Reading Diary A: Yudhistira gets the Pandavas Exiled

Yudhistira accepts Duryodhana's challenge to play dice

• When the Pandavas arrive Duryodhana tells Yudhistira that he is going to be playing Shakuni instead
• Yudhistira loses all his material things and begins losing his brothers and himself
• He last bets off his wife, Draupadi, and loses her too
• Duryodhana summons her to begin work as a kitchen maid
• Duhshahana begins by stripping her clothing but Krishna protects her by always placing a new robe where the last one was stripped
• Dhritarashtra learns of this and crushes the dice
• Dhritarashtra gives Draupadi wishes in return for her treatment
• Draupadi gets her husbands and all of their things back
• Shakuni challenges Yudhistira to one last challenge and Yudhistira loses again 
• The Pandavas and Draupadi are exiled

Arjuna goes off in the forest away from the Pandavas to learn more

• Arjuna runs into Indra, his dad 
• He shoots the same deer as Shiva 
• Then, he is taken to Indra's palace in the heavens
• Indrani 
• Indra sends for Urvashi who has been madly in love with Arjuna since before this life

Vyasa begins telling Yudhistira about Nala who has had more misfortune than Yudhistira

• Nala, a king, wanted Damayanti, a princess, as his wife
• Nala caught a swan and told it to tell Damayanti about Nala
• The swan did and Damayanti fell in love with Nala before seeing him
• Damayanti was having a swayamvara and Indra, Agni, Varuna, and Yama were coming to try to win the princess too
• The gods told Nala to go to Damayanti and tell her to pick a god as her husband
• The gods disguised themselves as Nala but Damayanti figured out which one was Nala and still chose him
• Kali wanted her and became jealous and wanted to destroy their happiness
• Pushkara challenged Nala to a game of dice under Kali's request
• Kali possessed Nala and Nala lost everything
• Damayanti and Nala left the kingdom with just one robe
• Nala tried to catch some birds and lost his robe
• Nala wanted Damayanti to return to her father's kingdom so he left her in his sleep taking half of her robe to cover himself
• However, Damayanti looked for Nala instead of returning home
• The ascetics told her to go home to her father but she followed a caravan to Chedi
• The kingdom of Chedi made fun of her for her half robe and Sudeva covered her 
• Sudeva then finally convinced her to return home to wait for Nala 

Karkotoka helps Nala

• Nala rescued Karkotoka from a forest fire
• Karkotoka bit him putting poison into his blood turning him into an ugly man, named Vahuka
• He became Rituparna's charioteer because he could make his horses fast
• Parnada realized Vahuka was the king, Nala
• Pranada goes to tell Damayanti that he found Nala
• Sudeva goes to Rituparna to invite him to her "swayamvara"
• Damayanti knew Rituparna would make Vahuka drive him so Nala would come to her too
•  Vahuka asks Rituparna how to successfully gamble and Vahuka teaches Rituparna how to drive his horses so fast
•  Nala's new knowledge of gambling drove Kali out 
• Rituparna arrived to Damayanti to learn that the swayamvara was a hoax
• Damayanti sends her maidservant, Keshini, to speak to the charioteer, Vahuka
• Keshini realizes Vahuka is Nala and tells him to go to Damayanti
• Nala turns back into his original form and goes to Damayanti
• Nala and Damayanti return home and Pushkara challenges Nala to another dice game
• This time Damayanti was Pushkara's prize
• Nala wins and wins his kingdom back

Vyasa then teaches Yudhistira the knowledge of gambling dice

(Image Source: Nala and Damayanti by Ramanarayanadatta astri)

Famous Last Words for Week 11

Happy Easter y'all! 

(Personal picture at my aunts house of her Easter flowers)

I hope everyone has had a great day with their families celebrating the true meaning of this day! Even death couldn't conquer our Lord! :) I know I have been really enjoying it, and it isn't even over yet! 

Anyways, this week has been crazy ad I am so glad it is over and I lived! This week I just have two tests on the same day, and then, I can start preparing for finals. Yippee skipee. Not. 

I really enjoyed writing my story this week so if you get a chance to read it then please do! If not it will be in my portfolio soon anyways.

So, this weekend, a few friends and I went to see Furious 7. It was great. However, I kept waiting to see how they got rid of Paul Walker and they never did. I'm not bummed about it though. It did make the movie more suspenseful though! I felt retarded once it ended and that didn't happen.

Another thing that happened this weekend was Wisconsin beating Kentucky. I watched that too and it was insane. I loved watching my bracket blow up. Not. 

Something I really enjoyed about this week was the weather. I was able to go outside and play with my precious Carmi several times. I went on several runs, and even had time to go out to the lake where my friend lives and ride fourwheelers. It was a really great week. It is crazy how much stuff you can get done when you are being productive and not sitting on your booty. I had a lot of stress this week, but I did a really great job balancing that out with some time to relax and have some fun. I am ready for summer because this semester is on crack all the way until the end for me now. Just gotta take it one week at a time. That's what I keep telling myself or I would pull my hair out.

