipedia but other than that, I have not done very much research outside of what I already knew about the mountain range before entering into this course.

Mount Kailash

3. Possible Topic: Gurus, Yogis, Rishis.
To be honest, I do not know very much about gurus, yogis, and rishis at all, and that is partly what interests me in doing a project on this subject so I can learn much more.  They just sound really fascinating to me, there are many different types of gurus and they are all masters in something unique and different. I would like to learn more about all of the different gurus through the storybook readings and how they tie in to Indian Epics throughout history.
Research so far: I have done some reading on the wikipedia article about the different terms used and I will scroll through the storybooks about gurus to learn a little more.

4. Possible Topic: Warriors, Battles and Weapons.
This sounds like it would be a project filled with action, which would definitely keep me interested the whole time. Battles and fighting in general both play a huge role in the stories of the Ramayana as Rama constantly has to kill enemies and fight of Rakshasas.  I think there is a lot that can be one with this topic since there is so much of it involved in the Indian Epics.  I am also drawn to this topic because of the magical weapons that are used by Rama, the stories behind these weapons seems really interesting and I would like to learn more about this.
Research so far: I have done some reading on the Vajra, along with the Sudarshana Chakra, but other than that I have done no other research.  I intend do read Wikipedia articles about the various magical weapons and who they belonged to and how their owners came about owning them in the first place.