Week 14 Reading Notes: Part A

The Hypocritical Cat

Cat Watching the Rat Line
Source: Pinterest

- There was this group of rats that lived by the river in a whole

- This one cat was watching them for some time and really longed to eat the rats

- So the cat had to come up with a plan on how to trap the rats so he could actually be powerful enough to eat the rats

-The cat came up with a plan were he stood close to the hole and would act like he was praising the sun and only feeding off the air

- The cat wanted it to seem like he was the best thing there was, this worked because each morning after that the rats came by to praise the cat for who he was

- After a few days of this pattern the cat finally took to his plan and started to eat the last rat in the line that goes by him

- After a few weeks of this the chief of the rat troop noticed that his army was starting to get a lot smaller and the chief started to get really suspicious

- The chief now posted himself at the end of the line and was watching the cat the whole time and he noticed the cat was starting to get greedy once the chief was coming up

- As the chief passed by the cat started to pounce on the chief but the chief caught him in time and escaped

- The chief then jumped on the cat and attacked his throat

- The rest of the troops saw this and ran over and attacked the cat and the rats ended up eating the cat 

The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. Link: The Hypocritical Cat

The Dishonest Friend

- There was this friend that had to leave for a little while and asked his friend to watch his farm and his plow
- The friend promised to watch over everything and to keep everything safe while the friend was gone
- However, the friend was not trustful as soon as the guy left the friend took the plow from the farm and sold the plow
- Once the plow was sold the friend took the money and pocketed the money
- When the friend came back and asked for his plow back the friend came up with a far fetched excuse as to what happened to the plow
- The excuse was that a really big rat came and ate the plow and took it away
- The friend did not believe this and so he came up with a plan to get his plow back to him
- The friend took the dishonest friends son for a walk and basically kidnapped the son and returned to say his son was taken by a really big hawk
- The dishonest friend did not believe this and so the dishonest friend took him to the town judge to sort all of this out
- The judge caught onto the fake story the friend told the dishonest friend so the judge told the dishonest friend to give the friends plow back and he could have his son back
- So after all the dishonest friend gave the friend back his plow and the friend returned back his son and everyone was back to being happy

The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. Link: The Dishonest Friend

Reading Notes: Week 13 Part B

The Two Pigs

- There were two little pigs that lived outside the town of Benares

- This old lady one day was passing by when she spotted the little pigs 

- The old lady took the two pigs back home with her, named them Mahatundila and Cullatundila

- Two years passed and the two pigs and the old lady lived a happy life 

- There was a party going on in the town of Benares and all the men in town ate all the meat

- They were not satisfied and so they showed up at the old ladies house to try and buy the two pigs

-The lady wasn't giving into the men and so the men got her drunk 

- With this the lady offered the youngest pig, Cullatundila

- Cullatundila caught onto the trap the old had set up for her

- Mahatundila found out about this and Mahatundila spoke words that touched everyone in the town including the king in the nearby palace 

- The king later died and the pigs left the kingdom and returned to the forest were they lived happily together 

- "Bathe in a pool of water as on a bright feast day, And you shall find a perfume that never fades away" 

Old Lady and The Two Pigs
Source: ISM Blog Post

The Patient Buffalo

- There was this monkey and buffalo sitting around the same time

- The buffalo was resting beneath and the monkey decided to go and try to annoy the buffalo

- The monkey tried jumping on the buffalo's head and swinging from his horns

- However, the buffalo was not phased by this

- So the monkey tried destroying all the grazing land the buffalo ate on, but still the buffalo was not disturbed 

- Then came along a fairy who told the buffalo of his great powers 

- The buffalo did not seem interested in this as the monkey was not a pest to him 

- The buffalo told the fairy that he could not punish the monkey for he had only a small brain

- With this the fairy took her wand and warded the monkey away

- The fairy also put a charm on the buffalo so no one else could come and bother the buffalo agian

- From that day on the buffalo lived a happy life

The Buffalo and Monkey
Source: ISM Blog Post

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales. Noor Inayat. Source: Indian Epics Readings and Resources 

Reading Notes: Week 13 Part A

The Golden Feathers

-A Father, Mother, and three Daughters lived in a small forest hut

-The father tells the mother and children that he has to leave them but will return with many riches

-The father met a fairy and the fairy asked him where he was going

-The fairy touched the traveler with her wand and changed him into a goose with golden feathers

-After he was changed into a goose he became very sad and was confused on how he was going to support his family

