Brad's Indian Epics Blog

The eight spoke Dharma wheel symbolizes the Noble Eightfold Path, Wikicommons THE CROW THAT THOUGHT IT KNEW: Bodhisatta in this version is a crow and he meets a man Viraka and Savitthaka. Savitthaka does not heed the warnings and dives deep into a pool of water and dies due to his hubris. THE JUDAS TREE: The king of Benares, Brahmadatta, had four sons. They were taken to see a Judas tree. They all had different descriptions of the tree. They failed to ask the charioteer who took them to see the tree, as he had see the tree year round. The moral of the story is that everyone has knowledge to share. THE RIVER FISH AND THE MONEY: Brahmadatta again is in this story as the king of Benares. There was a young brother who was thievish. They paid the river spirit and he grew. Eventually the river spirit was tricked by the thievish brother and had a fish swallow a thousand rupees. The fish was then sold to the owner of the thousand rupees but was charged the price minus the thousand he ...

Wreath, Wikicommons THE HAWK AND THE OSPREY: This story does not have an embodiment of Buddha like most of the other stories in this collection. It tells of a story of unlikely friends at the shores of a lake. The friends are a hawk, osprey, lion, and tortoise. The hawk is urged by his wife to make friends with the animals around the lake since he had no friends and was vulnerable. The hawk does and then comes a day where he needs his friends help. His friends help out and rescue his children multiple times. They all then talk about how friendship is good and die holding their bond. GRANDMOTHER'S GOLDEN DISH: This story returns to the almost standard of Bodisat as the main character of good will. In this story Bodisat is a merchant and he ends up helping a young girl and her grandmother when he happens upon their home. The two had been previously met with a unruly merchant that disregarded a gold pot they had claiming it was worthless. Bodisat being virtuous recognized the p...

Coriander, Wikicommons I decided to do a planning post for this week 10 assignment because it allows me to learn more about the topic I am writing about while completing an assignment. Flowers in Indian Epics  - This webpage contains a lot of great information about flowers that have appeared in a the epics we have already read, and in some of the Jatakas. It gives really good insight into what each flower represents and will help to guide my writing on my storybook in the future. For instance, the white waterlily blooms at night and is said to be friends with the moon and enemies of the sun. It also states that the woman's face is compared to the cool white beauty of the white waterlily. Popular Spices in Indian Dishes - This webpage lists a lot of popular spices that would probably have been used in the dishes that are the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Indian Spices  - This webpage is more geared towards the history of the spices and contains a lot of deep infor...

Probable early image of a Bodhisattva, Wikicommons THE BULL THAT DEMANDED FAIR TREATMENT - There once a very strong bull that was raised with utmost care by a Brahmin. He loved the bull and decided to use the bull to make some money. The Brahmin bet against another farmer that he could pull an enormous amount of weight. The bull was capable of pulling the weight as later revealed, but failed to move due to the fact that the Brahmin called the bull a wretch. The Brahmin learned his lesson in the end and treated the bull with care and love and was rewarded money. THE BULL THAT PROVED HIS GRATITUDE - Bodisat was born as bull that was very strong like in the first story. He lived with an older woman that raised him as a child. Bodisat felt guilt as he got older as the old woman was poor and still treated him with intense care. Bodisat decides to work for  a merchant that comes into town. He offers to drag carts up a hill at a rate determined by the merchant. The merchant ties ba...

Buddha, Wikicommons Shedlock. Eastern Stories and Legends THE HARE THAT RAN AWAY - This story was interesting as it had Bhudda reincarnated as a lion. This story is similar if not the same to another story that I read at the start of the year where the word of mouth carried. The moral is still preserved and the story is well told! THE MONKEY AND THE CROCODILE - I like how the monkey is trying to trick the crocodile, but at the same time the crocodile is trying to trick the monkey. The two are both have wits but the monkey is ultimately smarter. The dialogue in the story helps to move the story along a lot faster than just text would. The dialogue also helps to develop the characters. Also the poem at the end of the story is a nice addition and adds a lot to the story! THE SPIRIT THAT LIVED IN A TREE - In this story Buddha is reincarnated  as a tree spirit. The tree was greatly respected, but then it was suddenly made to be cut down. This conflict is the driving forc...

Kurukshetra War, Wikicommons I had to reasearch little about Bhima  for my story. I learned quite a bit by some of the short stories posted on the page. This lead to Kurukshetra  wars I learned more about the intense battles. I wanted to learn more about the setting of this war. This lead to the city of Haryana. Haryana is located in North India adjacent to Punjab.  The city had a section for language and history of. This lead to the language of  Sanskrit , which was the common language at the time of the epics: The Ramayana and The Mahabharata.

Bhima, Wikicommons Bhima the Ungrateful Bhima was very well known for being a Pandu, but he was equally known for his hunger. Bhima always had a club in hand, weapon or sandwich. Bhima's favorite was sandwich consisted on flat bread, naan, and two mackerel. Hastinapur being a city of importance saw a lot of trade in its day. There would be fisherman that would navigate the river adjacent to it with their bounty of fish. Fish was even caught in Hastinapur, but never in the large numbers that the fishmongers had. Naturally Bhima was attracted to the fishmongers as they were the couriers of his favorite food, mackerel. Bhima would be the first one to greet the fishmongers as they entered the city of Hastinapur. Bhima would chat about what they had caught and how many. The fishmongers would often entertain Bhima and even offer him free fish for the chat. Bhima would always light up when he was rewarded with a fish, because that meant he would soon be eating. This cycle of Bh...

