Reading Notes: Mahabharata, Part A

Characters and The Princes of Elephant City
King Bharata- dead king
Vichitravvirya- king of Hastinapura.. also died
Dhritarashtra- older, blind son of Vichitravirya, brother of Pandu
Pandu- younger brother of Dhritarashtra, son of Vichtravira
        Pandu has 5 sons by 2 women
        Yudhisthira, Bhima, and Arjuna by Kunti
        Nakula and Sahadeva by Madri
        All 5 sons are called the Pandavas- son of gods

Dhri becomes king when Pandu dies
     Dhri and his wife Gandhari have 100 sons
     Oldest son is Duryodhana
     100 sons are called Kauravas

The Kauravas and Pandavas are the Bharatas.. descendants of Bharata.. dead king form above.

Drona- the boys' teacher
     He has the boys attack his enemy

Drupada- Droma's enemy, he's a king
Draupadi- girl who appeared when Drupada prays to the gods

Dury plots to kill Yudhi and his family b/c he was named king.
Vidura- Pandu and Dhri half bro.. he warns them and they escape

Hidimba and Baka:
the family flee into the forest as disguised peseants.
Hidimba and sister Hidimbi plan to eat them
Hidimbi falls in love with Bhima and warns him of Hidimba's plan
Bhima kills Hidimba and marries Hidimbi but Bhima leaves to go back to family
Bhima kills demon Baka when he arrives.. demon was making family give blood tax

The Winning of Draupadi: 
Draupadi is a sought after woman
There's an archery contest for her marriage
Karna almost wins but Arjuna who is still in disguise wins
Arjuna fights Karna, and Bhima fights king Shayla
Arjuna wins
Kunti tells Arjuna to share his winnings, not realizing he won a bride so he shares with his 4 brothers and she is wife to 5 men
Her father was happy to know they are royalty when he finds out from following but is angry she marries all 5.. finally agrees

The Adventures of Prince Arjuna:
Bhishma tells Dury to make peace with Pandavas once he realizes they're alive
The Pandavas get half of the kingdom and build a city
Arjuna enters Draupadi's room while Yudhish was in there and goes into exile in the forest
Yudhish goes to underwater world with water nymph Ulupi and they wed
In a dream the fire-god Agni tells Yudhish to burn the Khandava forest and destroy the nagas who live under protection of Indra
Agni gives Arjuna the gandiva bow, and arrows from the sea-god Varuna.. Arjuna is son of Indra
Arjuna sets forest on fire
Indra appears and pours rain down to put fire out

Arjune and Subhadra: 
Nagas flee and all are killed except Maya
Arjuna goes to Dwarka and meets Subhadra.. they wed
Subhadra is sister of Krishna
Subhadra and Arjuna go back to Indraprastha
Maya builds a palace for the Pandavas
Yudh declares himself emperor
Krishna tells him to kill king Jarasandha to be ruler
Bhima goes to wrestle the king and wins by tearing him in half
All captives are freed

Yudhishthira's Gambling: 
The palace where Dury lives is an illusion
Gamble ensues
Yudh losses his brothers, himself and Draupadi
Dury drags Draupadi by her hair, rips her clothes off but clothes are replaced by divine intervention
Bhima vows to drink Dushasana's blood and break his thigh
King Dhristarashtra gives her wishes.. she wishes all were free.. they are
Another bet goes down and the Pandavas go into exile for 12 years

Bhima and the Serpent
Endless food is supplied by the sun-god
People who followed them have food to eat
Vyasa tells Arjuna to find his father Indra for celestial weapons
He climbs the Himalayas
A hidden Indra tells him to find Shiva first
Arjuna battles a boar and realizes it's Shiva
Shiva goes away and Indra gives Arjuna golden armor
He returns to his brothers
Bhima goes missing.. Yudh finds him in the grip of a snake
Yudh answers the snakes question and a man appears
King Nahusha appears and is released from his curse b/c Yudh answers all of his questions

    Picture info: Arjuna and Subhadra Leave Dwarka with Krishna

Source info: Mahabharata. The Indian Heroes: Mahabharata - The Princes of Elephant City by C. A. Kincaid. (1921). 