-The mother had a plan to pluck all the feathers from the goose just in case he never returns

-The goose returned and the mother grabbed the goose and the daughters started to pluck all the feathers off

-The fairy thought about this and put a charm so the feathers once plucked would turn white

-The goose never grew gold feathers again

-Once freed from the barrel the mother threw him in the goose flew away

-The goose flew away to a forest where birds were happy 

The Golden Swan
Source: My India

The Master's Test

-A master was talking to his pupils and admitted to them he was poor

-The pupils were loyal to him and wanted to help their teacher

-The master said they could steal from the towns people

-The master told them to find the quietest spot and grab a person as they pass by, then take their money 

-One of the pupils caught on to the masters test of wisdom

-The master applauded the student for understanding this and the others fell with shame

-The master wanted them to learn that when a bad thought came about for them to realize that they themselves are judging themselves

-With his teaching the pupils were able to live a happy life

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka Tales. Noor Inayat. Source: Indian Epics Readings and Resources 

Reading Notes Week 12 Part B: The Life of Buddha

The Life of Buddha

Siddhartha Leads a Life of Pleasure

- Suddhodana lived a nice life and was really caring of his people

- Suddhodana always gave the people the advice and guidance that they needed instead of death 

The Three Encounters

- The prince was ready to leave the kingdom and his father found out

- For the princes goodbye his father made sure to clean a path for him so the prince will stay clean of all the bad in the world, he was given a chariot for his travels

- Even with the efforts of the princes father the dark and grey that the world brings was soon brought upon the prince 

- The gods put a struggling old man in the path of the chariot and the prince was confused as to why the old man looked the way he did

- The princes father did his best to undo the unsightly thing his son had saw, he did this by arranging a really nice day in the garden with the help of a friend

Gopa's Dream

- Even with the efforts in the gardens to help change the mindset of the young prince nothing was helping

- The prince did not accept any of the pleasures his father had given him because all he could think about was the death that was awaiting him as he got older

- Once he got back to the palace he couldn't sleep and this is when he met Gopa

Siddhartha Leaves His Father's Palace 

- The prince asked for his horse late at night 

- The prince set out on the horse late at night to leave his fathers kindgom

- The horse was as quiet as he could as not to wake the towns people 

-There is great efforts to get the prince to come back to the kingdom but every try is unsuccessful 

-The prince enters the forest in disguise in run down clothes and cut his hair

- The prince did this so no one would notice him and he would have the element of surprise if there was ever an attack on him 

Buddha Source: Samadhi

Bibliography: The Life of Buddha. Andre Ferdinand Herold. Web Source

Reading Notes Week 11 Part B

The Wise Goat and the Wolf

-A group of goats lived in a cave and two wolves hunted these goats until only one goat was left alive

-The last goat was wise and learned from the deaths of all her friends that left the cave before her

-The wolves had no clue on how to catch this wise goat that was a left in the cave, every time they tried to catch this goat it always escaped

-The wolves came up with a plan to catch the last remaining goat by tricking the goat into helping them

-However, this plan was foiled when one of the wolves let his impulses get the best of him and the wise goat caught on to what the wolves were trying to do

-The wise goat was able to run back to the safety of the cave before the wolves were able to fulfill their plan

-The wolves tried once again to try and draw the goat out of the cave

-However, the goat was wise and knew that nothing good was going to come out of listening to the wolves so the goat came up with her own plan to trick the wolves 

-When the goat agreed to come back with the wolf for a second time, this time the goat tricked the wolves by saying she was going to bring her friends with her also 

-Once the wolves found out who the goat had as friends they ran far away and left the goat alone 

Wise goat and Wolf
Source: kidsgen

How The Monkey Saved His Troops

-This troop of monkeys lived on the shore of river that was home to a mango tree 

-These monkeys relied on this mango tree to supply them with fresh fruit to eat when they hunted for food at night 

-Each night the troop of monkeys went to the mango tree to pick up all the mangoes off the ground that fell over the day and then climbed the tree for more mangoes

-Later one a king and his fishermen a distance down river were checking their nets for fish when they noticed a strange fruit in the nets 

-The king called upon his forestry people to find out what the strange fruit was called, his people advised him that it was mango and that it was safe to eat

-The king and princess loved the mangoes and the king demanded that he be taken to where the mango tree was at 

-The king and his people arrived at the mango tree and picked up all the mangoes and then stayed overnight to get more in the morning 

