Indian Epics

For my second post this week I would like to talk about a story I came across that taught a very good lesson. This story is "The Lion in Bad Company". This is a sad story about a young lion that befriended a terrible wolf. This wolf lead the lion down a bad path of killing ponies that he knew better than to kill. He even didn't listen to his father when he told him this would cause him trouble. When the lion had killed many pony's he eventually got shot by one of the king's archers. When the lion was in trouble where was his new friend the wolf? Well the wolf had run off, away from the lion. The teaches us many lessons. For one, we should surround ourselves with loving and caring people. Second we should listed to the wise advice our parents have to offer us. They have lived a lot of days and have a lot of knowledge. This story could be retold really in any way one would want. If they Wolf and the Lion wanted to make it a more today like story a story using a...

This being my last week of this class I decided to continue with my favorite stories the Jataka's tales. I love them very much as I have eluded to in my other posts. This story about the three fishes really stuck out to me. For me this was kind of a break through story that I wished I had read earlier in the semester. It gave the fish names that corresponded to how they acted. To me this is ingenious. Doing this can really portray the message even more clear than ever before. It also gives the story a kind of fun aspect to it. In this story it was about how one should be very thoughtful and look out for one another. The fishes name then of course was very thoughtful and the ones he looked out for were thoughtless and thoughtful. I could have written a story using these principles and applying them to any kind of medium. If anyone is reading this, this would be a great idea to use and get a story three fishes started. Bibliography "More Jataka Tales  by Ellen C. Babbitt

For the second part of my reading this week I have decided to continue to the Part B of the Inayat Jataka's Tales. All of these stories were fantastic, some of my favorites though were the Nobel Horse, Goblin Town (which I had read earlier in the semester), The World is Ending, and the Golden Goose. I particularly like the message that the story The World is Ending portrays for us. It is much like the Boy who Called Wolf. In this story a small rabbit is tricked to think that the world is ending and goes on to convince all other animals that this is happening. That is all animals except the mighty Lion. He investigates and finds out it was just a coconut that fell near the Rabbit and restores peace to the kingdom. The next story I liked most was that of the Golden Goose. It had some aspects that could be real and also reminded me of a book/movie that many have read, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Bar Headed Goose There is a goose that lives in the Himalayan region of th...

For the first week of free read, Week 12, I have decided to continue reading the Jataka's Tales. I love these short fun tales more than anything else we have read this year. The epics are great, how they build on one another, but the Jataka tales are great short reads that portray a message to the audience but also gives the reader something fun to read. This week I looked at the Inayat stories in particularly. My favorite story of the Part A reading was "The Guilty Dogs". Any story that has dogs Cute Dog Face in it I am going to like but this one was extra cute. I really got a tickle out of the story when the chief dog began to stroll through the roads of the city on his way to the palace. In the story the men were to kill all the dogs of the city and they were all ready, wielding weapons to kill the chief. The story says however, that due to his cute appearance they could not lay a hand on the dog. This was funny to me and reminded me of the movie Puss in Boots, wh...

For the second part of this weeks reading I went ahead and continued reading the Jataka's tales. I have come to really enjoy them and love the messages that they give through the story. I was even beginning to think to myself that if or when I ever have children of my own, I would like to read them some of these stories. In this way they get to hear a great and fun story but maybe also they will pick up on some of the lessons that they are trying to teach the reader. I have to admit for this second A Beautiful Cover for Jataka's Tales That I Hope to Buy section of the Jataka's I was not reading like a writer like I had been in the past. Instead, I really wanted to soak in all the information and really dive into the story with having to judgement or ideas to change the originals in the back of my midn. I just wanted to read the story for its pure self. Like I said, I have come to love these stories and for that reason wanted to get the full effect of what they have to ...

This week I decided to not read more about the Krishna series and instead take a look at the Jataka Tales. I was really excited to get to read some of these great tales because I enjoy fables like Aesop's so much. All of the stories from part A were so good and all had great lessons embedded in them. Some of my favorite ones were "The Turtle that Couldn't Stop Talking", "The Monkey and the Crocodile", "The Ox who Won the Forfeit", and "The Foolish Timid Rabbit". As you can probably tell I enjoy the stories that use animals as characters the most. Different animals seem to put just another layer to the story that humans simply couldn't. Some even give you an idea of how the story Crocodile wishing for the Monkeys Hear t will go. For instance in the story "The Monkey and the Crocodile", before I even began to read the story I figured this would be a type of trickster story because monkeys are known to be very intelligent ...

