Preston's Epic Blog

The Buddha was begging through the streets, and the people though it was strange that the once Prince Siddhartha was now walking through the streets as a beggar. The king went to him and demanded he stopped, but the Buddha told his father the story of Dharmapala, and he stopped at once. When all the women visit the Buddha, Gopa is not there. She doesn't because she knows he'll visit her on his one merit. He of course does and then tells Gopa about her good virtue. The Buddha went to nanda to try and get him to go toward the path of enlightenment. At first his brother refused, but as he kept speaking, Nandy accepted and fell to the Buddha's feet. At that the Master took him out of the palace. Gopa's son, Rahula then presents in front of the Buddha and tells him he wants to claim his heritage and follow his father's path. The Buddha originally says no but allows Rahula to go with him. The king the gets upset with his family leaving, but the Buddha tells him not to mou...

The two friends Sariputra and Maudgalyayana who are intimately close seek out the Buddha. Upon appearing in front of the Buddha, he names the two his foremost of his disciples. In the city of Rajagriha, there began to be a crowd of people who were growing displeased with how many people the Buddha was converting. The Buddha had a response to this for what his disciples were to do if they were spoken illy to. He was right and the disciples were honored. King Suddhodana longed to see his son before he met his death. He sent messenger after messenger to relay a message for the Buddha to return back to his home to visit him. However, one after the other instantly became tranced and became a monk at his feet. Udayin accomplished the mission and the Buddha went. The Buddha told Prince Ajatasatru about the story of the Cunning Crane and the Crab, except this time it was a Crawfish that ends the life of the crane. Buddha gives King Vimbasara pieces of hair and finger nails for his temple. The ...

Many come to the Buddha under the Tree of Knowledge; some try to destroy him, some shelter him, and some bring food to him. The last to come to him are the merchants, and they are the first to profess faith in the new teachings of the Buddha. Now he is ready to travel the world and teach of his supreme knowledge. Initially the Buddha decides to not teach his ways. He believes mankind is too ignorant because of the extremely difficult reasoning behind his teachings. Brahma comes to Earth in order to convince the Buddha to go out and teach, and is successful. The Buddha now contemplates who will be able enough to receive his teachings for the first time. He first decides Rama's son, then Arata, but learns they are both dead already. He decides on his three older disciples who are living in Benares. He presents in front of the 5 monks and recites his teachings to them. In my opinion, the Buddha's teachings are quite redundant, but maybe that's because I'm being ignorant. I...

Siddhartha rejects the teachings of Arata Kalama. While his teachings give assurance to "transcending into the sky," they still allow terrible suffering of the human race. Siddhartha sets out to determine an end to this suffering. Siddhartha is still denying any gifts, because he now lives a life completely free of desire. He also rejects Rudraka's teachings because they are so similar to Arata and aren't of the truest law. We see some of Siddhartha's first mistakes on his path to wisdom. He becomes a beggar in the city, his disciples think of him as a foolish man, and they leave him. Also want to point out the recurring three bows people keep giving Siddhartha. Siddhartha now has a dream that assures him he is to become the Buddha. He reaches Sujata's house and is given a golden bowl. It flows upstream, so he knows it is his time to reach supreme enlightenment. He makes his way down to the Tree of Knowledge, and creates a seat out of grass. Finally, Siddharth...

Siddhartha's father kept showering his son with gifts. He did not was to see his son leave to live a life in the forests. Siddhartha had a son with his wife the princess. However, through this all, the king lived a virtuous and humbled life, never giving into the possible sins around him. Siddhartha ventures off to discover three encounters. The first was old age, the second was illness, and the third was death. Little by little, each encounter dampened Siddhartha's upbeat mood. His father, the king, was still trying with all the power he could to shield his son from this, but the gods were forcing Siddhartha to these encounters. Siddhartha continues these grievances, and denies/shuns his father and friend, Udayin, of the gifts of beautiful maidens they've given to him. He returns to the palace still hopeless where his wife Dropa has a dream essentially about the end of the world. On the contrary, Siddhartha says to rejoice, for she shall be saved from evil one day. Siddhar...

