Indian Epics Blog

The City of Lights Note: This is a continuation from Week 7: The Game of Dice  I had been in Las Vegas for about a week now and I still couldn't shake off the experience I had witnessed at the Crystal Palace. Where did the King and Mr. D go? What happened to Mr. Pandava and his wife Padi? I yearned to find out, but I didn't want to be caught up in any of their business. I was walking down the street with the neon lights reflecting off of my shoes and glasses. I looked around at the scene: people drinking, gambling, going to shows. Everything seemed normal, except..not. Perhaps it was just me, but I felt a tension in the air. It was as if all of Las Vegas had seen the duel between Mr. Pandava and Mr. D and was holding their breath.  I continued walking when I noticed I was being followed. A man in a black suit with black sunglasses kept about six feet back from me, but he turned every time I turned, stopped any time I stopped, and kept his eyes on me. I began to look around and...

  Kumbhakarna: The Sleeping Giant Kumbhakarna is the brother of the evil Ravana, who was holding Sita captive. Kumbhakarna was so mighty that he was even able to defeat Indra in battle. Later on, Brahma awards the three brothers, Ravana, Kumbhakarna, and Vibhishana, wishes. Indra, who was still angry about losing and feared Kumbhakarna becoming stronger, wanted Kumbhakarna to make a foolish wish. Kumbhakarna does make a foolish wish, which causes him to go into a deep slumber. When Rama comes to reclaim Sita, he defeats Ravana. Angry, Ravana demands that his brother Kumbhakarna is woken from his slumber. Waking him up was very dangerous, as he was very hungry!  When Kumbhakarna awoke, he took out many soldiers in Rama's army. Fearing for the rest of his army, Rama goes and challenges Kumbhakarna himself. While he was a strong opponent, Rama was able to defeat Kumbhakarna. Bibliography: Kumbhakarna: The Sleeping Giant by Amar Chitra Katha

  Sugriva Challenges Vali Comic One: Vali Vali is the mighty king of Kishkindha. While he was king, there was an evil rakshasa named Dundubhi that roamed across the earth. Dundubhi was very malicious and would go and terrify parts of the world, such as the Ocean. One day, he decided to go terrify Himavan, also known as the Himalayas. When Dundubhi approached Himavan, Himavan told him that Vali would be a mighty opponent for Dundubhi. Thus, Dundubhi turned into a water buffalo and traveled to Kishkinha to see this king for himself. Vali defeated Dundubhi easily and tossed his dead carcass on Rishyamuka mountain and for this he was cursed. If he ever stepped foot on that mountain, he would immediately die. When Dundubhi's son, Mayavi, heard of his father's death, he went to challenge Vali. Mayavi runs into a cave and Vali follows him while Sugriva, Vali's brother, remained outside. Days pass and then Sugriva heard a loud roar and blood flowing out of the cave. Sugriva feared ...

  Madison, WI: Wikimedia Commons I am very happy with my progress so far. I have completed all weekly tasks as well as a few extra credit assignments, so I am ahead overall. I generally stick to a weekly routine, but sometimes my lab work changes my schedule. However, this has not really brought any stress to me, as I do not mind working on this class! So far, my favorite part of the class has been the Storybook project. I really enjoy the topic I have chosen and love writing the stories for it. As of now, there is not really anything major I want to change. I would love to improve my story writing, such as adding in more dialogue and imagery. I might play around with my Website to make it "prettier" at some point, but I still think it looks nice. I chose this image of Madison, WI as my motivation to push for the end of the semester. I did this because I am moving there in May! My husband and I love the area and cannot wait for the beginning of our lives there. We have actual...

