Pranali Patel's Blog

The Crab and the Crane I choose to read the Jatakas tales because I really enjoy reading short stories. Short stories have to be good when they start to get people’s attention so they keep on reading. The short stories have to quickly develop and form because there his not much time to grab the attention of the readers. This story got my attention when it first started because of the characters and because of the setting of the story. I could really imagine the story as it was going on. Another great thing about this short story us that there was a meaning behind it for the readers. The moral of the story shows how Karma works and how ‘what goes around comes around’. The Crane first seemed to be a good friend who wanted to help out the Fishes but then his true colors came out and we see that it was all just a show. He was being selfish and just wanting to kill and eat the fishes for himself. The Crane was smart because he first gained the fishes trust then slowly just started eating...

The Measure of Rice  I choose to read Jatakas because I really like short stories. They have the best moral of the stories and I can learn how to create my own short story by looking at the ones I read. Short stories do not have much time to develop so they really have to start out good to grab the attention of the readers. The story is very valuable because it shows how greed can take over and really destroy you. The story started out by introducing an important character from the story. One of the main character, the king, shows greed to make a little more money then he was already making. He was not happy with what he was getting. He tried to fool people and get a valuer that was a peasant so he knew nothing about values. The king thought that this would be beneficial but it turns out it was not. Another nice twist in the story was the peasant that was called to be used for the king’s benefit turned out to also help out horse dealer by valuing the horses by the ‘measure of r...

Krishna is by far on of the most interesting character from all the other ones I have known about. He is so nice and clever. Krishna shares his food with other people even though he doesn’t have to. Shows the he is a very nice person. Krishna also was tested where he proved himself really well. Brahma ended up taking Krishna’s cows and his friends which would be a problem but Krishna was so smart that he handled the situation really well. He ending up creating the lost cows out of himself which is very clever. Something amazing was that no one could tell the difference between the original cow and the ones that Krishna made out of himself. After seeing this the creator of the universe realized how special Krishna really was. Through other situation we see that Krishna stays by his words. Whatever he says he makes it happen such as he said he will ride Hastin, the angry bull, soon and he did indeed. He slowly got closer to the bull which was a smarter move then just making him angry fo...

The mantra given to Kunti by Durvasa stuck to me the most because I think it was so helpful and effected many people. Whenever she says the mantra she could call any god and they would show up.   The first time Kunti called the Sun god, Surya, she didn’t know what was happening or why she even called him. After the Sun god left she had found a ‘beautiful’ baby in her arms. Since she was not married it was not possible to keep the child so she had to let him go. She put the baby in her basket and let him go in the water hoping he would be safe. Later on in the story Pandu and his two wives went to the forest for some time. In the forest one day Pandu goes hunting and shoots an arrow at a hermit couple who were making love with each other. Before the Hermit died he cursed Pandu that while he is making love he will also die. This shows the concept of Karma again. Now Pandu could not make love to his two wives so he also cannot have children to carry the role in the kingdom. He w...

The concept of Karma is very interesting to me and how a lot of people do believe in it. We see a glimpse of the concept of karma in this part of the story for the baby’s that Goddess Ganga has. King Shantanu of Hastinapur goes through a lot in the first parts of the epics. He first falls in love with the river goddess, Ganga, and wants to marry her. Ganga said yes but she also asked King Shantung to never question anything she does. Just like anyone being in love would do, King Shantanu agreed and they both got married. As King Shantanu and Ganga had children Ganga would keep drowning her babies right after they were born. King Shantanu did not like this at all but had once promised Ganga to never question her any about anything so he followed through. This shows that he stands by his words. All seven kids were drowned by queen Ganga. As the 8th child was born he asked his wife why she did that. This shows that he is a person with care because anyone who cares would worry and be up...

Draupadi is a interesting character in my eyes. She is very set in what she wants and we see an example of this in this part of the Mahabharata. Since her brother died and her five sons she just wants revenge. Yudhishthira tries to tell her that if Ashwatthaman did something wrong then he will suffer for it. Draupadi doesn’t need to make him suffer because karma is enough but she does not want to listen to anyone and what they have to say. She also blackmails and says that if you don’t bring me the head of Ashwatthaman then I will not look at your face. Draupadi also did not care about what would happen to her because she know that if anything happened to Ashwatthaman then his sons and his brothers will come for revenge. Draupadi is also very clever, she know about the jewel that was protecting Ashwatthaman but she is going to use that against him. She know that without the jewel Ashwatthaman is going to be cursed and that is what she wants. The jewel is the reason Ashwatthaman did not...