The reading originally starts by introducing the king of Kapilavastu, King Suddhodana, and one of his many wives, Maya. Except, the story introduces Maya as the favorite wife of King Suddhodana. She comes to him in the dining hall in almost a begging way by asking for the holy practice of abstinence and to go to the "lofty apartments" outside of the palace. The king accepts her wish and tells her she may go. In her new loft, Maya had a dream that the reader can assume is he conceiving a child. When Maya comes back to the palace, she calls for King Suddhodana, and he comes. However he has a weird feeling in his body, but is reassured by the gods that great fortune is about to come to him and his wife. Maya enters late into pregnancy and knows her son must be born in the garden with the presence of innocent flowers. When the king gets word of his son being born he brings the Sakyas and brahmans to the birth place, very similarly to the Bible, and gives his son the name of Siddh...

 Part B begins with Krishna still proving how mighty and divine he truly was. Brahma the creator once stepped over him and wanted to challenge his divinity. By doing this he captured all of Krishna's friends and cows. Krishna with ease replaced them by creating them anew. A year later Brahma realized what Krishna had done, realized his true divinity, and returned his friends and cows. One day Krishna comes to Gargacharya for the blessing to marry Radha. The priest refuses and explains to him this was not in Krishna's destiny. Furthermore states how his true birth parents were not Yoshodha and Nanda, but were in prison at the hand of Kansa. Krishna utterly upset by this, realized what his destiny really was. Akrur comes to the village to invite Krishna to the palace of Mathura. He explains to Krishna what this invitation truly meant from Kansa and that it was a proposed trap. However, Krishna still accepted and left to Mathura with Akrur. Krishna makes a name for himself among t...

 The king Kamsa had feared his destiny and didn't want to meet an end to anyone. A prophecy told him he would die at the hands of a soon to be born child from his sister. The prophecy also saying that she would have 8 children. The king brutally murdered each child up until the 7th born. When the 7th was born, Krishna, his father took him to a safe village where the king or anyone of the kingdom could harm him. The king this night was having dreams of failure and defeat, but he didn't know why since he though he had killed all of his possible defeaters. The 8th child was a baby girl, which made the king laugh, for he didn't believe a woman had the power to destroy him. That's when the baby girl transformed into a goddess and told him off. She stated the baby to destroy you was alive and safe away from him. With this, the king murdered any newborn child he heard of in the kingdom. Still, little did he know Krishna was safe by the side of Yoshuba. Yoshuba growing up was a...

 The Wise and Foolish Merchant - Don't be foolish like the merchant. Be wise and always observe The Elephant Girly-Face - Shows the innocence of children, or even someone who doesn't know better in adulthood. The Banyan Deer - Always show mercy, even if you are the king or most powerful in your herd. The Princes and the Water-Sprite - I don't know if it's supposed to be known what good fairies are like, but the oldest prince knows. Because of this we know he's the wisest of the three. We can learn about the power of wisdom from this story. The King's White Elephant - I'm not quite sure there's a moral to this story here, other than simply working hard. The White Elephant was beautiful, and it seemed to workout for him once he became the king's. The Ox Who Never Envied the Pig - In my opinion this is giving the advice to treat your body right. Don't envy others who have everything given to them, because it doesn't always work out in a good way...

The first story in the Jataka Tales was about a cunning monkey and a stupid crocodile. The crocodile several times had tried to get the monkey in his presence in order to kill, but the monkey out smarted him both times.  The story of the the Turtle Saved His Own Life was almost along the same lines - just shorter to the point. The turtle in a way outsmarts the humans "dreading" to be thrown in the water, but little do they know the water is the turtles home. The Merchant of Seri in my opinion is about greed and ultimately the wrongdoings of deception. The first merchant had lied about the gold bowl trying to get even more from the old lady. The second merchant had told the truth and originally refused. The second merchant ends up being the one with the better life to live. The story of the talking turtle was one with the moral being sometimes it's best to just keep your mouth shut. The story of the Strong Ox teaches one to be kind to all, even in times of stress or compet...

