Indian Epics Blog

Sonichu is speculated to be a previous incarnation of Buddha (source) The Two Pigs: Some pigs are about to be eaten but one of them is virtuous and moves all the people of the kingdom, so nobody gets eaten. The Patient Buffalo: A monkey decides to mess with a big jacked buffalo. The buffalo could easily turn the monkey into paste, but he decides not to because why should he punish the monkey for being annoying? It's not the monkey's fault that he's obnoxious, nature made him that way. The Sarabha: A king is hunting a really cool deer. The king falls off of his horse and is injured. The deer decides to save the king. The two become friends. The end. The Goblin Town: Some shipwrecked sailors land on an island full of women. One of the sailors finds out that the women are actually goblins. Some of the sailors don't believe him. A big white horse comes to save all of the believers, the rest stay behind and presumably become goblin fodder. The Great E...

Illustration of the Jatakas (source) Howdy everyone, NitroDubbz here. Today I'm gonna be reading the Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat. Without further ado let us begin. The Monkey Bridge: Monkeys live happily by a big 'ol mango tree. Humans want the mangoes so they come to kill all the monkeys, the monkey king sacrifices himself to lead his subjects to freedom. The human king is so moved by his royal honor that he spares all of the monkeys and everyone lives happily ever after. The Guilty Dogs: The palace dogs chew up the leather of the royal carriage. The king decides a reasonable thing to do would be to put all dogs in the city to death. The dog leader comes to the palace and proves the innocence of the town dogs. The king is moved and spares every dog in the city. Banyan: Deer are hunted every day in a certain kingdom, the deer are tired of collateral damage so every day they pick one of their own to be sacrificed in the hunt. One day the K...

"Brb, destroying the universe" (source) Parashurama threw a wad of twenty-dollar bills at the cab driver and leapt from the passenger seat, calling back a brief thanks over his shoulder. Parashurama burst through the door of the house. There was no demonic presence here anymore. He went up to the attic to investigate. He had been too late. The Tavakoli family, or what was left of them, was on the floor of the attic, their corpses mostly eaten. Parashurama knew he was dealing with Pishacha, the demons who sustained themselves on human flesh. No doubt they were out there now, still gathering strength. He went downstairs a turned on the news to confirm the suspicions he had had earlier. On the TV was the football game, being held in the stadium downtown. Tens of thousands of spectators were there. If his theory was correct, the Pischacha would be making their way down to the stadium for a ritual sacrifice. Their goal? Most likely to awaken Shiva and end the Kali Yuga ...

The city of the dead  (source) Parashurama arrived back in the city of the dead, the festival was still going strongly. He approached another ghostly figure and asked him for directions. "Do you know the closest portal that will let me return to the physical world?" The ghost replied, "Well as far as I know, the demons smashed all the portals they made. That's fine by me. Good riddance as far as I'm concerned. But I do believe there was one they were unable to touch. There is a temple with a shrine to Vishnu in the center of this city. I believe that should work as a portal. That's who we're celebrating today actually, Vishnu. Just follow the crowds and you should be able to find it just fine. Say, what's your name anyways?" "Parashurama." The ghost dropped to his knees in respect. The ghosts around him did the same. As word traveled, the entire city dropped to their knees and made a path for him leading to the temple. P...

The portal to a strange realm  (source) Parashurama concentrated on the mirror in front of him. He closed his eyes and recited the mantras that would grant him passage to the spirit realm. When he opened his eyes he was no longer in the attic. He was in front of a stone portal in a strange swamp, filled fog and the smell of decay. Will-o'-the-wisps drifted through the fog, dimly lighting the area. There was no chirping of crickets or bullfrogs, no call of egrets or heron. The swamp was dead silent. Parashurama breathed in as hard as he could and blew, clearing out the fog for hundreds of yards. He was able to clearly see a cobblestone path leading (he presumed) out of the swamp. He began to follow it, occasionally stopping to blow back the fog which was creeping its way back towards him. After walking like this for hours, he came to a large abandoned city of stone. As he walked through the streets of the city, translucent human figures materialized before him. They appe...

