Reading Diary B: Week 5

House of Fire: In this episode of the Mahabharata, Duryodhana tricks his dad into believing that the Pandeva brothers were plotting an evil scheme against him. He then told the king that he should build a house built of wood and soak it in oil. He would then instruct his guard Purochana to set the house on fire. The Pandeva brothers figure out this scheme, and escape through a passageway built by a great miner. They fake their death so they are no longer in pursuit by Duryodhana. I think this episode would be better if there was a fight between Bhima and Purochana at the end of the passageway. This would make the scene way more intense.

Hidimba: In this episode of the Mahabharata, the Pandeva brother and there mom roam the forest. At nighttime they are all fatigued and decide to take a rest. Bhima acts as the bodyguard. He keeps watch at nigh to ensure the safety of his loved ones. An evil demon named Hidimba and his sister Hidimbi try to attack them. During this process, the sister Hidimbi falls in love with Bhima and chooses not to fight with him. Bhima beats Hidimba in battle. He then marries his sister. I think a cool twist to this story would be if Hidimbi lied about her love and when Bhima and her brother were fighting, she tried to eat Bhima’s family.

Wife of the Five Pandevas: In this episode of the Mahabharata, Arjuna wins the bride Draupadi in a contest. Their mom then says that they should share this gift of a woman. The sons obey their mom and end up all becoming the husbands of Draupadi. A common them among these epics is competition for the bride. I could see this marriage becoming a problem later on. This is a picture of Draupadi and her husbands. 

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Reading Diary A: Week 5

Bhishma at the Swayamvara:

In this episode Bhishma, the son of Shantanu, takes the three brides for his brother Vichitravirya. It is interesting to me how the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have so many similarities. In both books, the sons take on terrible responsibilities to benefit their fathers. I think a common trend among these epics is always respecting and serving your parents no matter what they request of you. Another common theme is that Bhishma and Rama both have a bow as their weapon of choice. They are also both put into positions where they have to secure brides by accomplishing some impressive feat to earn them. An interesting idea for a story would be to make Rama and Bhishma meet at this competition for a bride. It would be a complete tangent from the original work but since the stories are so similar, I could make them both competitors for a bride. It would be an awesome battle. I also liked this story because of the imagery and description put into each sentence. I think a lot of the reading that we do in this class share similarities among them.

Amba:

In this episode, everyone rejects Amba. She then blames all of her problems on Bhishma. An interesting aspect of this episode is how she obtained help from Shiva. It is crazy how a lot of the characters in these epics can obtain great wishes form the gods just by praying a little. It is also interesting that the gods are so quick to take sides. The fact that she has to change gender to become effective in battle shows the gender roles in this time period. Women were meant to be housewives and bear children, and men were meant to rule and enter battle. What if she did not have to commit suicide so that she can become a man in her next life? That would be an interesting twist to the story.

Bhima and the Nagas: This episode of the Mahabharata was super interesting. I like how the two families have a rivalry. I wonder if this will spiral into further conflict down the road. In this episode, his cousin Duryodhana poisons him but he does not die. Instead he arrives in the underworld, and emerges back into the real world with supernatural strength. This reminds me of Hercules and Clash of the Titans. In all three of these stories someone has to go into the underworld and emerges victorious. This story was super interesting. This is a picture of Bhima in the underworld.

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Storytelling Week 4: The Great Hanuman

Rama and Hanuman have just met for the first time.  After some conversation, Hanuman tells Rama that he will help his cause and immediately heads for the island of Lanka. The Earth shakes as with each step Hanuman takes. He sprints as fast as he can and takes a mighty leap into the sky. As he approaches Lanka he reduces his size so that he is not spotted. Despite his efforts, a rakshasha who keeps watch over the city informs Ravana that a giant being has just descended upon Lanka.

Ravana expects that it is an attempt to steal away his precious Sita away. He triples security around the city and personally guards Sita himself. Hanuman notices several rakshasha guards all over the city. He has to move around stealthily.

