MLLL 4993 Posts

Mahaprajapati us Admitted to the Community The Queen, Mahaprajapti wanted to relinquish her royal life and live with the Buddha and others in their righteous community. She tried several times to ask the Buddha for admittance into the city, but he refused her each time. After some time, Ananda was able to convince Buddha to allow her and other women into the community. However, the Buddha then declared that their true faith would only last half as long as it would have if they had not allowed women in. The Buddha Exposes the Imposters Hermits arrived at the city and were trying to sway people away from the Buddha's message. The Buddha was informed of this and commanded that a hall be built in seven days that he will compete against them at. While the hall was being built, one of the hermits deceived the King and made him cut his brother's hands and feet off. However, the Buddha was able to use his disciple to heal him. The Buddha then faced the hermits and defeated them. He...

Trapusha and Bhallika The Buddha went and meditated under a tree. After a week, he went and traveled for three additional weeks. During this time, the Buddha attained perfect knowledge. He was eventually met by Mara who tried to lead him down a bad path. Mara told him that he should snuff out his flame and enter Nirvana. The Buddha told Mara that he would not so that he could teach disciples and help the world. The Buddha is Prepared to Preach the Doctrine The Buddha was trying to figure out how to teach people his doctrine. He had doubts that the people of the world would be able to understand his message. As a result, he considered not teaching them and entering Nirvana. Brahma is distressed at these happenings and descends from the sky to face the Buddha. This convinces the Buddha to teach the world his doctrine. The Buddha Leaves for Benares The Buddha tries to think of someone to be the first to receive his message. And considers Rama's son, but learns that he died seve...

King Suddhodana And Queen Maya The story describes the land briefly and then introduces the King and Queen. The queen makes several requests of her King, which he grants. She now resides at the top of the tower. Maya's Dream Maya receives a dream sent to her by the gods. She goes to some area in the palace and requests the presence of the King. The King comes but feels incredibly uneasy when he gets to the gates. The Gods speak to him and tell him that he will have a son. The King asks for guidance from his brahmans and they tell him that he and the Queen will sire the Buddha. The Birth of Siddhartha The Queen felt that the time was close for her son to be born. She walked through gardens that were decorated heavily by the King. As she walked, she found a "rare" tree. She stood there motionless and her servants received her son (that's all the detail that was given). They named the son Siddhartha. Asita's Prediction An old sage, Asita, comes t...

The Two Pigs Two pig brothers were raised by an old woman. After some time, the men of the village got drunk and wanted to eat the pigs. The old woman offered up one of the pigs and that pig got terrified. His brother consoled him and told him that this is what they were born for. The people were moved by the pig's words and the king gave them a lavish lifestyle for the rest of their lives. The end of this story felt very much like Rama being exiled for some reason. The Patient Buffalo A monkey tried to annoy a buffalo. The buffalo was unconcerned with the monkey and let him do whatever he wanted. Eventually, a fairy appeared and asked the buffalo why he let the monkey do these things. The buffalo explained that nothing the monkey does is worth getting angry over and that nature did not give him a large brain, so it's not his fault. The fairy sent the monkey away and gave the buffalo a charm that would make it do where no one would mess with him again. The Sarabha There...

The Monkey-Bridge I read the same story in an earlier week written by Ellen C. Babbit. This story was much more detailed and had the Monkey-King end up dying to save his people, which inspired the king to treat his people well. Interesting change in the storyline. The Guilty Dogs A group of dogs in the palace ate the royal saddle during the night. The king was furious and commanded that every dog in the city was to be killed. The chief of the city dogs marched up to the palace and showed the king that they were all innocent and that the royal dogs were to blame. Banyan Ellen C. Babbit wrote a similar story. This one was much more detailed. Two deer kings and their herd were rounded up into the king's area. One was killed each day until a mother with a newborn doe was up to be killed. One of the deer kings went to give his life instead and the human king was overcome with emotion and promised to never kill another animal again. The Tortoise and the Geese This was one of th...

