Indian Epics

The Regal and Proud Sphinx. ( Source ) Once, long long ago, when the world was filled with more mystery and magic, a group of hunters wandered the woods. They were pursuing a deer they had wounded when they came upon a pond in the woods. They thirsted, as they had been pursing the deer for many hours. One knelt to take a drink when a voice resounded through the clearing the pond resided in. "Answer me my queries before you take of my water." The hunter was strong and proud, and was not one to be told what to do or how to act. He cupped the water to his lips, and instantly fell down, dead. The other hunters drew back. Some fled, thinking the site was haunted or cursed. Some simply suspected the water was poisoned and ignored their thirst. But the youngest, who perhaps had more curiosity than sense, stepped forward and said "I will answer your questions." Out of the woods stalked a sphinx. It sat proudly at the edge of the water, the tip of its tail fli...

The Horse Sacrifice ( Source ) I just can't get into this one like I could the Ramayana Lots of fight scenes in Indian literature Its almost in stanzas, like poetry I can't keep track of all the characters and their relationships, its like Game of Thrones interesting tidbit, Duryodhana can stay underwater indefinitely ""Ashwatthaman is a brahmin, and Vishnu, the greatest of the gods" I appreciate order of operations, first a brahmin, second Vishnu It is okay to partake of unclean food if one's life is in peril Righteousness sometimes looks like unrighteousness See the horse sacrifice again Neat. Land of women warriors Bibliography: The Mahabharata , By  Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.

Kichaka pursues Draupadi ( Source ) Everything seems only distantly linked, very episodic Intriguing, the idea of praying so hard you become a god yourself, but I suppose that' kind of like Christian sainthood This is all happening post-Ramayana, because Hanuman recounts it Different Yugas, less and less virtue Duties of castes, different ways to achieve heaven Interesting riddle pool. Kinda sphynx-esque Poor Draupadi gets the short end of like every stick Bibliography: The Mahabharata , By  Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.

Draupadi and the Pandavas Brothers ( Source ) They straight up murdered some low-caste people. or at least were intentionally responsible for their deaths. Interesting. Polyandry. Disguise themselves, win the princess's hand All 5 brothers are a single incarnation of Indra. "I cannot waiver from the truth. Truth is my only weapon." Story of the alligator princess Lots of defiance of traditional gender in this story. He wagered himself before wagering Draupadi, so he couldn't lose her. How did he lose if his dice were loaded? Bibliography:  The Mahabharata , By  Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.

The Pandavas Brothers ( Source ) So much politics! So many people to keep straight! Fisherman's daughter might make a good story Story of Ganga drowning her kids Go Amba. Kill the dude. Be a fierce battle chick. Damn. She has to become a man. Story of Karna is similar to story of Moses "I do not blame you for your having killed a deer, or for the injury you have done to me. But, instead of acting so cruelly, you should have waited till the completion of my act of intercourse." Fighting over who /gets/ to die on their husband's funeral pyre. Hindu mythology is metal. The snake poison counteracted the poison poison Why does severing your thumb cause you to draw a bow with your middle finger? Bibliography: The Mahabharata , By  Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.

A Depiction of the Churning Rod ( Source ) This version is rather confusing lots of unfamiliar words The reason they are churning the ocean isn't immediately obvious Vishnu is the lotus-eyed one. Interesting. What is a churning rod? I don't quite understand what's going on here.  A short google, and the snake, Vasuki is wrapped around the mountain, and his head and tail are pulled alternately to make the mountain spin, like a bow drill. Is Narayana above Brahmana? I thought Brahmana was the embodiment of everything. Narayana is Vishnu apparently, and the absolute being in Hinduism Lakshmi is born! Vishnu cross-dresses for the sake of humanity Who are the Danavas and where did they enter this story? Bibliography: The Mahabarata

