Epics of India

Taken from  The Mahabharata, A Summary   by John Mandeville Macfie. 61. Bhishma Falls Poor Bhishma. They got swept up in their emotion, but at the end of the day, death is death. And the death caused by members of your own family - what can be more cruel? I guess this is the fulfillment of Amba's threat/curse/promise? Because she blamed him for her not being able to marry anyone, at the beginning of the story. 64. Ghatotkhacha Another son dies. Who's next? 65. Death of Drona It's Drona, but only because the Pandavas tricked him into believing his son had been slain. Controversial! His son was the only reason he continued to hold on to life. The irony makes his death all the more sad. What will his son think? He doesn't even know his father is dead. We met Drona in the beginning of the story; he acted as a tutor and mentor to the Pandavas and the Kauravas, and now, he dies at their hands. Terrible. 67. Arjuna and Karna This is the supposedly the climax of t...

Taken from  The Mahabharata, A Summary   by John Mandeville Macfie. 42. Krishna's Visit A very interesting difference in attitudes from the Ramayana. In the Ramayana, Sita unquestioningly and loyally follows Rama, without a single complaint. Draupadi, on the other hand, is so moved with anger that she even questions the gods. Surprisingly, Bhima takes Draupadi's side, for Yudhishthira to take action and take back his kingdom, but Yudhishthira, as Rama did, is more prudent toward the keeping of his word than his position. The Mahabharata seems more...human than the Ramayana. I mean, yes, I get that Rama was the incarnation of Vishnu, so he's the "most righteous and upright, etc." but I feel as if the things he did/put up with were pretty unreasonable as a man. And the way he responded to them made him seem completely inhuman, which gives the reader nothing to connect to. In the Mahabharata, however, the reader can empathize with Draupadi, and have probably gon...

I was expecting a bunch of long, drawn out articles that highlight writing techniques, with analysis on "exemplary" writing throughout history, but was pleasantly surprised to see it's just a page full of quotes and snippets from various authors. Here are some I really liked: You Develop Empathy As a writer, it's important to approach your work through the lens of someone who's on the other end. This allows you to consider how you want to forge your story into one that the reader can appreciate. As you do this, you will develop this sense of empathy. You can relate to what your readers are feeling, whether that be boredom, interest, excitement, etc., and can adjust your narrative accordingly. A Character is Never a Whole Person   This title really caught my attention - is he saying that characters aren't really people? Nope, not at all. The writer, upon developing a character, must know every detail about him or her, but then must selectively show specif...

Taken from The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie. The illustrations for the Mahabharata are a lot more detailed than the ones for Ramayana. The Ramayana's were more flat and primitive, but the Mahabharata's have depth, shading, expressions, etc. that make it more interesting (in my opinion) to look at. Similar to how Valmiki was the author in the Ramayana (and also a character!), a guy named Vyasa is credited with writing the Mahabharata. From the wording though, it seems like he'll have a larger part to play than Valmiki did in his story. (King Shanatu and a beautiful woman on the Ganga, from Wikipedia ) King Shanatu and Ganga Aha! So this is where that story of Ganga throwing babies into the river comes from! And there's some justification behind it as well - the babies are actually celestial beings that have been cursed to have a human form. They went to Ganga to ask her to be their human mother, where she promised to throw them into the r...

An updated version of this story can be found on my website, Rehashed Histories. ...a fuzzy haze... ...the bright faces of two young boys looking at him in excitement and awe... ...his own smiling face, full of pride, looking back at them... The old man's bones groaned in resistance as he got up from his spot under the tree and stretched. How long had he been meditating there? The tree he had been leaning against had started to grow around him. He looked around at his hermitage. It was the same as when he had last opened his eyes, save for the now deteriorating door frame and the plethora of dust and insects now inhabiting it. "This is no place to live!" he tutted to himself. "I must repair it at once!" He peeled the axe from where it had fused to the back wall of his house, holstered his sword to his belt, and set off to gather wood for repairs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Again, I am impressed by Nivedita's attention to detail, in comparison with the PDE. The PDE, in regards to Rama needing to cross the ocean, made him seem very childish; it was as if he were throwing a tantrum and the exasperated Ocean finally just gave him what he wanted. In Nivedita's version, however, though he is still seemingly angry, he is more rational and doesn't actually want to dry up the sea. It also gives details about the actual construction of the bridge, providing somewhat of a timeline to the story. Vibhishana's abandoning of Ravana is also given in slightly more detail than I remember. It touches his anger at being constantly ignored/insulted for trying to warn his brother about not standing a chance against Rama. Even just one extra line that shows some kind of insight into what the characters are feeling provides more immersion in the story and gives the reader a satisfaction in progressing with them as they develop. For example, the line (present i...

Thoughts taken on the Nivdeita's Ramayana. I liked the PDE Ramayana, but I felt like the events and situations the characters went through didn't have much impact because we didn't have a real connection with the characters; they weren't fleshed out enough, leaving us (or me, at least) to wonder why a certain character acted a certain way, or why an event came up, seemingly randomly. Nivedita's Ramayana solves this issue for me. She provides much more background information on the characters introduced. For example, in her description of Kaikeyi and her interaction with Manthara, the backstory of how King Dasharatha had come into Kaiyeki's debt, and consequently, her ability to blackmail him because of it. The resulting conversation between Dasharatha and Kaiyeki is also more detailed, giving the reader more insight into how grieved Dasharatha was at having to banish his heir-apparent. The exposition and level of detail in the beginning regarding Valmiki and ...