How The Monkey Saved His Troop A king and his people found mangoes and wanted to eat all of them. The monkeys that tried to eat them too were going to be shot down by the king's archers. The Monkey King saw this and grabbed two different tree branches across a river and the rest of the monkeys went across his back. The king was impressed and took care of them for the rest of their lives. The Hawks And Their Friends A hawk family settled down at a lake that had a Kingfisher, a turtle, and a lion living there. The Hawks made friends with them. After hunters try to come and eat the hawks, the friends that the Hawks had made came and saved them. An important note here is that the Hawks were good neighbors and were rewarded for their effort. Maybe you can make a story out of the same premise? The Brave Little Bowman A small Bowman joined up with a larger guy to get hired by the king. The large guy eventually did the little bowman wrong. As an army came, the large man abandon...

The Wise And Foolish Merchant Two merchants were going to travel the same road and sell their goods. One went on ahead and ended up getting outsmarted by a demon. The second merchant was wiser and took note of details about the demon that saved his life. The Elephant Girly-Face An Elephant overheard some robbers talk about being bad. The elephant thought they were teaching him how to act, so the elephant proceeded to kill anyone that would come near. After overhearing people talk about good things, the elephant changed its ways back to being nice. The moral here I think is to be wary of impressionable people. The Banyan Deer Kind of a weird plot sequence. The two deer herds got rounded up in a pen, and one was killed every day. The weird thing is that the deers were completely complicit in it all. They never tried to fight back it seemed. One deer sacrificed itself for another and the King decided to stop hunting them. The Princes and the Water-Sprite Three princes got sent i...

Monkey and the Crocodile I remember reading this near the beginning of the semester. The story is slightly different from the first time I read it though. The deceit that the monkey uses could be good for some plot developments in my stories. How the Turtle Saved His Own Life This one I remember as well. I liked the deceit the turtle used in this one. Very similar to the Monkey and The Crocodile. The Merchant of Seri Interesting story. I think the point here is to not be so cocky? While the ending threw me off a bit, I guess the point is to do the right thing no matter what. Endings don't need to be extravagant. The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking Definitely remember this one as well. The turtle just needed to keep his mouth shut, but because he couldn't, he ended up dying. The Ox Who Won The Forfeit Pretty simple story. The ox's owner treated the ox poorly and lost a bet because of it. After treating the ox nicely, the ox did what the owner wanted and he ...

-Yudhistra said some interesting things when lamenting the fact that they were about to kill the Kauravas. The line was about how even if one baby on the other side holds onto the ember hate, it could one day rekindle the fires of war. He also went on to say how enmity is never quenched by enmity. I'm not sure what story could be made from that, but it's a powerful thought. -While they were talking about killing all the Kauravas, some of them were glorifying what they were about to do. Even Krishna said, "...and then it'll be their women's turn to weep." I want to be sure to stray away from the glorification of murder and war in my stories. I get that it's all fine and whatnot in this story, but for me personally, I don't want to include those elements. -Judging from the war scenes in this book, I think I may attempt to write a war story. I feel like it's going to be rough, but with the content from this book, I think I can pull it off. Arj...

Vasus - Take note of each of these deities. The story in the Mahabharata was interesting, but I think there's a lot of different ways you can weave a standalone story using these characters. Just like Professor Gibbs said, this book has some very "Game of Throne-esque" characteristics. If I incorporate any of those elements into the story, I think the setting will have to be in an already-developed plot or near the end. There's just not enough space in a portfolio story to creating an in-depth narrative. I could write another internal monologue for Kunti watching Madri climb into the pyre like I did for King Dasharatha. I'm not sure if I can hit the pathos of the story as well as I did the first time. So with the whole "five husbands" thing reincarnated in Draupadi, I think there's a good story element I can use there. Probably won't use the five husbands concept, but I think I incorporate something about a cycle happening to an individual...