I once again decided to watch/listen to the videos put together by epified. I really like the playful stories of how Krishna grew up. He played many tricks and grew up like most children would it seems. If any kid had these great powers I am certain that they would be playful with them and pull the same tricks. I think  I could create a western story from the 12 episode of the part B series of the epified videos. In this video "Krishna Rides Hesten" Krishna told everyone that he would ride the largest and most aggressive bull in the village. I think I could change this story up by allowing the preacher to tame and ride a crazy bronco. In the story I would use the preachers love for all of God's creatures as his motivation. This horse could be very crazy and have an angry owner that just wild bronco wished to kill the horse after many defeats. The horse could then turn out to be the most trusting and fastest steed in the west. In a future story the horse may turn ...

The Child Krishna   I decided to do my reading this week as watching the videos. I really liked the epified videos I had watched before in week 6 or 7 I believe so when I saw we had the chance to watch more epified short stories I knew that is what I was going to do. Right off the bat in the first episode of the tale of the birth of Krishna, I thought that the birth was much like that of the birth of Jesus in the Christian religion. Yes there are many differences but both were born in a lowly state. One in a stable in a manger and one in a jail cell. In both instances the animals seemed to know what was happening. That a god was being born on earth. Further more in the second story the father and son snuck out of the prison because of the fear that the evil king would kill the child. This also is like the Christian tale that King Herod wanted to kill the baby Jesus so Mary and Joseph fled with Jesus. I thought that when Krishna's mother looked in his mouth and saw all the unive...

Kaliya I continued my reading notes assignment for the week as listening to the epified videos. Much like part A I enjoyed how the narrators are able to put all the characters together and make sense of what all is going on in a great manner. I really like being able to hear the pronunciation as well. When I read the stories sometimes I wondering if I am even close to getting the names and such right. I particularly liked the episode "The Magic Potion". First because the evil plan that Théoden had was shown to not be able to work. It also contains a cool new place that was underwater much like Atlantis but home to serpents instead. That is just really cool! Bibliography Epified TV (India). " The Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution" 2015-2016

Epified I chose to do this weeks reading, and probably upcoming weeks as well, as a video of the Mahabharata. For the first part of the video's, part A, I really liked how they simplified each story and really emphasized what we needed to know for the future of the epic. Also, because this is the beginning of the epic it really lays base for everything that is to come. Listening to this story in a form of a movie really helps to understand who all the characters in this epic are and how they interact with one another. This is especially nice because for me there are a lot of characters in the epic and they can become confusing to me. It was nice to have illustrations for each part of the story as well. It was cool to watch them being drawn while listening to the story. I really like the seventh episode because it shows how love can really prevail. The princess bride decided to blind herself for life to marry the blind king. That is crazy to me and really shows how much she want...

I just finished up the Mahabharata and have to say that it rivals the Ramayana in how much I enjoyed the epic as a whole. The story lines were great and they all seemed to fit together so well. My favorite story for this section of the epic, although it might not be the most exciting of part D, was "The Afterlife". In this story Yudhishthira found himself seated in heaven with Indra where all things were glorious and good. He couldn't help but find himself in a solemn state of misery because his friends and family were not there with him. Indra discussed that his brothers and wife had fallen short to be able to be apart of this glorious place. Yudhishthira was troubled by this and decided he should go where his kin are so Indra transports him to hell where he beholds so many terrors and disgusting sights. Finally, Yudhishthira hears and sees his brothers and decided that he must stay in hell with them to comfort their griefs. At that moment Indra snapped his fingers and a...

Part C of the Mahabharata was a great read! It had great sections of solitude and patients that got us ready for the great war or battle that was to come. That is where it ended us, wishing to continue to read on as we get to the climax of the epic with the much anticipated war. There is a story in this section that I am most particularly excited about because it will work perfectly with my portfolio and future story that I have wanted to do. For this I wanted to do an origin story for my magical gold pistol from a past story I did "The Preacher in the West". The story that I have just read, " Arjuna and Shiva" came along at the perfect time and will be a great story to retrofit for my golden pistol origin story. In the original, Arjuna goes out into the wild and begins to praise the Great God relentlessly in Gold Revolver the Preacher would get .  a special place until at last he appears after many days and gives him some mighty weapons. I think  I could essen...