Hanuman Hanuman is a very well known character in the Ramayana, to the point that he has bled over into many of the cultures surrounding India, and even to the Western world. Many iterations and versions of Hanuman have been created, and his influence can even be seen in many of today's stories. Hanuman has a huge influence in Thailand, where I'm from, so I wanted to find out more about him. (painting of protagonists in Journey to the West; photo by Rolf Müller, taken from Wikipedia ) Journey to the West One of the major stories that feature a monkey is, of course, Journey to the West. I think there's even been a movie adaptation of this? (And a sequel!) I don't know much about it, except that Sun Wukong (the monkey) is prominently featured in many Asian-related movies. Sun Wukong I dabble in reading some Chinese light novels/Korean manhwas, and Sun Wukong is commonly seen as a spirit able to be invoked for power. A character from the manga Naruto can summon...

Link to my Portfolio, Rehashed Histories. If you have any burning comments, questions or concerns about my stories, this is the place to unload them! (collage of Shrek , a Davana , and Rama with Sita )

The analogy of mythology being a "slurpee of knowledge" is really good. It takes a bunch of different educational principles, religion, history, etc. and casts them into a story that tries to explain them. My understanding of a "myth" is something that is untrue, but to many peoples and cultures, they are truth, used to explain phenomena that they had no understanding of in the past. I appreciate them touching upon this, the Greek background of the word, and how he actually defined the word: stories that have significance and staying power.  Consequently, mythology is the study of these myths. Concerning mythology, this dates back to ancient Greece and the Greek philosophers, where there was contention regarding attributing human attributes to the gods, especially the negative ones. With many denoting myths as lies, a dichotomy was able to be setup for the logos, the truth, of the Christian belief. Paul, in his Epistle to Timothy, implores his spiritual child not ...

These notes were taken as I was reading through the Public Domain Edition of the Ramayana, by Valmiki. The Bridge Okay, so let me get this straight. Rama, because he wants to get his wife back, had to cross an ocean to get there, but when his offering to the God of the Ocean failed, he basically threw a tantrum. The thing is, his tantrums aren't like your toddler's; when he throws one, it has a global impact. On top of that, he threatens to dry up the sea.  I mean, I'm no marine ecologist or anything, but that seems like a VERY serious threat, not only because of the impact on life, but because of that fact that he can do it on a whim. I feel like he should have more responsibility, especially knowing his power. Indrajit Ah, so this is where the story of "Hanuman Saves the Day" comes from, maybe? Where he flies off to find an herb to revive the dying/dead Lakshmana, but then, because he can't find the herb, decides to just bring back the entire mo...

This week, I'm only writing on the parts that stood out to me, because Hanuman, the monkey himself, has arrived. But as before, I'm taking down my notes as I'm reading through, to get my immediate thoughts. And as before, this is from the PDE Ramayana  by Valmiki. It seems like Vali is...kind of justified? He was fighting a beast in a hole, but instead of helping him, Sugriva just watched...for a year, then closed the hole with a mountain.  Surely if he was that strong, he could have just gone into the hole and helped Vali. I can see Vali's point of view, and to me, it seems a little more righteous. If I had barely escaped a life-or-death situation, found a mountaintop blocking my way out, broke through that, all to find that my brother was now ruling over my kingdom, I mean, yeah I would be angry, too! Even though his wife pleaded for him not to fight because of Rama, a man has his pride, you know? (killing of Vali, from Wikipedia ) Hmm...I'm not sure how ...

Rama As the main character of the Ramayana, and not having a single negative thing spoken about him throughout the story I've read so far, it seems Rama is a pretty stand up guy. He's blue, and I wanted to find out why, but the Wikipedia article doesn't say. Javanese language I thought this was a typo on "Japanese" but "Ramavijaya" didn't really sound Japanese so I clicked on it. Turns out, Java is an island in Indonesia, and Javanese is the language spoken there. The more you know. Agglutination Agglutination just sounds so...jiggly? But, from what I understand, it is the process of adding prefixes or suffixes to base words to change the tone/tense/meaning of the word. Like in German, suffixes can be packed on suffixes to create a really long word with a complex meaning. This results in Germans being able to create a word with a VERY specific meaning. For example, the word Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtenge...

Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!" Whoa, this is really pertinent, especially in today's culture of instant gratification. We want our effort to see immediate results, and be immediately praised for it. If not, then we lose interest, moving on to a new thing that will generate more praise from others. Ultimately, our life revolves, not around our own effort, but upon others' evaluation of us. If we continue relying on the easy, "Good job!" then we are raising up a generation that will be unspecialized, timid, and altogether useless as a future society. Be a Mirror This lines up exactly with the article above; in giving feedback, the one offering it must "be a mirror," that is, take themselves completely out of the feedback. Instead of saying, "I like.." it's more effective to start with "When you..." or some variation of it, that shifts the focus to the one putting in effort. This uplifts the process they went throu...

We haven't yet gotten to Hanuman, but I thought it would be interesting to write my project about him. Some thoughts I had on the type of story I'd like to write about him: Why is he so loyal to Rama? Maybe I would explore their backstory/history a little. Maybe I'll spin it to be an Androcles and the Lion type of history, where Rama saves Hanuman from some dire threat, resulting in Hanuman's eternal loyalty to Rama. They are free to go their own way, but when Rama is in trouble, Hanuman unexpectedly shows up and returns the favor. Since the only thing I know about Hanuman is the epic feat(s) involving moving the mountain, I could also write a story about how he uses hides his powers (maybe because of a past accident?), then reveals them at the last moment, despite it going against his vow to never use them again. It's the kind of story that the reader can emotionally connect with. A character with a mysterious past, slowly revealed as the story goes on, that ...