Dead Week More Reading: Epified Krishna

Krishna Wikipedia

Krishna is a major deity in the religion of Hinduism. He made enemies before he was even born and became a friend to those in need but an enemy to those who sought out to harm Krishna's loved ones. Everyone thought that he was of the world, but they were wrong, they were a part of Krishna's world because Krishna was an avatar of the god Vishnu. He's one of the main characters of the Mahabharata. Krishna was a main helper of the Pandavas during their many adventures and troubles.


Krishna Comes

Reading B: Final Jataka Tales

The Noble Horse
A noble horse was taken into battle and helped a knight capture six kings. Upon capturing the sixth king, the horse was wounded but knew that the knight had to capture one more. So after the final king was captured, the horse died. Everyone knew of the horse's nobility and he was remembered. War never broke out again.

The Patient Buffalo
A monkey tormented a buffalo by jumping on his back, trampling his food and hitting him with sticks. The buffalo never fought back and told a fairy it was because the monkey did not have much brain. The fairy gave the buffalo a charm that allowed him to never be annoyed by the monkey again.

The Quarrelsome Quails

When a hunter came to capture quails, the King quail told them to work together and fly away to escape the net, but never to fight. If they were to fight, they could be caught. One day the hunter came back and two of the quails began to fight and he caught them. But the King quail and the quails who heeded his words were never caught.

Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat

King Quail (Babel)

 

Reading A: MORE Jataka Tales

The Fairy and the Hare
A hare, a weasel and a monkey lived together and gathered food. They decided to gather food for poor creatures and give the food away. A fairy wanted to test them, so she transformed into a beggar and approached each of them. They all offered her food, and even offered themselves as food. The fairy made a fire but the flames were cool. The hare was confused, but the fairy let him know that it was a test and they passed because of their kind hearts.

The Master's Test
An old master told his pupils to go and steal money for him because they were young. However, one pupil told the master that even when no one was watching, he was watching himself, so he couldn't do it. The master smiled and said that he passed the test. The pupils realized from then on that even when no one is watching, they are watching themselves.

The Two Pigs
A woman adopts two pigs. She keeps them for years until there is a feast. Men get her drunk and convince her to give them one of the pigs to eat. The other pig tells the pig to not be sad to leave the world, but to feel joy. The words echo across the land and the pigs are honored by the king. Even after the king dies, the land is joyous.

Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat

Master and Pupil (Babel)


 

Reading B: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales

The Guilty Dogs

There was once a group of palace dogs that destroyed the King's saddles for his horses. When the king found the saddles destroyed, he knew it was dogs that did it. But he didn't know which dogs did it, so he ordered every dog in the city to be killed. When the dogs heard this, they went to the wise chief dog and had him talk to the king. The dog knew that it was the royal dogs, so he had the king test them by feeding them buttermilk. Once they drank the buttermilk, straps of leather fell out of their mouths and the king knew it was them. He stopped the killing of every dog and started to give all dogs in the city royal treatment. 

Dog (YouTube)

Twenty Jakata Tales by Noor Inayat

Reading B: Buddhist Jataka Tales

Spend a Pound to Win a Penny
A monkey took some peas from some people below a tree. He dropped one pea, and in trying to get it, dropped all the other peas. The people saw the monkey and shooed him away. He realized that he shouldn't be so greedy with his peas because he lost all of them to try to gain just one.


Silence is Golden 
A lion had a cub with a jackal. The cub looked like a lion but had the yelp of a jackal. Other cubs didn't think he was a real lion, so his father told him to keep his mouth shut. For the rest of his life he was quiet so that others thought he was a lion and weren't frightened by his jackal yelp.

The Cunning Crane and the Crab
There was a crane that lived by a pond. He hatched a plan to catch the fish and make them think that he would take them to the lake, but he would really eat them. He tried this same thing with a crab, but the crab was smarter and knew the crane had other plans. He threatened to kill the crane if the crane did not let him live. The crane let the crab down at the lake but the crab killed him anyway.

The Crane (Blogspot)

The Giant Crab and Other Tales From India by W.H.D Rouse

Reading A: Buddhist Jataka Tales

The Giant Crab
A giant crab would eat the animals that came to the lake to drink and got bigger and bigger as he ate. An elephant and his wife planned to stop the crab. The crab hurt the elephant and was infatuated with his wife. So while he was distracted by elephant's wife, the elephant crushed the crab.

