Reading Diary B: Pandavas Journey

Reading part B for week 11 picks up with the Pandavas and Kunti being sent away. When the Pandavas arrive at the house they are staying in there is a plan to kill all of the Pandavas. Fire will be set to the house and trap all of the Pandavas inside. However, the Pandavas are warned and escape through a tunnel leaving six decoy corpses behind. There is a boatman waiting for them as they flee disguised as Brahmins. They arrive in a other village and decide to live there with a family that offers to take them in. However, the family is charged with paying the yearly sacrifice to king Vaka. Instead, Kunti sends Bhima out to fight the king and he defeats him with no weapons. Visa then arrives and announces he will be taking the Pandavas to Draupadi. When they arrive there, Drupada has made an archery test that only Arjuna can pass. Therefore, Arjuna wins Draupadi. Draped then marries all five of the Pandava brothers. Arjuna next takes Subhadra as his wife, the sister of Krishna. Then Agni, the fire god,  comes to burn the forest of Khandava however, Indra, the storm god, continues to save the forest. Arjuna and Krishna help hold off the storm god as the forest burns. Maya, architect of the gods, was inside the forest though and needed protection from Agni. Therefore, Arjuna protects him. In return, Maya builds the Pandavas a great palace. The part B then ends with a game of dice being planned.

Arjuna and Subhadra

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary A: Starting Buck's Mahabharata

For my reading diaries in week eleven I will be using Buck's version of Mahabharata. Buck immediately introduces many characters into his version of the story. From the beginning we see reference to Vishnu, Krishna, Arjuna, and Saraswati. Also, he introduces the origins of the Mahabharata with the composer, Vyasa, and his scribe, Ganesha. We learn that Vyasa composed the entire story in his head without writing it down. When he needed a way to write it down he recited the entire thing to Ganesha to put it on paper. Ganesha was the son of Shiva, he also had an elephant because when he was younger Shiva got mad at him and ripped it off. He then chose to replace his human head with one of an elephant. After the lesson of the origins Buck continues on to the Mahabharata. It begins with the ocean being milk before it turned to salt. Vishnu wanted the gods to churn the ocean to get out the nectar of immortality. While doing this they churned out many things including: Lakshmi, Rambha, Airavata, and the wish giving cow. However, there was also poison that came out and Shiva had to swallow it in order to save the world. Later on, Bhisma obtains three wives for Vichitravirya. The three women were Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. Amba, however, has already vowed herself to a king. Vichitravirya unfortunately dies before being able to have children with the other two wives. Visa then goes to father children with the two women. This results in Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura. Bhisma appoints Pandu as king. Panda then marries Kunti who had already obtained the ability to have a son with a god. This resulted in Karna but she sent him away down the river. The next big development is the introduction of the Pandavas, the five sons of Pandu.

Pandu and Kunti 

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary B Week 10

Part B of this week's reading picks up with Yudhishthira attempting to make one last plea for peace. He sends Vidura to Hastinapura to speak with Dhritarashtra. However, he rejects the request for peace and justice. When the news of the rejected peace offering is circulated they all realize it is now time for war. The battle is to take place on the field of Kurukshetra. Arjuna originally does not want to fight because of the idea of fighting his family members, however, after the sermon delivering the song of the lord he is ready to fight. Bhisma plays a major role in the battle as he affects how different characters decide who and when to attack. Once he becomes fatally wounded it becomes okay for Karna to fight. They then lure Arjuna away from the battle while his son Abhimanyu is charged with breaking through the enemy lines. He knows how to do this but not how to escape and he gets captured and killed by Jayadratha. Arjuna then vows to kill him by the end of the day. When krishna uses a discus to make it seem like it is night time, Jayadratha comes out of hiding but does not realize it is a trap. It was all so Arjuna could kill him, which he did. After long days of battling the warriors are brought to their death by karma Krishna insists. Duryodhana does not believe this up until his own death. After the battle the Pandavas go to Hastinapura. They perform rituals for all of the dead along with others. Although Yudhisthira refuses to be king he is finally convinced by the other that he needs to be king. All of the Pandavas die off one by one until the only one left is Yudhisthira. He departs for heaven in his human form while the Pandava line is upheld as Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu takes the throne in Hastinapura.

Cosmic form of Krishna

Source: Wikipedia

Week 10 Reading Guide A:

This week while reading the Mahabharata we pick up after the fall out of the series of dice games between both sides. The Pandavas and Arjuna are still working with their newly acquired weapons. However, Dhritarashtra is aware of the moves they are making and the weapons because of the spies he has following them. Duryodhana then decides to humiliate the Pandavas until his plan backfires enormously. The gods draw them into a battle and the Pandavas end up having to free Duryodhana from captivity. The Pandavas then are drawn in by the deer who leads them astray and drives them to thirst. They then head to a lake to find water. Nacelle is the first to drink from the lake after ignoring the voice and dies. All of Yudhisthira's brothers follow in this trend until he discovers them all dead from the lake. Luckily, he recognizes the test and listens to the voice. After he is done at the lake all his brothers regain life. They were now in their thirteenth year of exile This thirteenth year would allow for them to live in disguise with the King Virata. They all live in disguise in various roles. Draupadi ends up being part of a big scandal and has to beg to avoid being sent away during their final days of exile. This leads to the cattle raid which resulted in Virata giving his daughter to Arjuna's son after he draws blood from Yudhisthira. Shortly after the wedding the preparations for the war begin. After appeals for peace both sides seem to realize that war ultimately looms.