Week 8 Progress

Overall I'm mostly happy with my progress but I know that I could have a higher grade since the assignments to do so are there! My weekly routine could probably change some to where I'm able to get ahead by at least one week, which is my goal for the last 8 weeks. This will give me some opportunities to work on extra credit and take off some pressure for weeks that I'm busy with work, other classes, or life. I may work on different layouts for my blog and my storybook to try to change it up throughout the rest of the semester. In fact, I think I'll either work on extra credit now or next weeks assignments!

      Image information : Not more procrastinating

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I think that the comments I'm receiving are useful as I am getting a lot of positive feedback from everybody which is encouraging. Some of the most useful ones are the comments that give me suggestions which I can try to incorporate and use in my next assignment.
As far as leaving feedback for others, I think I'm doing ok but could probably go into a bit more detail when I offer suggestions. I am able to get writing style ideas from other peoples' stories which I can use for my stories.
Reading other peoples' blogs and introductions does definitely give me a sense for who they are which helps when reading their stories. I think my introduction mostly covers everything that I would like for people to know and me and I enjoy reading feedback from others.
For future feedback posts I want to try to give more detailed suggestions.


I chose the image below because it reminded me of my own cat. One night last month, when it was down pouring, I got a text from my mom telling me that Spikey Boo Fang (that's his name) was stuck in a tree. I called her and she told me that he had been stuck about 13 feet up in a tree for a few hours. We discussed what to do but decided it was too dangerous for either of us to climb a ladder to get him down. Finally I got a text from her saying that he made his way down and was safe in the house.


P.S. This was not the first time he had been stuck in a tree, I think his cat meter is broken.

                   Photo Information:  Hopefully this cat isn't stuck like mine was. LOL!

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Now that I am getting more familiar with blogging and google sites I feel like I will be able to change up the theme to better suite me. I played around with the theme for the blog and I like it but I may switch it up more. As for the google site, I'm pretty happy with the layout and the banner pictures that I chose. The reading notes that I have written seem to be sufficient for me to get the background information but I would like to try more styles. As far as writings go, I am fairly happy with the styles that I have used but would like to switch them up more so that they don't so closely resemble the original. I think my favorite one that I have done so far was week 7 where I more or less started in the middle of the original story, worked back, then worked to present day. For future posts I would like to work on using more dialogue though. I would also like to look at more research strategies as well as note taking methods.

 Picture information: Probably my favorite picture so far. This is a very calming and reflective picture for me. The sunset (or sunrise) along with the waves give off the vibe that this is a relaxed state of mind, as it should be!

Week 7 Story: The Girl That Got Away

I belched out in despair to my father, the king of gods "Oh father what ever shall I do? I have been deemed unlovable by the woman that I love more than life!"
In that moment he calmly responded "dearest son, you must'n worry for you will find your path and true love".



You see, weeks leading up to this exact moment I was ecstatic and filled with excitemnt because I had been given several gifts from my relatives for my birthday and was FINALLY allowed to live in their neighborhood. I'm sure you all are wondering what the big deal is.. but these gifts were not just any ordinary gifts and this neighborhood was not just any neighborhood! This neighborhood was an out of world experience where all gods, goddesses, queens, kings, nymphs, and Demi-gods lived, here they overlooked human activities.. and here is where I found my true love.



Pull up a chair and have a seat, I'm going to tell you a story.


So it all started with one warm and sunny day when I noticed something fishy happening off in a distance, so naturally I decided to approach it. As I neared the site in question I noticed that there were dead fishes and birds sprawled across the beach. I continue to approach this unforgiving scene and low and behold the damn ocean splits in two! I'm in my flight or fight mode but I remembered my father saying that I needed to man up if I ever expected to get into his neighborhood. I then also remembered the amazing gifts that my family had given me and that they had told me to use them if I ever was in despair.
I decided that this was a moment of despair as this 5 headed sea monster was lunging at me, open mouth, bugged eye, and all!
I pull out my handy gifts: one a stick, another a liquid in some weird shell, and the other a ball to catch Pokemon? WHAT?!
Throwing the stick I see nothing happened so I throw the weird liquid in a shell but once again nothing happened! My last resort is to throw this weird Pokemon ball so I do! I throw far and hard and hit the weird monster with it, all while holding my breath to the point of almost passing out.
Somehow, someway this weird Pokemon ball worked and this 5 headed sea monster was trapped in it!
Within seconds my father, his brothers, and his sisters appear in front of me to take me to my new nieghborhood that I wanted so badly to live in! Alas, I'm finally there!
So one night out with the boys I noticed a girl from across the room, she's wearing some amazing makeup with cat eyes, and had medium length black hair that was straight.. her outfit caught my attention, it was like nothing I had ever seen before. I decide to approach her and ask her her name. She tells me its Cleopatra.