The Dishonest Friend
A man trusted his friend with a plough. The friend took the plough and told the man that a rat ate it. The man knew the friend was lying and he took the friend's son to another house and told the friend that a hawk took the boy. The friend didn't believe that a hawk could take a boy, the man retorted with no one could believe a rat could eat a plough. The friend gave the plough back and the man gave the son back.

(Freebookpalooza)

The Giant Crab and Other Tales From India by W.H.D Rouse

Reading A: More Jataka Tales

The Cunning Wolf
A man goes to hunt wolves for his dinner. He lies on the ground and plays dead until one comes up that he can hit. The king of the wolves sees his trick, and runs away before the man can hit him and throws his club but misses. The rest of the animals run away.

The Three Fishes
Three fishes leave their home and go towards a city. One of the fish, Very-Thoughtful, tells the others that they should go home because there are fishermen in the city. The other fishes don't pay attention and get caught in a net. Very-Thoughtful creates a distraction for the fisherman and the others escape. They return back to their home.

The Penny-Wise Monkey
A king and his men from a rich country go to take a far away country. They see a monkey eating peas. The monkey drops one pea and tries to retrieve it, but in turn, loses his other peas. The king learns a lesson to be grateful for what he has and not try to gain a little but lose a lot.

The Golden Goose
There was a golden goose that decided to help a family by giving them its golden feathers every day. One day, the mother gets greedy and decides to take all of his feathers. When she takes them, the feathers grow back normal, not golden, and the goose never returns.

The Golden Goose (The Baldwin Project)

Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit

Reading B: Jakata Tales

The Elephant Girly Face
Girly Face was a nice elephant. Heard bad men talking and started killing people. King made good men talk around Girly Face and he turned back into a nice and well-behaved elephant.

The Crane and the Crab
Crane likes to eat fish and tricks them by putting them in his mouth with the hope of the pond. Eats them instead. Does the same with the crab but the crab sees through the crane and kills the crane.

Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit

Girly Face Killing ( The Baldwin Project)

Reading A: Jakata Tales

How the Turtle Saved His Own Life
People think turtle is a demon, want to kill him. Think of throwing him in the water to kill him and the turtle tricks them and tells them that he hates the water and will die. They throw him in and he is back in his home.

Crocodile and Monkey
Crocodile wants to feed his mother monkey heart. Monkey says that his heart is in a tree so the crocodile takes him there. Monkey tricks crocodile when crocodile opens his mouth to eat him and monkey escapes.

The Foolish Timid Rabit
Basically Chicken Little with the sky is falling. Coconut falls on Rabbit's head, he tells everyone that the earth is breaking up, every animal believes him and then the lion tells the rabbit that it was just a coconut.

The Ox Who Won the Forfeit
A strong ox's owner bets money that he can pull a thousand carts. But he whips the ox in front of everyone and the ox does nothing. The ox then tells him to be nicer and not whip him. When the owner is kind and encouraging, the ox moves the carts and wins his owner's money back.

Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit

The Jatakas Book (Indian Epics)

Reading A: Mahabharata

Shantanu and Ganga
Shantanu falls in love with a woman at the river and she agrees to marry him as long as he never questions her actions. When they have children, she drowns each of them in the river, and he stops her once she is about to drown the eighth one. She explains to them that she is the river Ganga and gave birth to the eight gods, Vasus, who are being punished as humans for stealing Vasishtha's cow. When Ganga drowns the babies, she returns to heaven and takes the last son with her, he returns to Shantanu as an adult by the name of Bhishma.


Shantanu and Satyavati
Shantanu falls in love with a fisherman's daughter, Satyavati. He opposes their marraige because Shantanu already has Bhishma for a son. Bhishma vows to never have children to help his father. Shantanu and Satyavati have two kids, one becomes king but then dies, and Bhishma takes the throne instead of the other son because he is too young. Meanwhile, a neighboring king holds a ceremony for his daughters to select a husband and Bhishma seizes all three for Vichitravirya, the young king. One of the daughters, Amba, has already promised herself to another king so her father banishes her. She vows revenge on Bhishma. Vichitraviyra marries the two other daughters.


Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura
Vichitraviyra dies withouth having any sons, so Satyavati has the widows sleep with her son Vyasa, to bear children. He looks strange because of his strange religious rituals, so the widows are afraid of him when they sleep with him. One closes their eyes, so their son, Dhritarashtra, is blind. One turns pale with fear, so their son, Pandu, is born pale. But one of the widows has her maid sleep with Vyasa in her place and he likes her, so the son, Vidura, is born normal.

The Pandavas and the Kauravas
Dhritarashtra has a wife who covers her eyes to share his blindness. Pandu has two wives, Kunti and Madri, but cannot have children. Pandu is hunting and shoots a deer having sex but the deer is actually a celestial being in disguise who curses Pandu and says that he will also die making love. Pandu's wife has him have gods bear children for him, and he has 5 sons, called the Pandavas. Pandu can't resist his passion for Madri and dies making love to her. She jumps on his funeral pyre and leaves Kunti to take care of the sons.

The escape from the fire
The Pandavas set their house on fire that Purochana builds for them. It's a trap and everyone thinks they died but they escaped.

Life in hiding
A rakshasa is killed by Bhima, the sister of the rakshasa falls in love with him and they have a son. Vyasa urges the Pandavas to disguise themselves as beggars. They beg everyday until Kunti divides up the alms. Bhima also defeats another rakshasa.

Draupadi's swayamvara
King Drupada is having a swayamvara for his daughter and the Pandavas show up. Krishna, an avatar of the god Vishnu, is there with his brother Balarama and they recognize the Pandavas in disguise. During the contest, Arjuna is able to hit the target with his bow and wins Draupadi as his bride. The 5 brothers have to share Draupadi as their wife. But she had 5 husbands in a previous lifetime, and prayed to get them back. She got them back when she married the Pandava brothers. 

Pandava (Wikipedia)

Mahabharata by Narayan 

Reading Notes A and B: Sita Sings the Blues

For this week's reading, I chose to watch the movie: Sita Sings the Blues. The movie is a cartoon interpretation of the Ramayana. It is animated and tells the story in 3 different ways. The first story that is told is the story of a couple who gets split up because the man has to move to India for work. The woman eventually follows him but when she gets there, the relationship wasn't what it used to be. After she takes a trip to New York, he ends the relationship and she stays in America. Although she is heartbroken, she finds comfort in her new life and new cat while she begins to study the Ramayana. This has parallels to the Ramayana because of Sita trying to win Rama back after he rescues her and eventually being tired of it and being swallowed up by the earth. The second story being told is the actual Ramayana. It is told by 3 Indian shadow puppets through a comedic conversation and recalling of the story. During their story, an animated version of the Ramayana is told. Every so often, the animation style changes and a musical interlude happens with Sita singing old-timey songs while an important scene is happening. They are used to further the story and put music to crucial parts of the Ramayana, such as the scene where Hanuman and Rama rescue Sita from Ravana. I did notice one key difference in this version, Lakshmana isn't with Rama or Sita when they are banished into the forest, it's just the two of them. It wasn't a big deal, it just threw me off because I was used to him being there with them. Overall, I really liked Sita Sings the Blues. It was very funny and a lighthearted retelling of the Ramayana. I think I would even enjoy it if I didn't read the Ramayana or had to do it for an assignment, it was a really good movie and I would recommend it to anyone who is familiar with the Ramayana.



Sita Sings the Blues was directed and animated by Nina Paley

Sita Sings the Blues Poster ( Wikipedia )

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part C

Ravana Abducts Sita
When Lakshmana is away from Sita, Ravana comes to her disguised as a hermit. When he reveals himself, she tells him to leave, but he picks up the ground she is on and flies away.

Jatayu and Ravana
Jatayu tries to rescue Sita but Ravana kills him and he dies before he can tell Rama and Lakshmana where Ravana went.

Rama and Lakshmana Meet Hanuman
Rama and Lakshmana head to the kingdom of Kishkinda. There, the monkey Hanuman meets them and disguises himself as a scholar, but Rama sees through it. Hanuman is loyal to the younger brother of the king of Kishkinda.