Krishna and the Pandavas

Source: Wikipedia

Storytelling Week 9: The Shift of Power

Duryodhana, the Prince of Hastinapura, had finally completed building the new palace he had been working so diligently on for the last couple of years. He felt it was one of his greatest contributions to Hastinapura, the great city he loved so much. He also believed that his palace was so great that it needed to be the host of a great event, one of high importance. If the first event was of great importance it would symbolize how great the palace was meant to be and set the tone for future events at the palace. From then on, people would know that only events of great importance were being hosted at the palace. 

Shakuni, Duryodhana's uncle, came to Duryodhana with a brilliant proposal. He felt he had the perfect event to inaugurate the new palace. Shakuni wanted to hold a game of dice between himself and the Pandavas, rivals to Shakuni and Duryodhana. The game would actually end up putting Shakuni, a great dice player, against Yudhisthira, head of the Pandavas and a not so great dice player. This put the odds in great favor of Shakuni. The game would have great stakes as well, Shakuni and Duryodhana planned to take full advantage of Shakuni's advantage and try to take as much as possible from the Pandavas.

Shakuni, Yudhisthira, and Duryodhana agreed to come together in Hastinapura beneath the roof of the great palace. Yudhisthira was forced to accept the challenge because of Dharma. He was not allowed to stand down from such a request. They began to play dice and it was very clear from the beginning that Shakuni was going to dominate the contest. The more they played, the more that Yudhisthira wagered and lost. Yudhisthira still continued to wage everything that he had including himself, his brothers, and Draupadi the wife of the Pandavas. He continued to lose but was to stubborn to acknowledge he was going to lose no matter what. 

Eventually, Shakuni brought the game of dice to an end. Yudhisthira knew that his opponents would not hold him to all of his wagers, as it was just a game of dice that got carried away. However, that was not the case. Shakuni and Duryodhana had great plans for all the people they now had possession of due to the game.

Shakuni's first plan of action was to take all of the Pandavas and make them personal assistants to himself and Duryodhana. The Pandavas would be required to do anything they asked of them. These chores would not all be demeaning or negative, but more meaningless tasks that they would have to perform solely out of spite from their new “owners.” 

They decided that it was time for Shakuni to get married as well and they felt as if Draupadi would make a great wife for him. She was therefore forced to marry him and only to be with him from that point forward. As for Yudhisthira, they did not know what to do with him. They then went on to put him into isolation. The reason they came to this decision was they felt it was the only way to get rid go him and not kill him. Had they killed him they were scared karma would be against them. 

They felt now that they had control of the entire kingdom and no one would be able to challenge them from the outside. Fortunately, that was not true. They did not pay close enough attention to the remaining Pandavas, which allowed them to communicate with Yudhisthira without being monitored or caught on to. Although he was still technically in "isolation", they had been able to establish a line of contact. 

Within two years, the Pandavas overthrew Shakuni and Duryodhana after eighteen months of a long revolutionary war. Pandavas took control of the entire kingdom and forced Shakuni and Duryodhana to watch as they destroyed the great palace that hosted the game of dice. The Pandavas then, instead of risking keeping them alive, killed the two and buried them beneath the palace.

The Pandavas would go on to be the wealthy elite of the city that would be ruled by King Yudhisthira and Queen Draupadi. The kingdom would last for many years and no one would dare to challenge the powers of the Pandavas.

Demolition of the Great Palace 

Source: Wikipedia

Author's Note: My inspiration for this story was obviously the story of the game of dice within part B of our reading this week. I really liked the way the story was written originally, which is why I chose to stick to the script for the majority of the beginning of the story. However, after the game of dice I could not decide what to do. I decided to go with the enslavement of the pandavas being used a symbol status because I felt it was better then banning all of the characters from the kingdom and having them out of existence. I felt it was a good idea to somehow incorporate the idea of revolution, which this allowed me to do. The reason I wanted to create the story of revolution was mainly because a lot of my early stories all followed kind of the same plot where the evil prevailed. All stories where the good guy wins get old. However, I wanted to write this one where the good prevailed so that it would change up the tone of my stories. Another reason for me to do this is that personally, only through the beginning of the novel I have grown to dislike the characters that appear to be on the evil side or the opposition if that is a better description.