Yudhishthrira was one smart Pandava. It seemed to me that he made himself look like an innocent man that really needs help as he was telling the brahmin that he needed help. The way he was telling brahmin that the kingdom is lost and and everything is lost and they do not have much food. Also he mentioned that there are also hungry animals in the wild that will make them food. The brahmin gave very good advice to Yudhishthira and said to ask for help to the sun god. Yudhishthira was not selfishly asking for himself either. There were other Pandavas and Draupadi and also the brahmin that were also going to need food. Yudhishthrira played very deeply and finally the sun god, Surya, had listened to him and gave copper pot which was good for them. The food was good for many years. Yudhishthrira and the rest of them were very appreciative to get the food because every time they ate food they set aside some food for the holy men. All of them were very devoted for and always prayed. This show...

Mahabharata:Wife of the Five Pandavas. Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913) At first Draupadi had five men she would possibly marry, one by one they were all being considered to be the husband in her swayamwara which is pretty much the epics version of the bachelorette. Then we later find out that Draupadi was a reincarnation of a women who prayed five times for lord Shiva to be her husband in the past life but that could not be. God then rewarded Draupadi in her current life to have five husbands because of the five times she prayed. The five Pandavas that were going to be her husband were also Indra who were reincarnated. She then married each of the five Pandavas one by one. The age was considered when deciding which Pandava would be first to marry Draupadi. I found this reincarnation very interesting, she didn’t get her wish in her passed life but she was blessed with this in her current life. All of the Pandavas got gifts as tradition because these ...

Mahabharata: Pandu and His Wives . Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913) 'Pandu and his wives' had so many things happened that really grabbed my attention. Such as deers being in the form of Brahmin and his wife and the king having two wives. So one day the king was going shooting and his target was the deer. He was some deers and decided to shoot them. He just thought they were regular deer but he was wrong. The deer were really Brahmin and his wife. One surprising thing about this part of the story is that when the “deer” was not blaming the king for shooting the deers or for injuring them but what he did not like at all was the time he shot the deer. He named that act as being cruel because the king shot the deer in the middle of intercourse. He thought that was not good at all. He should have waited to kill them. I was surprised by this because the deer did not mind getting hurt at all, he was just really angry of being hurt in the middle of s...

Ramayana. Source. Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley (2008) I want to focus on a particular character this assignment and that is Sita. She is the wife of Rama and someone she loves very much. She is a very interesting character. There are many things that happen throughout this story that help show her characteristics. She is a character that stayed pretty constant.  Sita dropping jewelry to show where she is going. Source.   Sita is a true lover and support system for Rama because when he was sent to the forest for fourteen years, Sita decided to go to the forest with Rama. She was ready live any way possible just to live with Rama because she believes that a women’s place is right next to her husband. She is also kind of demanding, she wanted Rama to get the beautiful deer until he said yes. Because of this, Ravana got Sita but she was very smart, as she was going to Lanka, she started dropping her jewelry so then she can be found when people start looking for her. ...

Ramayana . Source. Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley (2008). The online film, Sita Sings The Blues was really fun to watch. It was definitely easier to understand because of the visual representation and also because they talk in a modern tone. The video also shows some what of another opinion and not just facts that we see all the time. It is also really easy and fun to watch this animated film so it doesn’t feel like class work for me. The character I want to follow is Ravana. He is said to be a evil king of Lanka and that is how I know him too because of the things he does such as kidnap Sita. But in this video they also say that the only bad thing he really does is take Sita. There are other good things about him such as him praying to the gods and has his good weapons. So over all he is a “good king”. He was said to be a devoted follower of Lord Shiva. Ravana also seems to just go with what anyone says sometimes for example his sister, Surphanaka said take Sita from Rama and he ...

