epic blog

For the second portion of this week's reading, I have continued watching the video series from Tuesday called  Seven Secrets of the Goddess . In part 3 of the videos, I learned that women in many cultures are linked with nature whereas men are linked with culture. To display this, I want to include a plot in my storybook. A man will attempt to domesticate Abhaya, but little do they know she is a queen. By doing this, I will continue to be true to the culture in which I am trying to write about.  In the fourth part of the videos, it talked a lot about how women play the role of damsel in distress, but they also play the role of the evil with in a lot of mythologies. My story is going to do its best to show that a woman can be more than a victim or a villain, and a woman doesn't need a man to save her in order to have a good life.  (Image information: Rati, pen and ink, 1826 obtained from Epics: Images and PDE Epics ) Bibliography:  Devdutt Pattanai...

For part A, I have watched first and second secrets. The first video talked a lot about how common it is in mythologies for male deities to abuse female deities who were once well-adorned. To keep my story accurate with common mythologies, I may throw an abusive man into my heroine story. I plan to use a character like Kronos in my storybook who will plan to take down Abahya. Ultimately, Abahya will take down Kronos, showcasing the woman-centered societies that the first video also talks about.  In the second video, there was a specific type of mythical creature mentioned that I would like to incorporate into my storybook. The creature is called a pitr, and it hangs upside down like a bat. Pitrs hang in the land of the dead, where I want Abahya to go. There, a pitr will prey upon her and attempt to make her his wife so he can father children. Yet again, Abahya will escape the man. ( Image Information: Agastya, a pitr, giving Rama a sword circa 1830 obtained fro...

For part D, The Forest and its Ghosts  is the story I want to focus on, specifically the plot of it. As I have already mentioned the ashes of the original Dharma-Queen being thrown into the Ganges, I think this will be something that will seamlessly incorporate into my portfolio stories. I have already thought out what I want to do with this. Abhaya will get to a rough point in her journey, leading her to seek out Vyasa to bring the Dharma-Queen back to answer Abhaya's question as to whether or not her journey will be worth it. Ultimately, I want Abhaya to speak with her mother and then be given the choice to leave with the Dharma-Queen or stay and continue her journey. This will pose a great dilemma for Abhaya since she has struggled on her journey, but her mother's assuring words help guide her to the end.  (Image information: Vyasa summons the ghosts obtained from PDE Mahabharata  ) Bibliography: Donald A. Mackenzie, PDE Mahabharata .

For my part B reading, I want to focus on Maya's Palace  as a framework for another setting in my portfolio stories. I love the idea of Abhaya finding a glittering palace on her journey through the forests to find The Ocean of Milk. There, I want to bring a character like Pandavas in, but I will make them five sisters rather than brothers. While at the palace, I want Abhaya and the sisters to get acquainted and the sisters will then give Abhaya something to help her on her journey.  Additionally, I would like to include the stories of the crystal and King Duryodhana's mistaking of it. I want to incorporate this attribute into Abhaya to make her more of an embodiment of the monarch that she is becoming. Although this will be separate from the palace plot and not as prominent, I think it will be cool to showcase my understandings of the readings into my story even further. (Image information: Duryodhana falling into the water obtained from PDE...

For part A, I want to focus on the character Kunti . I love how the story describes her as a celestial woman; it sounds so charming to me. Although Kunti is of a pious heart and seems to be a good woman, it is mentioned that King Pandu still loved his other wife best. I can imagine this being painful for Kunti to know, but that's me thinking in modern times. From her service to Durvasas, it is apparent that Kunti is a woman who works hard for what she wants, which in this case is the charm that will make a celestial being fall in love with her.  With my story, I want there to be a sense of  Pride and Prejudice, as that is what the original story made me think of. I want to develop my main character around Kunti and her charm she has received. Along with developing Kunti, I want to keep some aspects of the original story, like the birth of Karna and involving Radha and Adhiratha. Maybe kind of like a modern day adoption story with a celestial twist? It sounds a...

