Week 11, Storytelling: Pandavs Escape

There once was two sets of brothers who lived in the same Kingdom. They were called the Kauravs and the Pandavs. There were only five Pandav brothers but combined they were stronger and smarter than the hundreds of Kauravs brothers. The Pandavs were loved by their people and were very popular, and the people wanted the Pandavs to take the throne after the king died. The Kauravs hated this fact and would do everything they could do to make the Pandavs look bad, they would even go to the extent of killing them which would permanently solve their problem.

One day one of the Kauravs, Duryodhana, decided to take of care their problem and made a plan to kill the Pandavs. Duryodhana called for one of his trusted generals and told him to go set up the local resort to be burned down, so he can trick the Pandav brothers to go there for their enjoyment. And while they are in there he can trap them and burn the house down. As told, the general went and poured oil outside and inside the resort and also put out dry stacks of hay so the place would burn down faster. When the general returned he went to Duryodhana and told him exactly what he did. While the general and Duryodhana were talking one of the Pandav brothers overheard their conversation.

The Pandav brother hurried back to his other brothers and told them everything he heard, and together they made a plan to make an escape route underneath the resort so no one would suspect it. That night the brothers went to the resort while no one was there and dug a tunnel. The next morning when they returned all tired and worn out, Duryodhana could not help but take this opportunity so he told the Pandavs that he had reserved the resort for them and they were welcome to go and relax there. The Pandavs looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and told Duryodhana that they would love to go.

The Pandavs cleaned up a little bit before they left, and when they left Duryodhana followed them to the resort. Soon as the Pandavs made it inside the house, Duryodhana locked the doors form outside and set fire to the oil that was poured all around. Quickly the resort was engulfed in flames and the Pandavs made their escape through the tunnel as planned and ran into the forest.

Author’s Note:

I decided to retell the story where the Pandavs make a quick escape. I didn’t make it an exact retell, I changed up some things. In the original story Kunti is also sent to this house. And also the king sends away the Pandavs and the Pandavs go this house. The house in the book was not a resort. Another thing I changed was how the Pandavs found out, the original story someone foretold what was going to happen.

Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata.

Pandav Brothers

Week 11, Reading Diary B: The Banishment Days

The king sends the Pandavs away and Duryodhana decides to set fire to the house, but Pandav build a tunnel and manage to escape and live in another forest as Brahmins. Bhīma defeats the demon that was asking for yearly human sacrifices. King Drupada wanted a son who can defeat Drona so he begged Shiv who told him to pour two cups of butter in fire, one for a son and another for a daughter. Vyasa takes the Pandavs to Draupadi’s swayamvar where Arjun wins the archery contest. All five marry Draupadi. The king is glad to find out that the Pandavs are alive so he gives them a piece of land and they build a city on it. Arjun goes to visit Krishna where he falls in love with his sister and he marries her. Duryodhana comes to visit the new palace where he gets confused and the brothers make fun of him so they are invited to gamble dice.

Week 11, Reading Diary A: The Beginning

This version of the Mahabharat is pretty much the same as the previous reading. The only difference was how the staring started. This version stats off by calling out Vishnu, Krishna, Arjun, and Saraswati. Also addresses the orator and writer of the Mahabharat. Ganesh is the elephant headed god who writes it, he has an elephant head because his father Shiv got mad and chopped it off. Before the ocean used to be milk so Vishnu decides to churn it for Amrita where a lot things come up including poison which Shiv drinks. 

Week 10, Storytelling: Krishna's Power

War was on the verge of breaking lose, and both sides of the army were beginning to gather on the field. Arjun the leader of the Pandav army did not want war with his family and friends so he decided to send an emissary to talk to the Kauravs. Arjun picked the reincarnation of Vishnu to go and speak behalf of him and try to stop the war. Even Krishna wanted peace so it was wise to send Krishna as he can be persuading. Duryodhana finds out about this emissary and calls on his general to plan a plot in order to capture Krishna.

Krishna reaches Hastinapur, where he approaches the king to see if he can talk to him and convince him not to have the war. The king was almost convinced but Duryodhana decided to walk in right before the king was about to agree to Krishna and ruins everything. Duryodhana was very egotistical and prideful and insanely jealous of the Pandavs. All Duryodhana wanted to do was get his revenge and kill all the Pandavs, so he interferes between the king and Krishna’s conversation and rejects Krishna’s offer. Krishna smiles and said okay and warned the Kauravs of the outcome of this war but Duryodhana paid no heed thinking he can easily defeat the Pandavs especially after capturing Krishna.