I was pretty upset from the death of Bhima's son, Ghatotkacha. The Ramayana mentioned rakshasas a couple of times, but in the Mahabharata, they play a huge role in the war against the Kauravas. Arjuna, being one of the 5 Pandava brothers, was who Karna had planned to use his mighty spear weapon against. It was special because it could only be used once, and if a direct hit, would fatally injure someone. However, Karna was forced to use this godly weapon against Ghatotkacha, so we can see how much of a warrior he really is to represent in this epic. He reminds me of Hanuman in the Ramayana, because he's a loyal character that holds an immense amount of power and without him much of what the Pandavas are able to accomplish wouldn't be possible without him. I also remember reading about Ghatotkacha earlier this semester from a storybook, and from there had that tie to him. There's a bit of revenge later in this section when Arjuna kills Karna. This wasn't so satisfying...

 Arjuna finally rejoined his brothers in the wilderness. They were gathering weapons all of this time. These weapons were spectacular, and Duryodhana had heard about the brothers magnificent successes in the forest, but this still didn't worry him. He was still a ruler and still had the upper hand by not being banished to the wilderness. This kind of reminds me of typical society these days. Especially when talking about socioeconomic status in America since the Civil War and and Reconstruction Era. While there was all are thought to be free and equal in this day and age, no one can forget about the upper hand the majority of Americans have on minorities because of in a way being "banished" like the Pandavas were in the Mahabharata. The Pandavas return to civilization, but as the banishment said, they were to return on their 12th year in disguise and remain in that disguise for another full year. If they were discovered on that 13th year, then they would be exiled all ove...

King Drupada holds a Swayamvara for his fire born daughter, Draupadi. The five brothers, known as the Pandavas, appear at the Swayamvara disguised as brahmins. Brahmins are the highest member of the caste system in Hinduism. That being said, the Pandavas are disguising themselves as priests and teachers and competing for princess Draupadi. The give brothers though, are all to marry princess Draupadi and share her. This makes King Dhritarashtra a bit uneasy, so he invites the 5 brothers to his kingdom once agian. When the brothers arrive, he divides his kingdom and gives them an entire half. This other half wasn't great though since it was barren. The brothers decide to turn this barren land into a beautiful kingdom named Indraprastha.  The Pandavas lose a game to Shakuni. They are to be exiled into the wilderness for 12 years now. Once they return, they must stay in disguise for a year more. If they are found in this year while in disguise, then they will be exiled for yet another ...

 Thy tiny tails begin rather quickly once Vyasa seeks a scribe, which was Ganesha. Ganesha wrote down everything he could comprehend from Vyasa, evening when his pen broke. In order to write he broke off one of his elephant tusks in order to write. Then the whole story turns around beginning with King Shantanu. He has a son with Ganga who kills their first seven children until it comes to Devavrata, which King Shantanu names his heir to the throne after Ganga leaves him.  King Shantanu marries again, a woman named Satyavati, who was conceived inside of a fish. Together Shantanu and Satyavati bare two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. In order for this his first son Devavrata to promise never to marry or bare any sons. Because of this his new name was Bhishma and was granted eternal life.  Chitrangada eventually dies in battle but Vichitravirya is much too young to find a wife or have sons with her. Bhishma takes this into his own hands and brings back Amba, Ambika, and...

 The first few stories of part D of the Tiny Tales Ramayana contain some battle scenes of some key deaths from the other side (Ravana's side). Upon waking Kumbhakarna and marching into battle initially created a large amount of damage in battle, "grabbing monkey and bears by the handful and devouring them". He eventually met his fate though once Rama slayed him in battle with his arrow. Next to die on Ravana's side was Indrajit at the hands of Lakshmana. Finally it was Taranisen, the son of Vibhishana at the hand of Rama.  Finally, Ravana has had enough withe constant losses to Rama. He decides to meet him in battle to end this once and for all. The true victor must be crowned soon. It ends with Ravana dying from one of Rama's arrows. He does not die in vein though, and Rama makes sure of this. He dies as a great warrior honored with respect. Sita then confronts Rama, but Rama does not have her since she has lived in another mans home for this time. In order to pr...