Ravana kidnaps Sita (pp. 85 - 89) -Ravana tries to talk himself up while in disguise to Sita -Sita talks trash about Ravana and he becomes angry and shows his true form -He abducts Sita, but due to a curse, cannot physically touch her without her consent -Jatayu attempts to free Sita -Jatayu first tries to reason with Ravana before directly attacking him -Ravana takes the attack at first, but the pulls out a magical sword and mortally wounds Jatayu (pg.89). Rama meets Hanuman and Sugreeva (pp. 90 - 96) -Hanuman appears before Rama and Lakshmana in the form of a scholar -Hanuman shows his true form and brings the two to Sugreeva -Hanuman recounts the story of Sugreeva's life -The story of Sugreeva and Vali is explained (pp. 92 - 94) -Hanuman realizes that Rama is Vishnu incarnate -Vali's curse is explained (pp. 95 - 96) Sugreeva fights Vali (pp. 96 - 105) -After becoming emotional at receiving Sita's jewelry, Rama gets the help of Sugreeva and Hanuman to res...

A lot of plot developments in these readings as well. I'm not a huge fan of Kaikeyi. That was pretty lame what she did to Rama. There are so many names and it is very difficult to keep them all separated in my head. The impressions that the stories are having will be easy to remember and I can just come back to the book and reread it for a refresher. Instead of renting the book out, I may order it off Amazon for easy access. $12 for a new paperback is not bad at all. Actually, I just tabbed over on my browser while writing this and ordered it. I won't have it until Friday, so I'll be able to use it for next week's readings. Once I get back from an event tonight, I'll look ahead and try to order some of the other books we'll need for the class. I see there's online versions too, but I like having a hard copy of books. If nothing else, it will be a fine addition to my bookshelf! In any case, lot's of good content came out of this week's rea...

Through these stories, one thing that sticks out to me the most is the avatars of the gods. I find that story mechanic very interesting. It's like I can retell the same clash of rivals over and over throughout different time periods. It's definitely something to look into. I'm actively looking for villains to use in my stories, and I rather like the character Ravana. You just can't beat a 10-headed antagonist. I'm curious how far I can go with manipulating the story elements. I need to look deeper into old stories from previous students and see how they named different characters. I'd like to use different names just to make the story feel like my own, but at the same time I don't want it to seem ambiguous as to who I'm referencing with my characters. Back to Ravana though: Ravana is an devotee to Shiva, who I immediately started thinking could be the "background mastermind" for some evil plots. But as I did some more research into Shiva, I...

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit Story about a rabbit who feared the world was going to end. A coconut drops on the ground behind him and he thinks the noise is the world ending. He runs away and through his false belief, convinces everyone else that the world is ending and causes chaos. The wise character (a lion) stops everyone and gets to the bottom of the issue. The lesson seems to be to not let fear or emotion guide you instead of reason and logic. The Turtle And The King The king's children mistake a turtle for a demon and the king ordered the turtle "demon" to be captured and killed. While the men were discussing how to kill the turtle, one suggests throwing him into the water that runs through a bunch of rocks, something that surely had killed several humans before. The turtle sees his chance and begs not to be thrown there, attempting to make it seem like such a decision who kill him. The king orders the men to do that and the turtle is thrown in the water where he ...

I rather like the stories I've read from the Mahabharata. Here are a few I liked that I could possibly use later in the class: Tales of Arjuna  - Interesting stories.  Several of the stories involve self-immolation. I wonder if that'll be prevalent in a lot of the stories. Mahabharata: The Great Epic of India  - A lot of events happen in this one. For sure could derive several stories from the ones in the comic. Subhadra: Beloved Sister of Krishna and Balarama  - Lots of romance in this one and quite a bit of drama. Could definitely be used to add some more layers to other stories. Arjuna is a big character in all these stories. His character stood out to me quite a bit for some reason, so I think I'll use him quite a bit. Here's a picture of a statue of him: Statue of Arjuna:  Source