  Feedback Overall, I believe my feedback is generally helpful. Sometimes the comments are just nice, but that is also motivational! The best feedback in my opinion has been when people question my writing. I do not find this offensive, I just find it as a challenge to become better! I have been trying to leave nice comments that also have at least one tip or question. I believe these type of comments are the best because you learn from it as well as feel good about your writing! I have definitely gotten ideas from other people, such as incorporating more dialogue into my stories. This has helped make my stories much more intriguing.  I am for sure getting to know people and am beginning to recognize people's names. I have actually recognized some people from other classes as well as extracurricular activities. I am happy with my blog, as I feel like it really captures me. I did have to update it because I am moving somewhere else now than when I originally wrote the post! The...

  Lakshmi and her Owl My favorite reading so far has definitely been The Ramayana . I really enjoyed the entire story as well as all of the characters. The love between Rama and Sita was captivating, especially since he spends the latter of the story searching for her all over the world. Overall, I am pretty happy with my Blog as well as my Storybook. I am really excited to write the rest of my Storybook, as I have planned out my next two stories. Writing these have definitely helped me with utilizing dialogue as well as incorporating imagery. I wrote my Lakshmi and her Owl story on my Storybook, and I really enjoyed how it turned out. I think I was able to create a better story since my reading notes were excellent for remembering certain aspects of the book. I think as I progress in the class, I want to get even better at using dialogue. I believe it really adds to the story and will help the reader truly imagine the story I am telling.

  Parvati, her son, and her vahana: Wikipedia Vahanas I started with the vahanas because that is what my storybook is about. Many gods have vahanas that show a variety of animals. I was curious about the list of deities that used animal mounts, which led me to my next article. List of Deities After looking over the list, a couple of deities caught my eye in particular. I decided to click on Devi, which is the Sanskrit term for goddess. As I find goddess figures to be really intriguing, I was excited to learn about them and their vahanas. Devi On this Wikipedia page, there are many goddesses that caught my eye. Many, if not all, of the goddesses I clicked on had vahanas. I found Parvati's vahana the most interesting, so I clicked on her. Parvati Parvati is the Hindu goddess for love, fertility, beauty, and other things similar in nature. In Hinduism, she is the mother-goddess. She is usually seen with her mount, Dawon. Dawon is typically a lion, but sometimes he is a tiger.

  Mobile App: Pixabay I chose to do the Canvas Mobile App tech tip because I think it is really beneficial for college students. Downloading the mobile app was really helpful for me as a student because I would never miss graded assignments being released, teacher announcements, and it was easy to look at the calendar for assignment due dates.  This app is SO easy to download, as you just go to the app store and you are done! The easy access to the download of the app as well as it is so beneficial that it would be silly not to have it. I hope anyone who has not downloaded this app will do so.

  The Blue Diamond Gallery: Happiness The challenge I am choosing to do for the week is the Happiness Jar. This is when you write something down that made you happy and stick it in a jar! At the end of the week, you read all of the notes and remember everything good that happened instead of the bad.  I chose this challenge because I have been really stressed lately. It is really easy to remember all of the bad things that happen instead of the good, especially in times of stress. Although I know I experience many more good things in my life, it is easy to dwell on the one bad thing from my week. I am hoping that this challenge will help me focus on all the good from my week and help with my stress!

  Dice: Quantamagazine I was strolling down the streets of Las Vegas, passing by all of the bright lights and the sounds of coin machines when I saw a casino that loomed over all of the others: The Crystal Palace. Now, me being a newbie in the area, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I walked in between those doors. At the time, all I could focus on was the sparkle of the casino, which definitely fit its name perfectly. There were huge crystalline chandeliers hanging from the ceiling that were almost blinding to look at as well as a center bar that was encased with mirrors. Everything in casino seemed breakable to touch or too nice for me to feel comfortable to place my hand upon it. As I gazed around in wonder, I had not noticed two men coming down the stairs until the entire casino was in silence. Standing before me on the grand staircase were the two biggest casino leaders in Las Vegas: Mr. Pandava and Mr. D. No one knows what the mysterious Mr. D's real name is; ...

