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

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

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

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 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)

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

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

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.

Reading Diary B: Ramayana

Part B of this reading has taken a much different turn as compared to part A.  During this reading, lots of tragedy occurs as Dasharatha and several others die, Rama is exiled, and Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, which foreshadows his own death.  As several characters in the story see that Sita has been kidnapped they are sad for her but excited at the same time knowing that this marks the end of Ravana's reign.  What struck me most during this reading was a combination of the four brothers' love and devotion to one another along with the intense love shared between Rama and Sita.  It impresses me seeing how far they will go for one another which is enjoyable to read about since most people are looking for someone they love that much in their own lives.  Something else that was fun to read was the interaction between Rama and Jabali.  Jabali insists that Rama stop being so foolish as to keep his late father's end of the deal by staying in the jungle as an exile, as the throne is being offered to him by Brahma.  Jabali seemed to have a good point but I really enjoyed reading the way that Rama retorted back, basically saying that it's not about doing what's most pleasurable for himself but to honor his word and be a good person.  It's nice seeing the main character represent true goodness.  I am excited to read more as we go in to the next week and find out what happens when Rama makes it to Lanka, where Ravana is holding Sita captive.

Rama and Lakshmana embracing Jatayu

Blogspot

Reading Diary A: Ramayana

So far, the Ramayana has been very interesting and does a good job at drawing the reader in from the start.  While reading through this story, I can't help but be reminded of so many other stories I have read that have similar plot lines.  In particular, when Rama receives the magical weapons whose spirits speak to him after defeating the Rakshasi, reminds me of The Hobbit, where Bilbo Baggins receives his magical sword, Sting.  Also, when the 60,000 sons are burnt to ash by Kapila, this reminded me of the dragon in The Hobbit which slayed thousands of dwarves and men in a similar fashion.  I am a big fan of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy so seeing a similar connection to these stories in the Ramayana was very exciting.  Another part of the story which led me to think of another similar story was when Rama bent Shiva's bow in order to marry Sita.  Only one worthy of bending the bow would be able to marry her, and many brave men attempted to do so but failed.  I couldn't help but think of the Sword in the Stone where only the noble Arthur could actually pull it.  I really enjoy catching parts of stories that allude to other stories in history because it is entertaining t ofollow along with and I feel like it brings out my more creative side.

 Rama bending the bow of Shiva

Ramayana Forum

Reading Diary A: Ramayana

I have actually enjoyed reading the Ramayana very much. I honestly wasn't very sure what I should be expecting with reading this story as I have never read an Indian epic before, but I have been very pleased with the story telling.  For some reason, the part of this story that really struck my attention was the part about Sampati and his brother Jatayu.  It was cool to hear the story about the two vultures flying too close to the sun and burning their wings.  Its very similar to Greek mythology and the story of Icarus, except one of the brothers lives to tell the story.  The story then goes on to Sampati telling the story of meeting with Nishakara and begging him to give him death so he does not have to live a life without wings, to which Nishakara replies that life is not about living for one's own pleasure, and that there must be a greater purpose in life for Sampati since he has not yet died.  I'm not sure why, but reading that really struck a cord with me and I couldn't help but read it over again.  I think that is such a strong message to embed into the story and makes me want to read more about Nishakara.

 Picture of Sampati and Jatayu flying too close to the sun

Two Brothers