Surya Dev, Wikicommons The story of Surya Dev and Kunti is very well told The storytelling at this point is much slower and there is more detail as compared with the first part The story of Pandu is also told very well The recap on each episode is a nice addition, but not very useful for this instance of watching them all in one go The story of the birth of Kunti's sons is detailed and gives good information about each son The Pandus anger Duryodhan  The highlighted story of Bhima was very well told The story of Eklavya was also told very well The images for this session were also really good The music also was different and added to the tone of the story

The Story of the Mahabharata, Wikicommons The Mahabharata - Epified The introduction gives a decent amount of backstory, but it is a bit lacking The tone of voices are very dramatic The story is very abbreviated The music is an interesting aspect The drawings helped to portray the words Sometimes the guy reading in the video shouts into the video It did a good job highlighting the kings of Hastinapur The story telling is very dramatic and ends with cliff-hangers 

Looking back I am proud that I have completed ever assignment thus far. I have a fairly good weekly routine, but sometimes things pop up and it really throws a wrench in the plan. I am really enjoying the writing assignments, it is a big change of pace compared to all my other classes that don't really have an option for a creative outlet. I am occasionally doing extra credit assignments, but not as much as I feel I should be doing, because some of them are really interesting! In the 2nd part of this semester I hope to complete more extra credit assignments and really get ahead in the class. I would like to do more wikipedia trails, they are a lot of fun. Cat Sleeping, pixabay The image posted above acts as my motivation to really push myself to the end of this semester. Come winter break I am really looking forward to a day where I can just grab a blanket and sleep for the whole day, but until I'll be keeping busy.

The feedback I have received back has been tremendously helpful. The most useful type of comment that I have received are the ones that are harsh. It is easy not to step on someone's toes, but I feel it is necessary to point out any mistake or shortcoming as long as it comes from a good place. Up until this point all the comments have been purely constructive, the comments urge me to challenge myself and do better.  I have found that generally my comments pertain more to the premise of the story and focus less on grammar. None the less I am happy with my comments as I feel that they could potentially help guide the writer for future writings. Reading other peoples' stories has also sparked quite a few ideas for me to work with, and has inspired some of the writings already posted! I feel that blog comments really give the sense of interaction that you would get from a real class setting, in fact it might be better since the blog comments can be posted at any time. I feel...

Looking back on the class from this point I have realized that I have learned quite a bit about Indian Epics and some minor stories from the Jakartas that we read. I have found the reading to always be interesting and unique in the story telling. So far my favorite story or Epic has been the Mahabharata. I have really enjoyed the class thus far, and I find each week a new challenge to come up with a story that adds to the stories that we were reading at the time. Having to create a story almost every week has been hard, but very rewarding. Bhima fighting with Duryodhana,  Wikicommons Posted above is the image that I used in my story about Bhima and how his boastfulness was the downfall of him. I really liked this image because it was a pivotal point and image in the story of the Mahabharata for Bhima as it was the point where the fight with Duryodhana turned in favor of Bhima because Bhima did not act honorably and targeted Durydodhana's thighs. Looking forward I just ho...

Bhima fighting with Duryodhana, Wikicommons Bhima the Boastful It is the closing moments of the war with the Duryodhana's army, and Bhima spots Duryodhana at the surface of the lake taking a breath. Their eyes lock and Bhima begins to make his way towards Duryodhana. At this point Bhima is covered in blood after he had mutilated and drank the blood of Dushasana. Bhima at this point had already encountered Duryodhana on many occasions. The two were both formidable opponents of nearly equal strength. Bhima was armed with his mace, and it was forbidden to strike below the waist with a mace as it is deemed not deemed honorable. Bhima and Duryodhana fight for some time, all the while Krishna is urging Bhima to strike Duryodhana with his mace at his thighs. Bhima feels that he can not win this fight and finally gives into Krishna's advice and strikes both of Duryodhana's thighs. Duryodhana falls to the ground as he is mortally wounded. Bhima has won the duel, but at the...

Draupadi and the Pandavas, Wikicommons Mahabhara: Despite mounting tensions Yudhishthira still wants to avoid a war and plans to send Krishna to Hastinapura, but is rightfully worried about Krishna's safety. Dhritarashtra learns that Krishna is coming and only plans on wowing him with a grandiose decorations. Virdura is quick to alert him that Krishna does not care for these formalities and just wants peace. Duryodhana as always is acting on his worst intentions and plans to take Krishna captive. Krishna sees Kunti and informs her of how her sons are doing. Despite his mother's please Duryodhana still intends on taking Krishna captive, but this is thwarted when Krishna takes on his divine form Before leaving Krishna speaks with Karna and how he is his father and that he should abandon Duryodhana. Karna remains with Duryodhana, but agrees not to attack any of Kunti's sons with the exception of Arjuna. Krishna returns and generals are appointed to the army. Ther...

Draupadi carrying drinks in Keechaka's court, Wikicommons Mahabharata : Dhritarashtra has spies that tell him what the Pandavas are doing and that they have powerful weapons. Duryodhana decides then that he should create a camp that is next to Pandavas so that he can humiliate them. Dhritarashatra and Duryodhana both act out of spite of who the Pandavas are, its motivated by jealousy.  Speaking true to their values the Pandavas help to release Duryodhana when he is captured by gandharvas. The fact that heavenly beings were sent by the gods to thwart Duryodhana and help the Pandavas is testiment to how they are the prevailing force of good in this story. This idea is reinforced by the Pandavas freeing enemy  The story of the brahmin and the elusive deer is an interesting one. The fact that the Pandavas all almost die at the hands of their own father is strange, but in the typical sense of the role of heroes they are resurrected due to the fact that the last brother, ...