Duryodhana signaled his general who was standing in the corner and called for his soldiers to come and capture Krishna. All the guards and soldiers in the grand courtroom began to run toward Krishna with their weapons pointed at Krishna. Everyone was shocked and Duryodhana was smiling evilly. Krishna remained calmed and told Duryodhana not to do this, as it was pointless since he was the reincarnation of Vishnu and had awesome power. Duryodhana once again did not listen to Krishna’s words leaving Krishna with no choice. Krishna closes his eyes and the next thing everyone saw was a huge glowing Krishna standing in the middle of courtroom.  His arms were readied with weapons and with one swipe he took out all the guards and soldiers. Krishna then turns to Duryodhana and talks in his deep loud godly voice and tells him that he will regret this and starts walking toward the door. As he walked towards the door Krishna returned to normal size and glowing stopped. Duryodhana and the king looked at each and trembled at what they had just witnessed in front of them and now regretted what they had done.

Author’s Note:
I wanted to retell the story of Krishna showing his godly form because I thought it was a cool moment. He also showed his godly form on the battle field too but that I thought wouldn’t be as dramatic because that was his second time and no one would’ve been as surprised. I wanted to add a little detail also and show that the Kauravs were scared after that point too.

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

Krishna on the Battefield

Week 10, Reading Diary B: The War

Krishna goes to Hastinapur to be an emissionary, and Duryodhana plans to capture him. Krishna becomes all godly and stuff and Duryodhana couldn’t capture Krishna. The war starts and Arjun cannot fight his family so Krishna tells him the Bhagavad Gita. Bhisma is killed by Amba’s reincarnated warrior form. Krishna makes a plan to kill Drona by killing an elephant that has the same name as his son, this throws Drona in distraught and they kill him. One by one they are all killed. At the end Yudishthira doesn’t want to be king but Krishna urges him to be king. The Pandavs slowly die out one by one and Krishna is killed while sleeping on the river bank by a hunter. 

Week 10, Reading Diary A: The Pandavs in Exile and Stuff

Dhritarashtra finds out the Pandavs plans because of his plan, so he sets up a royal camp somewhere around the Pandavs in order to humiliate them. The plan didn’t work out as the gods sent out gandharvas who captured them, but then the Pandavs save the. Pandavs are living in the forest and they find a lake to drink water from. Two of them die because they didn’t answer the lakes questions but then Yudishthira comes and answers the questions bringing the brothers back and they get the gift of disguise. The Pandavs and Draupadi spend their time serving King Virata, where Draupadi gets raped. One of the Pandavs kill the queen’s brother who raped Draupadi. Duryodhana gets suspicious and war is coming. Dhritarashtra was told that the war will bring doom to him.

Week 9, Storytelling: Draupadi's Swayamvar

In a distant land King Drupada was holding a grand event to find a suitable husband for his beautiful daughter. King Drupada did not want just any ordinary guy to marry her daughter. He wanted to find a man that is very strong and skilled to protect the princess. This event was called Draupadi’s swayamvar. Both the Pandavs and the Kauravs hear about this contest and decide to go to make sure that the other does not win the beautiful princess.

The contest was a simple task. All the contestants had to do to win the princess was to pick up the bow and to string it. But this was not any ordinary bow, this bow was given to King Drupada by the gods and was really heavy and stiff. It was not going to be an easy task to string this majestic bow. To judge this contest Krishna, the reincarnation of Vishnu, was also going to be at the swayamvar.

It was time for the competition, both the King and the princess walk out to the courtyard where all the princes from many different kingdoms are eagerly waiting to take a shot at the bow. To solve the problem of who gets the turn to lift the bow first the king decided to let the princes pick up the bow in a first come first serve basis. All the princes stand up and line up behind the grand table where the bow lay.  Each prince tried his best to try and pick up the bow, they tugged as hard as they could but they still failed. Next in line was Duryodhana who was representing the Kauravs. The whole courtyard watched in silence as Duryodhana made his attempt. Duryodhana pulled as hard as he could and all he could do was move the bow by an inch. By the time he managed to move the bow he was completely worn out and tired and so he had to give up. The last contestant was Arjun who was representing the Pandavs. At this point Draupadi had given up hope that she is never going to get married. Arjun stood in front of the bow, looked at it and prayed to the gods before he even tried to. He put out his arm and held the bow, and without thinking lifted the bow effortlessly and string the bow. Arjun stringed the bow so tight that the bow literally snapped in half. The whole courtyard was watching with their eyes wide open in awe of Arjun’s strength. This way Arjun won the contest and got the beautiful princess as his wife.