The Story of Vail and Sugriva
Vail churned nectar from the ocean, so the gods gave him awesome fighting powers. Mayavi, the demon, challenged him, but Vail chased him into a cave. When they didn't come out, Sugriva's advisors told him to block the cave and trap the demon. When Vail came out, he was enraged at Sugriva and Sugriva fled to escape him. Vail took his wife.

Rama's Empathy for Sugriva
Rama feels empathy for Sugriva because he lost his wife and is in exile. They believe that they can defeat Vail. Vail is forbidden from the mountain because he once defeated a demon in the shape of a buffalo. He hurled the carcass and it landed near a sage that cursed Vail and said that he would die if he ever went to the mountain.

Sita's Jewelry
Sita threw her jewelry when being taken away and the monkeys found it. Sugriva has the jewelry and gave it to Rama.

Sugriva Battles Vail
Sugriva challenges Vail, Vail laughs at his challenge and his wife urges him not to fight. In the middle of the battle, Rama fires an arrow at Vail and Vail argues with Rama if he acted right or not. In the end, he decides that Rama did the right thing. He dies and Sugriva becomes king.

The Rainy Season
Rama and his brother spend the rainy season in the forest while Sugriva is supposed to form an army in the meantime. He forgets to form the army and Rama sends Lakshmana to remind him of his promise.

Lakshmana Visits Sugriva
When Laksmana comes, he kicks down the gates of the city. Hanuman invites Lakshmana to see Sugriva, who is drunk. Sugriva promises not to get drunk again and goes to see Rama.

Search Parties Sent
Sugriva forms an army and search parties are sent to find Sita. Rama tells Hanuman how to identify Sita.

Hanuman and Angada Head South
Hanuman and Angada are trapped in a tunnel and meet a mysterious nymph who had once been a goddess. The nymph returns to heaven and they break out of the tunnel, still haven't found Sita.

Sampathi
The two meet Sampathi, brother of Jatayu, the bird. His wings have been burned off when he fell to Earth. He says that he saw Ravana taking Sita to Lanka, across the ocean. Hanuman grows immensely and becomes a giant monkey so that he can step across the ocean.

Ramayana by Narayan

Hanuman (Free PNG)

Reading B Notes: Ramayana

Rama's Exile
Lakshmana and Sita want to accompany Rama into exile and the king's charioteer supplies them with transportation. They manage to escape and once they finally get to the forest, King Dasharatha dies.

Bharata
When Bharata returns to town, he finds out that his mother planned to make him king instead of Rama. He is outraged and finds Rama and tries to convince him to come back. Rama refuses, so Bharata takes his shoes back and places them on the throne.

Forest Life
As Rama, Lakshmana and Sita move deeper into the forest, they visit sages. One of the sage's wives gives her jewelry to Sita. They also meet the bird Jatayu, a friend of Dasharatha, who offers the group protection.

Ravana's Sister
Ravana, the rakshasa, has a sister named Shurpanakha. She is in love with Rama and tries to seduce him and get rid of Sita. Lakshmana stops her and mutilates her, but doesn't kill her. She then goes to Ravana's step-brother, Kara, who commands an army of demons to attack the group. Rama defeats them and Shurpanakha flees back to Ravana.

Ravana in Lanka
In Ravana's domain in Lanka, he has turned gods and gurus into servants to sweep and such. Ravana is furious when he sees what Lakshmana did to his sister. He also falls in love with Sita after hearing his sister describe her.

Ravana and Maricha
Ravana's uncle, Maricha's, mother was killed by Rama. Ravana wants Maricha to help him abduct Sita. Maricha is reluctant but helps Ravana by turning into a golden deer than captivates Sita. She wants Rama to capture the deer, but when Rama goes to capture it, Maricha disguises his voice as Rama and causes Sita to make Lakshamana go save him. This leaves Sita by herself.

Jatayu, Dasharatha's friend (Redbubble)

Ramayana by Narayan

Reading A Notes: Ramayana

I will be summarizing each story in a sentence or two

King Dasharatha
Maharajah Dasharatha is a king over a glorious land with his 3 queens. Although he is powerful, he is sad because none of the queens had bore him a son.