Bibliography:

• Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

Week 9 Reading Diary B: Games of Dice

This week for the second part of our reading we picked up with Duryodhara. He has just learned that the Pandavas are still alive. He is bothered by the fact that his father, Dhritarashtra, will not hate the Pandavas. Bhishma and Vidura give opposing advice that ends up resulting in Karna wanting war. However, Dhristarashtra gives the Pandavas land in Hastinapura. The Pandavas take this land and erect their own city, Indraprastha. Yudhisthira is named king of their great city. Duryodhana becomes very jealous of the Pandavas and Indraprastha. Duryodhana and Shakuni then plan their game of dice in order to get revenge for the Pandavas laughing at them. Yudhishthira cannot refuse the game of dice so the Pandavas and him head to Hastinapura. During the game of dice, Yudhishthira loses everything that he owns in the game of dice. This includes his family, himself, and Draupadi. Draped and the Pandavas are forced to strip in the hall. After everything is returned to everyone and they all return home. There is then, of course, a second game of dice. Yudhishthira loses forcing the Pandavas into exile. Krishna then goes to Yudhishthira and promises to punish Duryodhana. At the end of this week's reading we are left with Arjuna returning to the Pandavas with the weapons he has acquired.

The First Game of Dice

Source: Wikipedia

Week 9 Reading Diary A: A new beginning

This week we began reading Narayan's Mahabharata. The book begins with the introduction to Shantanu, the king of Hastinapura. He and his wife have an extremely strange marriage where he is never allowed to question anything she does, including drowning all of their newborn babies. However, on the eighth child's birth, he questions her a s she begins to drown the child. This is where we learn she is the river Ganga reincarnated in order to give birth to eight gods. She is drowning the children in order to return them to heaven, however, she takes the eighth child with her. She then returns Devavratha or Bhishma to his father when he is grown. Shantanu then falls in love with Satyavati. Her father forbids her from marrying him since the heir to the throne has already been named in Bhisma. Naturally, Bisma steps down and lets them get married and have their son Chitrangada take the throne. Unfortunately, he dies soon there after. Bhisma takes his place as regent for their other young son Vichitravirya. Bhisma claims Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika all for Vichitravirya. Amba then says she is already taken but then she is rejected by her husband in waiting and vows revenge. We then meet the next group of sons from Vyasa and the mistresses including the servant of Ambalika and we get Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidua. The first two being flawed and the last, from the servant, not being flawed. After all of them go on to have children, Dhritarashtra rules as king. His son Yudhishthira is deemed the heir to him.

Shantanu chasing after his wife and child 

Source: Wikipedia

Commenting Review Week

The commenting part of this class has been very interesting. In most online classes you are required to do this type of interaction, forcing you to attempt to connect with your classmates. However, majority of the time you just do it because you are required to and respond to some boring discussion post on D2L. With this class I feel like the commenting process does a much better job of fostering connections. My favorite part of the commenting process is that we continue to comment on the introductions of all of our classmates the first time we interact with them. Reading the introductions is very interesting to me and I feel like I actually have an idea of who I am commenting to on my posts instead of the usual D2L format where I am just responding to a comment that has a name on it I have no idea what is behind the name. I have strongly enjoyed the commenting on both ends, commenting to others and receiving comments from others.

The class has been a Colosseum for building connections 

Source: Wikipedia

Writing Review Week

I have taken some time to review all of the writing assignments from throughout the semester thus far. Comparing this semester of writing to my other works throughout high school and college was quite interesting. This is by far the most writing I have done in a long time on a consistent basis. I think when you are writing a shorter story like we often write it is easier to pick something and run with it, for example, in many of my stories character development has been a major focus. I feel like that has been a huge development for me as I have learned to analyze how an author develops certain characters throughout stories and what role they want the character to play in the development of the plot. Personally, I feel like that has been my favorite part of the class is getting to see how much my writing and analyzing skills have grown due to the application of them on a weekly basis.

The Ramayana: Sums up our semester so far

Source: Wikipedia

Reading Review Week

This week i have read over all of my reading diary from the past weeks of this semester. While reading, I noticed that a few things stuck out. The main thing however, that stuck out to me, was the focus I put on Rama, Ravana, and Sita throughout my diary and storytelling posts. Obviously, these are the main characters of the story and deserve lots of attention. I think what stuck out about it though was the amount of attention I have not placed on minor characters throughout the past weeks. I briefly touched on Hanuman, Lakshmana, and Bharata in stories and in diary posts, but besides that I have put no focus on them. When reading through classmates work I noticed that this was very true for most of my classmates, not all, but most. The ones that did not struggle with this problem seemed to be using a deeper analysis of the story than most. This made me think that maybe I have not been using a deep enough analysis of each section we are assigned. However, I did state that I wanted to focus on Rama and Ravana early on, so maybe all of the major characters are just that much more appealing to the reader in this case. This all did strike me while reading my reviews so I am interested to see if i can do a better job bringing some attention into the roles of minor characters. The only thing I seem to be struggling with is how to not sacrifice my focus into main character development while bringing attention to the minor character development. Either way, I am excited for the second half of this semester and cannot wait to see what else unfolds as we venture into new readings.

Hanuman and Lakshmana before Sita and Rama

Source: Wikipedia