  Arjuna at the War: Flickr Yudhishthira makes one final plea for peace and sends Krishna as an emissary. Dhritarashtra hears of this and wants to host a lavish reception; however, many of his advisors tell him that Krishna has come for peace, not for a party. His son, Duryodhana, also hears of this and plans to take Krishna captive. When he meets with Krishna, he refuses to give peace and ignores the please of his mother. Krishna then transforms into his divine form at the reception, thus Duryodhana cannot capture him. Before returning to the Pandavas, Krishna tells Karna of his true heritage and tries to get him to ditch Duryodhana. However, he promises to only attack Arjuna and not the other four brothers. Now, it is time for the war to begin. Draupadi's brother is made the commander for the Pandavas while Bhishma is made the commander for Duryodhana's troops. Before the war begins, Arjuna is horrified at the thought of fighting his old master, Drona, and members of his own ...

  Duryodhana fighting Bhimsena: Flickr Dhritarashtra sends out spies to go watch the Pandavas; thus, he discovers the weapons that they have possessed. Duryodhana goes out and sets up a royal camp near where the Pandavas are living in order to try and humiliate them. In order to protect them, the gods send down a gandharva to provoke Duryodhana, which ends up with him being captured. The Pandavas discover this and free him, so ultimately, his plan to embarrass them backfired. The Pandavas return to the forest. One day, they are approached by a brahmin who begs for them to go capture a deer that has stolen what he needs to make a sacrificial fire. The Pandavas chase the deer, but to no end. They are all exhausted and look for water. One of the brothers finds a lake where a voice tells him to answer questions before drinking. Ignoring this, the brother takes a drink and dies. One by one this happens until Yudhishthira finds the lake. He answers the questions. We discover that this wa...

  Ganga the River Goddess: Wikimedia Commons Once there was a beautiful woman whose hair flowed like a river. She always had a lovely white lily in her hair as well as all over her clothes. During the day, she loved spending her time on the side of the river looking for more lilies to add to her collection.  One day while she was performing her lily hunt, a handsome young man appeared from out of the woods. He was immediately in love and begged for her hand in marriage. She agreed, but only if he would allow her all of the freedom in the world and that he never questioned her motives. He agrees without second thought and they become married. This man, we discover, was actually a King! His name was Santanu.  They lived a very happy life, as she was a perfect spouse. Santanu wondered what freedom she possibly could request that he needed to question. She was spectacular in every way. Eventually, his wife and him have a baby son, who he loves very much. However, his wife too...

  The Pandavas: Wikipedia Dhritarashtra discovers that the Pandavas are still alive; however, he does not hate them. His sons do hate them though. Bhishma and Vidura tell Dhritarashtra that he should try to make peace while Karna tells him that they are all traitors. In the end, he decides to make peace by giving them a piece of his lands. After given the lands, the Pandavas decide to build a great city: Indraprastha. One day, they are visited by a sage who warns them of potential conflicts due to sharing a wife. One conflict that does occur is Arjuna walks in on Yudhishthira and the wife making love and thus he is exiled for 12 years. During this 12 year exile, he marries a naga princess as well as the sister of Krishna. During this time, Yudhishthira is crowned to become king. Since he was to have a coronation, Duryodhana, one of Dhritarashtra's sons,  decided to go. Duryodhana, is deeply jealous of the kingdom. Shakuni, his maternal uncle, begs him not to mess with the...

The Mahabharata: Wikimedia Commons Santanu was the ruler of an ancient kingdom. He came across a beautiful woman one day while hunting and decided he wanted to marry her. She agreed to marry him only if she could still have her freedom and he never questioned her. Eventually, the two had a baby that she drowned in the river. Santanu was shocked, but could not ask her any questions due to their agreement. From then on, every child they had she drowned in the river until they got to the eighth child. Santanu followed her to the river and begged her to stop. She agreed to spare the child, but stated that they had to part. He begged for her to tell him why. He discovers his wife was the deity of the river: Ganga. She had taken human form in order to give birth to the babies that only he was worthy to give her. In the babies' past lives, they had been the eight vasus which were Indra's attendants. They had been cursed to be born on earth due to stealing Sage Vasishta's rare cow....