Anyways, I hope everyone is having a less stressful time then I am! Have a great week! I almost have an A in this class and I hope everyone else is getting to that point as well. Good luck!

Storytelling for Week 11: Milk to Salt

Before the ocean was made of salt, it provided the earth with the creamiest, most refreshing potion known as milk. This potion was worthy of drinking, and so, people would come from all over the land to see and taste this magnificent beverage. It smelled sweet, and looked like a soft blanket of snow like you would see at the top of the mountains where no one has ever walked before. The people had never tasted anything like it! The desire for more made them come back day after day. 

One day, Narayana, an incarnated version of Vishnu, came to the milk sea and shouted to the gods, "Churn the ocean! Unearth the nectar of immorality for me!"

And so, the gods began. They placed the mountain Mandara in the middle. Mandara is the snow mountain, and it is far taller then the sea's depths. Therefore, the milk and snow on the part of the mountain that was visible blended together seamlessly. It was hard to tell the two landscapes apart from one another. However, no one nearby saw this spectacle as the sound of the commotion had pierced their ears, and everyone was hunched over with their fingers in their ears for protection. 

Then abruptly, the great serpent, Sesha, wrapped himself around the mountain and stretched the length of the mountain so that he could be used to churn the ocean. At this moment, Sesha looked like an octopus stretched out to be used in a grand tug-a-war match, good versus evil! Holding onto Sesha's tail were the Asuras which are the unusual-looking, immoral gods. Grabbing onto Sesha's neck were the devas who are the mortal gods including Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. Each side took turns pulling back and forth causing the mountain to spin in opposite directions, and of course, messing up the perfect snow on the mountain and throwing boulders into the, now, bubbling milk.

(Image Source: Churning the Milk Sea)

At this, glorious creatures began emerging from the frothing ocean. First, the crescent Moon appeared. Then, to list some of the most notable creatures, Indra's white elephant, Airavata, Surabhi, the white cow who grants wishes, and finally Dhanwantari, the physician robed in white carrying a cup full of amrita, which was the essence of life. 

Narayana screeched with excitement, "At last! I will live forever! This treasure is mine." He had now begun doing his happy dance like a little school girl. Narayana, or Vishnu, was so excited! He proclaimed again, "Thank you, gods. Thank you!"

In the meantime, with all the commotion in the sea from the churning, the sea shot poison up into the air turning the milk into salt water. Milk is a drink that sustains life, and salt water is a drink that destroys it. This was devastating to the people watching.

While the gods were busy elsewhere, the poison shot up into the sky and was going to land all over the worlds. This would instantaneously kill anything that came in contact with it. Miraculously, out of nowhere, Shiva, The Lord of the Mountains and Songs, came flying in to gather all the poison into his mouth in order to swallow it. With this, Shiva saved the worlds. He was a hero!

Unfortunately, the poison was lodged in his airways and his face turned blue. He grabbed the crescent moon that had just emerged from the milk sea and placed it in his hair. With this, Narayana became a woman named Mohini. The cresent moon became a hair jewel for her, and Mohini seduced and confused the asuras who were trying to steal the cup full of amrita. Thankfully though, Mohini succeeded at bringing the devas the armita before the asuras could took it for themselves.       

Author's note: I wrote this tale because I like the significance of the churning of the ocean in Hindu mythology. Also, while writing, I felt like I was able to better understand the events that were happening which helped me to realize why this tale would hold that kind of importance. The beauty of the white milky sea was important in this tale because it is sacrificed in order to bring Vishnu amrita, the essence of life. It is interesting to me that the "dark" gods are pulling against the "mortal" gods like tug-a-war in order to bring Vishnu what he wants. This is very symbolic about the meaning of asking for amrita. When the milk sea began to bring out the glorious creatures, I only named the white creatures that appeared to emphasize the significance of the color white in the story such as, the milk, the elephant, the cow, and the robe. White symbolizes purity so I thought it held a lot of meaning in this tale as the sea was once pure, but now it has been used as a sacrifice and turned into salt water. However, salt is still white. How ironic! I chose this picture because it helps to vividly visualize the event of churning the ocean along with the creatures that surfaced from the ocean during the scene as well. 

