Reading Notes Epified: Mahabharata Part D

Part D continues with the epified YouTube series. I am really liking these videos. One thing I have noticed is that the videos are not very related. There is not much relation between the different episodes. This makes it a little difficult to keep the stories strait. Part 28 Karna's Humiliation was a really interesting chapter. This episode had a lot of big names present who had gathered for the courtship of Draupadi. among those present was the King of Anga. He was a skilled and powerful man but also came from a less than noble birth. This led to him being humiliated in front of everyone by being declared unworthy and had no business being in the presence of real kings. His eyes showed how angry he was. This would foreshadow future war and destruction. I think there is a good story here about the humiliation and the foreshadowing of future conflict. Another interesting episode is episode 33 Arjuns Exile. This detail the arrangement between the five Pandvarian brothers and Draupadi. Each brother takes turns having her as a wife, breaking this leads to 12 years of exile. One day Arjun must fetch his weapons from the bedchamber to go fight thieves. Unfortunately it his not his turn and thus cannot enter. Despite hearing them together, he enters, gets his weapons, and goes to fight. Upon return he decides to go in to exile despite many telling him it is okay. I really liked how ridiculous this story sounds, especially by todays standards. I am not sure how this could be turned into my own story but it has a lot of potential as something. I was also surprised by how willing he was to honor this arrangement. I would also like to focus on Arjun's sense of honor in a potential story. He was willing to face exile in order to help someone.

Angry like the King

Pixabay Image

Epified Mahabarthana

Video Playlist

Reading Notes Epified: Mahabharata Part C

For this weeks reading I am continuing with the epified Mahabharata YouTube series. I really like this series. It is a quick and entertaining way to get the details of the stories. The live drawing is also really interesting to watch. One episode that interested me was 21 Drupad humiliates Drona. This tells a story of two friends who are training together. Due to this friendship Drupad promises his friend half his kingdom when he becomes king. Years later Drona has fallen oh hard times and goes to see his old friend, confident he will keep this old promise. Instead he finds that his friend has changed and is drunk with power. In the next episode we also see a king acting poorly. In this one he wants to kill the Pandava's. These brothers were very popular and may one day threaten his rule. He decides to build an entire castle out of flammable materials. he even placed their beds in the highest flammable areas. He then invited the brothers to a spectacular feast in their honor. After the banquet they would go to sleep and be burned alive. This plan would keep the people from hating him if it remained a secret, unfortunately the plan would be discovered. Both of these, as well as others in this section have a lot of story potential. I like all the angles for an evil king and the betrayal. I also like the story of two friends who pledge to each other. one becomes rich, one becomes poor. Te rich one then turns their back on the poor who pledges revenge. I think this would be a story that could easily be replicated in a modern setting. It also leaves a lot of opportunity to change details.

Palace Fire

Wikimedia palace fire

Epified: Mahabharata videos

YouTube playlist link

Reading Notes Epified: Mahabharata Part B

For part B I am continuing to watch the Epified Mahabharata videos. I really enjoy the simple quick presentation of the content. Part 9 continues where 8 left off. kunti is preparing to be married but has a dark secret. When she was younger she accidentally summoned Suryadev, the sun god to her room. After being embraced by the god and enveloped in his light, she is left with a child. A beautiful child clad in armor, destined for greatness. Because she was unmarried she decided to but the child in a basket and cast him off down the river. I think this has a lot of potential to be a story. One thing that surprises me with these stories is the similarities they have with a lot of the stories in the bible. Another interesting part was ep 14-The Magic Potion. Bheem is pushed into a body of water, asleep, and tied up. As he sinks he begins to be bitten by poisonous snakes. Instead of dying he breaks free and kills the snakes. He finds himself in another realm and meets Vasuki, the snake king and a relative. Vasuki gives him a magic potion that gave him super powers-strength of a 100 elephants. Bheem swims off and decides to become all he can be. This has a lot of good elements for a quest story. Him escaping and defeating attackers. Meeting a weird king. The magic potion. I can see taking this story the exact opposite direction. Instead of tied up and thrown in water to sink, my hero will tied to balloons to float away in the sky. Instead of sea serpents it will be giant birds. I will replace the underwater kingdom with a sky/cloud kingdom with a giant bird creature ruler.

A castle in the sky

Pixabay link

Blogspot link to video Playlist

Epified: Mahabharata

Reading Notes Epified: Mahabharata Part A

For my reading this week I did the Mahabharata series of YouTube. This is a series of short videos that narrate while an artist draws. I did another series like this a few week ago and liked it a lot. I was interested in this reading immediately. The first story is about the king Shantu and his wife the river goddesss Ganga. Ganga married him under the stipulation that Shantu could never question her decisions. This is put to the test when she has his child. She kills the child immediately. She does this for their first 7 children. Before she kills child number 8 Shantu questions her. Shantu explains that she had to give birth to the 8 Vazus. Celestial spirits cursed to live as mortals. Ganga agreed to kill them at birth to release them from the curse. Because Shantu questioned her Ganga left with the 8th child. This story reminded me of a lot of fantasy style writings like lord of the rings. I can see using this material in a lot of different types of stories. Some ideas I have is telling a story with animals. I also could see this story working in a sci fi setting. A Post apocalypse world where live births are very rare. I will need to think of why the first few will need to be killed. I also think having someone who does ridiculous things, but can not be questioned would be another story direction. Maybe have a boss or military leader who does increasingly crazy things. In the end it is revealed to be for an important purpose. A Nazi life regime where questioning your commander is death. One underling finally cant take it anymore and has to question his orders. A lot of the other stories did not have a lot of striking details for me to latch onto. The last story the Blind Bride was also interesting. A blind king must marry. A suitable candidate is found but her family does not want her to mark a blind man. She knew she was destined to marry a blind man so she decided to blindfold herself for life. Another story detail is the kings younger brother actually has most of the power.