As Hanuman approaches the forest where Sita is hidden he encounters hordes of rakshashas. He is forced to blow his cover and assume his more powerful form. He yells with all his might as he grows into a giant. He then squashes several rakshashas with his feet. As he battles, one of the rakshashas shoots a flaming arrow at Hanuman’s tail. Hanuman screams in pain, but knows he must continue his mission. He clears through hundreds of rakshashas. As he fights the fire from his tail sets the city ablaze. Ravana realizes that his precious kingdom is being destroyed. He instructs his guards to make sure Sita does not get taken, and tells his men to put out the fire. He then makes his way for Hanuman.

Hanuman has sustained too much damage and has to revert back to his original form. This works to his advantage because it makes it harder for Ravana to find him. Hanuman sees Sita in the forest guarded by several rakshashas. He musters up his remaining strength and defeats them. He tells Sita that their future is grim. Hanuman does not have enough energy to defeat Ravana and Ravana will likely destroy them both in his fury.

During there conversation Hanuman hears and angry roar in the distance. He knows that Ravana is coming for them both. Just as all hope seemed lost, Garuda came to the rescue. He told Hanuman and Sita to jump on his back and he would fly them back to safety. Just as he finished his sentence Ravana came crashing through the trees.

Hanuman looked at Garuda and Garuda knew exactly what he meant. Garuda quickly swept Sita onto his back and flew towards Rama with tears in his eyes. Sita and Garuda watched as Hanuman and Ravana fought a fierce battle. Both knew that Hanuman’s fate was grim.

After hearing of Hanuman’s heroic deeds, Rama swore to destroy Ravana. Rama prepared his forces and quickly left for Lanka. Rama angrily proceeded to Lanka, clinging to the small hope that his best friend was still alive.

This is an image of the city of Lanka infested with Rakshashas.

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Author’s Note: In the movie “Sita Sings the Blues,” Sita has been kidnapped by the Demon King Ravana and taken prisoner in his kingdom of Lanka. In the original story, Hanuman sneaks into the Lanka to obtain some information on Sita. He finds Sita but she does not go with him because she only wants to be rescued by Rama. Before leaving the city, Hanuman assumes his more powerful form and begins destroying the city. He is captures by Indrajit, Ravana’s son, but escapes due to a miscalculation on how to properly bind someone with a Brahma weapon. During his capture, his tail is set on fire. When he decides to escape, he sets the city on fire. He then makes it safely back to Rama and informs him on his newly acquired knowledge. In the movie “Sita Sings the Blues,” one of the narrators explains that Sita should have just went back with Hanuman when he visited Lanka for the first time. After doing some brainstorming I wanted to change the story up to glorify the role of Hanuman and incorporate the idea that the narrator mentioned. One of my favorite shows when I was a little kid was Dragonball Z. In one of the episodes, a character named Vegeta uses all of his energy to mount one final attack against the villain Majin Buu. He sustains fatal damage from this attack, and the attack does not work. However he is later revived in the story. I gave Hanuman a similar role in this story. At the end, I left the story on a cliffhanger so that the audience can use their imagination to think of the ending.

Bibliography:

Title: Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition 

Authors: M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder.

Year: 2014

READING DIARY B: SITA SINGS THE BLUES

I watched the second half of the film called “Sita Sings The Blues” this week. I think in this version of the Ramayana, the part after Rama beats Ravana is emphasized more. This was a good review of the Ramayana. I realized that after reading this part, I did not realize how tragic Sita’s case was. It was sad to see that she never received a happy ending. I do not really understand the modern cartoon part of this movie. I am guessing that is was just a more modern example of the whole story, but with a lot of parts missing. In the end the wife uses the Ramayana to help her get through her tough time with her man. All together I really enjoyed the style of this story. It had so many different ways of telling the story. This reminds me of the public domain edition of the Ramayana because the public domain version of the Ramayana told the story in poem and with regular writing. Maybe I will apply these different aspects to the stories that I write in this class. I came up with a couple of ideas to rewrite this story. In this version, Vibshishana’s role was not emphasized. The new ruler of Lanka was not clearly established. What if Rama gave Sita the kingdom of Lanka and just had a long distance relationship instead of banishing her to the forest. Another idea that I had was what if Sita had Ravana’s offspring? These are a couple ideas that I could use.

This is a picture of one of the different ways the story was told in this movie. The cartoon version of the Ramayana.

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