Author’s Note:

I decided to retell the swayamvar story in my own words, and I also decided to make a little different from the original story too. I chose to tell the story from a narrator’s point of view to make it seem like we were watching a contest on television.

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

Draupadi and her Husbands

Week 9, Readying Diary B: Gambling

Duryodhana is worried that Pandavs are still alive but his father does not hate them. Dhritarashtra gives the Pandavs some of his kingdom. Arjun is exiled for twelve years because he interfered with Draupadi when it wasn’t his turn, while he is exiled he marries to other women. Yudhishthira is crowned king of the new kingdom, and Duryodhana is jealous of it. The Pandavs laugh at Duryodhana so he gets mad at them and invites them to a game of dice. At the game of dice Yudhishthira manages to lose everything, his brothers and wife too. Draupadi is given two wishes and she wishes her husband and all his brothers free. Dhritarashatra gives everything back to the pandavs and Duryodhana again invites them to a dice game and once again they lose. This time they are sent to thirteen years of exile. During this time Arjun gets weapons from the gods. 

Week9, Reading Diary A: Kauravs and Pandavs

Shantanu is the king of Hastinapur and he falls in love with Ganga who he marries. He married her on one condition that he doesn’t question any of her actions. She drowns all her children except the eighth one who is Bhishma. Shantanu then falls in love with the fisherman’s daughter whose name is Satyavati. She has two sons with the king.one of her sons died and then Bhishma calls for three sisters to marry the second son. One of them didn’t marry the second son Vichitravirya. Vichitravirya dies without any sons so Satyavati tells her son who she gave birth from the union with Parashara to sleep with Vichtravirya’s two wives.  The sons bored from Vyasa are born with defects because of the reaction given by Ambika and Ambalika. Dhritarashtra and Pandu are the sons. They both get married. Pandu’s wife can make babies with the gods so she calls five different gods to have five different sons who are called the Pandavs. Dhritarashtra has hundred sons who are called the Kauravs. They both are trained by Drona. The Kauravs try to kill the Pandavs because they are not as well liked by the public for the throne but the Pandavs escape through a tunnel. The Pandavs go into hiding and then later go to a swayamvar for Draupadi where Arjun wins a new wife. He shares his new wife with his brothers.

Sita is Not Abandoned

Thousands of years had passed since the kidnapping of Sita and things were going well. Rama and Sita were very happy together and very soon to be expecting a baby boy. One day Sita was feeling nauseous and had a killer headache so she decided to go take a nap to help her condition. Ram was alone and had nothing to do because Sita went to sleep, so he decided to dress up as a commoner and take a stroll through his kingdom and just observe the people to see if they had any problems. Ram was known to be a great king and was loved by his people because he cared for his people. Ram approached the market where most people are during the day to sell their crafts and products so they can make a living.

While walking through the market, he came across a few men gossiping about his beloved queen Sita. He stopped and hid around the corner of the shop and listened in on the conversation. The men were talking about how the queen was kidnapped by Ravana thousands of years ago and that the baby she was carrying was not Ram’s but Ravana’s. Rama was disgusted by hearing this and angrily walked back to the palace where he ordered his guards to call every person in town who thought Sita cheated on Ram and slept with Ravana. Rama knew this was not true because Sita had jumped into fire in order to prove her innocence.

The guards went out and gathered almost the whole town. Ram walked out to the courtyard where the people waited for him patiently whispering and wondering why they were summoned so suddenly. At this point Ram was both disgusted and disappointed in his people for not respecting their queen and gossiping about her. Sita also walked out, wondering why there were so many people in the courtyard. She asked Ram why they were there, and Ram told her that they all thought that she had cheated on Ram with Ravan. Sita was shocked to hear this and was scared about what Ram was going to do next, especially because Ram was known to do anything to make his people happy. Sita was scared that Ram was going to tell her to leave forever and to never come back.