There sure are a lot of stories about wolves (source) Hey everyone. NitroDubbz here. Today is the last of the Jatakas. Let's roll. The Elephant and the Dog: This one is very heartwarming. An elephant and a dog become good friends. The dog is sold to a new owner and the elephant doesn't eat or bathe. Eventually they are reunited and live happily ever after. The Hawks and their Friends: Hawks are threatened by hunters, but are saved through the combined efforts of their friends. The moral that friends in need are friends indeed. The Brave Little Bowman: A short disfigured bowman masquerades as the page of a huge skilled laborer in order to join the king's army. Eventually the praise gets to the head of the big man, and he thinks he can get along without the small bowman, who is the actual one with skill. The charade is undone when they go to war and the big man runs away in fear while the little bowman stays behind and wins the battle. The...

Fish are dumb (source) Howdy everyone, NitroDubbz back again. Today is week two of Jatakas. I'm not sure how many more Jatakas I can read before I go insane, but anyways here's my take on the best. Three Fishes: Two dumb fish get lazy and greedy and it almost gets them killed, except their wise fish friend saves them. The moral of the story is not to test your luck longer than you need to. Wolf and the Rats: A wolf tricks a bunch of rats and pays the price with his life. This story is very similar to the story of the Crane and the Crab. Basically the moral is that if you are deceitful you will die. Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer: A woodpecker and a turtle use their combined strengths to save their dear (see what I did there?) friend. The moral of this one is that it's better to work together with others. Golden Goose: A golden goose gives a poor family one feather each week out of kindness. The mother gets greedy and attempts to pluck all the feathers at...

(source) Howdy again everyone, NitroDubbz here. Today I'm going to be reading more Jatakas. Most of these are new so I have quite a bit of new material to cover. Owl: Not much of a moral to this one, basically the crows don't like the owl because the owls frown. Merchants: Thrifty merchant vs. Foolish merchant, you can guess who comes out on top in this story. Basically the foolish merchant is eager to leave and doesn't think carefully about what needs to be done, he ends up paying the price, and the thrifty merchant ends up getting all of his stuff after he dies. Elephant Girly-face: A kind and gentle elephant learns by example. I suppose the moral of this one is that people are influenced by their environments and the people around them. Prince and the water sprite: I'm not really sure about this one. I guess that being virtuous will always be rewarding? I guess the water sprite was the test of character that best determine...

(source) Howdy everyone, NitroDubbz here again with more reading notes.  Today I read some Jatakas, which are stories of the different lives (incarnations) of Buddha. They are fables which usually have an explicit moral that they try to teach. Most of these I had already read earlier in the year, but I'll cover the four new ones. The Merchant story Basically there's an honest and a dishonest merchant. The dishonest merchant ends up losing out on a really good deal because of his dishonesty. The Ox A man mistreats his ox, which then refuses to work for him. The next day he treats it well and it happily pulls for him. The Quails Quails team up to keep from being caught, but eventually the begin fighting amongst themselves, which makes them easy prey.  Measure of  Rice A king fires a fair price-setter and hires one that is easily influenced, that way the king can get everything for practically free. But then someone bribes the p...

Parashurama with the gat  (source) The Tavakoli family had been having troubles with spooky ghosts for a while now. At first it was subtle, cabinets all opened in the night, crosses flipped upside-down, things that could be explained away. But before long the Tavakoli family's haunting became worse. Demonic figures moved about in the shadows, footsteps could be heard coming from the attic and closed rooms. The family began hearing voices and occasional screams. They thought it might be carbon monoxide or an indian burial ground or a curse, but none of the psychics or physicians they consulted were able to stop the haunting. Until they called an ad in the phone book for an exorcist named Parker Sherman. The Tavakolis were sitting on the living room couch when the doorbell rang-- *ding dong!* --they all jumped instinctively. Their anxiety had grown so bad in the months since they had moved in that they we all on a hair-trigger. Papa Tavakoli got up to go answer the door an...