-The monkeys like clockwork came back to the tree that night and found no mangoes on the ground due to the kings people picking all of them up

-The monkeys then climbed the tree to find more mangoes and in this process waked the king from his sleep

-The king was not happy about this and demanded his archers to shoot the monkeys as they descended the tree 

-The monkeys were scared and sought help from their leader to evade death from the archers down on the ground 

-The chief monkey came up with a plan to save his troops, the chief did this by building a bridge with his own body for his troops to move to another tree to escape the archers arrows 

-The chief saved all of his troops and the king saw everything the chief monkey had done and was impressed with it and decided to let the monkeys live a happy life 

Monkey saving his troops
Source: BBC School Radio

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt. The Wise Goat and the Wolf. Source

Ellen C. Babbitt. How The Monkey Saved His Troops. Source

Reading Notes Week 11 Part A

The Three Fishes

-Three different fish named: Thoughtful, Thoughtless, Very-Thoughtful 

-Thoughtful and Thoughtless took off down the river and weren't paying attention and ran into a fish net

-Very-Thoughtful saw this and sprung into action to save the other two fish

-Very-Thoughtful to get the fish out made the fisherman that owned the net think the net was broke

-The fisherman pulled the net out of the water and freed the fish

-Thoughtless and Thoughtful thanked Very-Thoughtful for saving them 

Fish
Source: Bed Time Stories

The Red-bud Tree

-Four princes found about this tree that was covered in red-buds and wanted to see it for themselves

-The first prince went to see the tree, but it was not covered in red-buds it was bare and black 

-The second prince went to see the tree, but it was not bare it was now covered in beautiful red-buds

-The third prince went to see the tree, but this time the tree was not covered in red-buds it was covered only in green leaves

-Lastly the last prince went to see the tree, but the tree didn't have any buds or leaves this time the tree had bean pods on it

-The last prince ran back to tell his brothers what he saw and all of them disagreed with each other on what they each saw at the different times they went to see the tree

-Their father heard all of this and came over to sort out the disagreement between the brothers by making them realize they had all went to see the tree at different times and this why they each saw something different

Redbud tree
Source: Tree Center

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt. The Three Fish. Source

Ellen C. Babbitt. The Red-Bud Tree. Source

Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Part B

- Krishna showed a devotion that Brahma wanted to challenge to see how Krishna would react. Brahma started to kidnap the cows and villagers that would equal a year. However, Krishna combated this by just making replicas of the lost cows and village people from himself. Brahma bowed down to Krishna after this task.

-Krishna wanted to prove to all his brothers and villagers that he can ride a vicious bill named Hastin. So, Krishna started to spend a lot of time with Hastin by playing music to him and feeding him sweet straw until Krishna thought enough time had passed by to earn Hastin's trust. To all the villagers and Krishnas brothers surprise Krishna mounted the bull and rode the bull all around the village with no problem. Krishna thought them the lesson of kindness through taming and building a friendship with a wild creature.

-Kansa makes a come back into the stories about Krishna, when he invites Krishna to Mathura for a event called Dhanur Yajna. However, Kansa had a plan that was not in good faith and this plane was to try and kill Krishna for a second time; however, the news of this plan made its way back to Krishna and even with the advice of his brothers and villagers Krishna said he must go.

-Krishna and Delmar arrived at Mathura and there was a very nice warming party of villagers that met them and Krishna and Delmar adverted any angry villagers by bringing happiness and this was done by fixing a deformed woman.

-Kansa then came at Krishna trying to kill him and Belram by trampling them with an aggressive elephant called Kuvalayapida; however, the creature was no match against Krishna who knocked the creature out in one blow. The brothers fought off all things that Kansa threw at them to try and kill them. The brothers made it to the event where Krishna picked up the bow that was created by Shiva and it snapped and Kansa launched his whole army upon the brothers. However, just like everything else there was no chance and Krishna and Belram defeated the army and Kansa didn't even get a chance to run before the brothers reached him and successfully attacked him.

-With the defeat of Kansa, Krishnas birth parents and grandfather who were locked up in the kingdom of Mathura were set free and Krishnas grandfather became the new king of Mathura. However, an ally of Kansa was not happy about the defeat of Kansa and so king of Magadh waged a war against Krishna and the Mathura kingdom. However, Krishna and his grandfather had another kingdom built to house the villagers of Mathura so when Jarasandh came to the kingdom they would only find a empty city. Krishna became king of the new location and the Pandava brother Bhima was left to defeat Jarasandh.

