Week 7, Reading Diary 1,Epified Mahabharata,100 Sons & A Brief History of Temples in India

Epified Mahabharata

Vitthala temple, Hampi www.historydiscussion.net

So this was a really nice way to see the story of the Mahabharata in a different way. The story is really great but it is hard to digest by reading it. I read it while having it read to me by Laura on the audio file and it was tough. This way was good. But honestly, even with this method the names got me confused on more than one instance.

The son of the sun was a story I did not pick up on while reading. Nor was the 100 Sons story on my radar. Holy smokes it was like a bit of sci-fi watching the king guy take a miscarriage and turn it into genetic material for 100 baby clones. Who are evil. Whoa. 

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This is perfect! I really did not want to do a lot of reading today. So I chose the online choice to watch interesting things. I am having a blast watching these videos. The art is so fun, and I really want to get out my markers and color in the pictures that the artist is drawing in all of these short snip-its.  

The one that has just grabbed me is the one on the history of the temples. HOLD THE PHONE! Ok, so I have a fascination with Mohenjo Daro. But I did not know that there was not any temples in the old culture. Whoa. Mind Blown. Because in retrospect it makes perfect sense.

Also, I am studying the time of Alexander the Great in other classes currently. So I was skidding sideways while hearing about how the Greeks brought the building tech with them from Egypt and Mesopotamia. Shut the front door!

Also, as a side note, in the past few weeks in my Biblical Archeology class we were reading a passage out of the Old Testament in Ezekiel where he is describing the wheels in a vision. My professor had offered up the idea that maybe Ezekiel was seeing a wheel/coaster that was attached to a moving temple. Pffft.  I dissed his idea. Until I just saw the same idea here in this little 4 minute gem. What!!!

I am horrible with timelines and such. What a horrible thing to say outloud when I am a History minor student....but I digress...so the Greeks had influence over the Jewish culture during the time of the writings....the Jews were in Egypt and Mesopotamia...The Greeks were in India, Egypt, Mesopotamia....Hmmm. I see a pattern. 

A pattern left in stone. I found the image above on Google images rather quickly by searching for "temple in India".

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I have no idea how I came to be on the link for this video. I am now looking at the playlist for the readings for this week and it's not part of the readings. I watched some really neat stuff though....

It was KARMA, that I found it!

Week 5, Reading Diary 1, Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition

Bhishma in battle,
facing Shikhandin, Krishna, and Arjuna.

Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition

Sources used: Arnold, Besant, Devee, Dutt, Ganguli, Kincaid, Macfie,Mackenzie, Nivedita, Seeger, and Tagore.

Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913). [800 words]

The Arrival of Karna

The appearance of Arjuna's unknown brother and rival intrigues me. I find it interesting that Karna also does not know his lineage or speak of it and still finds his way into being royalty. It will be interesting to see how Karma itself will play this out. The mother Kunti putting the baby in the basket in the river who is blessed and divine with gifts, reminds me of a few other people of literature that wind up being important people. Such as Moses, or the twins Romulus and Remus.

Week 4, Reading Diary 1, Sita Sings the Blues

Sita Sings the Blues

The first part of the animated tale is awesome. I like how there is a mixture of tales happening at once. The couple in San Francisco and Rama and Sita. The layers parallel with the Vishnu and Lakshmi avatars. I love the colorful art and blues music. The people in the background that are narrating the stories are priceless because they are showing the different variations of the story with their comments, even commenting on what may be original to one story. I think some of my favorite parts of the story are when they are using modern expression like, " don't let the door hit your ass on the way out".

Image source: Rama and Sita with Brahma, Agni, and Shiva; from Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues

Bibliography: 

Author: Nina Paley

Title: Sita Sings the Blues

Year: 2008

Week 2, Reading Diary 1,Rama and Sita's Wedding

Image source: King Janaka and King Dasaratha
Public Domain Edition: Ramayana

Rama and Sita's Wedding

I am struck by how beautiful this poetry is. I love the story of Rama and Sita so I am naturally drawn to them. I also love weddings, so I am not surprised that I want to rewrite this story. I do not feel that I would be able to write this type or style of poetry that is going on here. But I do think that I could use a modern twist to the story and describe the weddings in my own voice. I may also use updated names, while I appreciate the foreign cultures names, I have a hard time spelling them and saying them. 

Also, a million times thank you for the audio files for these readings Laura! With out the reading guide and the audio I would be struggling with these readings !

Source. Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India, condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt (1899). [600 words] As always, I recommend you try reading the poetry out loud or listening to the audio while you look at the text.