(source) Howdy again everyone, NitroDubbz here. Today I'm back again with my reading notes on the Mahabharata (condensed R. C. Kincaid version). So the Pandava brothers are almost through with their year of exile and now go into disguise in the court of king Virata. Prince Kichaka tries to seduce Draupadi, so she asks him to meet her in the dance hall at night and then Bhima chokes him to death and rolls him up into a ball like Katamari. Draupadi watches from the darkness for some reason, and then tells everyone that her husband, an immortal, is the one who killed prince Kichaka, in order to avoid blowing her and her husband's cover. Then they are going to burn Draupadi in prince Kichaka's funeral pyre because they do that sometimes in India, and Kichaka's relatives are really angry at her. But Bhima kills the funeral procession and sets her free. Duryodhana hears of Kichaka's death and decides to attack King Varata's kingdom. The battle takes place p...

Very cool architecture in Hastinapur  (source) Howdy again everyone, NitroDubbz here. Today I am reading the Mahabaharata again, but a condensed version. I chose to read the C. A. Kincaid version.  This version opens with some explanation of the cultural significance of the Mahabharata poem. I think it's very interesting, it seems like it serves as a shared cultural mythology and a way to legitimize the rule of a caste or race of people. I'm not too sure about the demographics of India, I did a little research and the term "Aryan" in the Indian context seems to be more of spiritual/cultural moniker than a racial one. I read a bit of the C. A. Kincaid Ramayana and they mentioned that the north of India was ruled by Aryans and the south inhabited by savages and cannibals. So I'm wondering if these stories served as an origin story that validated a regime, maybe an empire originated in the north and spread its control to the south. I know nothing about I...

FINISHING MOVE!!! (source) Howdy everyone. It is I, Dubbz of the Nitro, here again with another blog post. This neat little gif is from a show called Gurren Lagann, directed by one of my favorite directors in animation, Hiroyuki Imaishi. Everything he makes is pretty much the same, but his style is different enough from everyone else that he can get away with it because it fits into its' own niche.  The reason I chose this picture is because the main motif of the show is about continual improvement and getting a little better every day until you are able to reach a lofty goal. I think that consistency and determination is very important, and relevant to today's blog post! I usually try to stay a week ahead in this class so I can have a buffer in case the workload of my other classes suddenly increases, which is what has happened this week. I looked at my gradebook and I've got a little over half of the points, but I'd like to finish this class early s...

Shri-shri-shrimpidee-doo (source) Howdy again friends, it's your old pal NitroDubbz back with some reflection on my (and your) comments and feedback. I chose this picture for a couple of reasons. Mostly because I like shrimp and crawdads. Nothing beats a nice crawdad with some butter. If you've never had them before I recommend trying crawdads with some steamed red potatoes and and corn on the cob and coarse salt. My mouth is watering now just thinking about those ugly little red mini-lobsters. Anyways as for my comment feedback. I'll admit sometimes I don't give as good of feedback as I could. The worst feedback I give is whenever I enjoy a story a lot. If I enjoy a story, it's difficult for me to find any flaws to point out, so I usually just give praise. But praise doesn't do anything to help a writer improve, it can be a good moral booster, but ultimately constructive criticism is what allows us to grow. So if I could say one area I need to i...

How excited I am when I get to work on Indian Epics homework (source) Howdy folks! NitroDubbz here today with some reflection and introspection. I like my blog and website layout. They're very simple, but I like minimalism and simplicity. You should see my room, I have like three things in it. My reading notes help me quite a bit with my writing, not because I revisit them, but because the act of note-taking forces me to organize my thoughts and stop to process over the information I've read. So far my favorite story has been the Ramayana. I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout. The Mahabharata was a total bore-fest for the first half. At least I thought it was because it was very confusing having so many characters introduced so quickly. (source) This is my favorite image so far. It's a screenshot of the character Woods from Call of Duty Black Ops, which is one of my favorite games. I was basically picturing Alex from the Art Girl Rescue saga as Woods the ...