Bibliography:  

• Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata          

Reading Diary B: The Pandavas are sent away from Hastinapura

Dhritarashtra sends the Pandavas and their mother Kunti away

• Duryodhana, of course, makes a plan to build them a house that will be easy to burn down
• Vidura warns the Pandavas of the plan
• The Pandavas build a tunnel under the house to escape
• They leave 6 corpse to burn in their place so that Duryodhana believes they are dead
• The Pandavas flee to a village
• The village has to send yearly sacrifices to the demon Vaka
• Kunti sends Bhima to destroy him even though he is weak from hunger
• Vyasa arrives and takes the Pandavas to win the daughter of Drupada 
• Arjuna wins her by showing his strength with Shiva's bow 
• Krishna is present and congratulates Arjuna
• Krishna remembers Arjuna from another life
• Dhrishtadyumna brings the Pandavas to marry his daughter, Draupadi
• Dhritarashtra is glad to learn the Pandavas are still alive--> gives them Khandava to rule
• Arjuna goes to visit Krishna and falls in love with his sister, Subhadra
• The fire god, Agni, comes to Krishna and Arjuna and tells him he is hungry and he needs to burn the forest to regain strength
• Agni needs Arjuna's and Krishna's help to defend Indra while he "eats"
• Agni gives Arjuna the bowl Gandiva and Krishna his iron chakra (discus)
• The gods watch Arjuna and Krishna take on Indra
• Arjuna comes to the rescue of the asura, Maya, the heaven's architecture
• Maya builds the Pandavas' an unbelievable palace as a thanks
• Duryodhana visits the palace
• He is fooled by one of the illusions and someone laughs and he thinks they are mocking him
• Duryodhana goes to Yudhisthira and demands an apology but he denies this request
• So Duryodhana challenges Yudhisthira to a game of dice
• Vyasa goes to his mother and takes her, Ambika, Ambalika, and Vidura's mother to safety from the events that he forsees

 

(Image Source: Arjuna wins Draupadi by Ramanarayanadatta astri)

Reading Diary A: The beginning

The book starts out being told by Pandu's grandson

Then the poet Vyasa tells the story of Mahabharata while Ganesha, the scribe, writes it down

Before the sea turned to salt water it was milk

Takshaka disguises himself as a beetle on the last day of the king's, Parikshit, death curse time limit

Parikshit tries to show that he is no longer living in fear by putting the beetle on his neck whenever Takshaka turns into a snake and bites him

Parikshit's son takes over the kingdom and plans to hold a sacrifice to kill Takshaka

(Image Source: Satyavati, the girl born out of a fish by Tropenmuseum) 

Mahabharata finally begins

• Ganga falls in love with the king
• has 7 kids and drowns the first 6
• Bhishma is spared because the king finally says stop
• semen in a fish--> fish smelling man (Vyasa) 
• Chedi renounces his kingship and gives it to Santanu
• Santanu and Satyavati have a son named Vichtravirya 
• Vichtraviyra is given 3 wives by Bhishma
• One of them is sent away because she already gave her heart away (Amba)
• Vichtraviyra dies before he has kids
• Satyavati summons her son Vyasa to have kids with the two wives
• Dhritarashtra (blind), Pandu(pale), and Vidura (normal)
• Pandu marries Kunti and Madri
• Kunti has a mantra that she can make love with gods
• Kunti tried it first with the sun god, Surya
• Kunti sent the baby up stream --> Karna
• Dhritarashtra marries Ghandhri and becomes king
• Ghandhri is pregnant for 2 years and has 100 babies
• They have to incubate for 2 more years in jars full of butter
• Pandu is cursed and can't make love 
• Kunti uses her mantra and has 2 kids when Madri wants to have kids and she uses the mantra to have 1 more child and twins
• Pandu can no longer resist and makes love to Madri and dies and Madri does too
• Drona marries Kripi and is so poor he can't even afford milk for their child
• Drona asks Drupada for help but Drupada denies Drona's friendship and calls him his enemy
• Bhishma makes Drona the trainer for all the Pandava and Kaurava princes
• Kripa became archery teacher
• Arjuna is the best bow person until Karna arrives and shows his skills and is named king (everyone wonders who exactly he is--> son of gods?)
• But he is the son of a chariottor--> found him when Kunti sent her baby up stream and raised the boy

Famous Last Words for Week 10

Well, here we are again. I have so much to do this week. I hope I make it though it alive. No, I'm sure I will, but it is going to be absolutely crazy. I am ready for summer. Actually, I can't stand presentations. So, if I didn't have a presentation this week, I don't think I would be so nervous about it. I just hate all of the eyeballs, but get this over with and I don't have to do that anymore this year. Woohoo!!

This weekend, I took my puppies and we went to the midevil fair! It was a blast. My little corgi thinks she is hot stuff, and tries to show her guns. However, she has none to back her up. It is hilarious! My boyfriend has a pitbull, so I think my corgi thinks oh I've got this and if I don't he's got you. Funnily enough though, my little pitbull is a fat baby. He is the one that would bark really loud and be scared by his voice and run behind me. It's hilarious. I love him!

