Epics of India MLLL 4993

Read the updated version of this story on my Indian Epics Portfolio here: link . Amba on  Wikimedia Bhishma had been overseeing King Vichitravirya as his regent since he was a boy. When the King came of age and was ready to marry, Bhishma went out and stole three princesses from far away, Amba, Ambalika, and Ambika. Since no one dared to fight Bhishma to win the princesses back, the three women went to live in Bhishma’s kingdom. The eldest, Amba, went in private to confess something to Bhishma. “Sir”, she said, “I am honored that you have chosen me to be a wife of your king. However, I must be honest with you and tell you that I have promised myself to wed King Salwa. It would not be honorable to marry anyone else.” So saying, Bhishma wished her well on her journey to the King of the Salwas. Upon arriving at the gates of the Salwa city, Amba was immediately taken to meet with King Salwa and his advisors. Expecting the one she had promised herself to to be joy...

Image on  Flickr For my Reading B notes of the Mahabharata, I took my notes in list format. I noted important names (trying to keep people and relationships straight!) and events. Also, I occasionally quoted directly from the reading notes provided with the PDE version to help. When I do this, I always use quotation marks so that I do not accidentally plagiarize when it comes to summarizing the work or writing my stories. I also watched the YouTube video explaining some of the key differences between the Mahabharata and Game of Thrones, one of my favorite shows. Some of the character comparisons did not seem as important to me. One of those was Littlefinger and Shakuni, and I had to look up Shakuni to remember who he was. Shakuni was Duryodhana’s uncle who was said to have started the Kurukshetra war. This relates to Littlefinger in that both men are highly intelligent, but they often cause others harm. In Game of Thrones, Littlefinger ends up bein...

Santanu, a king of Hastinapura in the Mahabharata, saw a beautiful woman on the banks of the river Ganga on  Wikimedia I chose the Public Domain Edition of the Mahabharata. I was excited to read that this epic has similarities to Game of Thrones, which I am a huge fan of. Reading about the similarities between the Mahabharata and Game of Thrones is something that I plan to do for my Reading Notes B post. Like the Ramayana, I found all of the names and their lineages to be extremely hard to remember. For my notes, I found that it was easiest to make bullet points of important people, relationships, and events. For some of my last posts in the Mythology and Folklore class, I have just been writing a few paragraphs about my impressions on the texts and do not need to take notes this way. Below I have posted a small section of my Mahabharata notes. I am not including all of them as they were about two and a half pages in length. Something that I liked in th...

Ravana Approcaches Sita on  Wikimedia Lovely Sita was seated on a bench with her husband, Rama, in their little garden that led into the woods where they lived. The two were engaged in conversation when Sita spotted a beautiful golden deer. She said to her husband, “Oh, Rama! I have never seen anything quite so divine as that golden deer! I must have it! Will you follow it into the woods and catch it for me?” Rama, who was swayed by Sita’s passion for the animal, tried to deny her of her request. “Sita”, he said, “You know that it is my duty to protect you here in these dangerous woods. I cannot go retrieve the deer.” Sita, knowing that she was indeed in a very dangerous part of the woods, offered to have Lakshmana, Rama’s brother, watch over her for awhile. She knew that Rama trusted him with his life. Finally giving into his wife’s request, Rama went after the deer. It did not take long for Rama, a skilled hunter, to locate the precious animal. He dr...

Sita Cries a River on  Wikimedia I finished up the movie Sita Sings the Blues on YouTube for this week’s version of the Ramayana. This film is highly entertaining and a very different experience than reading the original version in its entirety. The language is not so complex, and the characters (maybe because we have already learned about them for two weeks) were not as easy to confuse. However, as I stated in my last set of notes, it can be confusing to listen to the three narrators talk about the Ramayana if you do not have any knowledge of what the tale is about. The good thing about having these three normal people discuss the Ramayana in this way is that the person watching the movie has the sense that they are learning along with the audience. Also, as these narrators talk, we learn more about individual characters. For example, Ravana is not painted in such negative light. He is depicted as a righteous king whose sole misdeed was kidnapping Sita for his...