Krishna and Cow Herd
Source: Wattpad

Bibliography: Epified, Krishna, Part B Video Source: Youtube Playlist

Reading Notes: Epified Krishna Part A

The story about how Krishna came about starts when he was born as the eighth child, Krishna was able to survive the death that captured the other seven babies before him. Krishna was not just any baby and he turned out to be a spectacle they all did not expect. They all thought the eighth kid was in safe hands until Kansa found out about the eighth child being born. Kansa came to look at the eighth child and to kill the baby like the other seven. However, the child which is now known as Krishna was able to overcome Kansa and Krishna was safe at last. Krishna later became King and many other things.

Krishna grew up and was known for not being a very nice child, he was becoming a terror throughout the community's. Krishnas mother tried to kill him one day; however, from that day she found out that he was not a normal being and that Krishna was special.

There was a huge storm that came through the town brought on by Inda and it was a huge one and all the towns people ran to Krishna for shelter. Krishna raised the mountain that was next to him and lifted it with his little finger. Krishna then asked for forgiveness from the gods and goddesses. Krishna was then given a Gopi named Radha which was proven to be loyal to him through making her drink scalded milk.

Baby Krishna
Source: Clip Dealer

Bibliography: Epified Krishna Video Source: Youtube

Week 9 Reading Notes: Part A

Goddess Ganga
Source: Wolverton Mountain

For this week I have chose the video files: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution for the reading assignment. Having the stories put into a video form has really helped me with being able to follow the story line and how things fit together. When it comes to imagining things like the stories that are told in the Mahabharata I really start to lack in my conceptualize of things.

The narrator of the videos does a really good job in the visualization of the characters while the story the is going along. The other really nice thing about the videos is that now I have a reference as to if I am saying the names correctly (I found out I was really wrong on a lot of the names).

The story that was interesting to was about Shantanu and his wife Ganga goddess of the river Ganga. The narrator does a really good job of keeping the story true to itself but also making it in a more playful manner than it was depicted in the book that we read a few weeks ago. The videos also go through and really show more of depiction of what Ganga does and gives a more in-depth picture of what she does.

The other interesting part is when we get to see how Bhishma becomes who he is as we know him throughout the book. The book doesn't really go into depth about how the characters become who they are in the present unlike the videos. I think having more of a background for each character as they go from being one person to another would have cleared a lot more things up when trying to read the book.

Bibliography: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution.

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part D

Mahabharata Part D- this starts when the brothers are going back forth with their uncle on trying to come up with a peace option for giving the brothers back something and the uncle is just not willing to give in.

Battle Field Kurukshetra
Source: OrissaPost

• This starts by Yudhishthira sending one of his messengers named Krishna to go and speak to Dhritarasthtra about coming up with a peace deal and that the brothers just want five villages so each one will have their own
•        When Dhritarasthtra finds out about Krishna coming to the palace he wants to set a big ceremony for him and try to basically make him a friend to them; however, Duryhodhana has different plans and to set up a trap to try and take Krishna as prisoner
•         Krishna arrives and speaks about the peace deal and it is quickly declined
•         Krishna returns to the brothers to tell the bad news and say that a war has been declared between the brothers and their uncle
•         The battle starts and both of the parties set up their armies in different ways and certain guidelines are set forth for how the battle is suppose to happen, one that I found weird is that all battle is suppose to stop at night time and pick back up in the next morning
•         The battle goes on for days, the different armies start with different formations and they are counterattacked with a different formation from their opponent
•         There is many deaths and each side really takes turns throughout the battle on who loses the most and looks like they are going to win
•        Finally towards the end of the battle both sides are starting to get angry with each other and they both just want the battle to be over and so they start to lose all moral guidelines and just start taking lives
•         The brothers are stronger and have a noble person on their side that is able to lead in the right direction for each action to defeat their uncle in the quickest way
•         The brothers come out on top of the battle and win
•         They head to the palace where they once lived to take it back and Yudhishthira becomes the King, along with his brothers in other positions of authority under him

Bibliography: the Mahabharata, R.K. Narayan. Source: Web Link

the Mahabharata Part C: Reading Notes

Sacred Groves in India
Source: Biodivvy

Mahabharata Part C- in this section it starts out with the brothers and their wife still out in the forest on the last part of their twelve years.