What Sita did not know was that Ram loved her unconditionally and trusted her. He had to have believed her because she proved herself innocent in front of the fire god, Agni. Ram spoke up and explained to his people about how disappointed he was. He also explained how it was impossible that the baby boy that they were expecting could be Ravana’s when Rama killed Ravana thousands of years ago. Not only that but he also told everyone how she proved herself innocent. Sita was surprised when she heard Ram take her side and fell into tears of happiness.

The people looked at each other, ashamed at their stupidity. They couldn’t believe what injustice they had done to their queen so they started to apologize for what they had done. To make it up to Sita the whole kingdom decided to throw a grand festival for the baby shower.

Sita Proving her Innocence

Author's Note:

I was inspired to write this story because I thought it was really unfair to Sita when she was left at the river and exiled by Ram in the original story in the book. I decided that Sita shouldn’t be abandoned just because of what others talk about. In the book Ram hears that his people thought Sita had not been loyal to him, so he exiled her and left her at the river just to make his people happy. I thought that if someone really loved a person, then he or she should stand up for that person. In the story I also decided to describe Ram’s characteristics as a king and also as a husband a little bit more. I chose the picture of Sita in the fire to give a visual of her proving her innocence mainly because that is how I pictured it happen with Agni inside waiting for her. There is no way that anyone that is willing to jump into fire just to prove to their innocence to the person he or she loves. I wrote about one child instead of twins because I forgot that she was carrying twins. 

Bibliography:

• Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Reading Diary Week 8

No, there is not any information from the instructions that I had not noticed before. The main strategies I use in my reading diaries is that I write down the important events that happen while reading. I make bullet points as I go, and then after I am done reading I go back and write my summary. Some tips for other student would be to finish reading before the due date so they wouldn’t have to scramble to write a diary in. I use the same strategy each time. My posts started out long, but then reduced to a paragraph and it has stayed the same length. Overall I think my posts are a little short because I’m not much of a writer. No there isn’t anything that I should have started doing in my posts that I should’ve started earlier. I also cannot think of anything that I can do to my posts, unless I want to add pictures to give some visuals of the story. I have not added any images or included any quotes in my diary posts. Nor do I make connections to movies and books. I do take small notes while I am reading to help me write my diary posts. When I look at my old diary posts they fill in the missing details that forget over time, so yes they are useful. I guess I can add a little bit more detail to my diary posts in the future than giving a very basic outline of what happened to make posts more useful in the future. I do not use my diary posts when I am writing other blog posts throughout the week. Over all I believe I do an okay job of writing these posts but I could put more effort into it.  In general I remember a good amount of the reading in this class and other classes too, but I’m more focused on cramming for midterms. Short term reading strategies would be to read over something once, long term would be read carefully and then write down what you remember from the reading.

Week 7, Storytelling: Sita's Not Abandoned

One day Ram was walking through his kingdom looking at how much progress his people has made in under his rule. Ram had disguised himself as a commoner so no one would pounce on him since he was the king, not only that but so that he can get an honest opinion about things in the kingdom. Ram wanted to see if anything needed attention to or if there were any issues needing to be handled. As Ram was walking he came upon a couple of sellers at their stall gossiping about Sita. Hearing Sita’s name caught Ram’s attention so he hid and listened in on their conversation. Ram was disgusted by what he had heard the men talk about. They blamed Sita of sleeping with Ravan, and that the baby she is carrying is not of Ram. Ram knew Sita was innocent because she had proven her innocence in front Agni, the fire god. Ram went back to his palace and called for his guards to go and bring the men in. The guards do as they were told and brought the men that were talking about Sita into the hall. Ram walked in and the men looked confused, but at the same time happy to see the glorious king in front of them. Ram begins questioning the men if they had said anything about his wife, the men realized they were in trouble. The men decided to come clean before Ram went ahead and exiled them, and because they told the truth Ram didn’t exile or kill them but instead explained Sita’s innocence. He explained how Sita had been proven innocent in front Agni, and also explained that it had been dead for more than a year so there would be no way that it would be Ravan’s baby. The looked at each other feeling rather stupid and apologized to the queen and king.

Authors Note:

I decided to retell Sita’s abandonment on the river but with a different ending, because I thought it was unfair how Sita was abandoned just because Ram heard something. Also told how Ram heard the rumor going around. 

Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way. 

Sita Proving her Innocence