Feeling myself because I had captured some weird sea creature, been admitted to the new 'hood, and turned 21, so I ask her for a dance. She agrees!
We danced, laughed, and talked the night away so I decided to ask her out on a date. She agreed again! I'm on a roll!



Fastforward to just this morning and I think that things are going great with Cleopatra, we're even planning on going to visit a tropical island soon. Then this morning she sends me a messenger pigeon telling me things aren't working out and that it's me, not her.. she tells me that I will never be loved because I'm just not loveable. I'm in shock so I call my dad and this is full circle to how we got here.

I still don't know why I'm not loveable or why my father says that it's for the best, that I must complete a quest. Can you help me on this quest?

    Picture information: Here is my love Cleopatra one Sunday evening


Authors Notes: The original story from where I got my idea for this one is Indra and Arjuna. In the original story Arjuna (Indra's son) is given gifts from the gods, taken tot celestial city where they all reside and is cursed to never love. Arjuna then goes to fight demons and beings from the underworld, he succeeds, and then continues on to the underworld where he again wins. Upon defeating the creatures of the underworld he is given another gift from his father.


Source: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913). Found here! 

Reading Notes: The Death of Krishna, Part D

People knew that something bad was about to happen but nobody could pinpoint what it was.
Eventually people knew that Dwarka was about to be destroyed and a figure came in the night.. the figure was said to be Yama who is the god of the underworld.
Krishna told everybody to perform devotions on the beach with wine to try to ignore and ward the evil off.
There was a woman who arrived and brought spirits who stole jewels from the women and weapons from the men. (omen)
Krishna's chakra (spirit) went to heaven, the end of the Yadavas (group of people) was coming up, and the asparas told people to come to heaven. (omen)
The people feasting on the beach with wine drank heavily and fights broke out. Everybody killed everybody (omen)
Krishna and his brother Balarama went to the jungle where they both died. The world serpent came out of Balarama's mouth and Krishna was shot by a hunter who mistook him for something else.. the arrow pierced his foot which was his weak point and the only place that could kill him. Krishna went to his heaven called Goloka.
Krishna seemed to know his fate so had one sent for Arjuna once he died. Arjuna arrived to find Vasudeva (Krishna's father), his 4 widows, Krishna, and Balarama all dead so he cremated them.
Arjuna then left and headed to Indraprastha and the city of Dwarka was taken by the sea (lost city of atlantis?)

Picture information : Death of Balarama, Krishna's brother

Source: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913). Death of Krishna 

Reading Notes: Arjuna and Indra Part C

Arjuna (Hercules) who is the son of Indra (Much like Zeus) receives "celestial" gifts from his father who is the kind gods, Varuna who is the god of waters (much like Poseidon), Yama who is the king of dead (Hades), and Kubera who is the god of wealth.
         What gifts did they give?
          Other gods similar to those, not just in Greek and Roman mythology


Indra then took Arjuna to the celestial and heavenly city of Svarga (replace with a seaside city or island?) where everything was just dandy. In this city were apsaras (nymphs maybe?) as well as gandharva who were male nature spirits.. all were rejoicing except one aspara approached him with a lot of hate because she had been tricked and mistreated by the god of love, Kama (Aphrodite, cupid, etc). She vowed that he would not find love
            What city can replace this one, maybe a seaside city with mermaids or sirens?
            What are other similar gods and deities?
            
Arjuna was reassured that this curse would be for the best in the end
             How else can I use this or can I omit maybe?


Patala , (volcano maybe) the underworld housed daityas (demons basically) and danavas (not necessarily bad or good). Arjuna went to fight them and when he arrived the water divided and he saw monstrous creatures who were deployed to fight him by the daityas and danavas. He won.
             Lots of fire and water
             Use of Celestial weapons
             What if the danavas join his team later on?

Arjuna then drove in his father's chariot to the city of demons and giants. All the giant women called to him but het ignored them which resulted in their deaths. Within the city he destroyed it.
Indra gave Arjuna a gold chain, diadem, and a war shell that had a thunder like blast in it.


Maybe change point of view to be the main character and in first person?
Maybe have the characters converse within the story?

                                Picture source: statue of Arjuna


Source: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913). Arjuna and Indra