-starts out with Yudhishthira and Nakula were running after a deer and they kept missing and went on and on hunting until they gave up

-they had chased this deer for so long that they were thirsty for water and so one of them climbed a tree in search for some water

-there was place that seemed it had water and so Nakula went to find the water and see if it was going to be a safe place and come back with whatever he found out

-as Nakula approached the water there was a voice that instructed him to not drink the water until he answered some questions

-Nakula disregarded these commands and took a sip of the water and Nakula died just after drinking the water

-so since Nakula never returned one after the other, the brothers went to go find out what happened, each brother passing away because they wouldn’t follow the commands to answer the questions before they partook in the water

-Yudhishthira was the last brother and since none of his brothers returned from the watering hole he went on a search himself to find out what happened to his brothers

-Yudhishthira found his four brothers dead next to the shore of the water and there was the voice again “saying if you don’t want to be like your brothers then answer these questions and you can have all the water you want”

-Yudhishthira being the person he was didn’t follow any commands unless he could get something in return (because as we learned from the beginning he was not afraid to gamble)

-Yudhishthira answered the questions that were asked of him and in return he was able to drink the water and at first he was only promised to get one brother back, but since he was able to answer all questions and also pass the test of not revealing who he truly was all the brothers were brought back to life

Second part of the part C read

-the brothers and their wife get to the end of their twelve year sentence to the forest and now comes the time were they are to stay unrecognized for another year

-they find a kingdom they will call home for the thirteenth year

-they struggle to work as servants in the palace and follow the rules so they are not to be noticed as their true selves

-they make it through the thirteenth year and now make their decisions on how to get back their kingdom and royalty back from their uncle and cousins

Bibliography: the Mahabharata, R.K. Narayan. Source: Web Link

Reading Notes: Mahabharta Reading Part B

- at first the brothers and the one wife are summoned to the kingdom that they were banned from

- asked to gamble basically for the rights to however should have the best palace whether it's the brothers or the brothers uncle

- in my opinion the brothers are cheated out their palace when they gamble on the dice game, but it was also their fault for continuing to bet when they were just losing every round

-the brothers ended up losing everything in the bet and were forced to become their uncles slaves in his palace

- the uncle started to feel bad for them after one of the elders talked to him, so he gave the brothers back their palace but kept everything else

- then they were summoned back to their uncles palace to gamble again because their uncle now got scared that the brothers would regain everything they lost and come back to kill him and the rest of the people that supported him

- and once again the brothers lost everything and this time they were forbidden to reside anywhere except the forest and they were to stay there for twelve years and one more year unless somebody noticed them

Horses talked about in gambling
Source: India Today

Bibliography: R.K. Narayan, "the Mahabharata". Source: Textbook

Mahabharta Reading Part A

-We have two characters that fall in love, the wife only has one condition on the marriage and that the man can not question anything that she does on her time
- The couple has a kid and the mother drowns the child in the river
- This trend continues until the 8th child is born 
- 8th child is allowed to live only because it was the rebirth of the person who granted the wish of the curse for the other 7th children 

- Some character is flying overhead the water and he drops some semen in the lake and it is received by a fish and this fish had two kids a girl and boy
- The boy is taken and the girl is left to live and be raised by a fisherman
-We meet a the characters of the girl who is raised by a fisherman and the fisherman won't allow the marriage of her unless she gets to take the throne 
- A proposal is given and the marriage happens 
- Since the fisherman agreed to the marriage the woman's stink of bad fish was removed 

- Meet Bhishma
- Satyavati given in marriage to the king
- gave birth to two sons
- Chitrangada and Vichitravirya
- All the sons are taken through training 
- Bhishma took care of his family
- Bhishma renounced thrown
- Chitrangada was proclaimed king
- haughty ruler but for a short time
- waged war against Gandhari and killed in battle
- Bhishma put Vachitravirya on the throne
- since he was young, Bhishma was regent
- All the brothers are forced to leave the palace and find refuge somewhere until it is safe to return home 

Representation of Bhishma
Source: Global Fashion Street

Bibliography: R.K. Narayan, "the Mahabharata". Source: Textbook 

Reading Notes Week 4, Part D

Finding Sita and Destroying of Lanka

After all the time that has passed and the land that has been covered in this story I was relieved to finally see that Sita had been found. This is when Hanuman the monkey found Sita in the land of Lanka where Ravana resides and is holding Sita. 

I found it really interesting that Sita was strong enough to over come the temptation of giving into Ravana and becoming his new wife. Throughout the whole book every time someone is defeated theirs wives almost instantly give in to the victorious and here Sita is strong and his only committed to Rama. Ravana takes multiple strides to break Sita of this commitment she has for Rama but shes stays strong. 