Interesting multitude of art styles Various depictions of characters Introduces separation between stories/versions The narrators' confusion betrays various versions of the story that have been told over time In this version it is discussed that Ravana is a decent guy. In R. K. Narayan version he is kind of terrible. Skips over Soorpankha's obsession with Rama Lakshmana is just absent I guess Sita get pregnant in this version? Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues, By Nina Paley

Rama and Sita at their wedding. ( Source ) Interesting story of Indra Is it his Vishnuness that makes Rama so perfect and holy? The horse sacrifice doesn't make much sense to me Interesting that the effect of love is constant discomfort The servant of the queen is terrible, sowing unfounded doubts Bibliography: The Ramayana, By R.K. Narayan

Welcome to the comment wall for my storybook Lives of Lakshmi . Here you can tell me about your thoughts and interact with others who have read this story. Enjoy!

Hogwarts Castle, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. ( Source ) I watched two videos about the power of storytelling. The first was " The Danger of a Single Story " which discussed how easy it is to form harmful stereotypes when we only see a single story of who people are, or how they live and act. When we only see stories of "the poor starving children of Africa", we may not realize that there are thriving metropolises, culture, diversity, or literature there. It is only by providing other stories that we can combat this. The second video I watched was " Imaginary Friends and Real-World Consequences: Parasocial Relationships ". This video explored our emotional attachment to fictional characters. It noted the similarities and differences between how we interact with fictional characters and certain real people, like politicians or celebrities. It further went on to explore how the emotional attachments we have to fictional characters can be levera...

Rama and Sita finally returning to their kingdom after their exile. ( Source) Ravana is so cocky So many spells, magical effects, gods invoked Ravana notes specifically that Rama couldn't be Vishnu Why did Sita have to prove her purity if no one else did? Finally get the throne back, live happily ever after Bibliography: The Ramayana, By R. K. Narayan

Hanuman fleeing after setting Ravana's Capitol on fire. ( Source ) Sudden jump to commentary instead of story telling Jumps to side stories a lot Wife of Vali, Tara, is right about it being Rama, he disregards here In contrast to Rama warning Sita, and Sita not listening to him Everyone is so in awe of Rama, even those he kills Sugreeva doesn't listen to Rama's advice, but doesn't see any real consequences Forget to describe Sita to those searching for her-lol Hanuman is OP Ravana's brother is kinda sensible, but Ravana just won't listen to him at all. Bibliography: The Ramayana, By. R. K. Narayan

Simple praise like "Good Job!" may feel good to give, but isn't very helpful. ( Source ) The first article I read was " The Difference Between Praise and Feedback ". I think it did a good job of succinctly explaining the difference, and further, explaining why feedback is preferable to praise. The author, Anya Kamenetz, pointed out how commenting on effort rather than results encourages the one receiving feedback to continue to put forth an effort, whereas if results are praised, then the individual may feel downtrodden if they don't get the results they want. Implicit in this idea is that we have a lot more control over our level of effort than we do the results we produce. Kamenetz also noted that specific feedback was better than general feedback, as it is also easier to make changes when we know what to change. Instead of saying "I can see you worked really hard on this!", saying "I can see that all of that practice on *this very s...

An image of Lakshmi, the Devi of good fortune. ( Source ) Lakshmi One story would be that of Lakshmi and the churning of the Milky Ocean. In this story, Lakshmi's presence enables Indra to protect the world from demons, but he upsets her and causes her to leave to the Milky Ocean. Now he must churn up the Milky Ocean to bring her back so he can once again prevent chaos. Here is some more information about her. Sita For this story, I can use my week 3 story of Shoorpankha's Trick . Padmavati The story for this Avatar of Lakshmi I would tell the story of how Padmavati came to be. In this story, a sage kicks Vishnu's chest to wake him, and Lakshmi takes offense at Vishnu's response to this dishonor, and leaves him. Then, as a king is clearing land for a ritual, a lotus bursts from the ground containing a beautiful girl, Padmavati. She grows up, is recognized, and brought to Vishnu, who has taken up the name Venkatesha in the sorrow of her absence. I fo...