Sita Sings the Blues on  Wikimedia For this week’s version of the Ramayana, I watched the movie Sita Sings the Blues on YouTube. The movie was highly entertaining, and definitely different than I thought that it would be. It opens with Lakshmi coming out of the sea and dancing to a peacock phonograph playing the blues. Then, several key Hindu characters are introduced floating in the cosmos, including Shiva, Brahma, Lakshmi, Surya, Chandra, Bhumi, and the heart of the universe which is beating. It then goes into a modern day setting in San Francisco, in which a regular man gets sent to India for his job. After that, Sita begins singing some blues songs about her love for Rama and how happy she is with him. The video is interesting in that the style of the animation changes drastically throughout. In just the first twenty or so minutes, Sita and Rama are illustrated in three different styles, so this video is definitely not boring. There is also a comical aspect to t...

Indian Epics Portfolio Stories

Sita on  Wikimedia Sita was to finally return to Rama after being held prisoner in Ravana’s palace for years. This was to be a beautiful reunion, as Rama had journeyed across the earth for his love, and had had much help along the way. He had encountered sages in many woods, called on the Birds to defeat the Serpents who had entangled him and his brother, and crossed the seas with the Bears and Monkeys to finally bring Sita home. A large crowd had gathered for this glorious reunion, but the atmosphere turned dark and accusatory even before Rama caught sight of Sita. He heard whisperings of Sita’s probable infidelity while incarcerated by Ravana, and these thoughts angered him. Instead of embracing his lovely wife and telling her kind words after so long apart, Rama’s face grew red as he approached Sita. Sita, who had expected her husband to be ecstatic for this encounter, was baffled by Rama’s temper. He demanded, “Sita, is what these people say true? Have you been unloyal...

Sitas Exile by Raja Ravi Varma on  Wikimedia Here, I have listed important names and events in the last section of the Ramayana. I was more than surprised by the ending, and am left wondering about Rama’s actions. Why go through war in order to rescue your wife only to accuse her of infidelity? I was disappointed that Sita felt the need to prove this to Rama by calling on the Fire-God. Then, when they are back in the kingdom and there is still talk that perhaps Sita was unfaithful, Rama agrees to banish her. I would have thought that this long, famous story would have a happy ending, especially after all the help that Rama received from various gods and animals. Sita’s story ends up being one of sorrow rather of joy. Her ending should be joyous after the ordeal of being kidnapped. Really, Sita was abandoned by the one who she put so much faith into save her, and so this tale is a tragedy. Relating to the writing style, I mentioned in my last section of notes that ...

Rama feeds Hanuman on  Wikimedia I decided to take notes on the Ramayana slightly differently for parts C and D than I did with parts A and B. Here, I haven’t separated my notes into the sections that the online reading has. I have tried to pick more important events to note here, as well as important names to remember. I noted the use of poems throughout the Ramayana in my last set of notes. I noticed this time that occasionally poems will have a paragraph or two before them explaining the action that is about to take place. This is a good way to both get the context and plot to come across clearly, as well as using poetry for a lyrical effect. Also, in the section on Sampati recalling his history, I liked that it was from his perspective. Writing one large story from different perspectives allows the reader to more easily identify with certain characters. After Sampati had finished speaking, there was a paragraph bringing the reader back to the current time ...

Purple flowers on  Flickr Praise, Not Presence: Hot to Cultivate a Healthy Relationship with Achievement by Maria Popova is an article describing the dangers of too much praise. She cites Stephen Grosz, professor at the University College London, who takes inspiration from Carol Dweck. We watched her videos earlier in the course. Popova summarizes their research by explaining that praising a child can actually lower one’s self confidence and suffocate their will to try. If a child has gotten praise such as “you’re so clever”, they may not feel the need to think any further, because they have already done well. If they are told that their artwork is “the best”, why feel the need to create a new piece of art if their work is already so good? Or, they may feel like they could never hope to create something as good as their “best” work, and so they don’t try. Minimizing the amount of praise that we give children will make the times that they do receive praise more meaningfu...

Brahma Riding his Goose  Wikimedia Vishnu on  Wikipedia For my Storybook, I think I might do Hindu creation stories. I loved the idea that creation is a continual process and that there are an infinite number of possible universes. There are three important gods in the creation process that I have looked into for possible Storybook plots. Brahma is the creator of everything in the universe(s), Vishnu preserves these creations and looks over the good things in the worlds, and Shiva is the Destroyer who creates mandatory change. If I were to do a Storybook on Brahma, I would focus mainly on his intentions for the earth. These would include why he created certain creatures, different sexes, certain emotions, and his intentions for his four main types of beings. These beings are gods, demons, ancestors, and men. I could write a chapter of my Storybook devoted to Brahma’s “birth” from the cosmic egg, as well as a chapter for each of the four beings. In each chap...