PDE Ramayana: Kumbhakarna . Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913) The character I found really interesting was Kumbhakarna . He is a demon but he also sleep for months without waking up. What is so surprising is even when elephants walk over him, he does not wake up. When someone wakes him up before his time to wake up he is very cranky. He sounds like a big baby to me, when you wake up a baby they also wake up cranky. After reading about him it he just seems to show off his powers. I read that just to show how powerful he is, he ate monkeys. The story I would want to recreate with Kumbhakarna would be him sleeping for over six months but when he gets woken by someone, whoever it is. He will eat them, to show that he is angry. This would happen multiple times when someone wakes him up and he eats them without caring who is it just to show power. With this I will bring a twist on how his brother wakes him up one day and of course he would be angry like always. H...

PDE Ramayana: Hanuman's Leap . Source.  Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914). The character I found interesting from this part of the story was Hanuman and his story. It was mentioned that when Hanuman was a child, one day he was hungry and couldn't find what to eat. Then he saw the sun in the sky and assumed it was a fruit. Since he was far away, the sun was smaller which looked like a fruit, so he wanted to reach the sun and eat it. Indra, another god, came along and had to hit him which caused the wind god to get mad. This shows how much everyone cared for Hanuman.  I found the fact that Hanuman wanted to eat the Sun really interesting. This shows how innocent he was at that age and how everyone was so caring towards him. The way I would want to recreate the story is by Hanuman actually eating the sun and showing consequences. Such as the earth being dark twenty four hours a day because there is no sun and all the issues that can cause such as...

PDE Ramayana: Shurpanakha and Rama . Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913) Shurpanakha who is the sister of Ravana, fell deeply in love with Rama. She was described really badly, she was said to be ugly, and her voice was very harsh and ‘unpleasant’ so she was someone not so appealing. Shurpanakha also seems to be very determined, when he started loving Rama she wanted to do anything to make Rama love her back. She even took a different form of looks so that Rama would leave Sita and be with Shurpanakha. She changed her look from ugly to beautiful. She even started talking bad about Sita, just to get Rama. This shows that she would go to any level to get that she wants, she doesn’t care about making up lies. This shows how good Rama is, he was always loyal to his Sita. To get Shurpanakha off his back, he suggested her to marry Lakshmana. I think Shurpanakha would be a really good character to change in a story which would change up the whole story. I would want t...

PDE Ramayana: Rama: Avatar of Vishnu . Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913). Lord Vishnu, was very determined and helpful to anyone who came to ask for help. When Indra and other gods went to heaven to talk about how the Rakshasas were in Lanka and were making trouble, he was ready to help. Vishnu right away said ‘don’t worry, I will take care of Rakshasas that are causing trouble'. He choose to go as four parts, so he divided himself which I believe was a really good idea because he could be in 4 different places at the same time. Out of the four avatars of Vishnu, Rama was considered the most beautiful for everyone. He was pretty much the main one and one that his father was attached to the most because brahmin said that Rama had the traits of Lord Vishnu. There are many ways I could retell the story but one way I think would be really nice is if I kept the Brave Rama the same, with the same characteristics and show him in the modern life. Puttin...

Two Turtle Jatakas  - THE TURTLE AND THE KING and THE TURTLE AND THE GEESE by  Ellen C. Babbitt. This was one story I really liked. These two stories were different from one another too and I really liked how the turtle in the first story tricked the people. Beginning : I have noticed that the short stories sometimes start out with the main character/characters in the story such as the turtle in both story. The stories are short and straight to the point that is the most important. If you give a lot of other unnecessary information for short stories like this, the readers won't know what to pay attention to. End : The story telling ends right after the main point of the story is over, the writers don't drag it out unnecessarily because it is not important. Example when the turtle got to the lake and then the turtle fell to the ground and what the people said. Story being told : Writers uses quotation marks to say exactly what the character says. Keeping it simple. Som...

There are many things that I found interesting but out of all the things I read, I found three that I would be interested in learning more about.  The Tales of Shiva: LINK From what I read in the summary, Lord Shiva did many things that made me question the purpose behind why he did what he did such as cursing Parvati. I am interested in learning some of the stories and learning why he did what he did.  Images : LINK I am also interested in learning more about the Hindu god and goddesses which we will be exploring second half of the semester. I want to learn the main things about them and what they are mostly known for.  Story: Krishna and Rukmini I want to read about Krishna and Rukmini and how they came to be and the challenges they had phased because they liked each other but couldn't be together. Growing up I always saw statues and pictures of Krishna and Radha and not with Rukmini so I want to learn how that came to be.      ...