 Vali continued to torment Sugriva, but was forced to quit once Hanuman got ahold of him to quit. Rama visits Sugriva in the hill, where they eventually become allies. They become allies because they could bond over being exiled by their father, and also because both of their wives were missing. Rama helped Sugriva kill his brother Vali. Sugriva was then crowned king of the royal city Kishkindha. Sugriva finally returns to Rama on the hill where he send out a search team to find Rama's wife.  Hanuman builds up the courage to fly to the island of Lanka. He is attacked by two different sea monsters, Simhika and Surasa. Hanuman out wits the two and escapes their attack when he's then encourages by the devas and gods. Lankini then stands before Hanuman on the island of Lanka to stop him, but Hanuman is much too strong and defeats Lakini. He then comes upon Sita. Sita refuses to leave with Hanuman even though she knows the ring means that Rama sent Hanuman to rescue her. She demand...

Rama is exiled by Dasharatha, and Sita, his wife along with Lakshmana, his sister, followed. Rama's people still obeyed by his rules and word; they were still loyal. Bharata becomes king, and a fight breaks out that blames Manthara, for good purpose since she was the one that forced it. Bharata and Shatrungha go to see Rama in the forest where he was exiled to, and talk of needing to make a sacrifice to allow their dead father, Dasharatha to travel to the spirit world. Manthara apologizes continuously to Rama, but Rama is forgiving to her, telling her in a new lifetime the two of them will meet again as Krishna and Kubja.  Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana then travel all over, receiving gifts and doing deeds for other gods.  We then come back to Ravana and see his battles and troubles. He ends up capturing Sita, Rama's wife. He was almost stopped by Jatayu, but Ravana ended up beating him in the fight, cutting his wings off causing him to fall to his death. Sita was now Ravana's a...

Dashagriva is born as a son of 10 heads from Vishrava and Kaikasi. Dashagriva also has 3 siblings, Kumbhakarna, Vibhishana, and Shurpanakha, a girl. Dashagriva was gifted immortality by Brahma. Dashagriva's brother, Khumbhakarna was gifted "immortal sleep" per say. It was next that Dashagriva earned the name Ravana from Shiva. Shiva imprisoned Dashagriva under his mountain when Dashagriva let out a tremendous roar. Shiva was so impressed by this that he grants Dashagriva the new name Ravana, translating to "he who roars". Ravana then creates a new instrument for Shiva. He's then rewarded his wife, a double of Parvati named Mandodari. Later on Ravana takes back the gold city of Lanka from his step-brother Kubera. Upon summarizing the beginning life of Ravana, I initially realized that keeping track of all of these names is going to probably be a bit challenging this semester. Anyone reading can tell the Ramayana is heavy on characterization. Simply meaning t...

I really want to focus on the character of the cunning crane. It seems in every story you're told or read, there is this cunning individual. They are devious as the evil villain, but other times, why do we somehow relate to/respect them? Maybe their deceit is for the good against evil, maybe their deceit is a natural human action we're all guilty of (hence the relatability), or maybe their deceit is simply so flawless that the only thing we can do is applaud it out of amazement. While we're surely against the devious crane taking advantage of the innocent fish, for my storybook this semester I want to focus more on a cunning character that uses his devious skills to fight evil.  The cunning crane dipping his head in the little pool. W. Robinson The Cunning Crane and the Crab - From The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse with illustrations by W. Robinson

I have chosen to read Ms. Gibbs version of Ramayan this semester. Since I've begun I can tell she's extremely passionate about this subject and what it has to offer. That being said any version created by her I'm all in on. I know there will be passion in the reading, but I also am looking forward to supporting her work! The Dance of Shiva (Character in first comic I chose) (by Khitindra Nath Mazumdar, from Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists , 1914) Vaishno Davi The first comic I chose was Vaishno Davi. Scrolling through the page what really caught my eye was the cover of the Temples of India that contains the story of Vaishno Davi in it. In the description it explains her as the goddess of the hills, and that the story contains metaphors on the life, struggles, and powers of being a woman. Shiva Parvati What caught my eye with this comic was the cover and how Shiva looks to be the god of the sea. My interest in Greek/Roman Mythology was at play here instantly relating to Po...