(Droseph at my house taken by me)

The Mahabharata was a crazy book. There was so much going on! It was hard to keep track. I really had to use the reading guides in order to keep track of every single event that happened. It was all over the place, but those guides were extremely helpful. I hope that you guys like my story this week. I struggled when choosing what to write about. 

My mood has just been so much better now that I think we may have finally survived winter, but of course with that means it is tornado season. I get so scared that I am going to die because I live on the second floor in an apartment, and if a storm blows over my place I am for sure a goner. That's a scary thought! However, I guess because I am from Oklahoma this is what makes the spring sort of exciting.

Have a good week!

Storytelling for Week 10: Dhritarashtra Gets Revenge

Once the war was over, the Pandavas decided to return to the city of Hastinapura to inform king Dhritarashtra and his queen of their loss. Yudhistira was the one strong enough to tell Dhritarashtra of the dreadful news. Unlike their cousins, the Pandavas were upset about having to kill their own family members in order to receive justice. Yudhistira tried to tell his uncle of the events of the war as sympathetically as he could. Finally, he concluded with the news about the story of the death of Duryodhana, Dhritarashtra's eldest son. However, he didn't mention the part where Bhima stomped on his body while he was lying on the ground about to die. Unfortunately, Dhritarashtra didn't need to be told about the events because Sanjaya narrated the war as it happened so Dhritarashtra already knew what Bhima had done to Duryodhana. Furthermore, he wanted revenge on Bhima for what he had done to his son! 

Once Yudhistira was done speaking, Dhritarashtra spoke. "I see! And where is Bhima now? I should apologize to him on my son's behalf."

Yudhistira immediately muttered without suspicion, "Well, he is righ...."

Krishna figured out Dhritarashtra's deceitful plan and interrupted Yudhistira. He then presented a statue that he had quickly created that exactly resembled Bhima. 

Dhritarashtra, being that he is blind, embraced the Bhima figure without hesitation and exclaimed, "Alas, I shall kill Bhima once and for all! You fools!" 

With this, Dhritarashtra squeezed Bhima with all his might and left the figure crumbled into millions of tiny pieces on the floor. Moreover, Duryodhana's mother, Gandhari, and Dhritarashtra rejoiced in the thought of revenge for their son's death!

The other Pandava brothers were unaware of the illusion Krishna had presented. They began to weep for all they had experienced had finally been too much for them to bear! The Pandavas grieving only furthered Dhritarashtra's and Ghandri's sweet revenge celebration.   

However, as Bhima watched the spectacle at a distance in the shadows, he was shocked by the actions of his uncle. He couldn't believe his uncle wanted him dead. It broke Bhima's heart as Dhritarashtra celebrated what he had thought was the end of Bhima. With this feeling festering inside him, Bhima abruptly emerged to Dhritarashtra wiping his revenge smirk off his face.

Bhima shouted, "How dare you praise my death, uncle! You traitor."

Bhima attempted to attack Dhritarashtra, but his brothers stopped him. As Bhima was so strong, it took several brothers to actually prevent Bhima from hurting Dhritarashtra. 

While attempting to stop Bhima, Arjuna whispered in Bhima's ear, "Don't waste your time on him. We have already won, brother!"

Bhima grinned and told Dhritarashtra, "Your actions have betrayed us, and therefore, your karma has caught up to you. You failed, and now.... now your kingdom is ours! You have failed once and for all!"

Finally, the Pandavas cheered! They shared hugs and smiles. Dhritarashtra had betrayed them and he deserved to be stripped of his crown. Once Dhritarashtra had failed at his last attempt at killing a Pandava, there was a ceremony for Yudhistra's coronation. Hastinapura's people were actually relieved to have the Pandavas as their new rulers as they were more just.  At last, the Pandavas ruled the kingdom for many years to come without any problems from Dhritarashtra.

(Image Source: Bhima and Duryodhana)

Author's Note: I wrote this story because when Bhima finally defeats Duryodhana it is my favorite part in the book. However, it is ironic how Dhritarashtra wants revenge on him when the entire audience is happy that the evil cousin is finally dead. Furthermore, Krishna plays such an important role in the war between the cousins. However, when choosing between Krishna or one million troops, Duryodhana thought that Yudhistira was silly for choosing him over the numbers. This tale illustrates yet again another moment that Krishna was an asset to the success of the Pandavas. Krishna uses his wise judgment on Dhritarashtra and protects Bhima one more time! Throughout the book the Pandavas are always stunned at the way their cousins and uncles treat them. I used this to display how I thought Bhima would respond to seeing his uncle think he crushed him to death. Furthermore, Bhima is utterly shocked. However, the Pandavas have better characters than their cousins, so they finally rejoice in their victory instead of killing Dhritarashtra as well. I chose this picture because I think this is the main reason why Dhritarashtra wants to crush Bhima, and he doesn't try it with the rest of the Pandavas.  

Bibliography: 

• Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.