For this section, I want to focus on The Cattle Raid . This attack gave me a lot of Game of Thrones vibes, so I immediately thought of using GoT characters to almost reenact this scene found in the Mahabharata.  In my story, I plan to use the Stark family as the attackers, led by Rob Stark (Indra) whom will be attacking the Lannister family in order to capture Cersei (raj). Instead of the stealing of cattle, the Starks will be attacking as Cersei killed Rob's father, Ned. Like in The Cattle Raid, a marriage will come from my story as well, but one between the Lannister and Stark families. As I type this, it just sounds like a Game of Thrones episode, but I plan on making it kind of like a bonus episode that we did not get to see. A post-Red Wedding episode in which everyone doesn't die. I want my story to show the continuation of Rob Stark's life while also incorporating the overarching theme of the Cattle Raid from the Mahabharata.    ...

For Ramayana Part B, I have chosen to focus on Dasharatha's funeral/death as my focal point for my own story. This funeral was perceived as an extremely tragic event for the kingdom as a whole--not only Bharata. In this, I would like to do something similar in my own story, but with some twists and the addition of the setting. Chose from my Part A notes. Instead of having the two males being the characters, I would like to gender-bend both, making a queen and a princess. With this, the princess would presume the role of performing the funeral rites for her mother and so on. With her new role as queen, the kingdom looks to her for the answer to immortality because the people can simply not go through losing a ruler again. In result, the princess must go on an elaborate journey, as Bharata does, to find the nectar of immortality that has been spoken of for ages in the kingdom. This nectar is created in The Ocean of Milk, which the princess must go through forests, rivers, and ocean...

For the Ramayana Part A reading, I would like to focus on setting. Throughout the readings in Part A, there are many mentions of nature: deer, flowers, glistening waves, and more. There is such a visual element to the stories within this section that I think it will be great to focus my own story around the imagery the original stories offer.  The specific section that drew me into focusing on setting was The Ocean of Milk found in Rama: Avatar of Vishnu . Although I did not know prior to reading the story what The Ocean of Milk was, it just sounds beautiful and dreamy. Upon reading more about the Ocean of Milk, I found that once churned, the ocean produces immortality. From what I can tell, The Ocean of Milk is a high platform above the oceans in which Vishnu and Lakshmi reside. For my story, I would love to meld together The Ocean of Milk with the dreamy forest-type land found throughout Ramayana Part A. In my story, there will be a sense of springtime with a lot of greenery ...

My personal favorite of the stories was  Goblin City . Something to note about this story is the similarity between the Rakshasis and Sirens from Greek mythology. If I recreate this story, I want to use the Goblins to my advantage. I think there is a lot I could do with them to add an eerie element to whatever story I choose to write. They make things appear better than they are to lure in unsuspecting men, which is kind of a  feminist power move . So, for a story using the Rakshasis, I would keep their identity completely the same but make it less obvious that they're goblins to add suspense. I could create a flash fiction with a surprising plot-twist ending in which reveals the true identity of the woman . (Image information: photo by W. Robinson obtained from  The Jatakas ) The second story I liked was  The Cunning Crane and the Crab . For this, I want to look at the crane versus the crab . The crane's greatest strength would be his persuasiveness...

Of the two readings, I am choosing to read  Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition . The main reason pushing me to read this version is the fact that it's free, but also the fact that there's an audio version. I love listening to audiobooks! Not only those two factors, but I think it will be interesting to see the graphics and different  styles of the various authors within the work.  (Image information: Ramayana photo obtained from  Reading Guides ) For my two comic books, I am interested in  Saraswati: Stories of the Goddess of Wisdom  and  Savitri: The Perfect Wife . I chose these two because I am interested in reading stories and learning about the women in Indian Epics. As someone who really treasures wisdom, I chose the first comic book based on that as well. Upon reading the summaries for the both of them, the two plots seem quite interesting to me. The two women that are the main characters of these stories seem to be qu...