Hanuman escapes from Ravanas armies and sets destruction to Lanka before crossing the ocean once again to bring great news to Rama. This is great news to Rama and then the battle begins between Ravana and Rama in Rama's quest to get his wife Sita back. 

Battle between Rama and Ravana

The battle really showed the strengths of both Rama and Ravana and the author really takes the story and puts into a words that paint a clear picture. I find it interesting in this battle of you really get to see how the powers are divided and almost equal among Rama and Ravana. I only say this, because you see that both Rama and Ravana receive help from the gods at different times during the battle between the two of them. But it just comes down to the end of who is the most powerful and can utilize the powers that have been given to them in the most beneficial way to get what they want. 

I was really happy to see that Rama and Sita finally got be embraced in each others arms again. In winning the battle and receiving his wife back I was happy that were able to find piece once again and get accepted into the heavens above. 

Battle of Rama and Ravana
Source: Wikimedia

Bibliography: R.K. Narayan, The Indian Epics Retold: The Ramayana 

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part A

In the start of part A of the Ramayana, there is a lot going on just in the first few pages of a lot of different characters. It started to get a little confusing on where the story line was going. But then it all starts to clear up when Rama and Viswarmithra arrive in the city of Mithila and they meet Janaka. Janaka has a special way of finding the right person for his daughter Sita, this is done by whoever is strong enough to restring Shivas bow that was Janaka found. 

Rama is faced with the task of restringing the bow and surprisingly with all the others that failed to complete the task Rama is able to do it with ease. Janaka is amazed by this and demands that Rama and Sita marry right then. So, Rama's father is called to come to Mithila for the marriage and the marriage happens and the other sons of Dasharatha. 

Rama and Sita seem to have a really strong bond between the two even before they even realized who each other were. They go back to Kosala, where a little bit of time passes by before Dasharatha decides to announce his stepping down and Rama to step up as the new king of Kosala. This, however, is stopped by one of Dasharatha's wives and Rama is told to not accept the crown and to leave Kosala. I hope in reading part B I will find out what happens to Rama and if he actually leaves or decides to stay. The only reason why I say this is because a lot of the people in the kingdom do not like the decision of Rama being banned from the kingdom and his right to the crown taken away. 

Rama and Sita
Source: Flickr

Bibliography: R.K. Narayan, The Ramayana. 

 

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit

The story that kept popping back into my mind the whole time I was reading these stories was about the rabbit. The reason I think this is so is because the rabbit reminded me of the story about Chicken Little that kept running around saying, "the sky is falling". 

• The story about the rabbit has six animals- three rabbits, one deer, one fox, and a lion
• Story begins with rabbit sleeping and thinking about the earth breaking 
• Coconut drops from tree and scares rabbit 
• Rabbit starts running like chicken little and yelling that the earth is breaking 
• All the other animals run in tow with the rabbit 
• Lion is wise and brave and goes and finds out what really happened

Family of Animals. Source

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt, "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit", Source.  

Week 2 Reading Overview

Ramayana Book Decision 

The version that I have chose to use for the course work is the R.K. Narayan's version. I picked to use this copy because it is composed of only one persons writing style and I think for something that is unknown to me this will be the best option for me to be able to dive into the material. 

Comic Books 

The first comic book that I picked is "Thanjavur: City of Brihadeeswara". Then the second comic book talks about the same gods and characters but in slightly different story and that comic book is "Shiva Paravati: A Story of Divine Love". I picked these two because because they seemed to have a story line that just in the overview I was able to follow and the Story of Divine Love has a decent story line that has a little bit of action and deception within it. Then I found the Thanjavur comic and noticed that it had the same characters and also if you read together you can get a broader picture of Shiva one of the gods.

Videos 

The first video that I picked is the "Stages of Life" where is goes through the timeline of the Hindu ways of the way of life. The video goes into detail about the four ashramas of life and how they progress. It is very interesting to watch this video and see that the person goes through life to basically give it all up in the end and gives himself up to God. 

The next video is, "Harry Potter Meets Hindu Mythology", this video really just stuck out to me because I am a Harry Potter fan and so what better than to find something that I am familiar with and add to what I am trying to learn about. In this video it takes the Hindu myth and relates to the story line of Harry Potter to tell the story and it was really easy to follow. 

Image used from Indian Epics: Images and PDE Epics

Image depicts two of the characters from the comic books I chose.