For part B of the Mahabharata reading, I found that it was a lot of the same essentially. You see the family still in hiding as Brahmins but yet still getting together and fighting fowl people. Bhima does an assortment of battles with bad men in which he becomes an overwhelming victor in each. It though it was kind of funny when I was reading the story where he fights the demon of the forest and then when he fight the evil ruler that enforces the blood tax. In both cases he fights and wins but what was funny was the way that he won. In both cases he broke the back of his adversary rendering them slain. Just thought that it was funny that the story would use the same death for both characters. One of my favorite stories of this section is " Draupadi's Swayamwara". We have read many different versions of different peoples Swayamwara at this point and this one by far is the most interesting. The Task  First, the task is one of the most difficult. It is not just an all ...

I just got done reading the first little bit of the Mahabharata, that is part A of the public domain version. This story is quite different from the previous epic that we have read, the Ramayana. It is written different. It has a completely different plot and feel to the story. To me, it has been a little confusing so far in the epic, mainly because of all the names and people in the story. I am excited to get further into the story so I can see more of the similarities between this story and the series Swayamvara in the Mahabharata. It is the section of the epic in which Bhishma does battle to take the hands of three princesses. It is, in a way, like the part of the Ramayana where Rama is able to bend a magnificent bow to win the hand of SIta. It is yet to be known if these princes will hold as big a role as Sita did in the Ramayana. I think that his story could be redone into a more modern version where guys at school are trying to impress a group of girls to get them to go to t...

So, I just got done watching the second part of "Sita Sings the Blues" and it was just about as good as the first part. Of course, like the first part the authors did a fantastic job of explaining the plot and what was going on in each story. I thought that the side story about the American boyfriend and girlfriend was kind of different. Not at all what I really expected to happen but it goes along with the story pretty good. With it being Valentines Day I think that it could talk to a lot of people out there that might be sad that they are alone. We can all find happiness eventually, sometimes you just got to A map of Middle Earth that one could  use to get inspired for Rama's travels. move on. Staying on the happy side of Valentines Day though, I think that for a story the ending of this video could be continued. Rama was fowl towards Sita until at the very end when she was taken up by mother earth and away from him forever. In the video he even shed a tear wh...

Sita sings the blues poster This week I chose to change things up a little bit and instead of read a story, I thought it would be fun to watch a movie based on the Ramayana. It was a very interesting rendition to the original epic. Having the three narrators there to not only discuss different topics but also to pronounce names and locations was really nice and helpful. They kind of give background to each person and gives you a better understanding. I thought it was most interesting that they said how Ravana really wasn't a bad guy like he was made out to be. Really the only thing that he was wrong in doing was stealing away Sita. Because of this I thought it might be interesting to create a story that Ravana isn't made out to be the bad guy but instead was misunderstood in what he was doing. Maybe perhaps Sita had seduced him and then Rama being who he was, everyone just believed him. For the movie, I thought all the animation were very well done and funny too! It was eas...

Rama battles Ravana If you have looked at any of my past reading notes posts, or have taken a glance at my ideas for a storyboard, then you can mostly likely take a good guess and which story or stories were my favorite in this part of the Ramayana epic. If you guessed that the final battle between Rama and Ravana, you were correct! The three stories, Indra's Chariot, Battle of Rama and Ravana, and Ravana's Death were by far the greatest stories to me and ones that I could see myself retelling. The whole story comes full circle here. You have the hero Rama, the villain Ravana, finally duking it out in a final match together. Finally the god's initial plan comes full circle and can be completed. All Rama's friends that he had made to help him on his journey to get to this place come together. The celestial weapons that Rama had obtained get to do their final job. Finally, in the end all peace is brought back to the land. I have been watching and listening to a lot o...

Moving on to read more into the Ramayana I was really excited to see what was going to happen! It Rama about to cast an arrow into Vali   was filled with excitement in the beginning of this section and then toward the end, to me, it seemed like a lot of waiting. Like "Superman v Batman" critics would say, it was slow. This could be because the story is preparing and getting ready for events in the future which is fine and is something that must be incorporated into all great epics. I liked how in this part Rama was assembling his army if you will. He was no longer going at things alone or with his brother but instead was creating ties with many people. That is in part why my favorite story or stories in this section was the prelude up to and the fight between Vali and Sugriva. It was interesting to get a look at an animal kingdom that would soon come to fight beside Rama. I enjoyed the format of the story for the fight. It was different then just simply paragraph form an...