Ganga leaving with child 8

wikimedia image

Blogspot link to video Playlist

Epified: Mahabharata

Reading Notes: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales Part B

For todays reading I read the second part of Inayat's Twenty Jaka Tales. These stories continued in the trend of the others. They usually have a lesson and theme to them. This theme is usally taought through animals. One story I liked was The Quarrelsome Quails. This story tells of how the birds must always work together. As long as they work together they will always be able to escape the net. The bird king tells them that if they fight and do not work together they will die. This eventually happens and two birds begin to fight. The king and those who heeded his warning left. The fighting birds were captured as well as those around them. The message being to stand strong and work together. This story is short and impactful. This leaves a lot of room open to create my own unique story. I can writa story about a group of people that must wor together to survive. When they stop working together, this leads to their demise. I could see this story taking place in a modern, desperate survival situation. Another story i enjoyed was "The end of the world". This story tells the story of a small mouse that has a piece of fruit fall on his head. The mouse panicks and sets of a chain reaction of all the animals panicking over nothing. I like the message of rationale thought an not getting caught up things.

The sky is falling
flickr image

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)

Reading Guide

Reading Notes: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales Part A

For my reading I read the first part of Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat. I really enjoyed these short stories. What I liked most about them is the theme and message that they carried. One popular message was that of a leader being willing to sacrifice their selves for their people. Also that a leader should lead through love and compassion. In the first story the monkey king says to rule your people through love because they are your children. I think this message of self sacrifice and leadership would be easy to turn into my own story. This is a theme that is present in a ton of literature and media today as well. I liked the first story, The Monkey Bridge. A monkey tribe wants to keep their delicious fruit secret. It must never float down the river to be discovered by man. When this happens the king comes to take all the fruit and kill all the monkeys. The monkey leader sacrifices himself by using his body as a bridge to allow his people to escape. This kills him, but he has a minute to share why he sacrificed himself for his people to the human king. I also liked the story Banyan. In this story two kingdoms of deer are herded and captured in the human kings yard. every day one of them is killed for food. In order to prevent further harm and pain they decide to send one deer a day as a sacrifice. One day a young mother is chosen, the first deer king says she must do her duty, the second king goes in her place. The human king is so moved by this act of co0mpassion he frees all the animals. Important to note the leaders were special golden deers that were never to be killed. 

Majestic Golden Deer

Wikimedia deer link

Title: Twenty Jataka Tales
Author: Noor Inayat (Khan)

Reading Guide

Week 10 Story: Riding the Bull

      Krishna never fit in, in his hometown. All anyone cared about was hunting, fighting, and bull riding. Krishina was more interested in helping the less fortunate and spreading kindness. Krishina knew that if he could somehow earn the other cowboys respect they would come to understand and follow his teachings of love. After thinking it over Krishina knew what he had to do, he had to do what every other cowboy was too afraid to do, he had to ride the bull named Hastin.

       Hastin was the biggest meanest bull in town. He was so mean that most people wanted to have him killed before he hurt someone. Krishina gathered the other cowboys around and told them what he planned to do, "In one months time, I shall ride the great bull Hastin in the annual rodeo," he declared! All the other cowboys mocked him, but he was undeterred and began his plan that night. Krishina knew that kindness was the ultimate strength and even Hastin could be rode if someone showed him some kindness. Every night Krishina would visit Hastin. He would play his banjo and feed Hastin the freshest grains and the sweetest moonshine. As the month wore on Krishina could tell his plan was working. Hastin seemed to love his music and even let Krishina feed him out of his hand. By the end of the month Krishina saw Hastin as his friend and he knew the bull felt the same way.

       The morning of the rodeo, Krishina was exited to show off and earn the other cowboys respect. Before he rode Hastin, Krishina explained what he had done.Looking out at the crowd Krishina said "This past month I have been able to tame and befriend Hastin; not through cruelty and fear, but through kindness and compassion. Kindness is the ultimate strength. With his motive explained Krishina sauntered over to Haskin. With one last wave Krishina leaped onto Hastin. As soon as Krishina's butt grazed Hastins back, the bull went wild. What Krishina thought was his friend was still the same wild bull and Krishina went flying off into a pile of manure. Covered in manure as the crowd laughed at him, Krishina decided it was time to go spread kindness somewhere else. 

Authors Note: I retold the Story of Krishina rides Haskin. In the original he is able to ride the bull. This shows his message of  "Kindness is the Ultimate strength" and shows his glory. Krishina is the God of compassion and love. I retold the story in an American setting and had Krishina fail in his task and be ridiculed. 

A bull rider attempter

Link to Bull riding Article

Title:  Krishna

Author:  Epified TV (India)

Year:  2015

Link to Video playlist
Krishna rides Hastin