Dasharatha's Sons
Dasharatha performs a horse sacrifice to obtain a son, accompanied by Kaushayla, his chief queen. The gods promise the king 4 sons.

Avatar
Up in heaven, Vishnu has to defeat Ravana, but Ravana can't be beaten by a god, only a human or monkey. Vishnu agrees to come to Earth as a human. Meanwhile, Dasharatha has 4 sons and Vishnu is one, under the name "Rama".

Rama (Dharma Wiki)

Vishvamitra
Vishvamitra, a great sage, comes to ask the King for a favor. He wants Rama and his brother to come help him fight evil rakshasas. The King is hesitant but the sage assures him of their victory, he lets them go.

Thataka
Rama does battle with Thataka, a female rakshasa. Vishvamitra orders him to slay her and he does, gaining magical weapons as a reward that enables him to defeat Maricha, son of Thataka.

Ganga
A story that Vishvamitra tells to Rama about the goddess Ganga, aka the river Ganges. The story is about how she came from heaven to Sagar Island.

Ahalya
Gautama was married to Ahalya. Indra was in love with Ahalya and made himself appear as Gautama and seduce her. Ahalya falls for it and Gautama finds out and curses both of them, causing Ahalya to become invisible. Only Vishnu coming to Earth as Rama can end her curse.

Sita
Rama and his brother go on an outing in the city. There they walk around and see all kinds of girls, but one stands out: Sita. Rama falls in love with her at first sight.

King Janaka
King Janaka presents a bow to the brothers and says that whoever can is strong enough to bend the bow can marry his daughter. His daughter is Sita

Rama Wins Sita
Rama takes the bow and doesn't just bend it, he brakes it in half with tremendous force that knocks everyone over. He wins Sita.

Parashurama
Another avatar of Vishnu comes and meets the brothers. He's mad that the bow has been broken. He almost attacks Rama's brother before Rama steps in between and proves himself to be worthy by drawing the bow of Vishnu.

Rama and Sita's Wedding
Rama and Sita get married and all three of Rama's brothers find wives from King Janaka's family as well.

Coronation
Dasharatha plans to name Rama his successor instead of Rama's brothers. But the king owes Kaikeyi two favors and one of the royal servants persuades her to oppose Rama's coronation. Since the king owes her two favors, he can't oppose her and Rama is exiled for fourteen years while his brother, Kaikeyi's son, is named successor. The king realizes that this is because of a curse due to him killing a boy in a forest many years ago.


Ramayana by Narayan

Reading Notes: Crane and Crab

Wow what a story. I knew that Indian folklore usually involves a moral lesson, but this story had a great payoff. The story involves a cunning, deceitful and particularly evil crane. This crane lives on the bank of a lake and spends his days hunting and eating fish. There is a pool nearby that has all but dried up and is filled with fish. The crane hatches a plan that involves tricking the fish into thinking they're being helped, only to eat them when he gains their trust. He tells each fish that he will take them to the lake so that they can live more comfortably and then takes them to his tree to eat them. Once he's eaten all the fish in the pool, he's so desperate for food that he resorts to trying to trick a crab into trusting him. However, this crab is smarter than the fish and is suspicious of the crane's motives. He makes a deal that the crane is to allow him to hold onto the crane's neck as he transports the crab to the lake. The crab makes it known to the crane that he can kill him at any moment and the crane spares his life. But at the last moment before the crab reaches the lake, he uses his claw to cut the crane's head off, stopping his trickery for good.

The Crane and the Crab (Mom Junction)

The Cunning Crane and Crab by W. H. D. Rouse

Reading Options

The first reading option that grabbed my attention was the animated film Sita Sings the Blues. This is the animated retelling of the Ramayana. I enjoy different methods of storytelling and I think that an animated version of this story is very creative.

The second reading I was interested in was the comic book version of the Mahabharata. An illustrated version of the epic battle seems very cool to read because I like to see what the writers visualize as they think of the story.

The last thing I was interested in was the opportunity to learn more about Indian music. I have a musical background and love finding and listening to new music, so I'm excited for the opportunity to listen to some Indian artists and learn more about their style of music.

Arjuna statue in Bali (Source)