Indian Epics Blog

This story has moved! You can read it here

(dab) Howdy again everyone, NitroDubbz back at it again with the white Vans. Nah, I'm just kidding. I'm really back with more of the Life of Buddha. Wow, exciting! Without further ado, let's get it started (haha Black Eyed Peas reference). Buddha is still in Rajagriha. Sariputra and Maudgalyayana, two Brahma of Rajagriha, become disciples of Buddha.  A lot of people in Rajagriha don't like the Buddha because I guess everyone is following him and abandoning their families or committing suicide, I'm not really sure, it wasn't too clear. Although I agree. The Buddha sounds like a troublemaker. No society can get by if everyone is just laying around meditating all day. But anyways, everyone decides to stop bullying the Buddha. Meanwhile, Suddhodhana sends a messenger to Siddhartha telling him to return home. Buddha decides that he will return back to Kapilavatsu. Then Buddha tells the story of the Crane and the Crab. Buddha and his disciples were mak...

(source) Howdy again everyone. NitroDubbz here. Today is my last reading :'( I know, I'm just as sad as you are. But all things must come to and end. So let's get started. Buddha is back home in Kapilavatsu, begging in the street for alms (how ironic). Gopa sees him and tells Suddhodhana, who is upset that Siddhartha, a prince born of the warrior caste, is out begging in the streets. When confronted, Siddhartha tells him of his past life as Dharmapala, where he got his hands and feet cut of because of some stupid stuff. So anyways then a bunch of maids of the palace come to pay their respects to the Buddha, all except Gopa. He goes and finds that she has cast aside all of her possessions in order to be an ascetic like Buddha. He then praises her virtue. Nanda was selected by Suddhodhana to be the next king, since Siddhartha went off to become the Buddha. But then Buddha infects Nanda with his mind-parasite, and so Nanda decides to follow Buddha instead of fulf...

(source) Howdy folks, NitroDubbz here! Today I'm going to be reading more of the Life of Buddha. So Buddha (Siddhartha) has attained enlightenment and he's big chilling under the tree of knowledge. Mara comes and tries to seduce him but it doesn't work obviously. After several weeks of meditation, Buddha has his doubts about teaching mankind what he has learned. So Brahma comes down and gives him confidence that people will listen to him and understand him. After this encounter Buddha heads to Benares, where his followers all went after they abandoned him. When he gets to Benares his old followers all see him and try to hold their grudges against him, but he's so cool and divine that they all can't help but worship him. All of his old followers decide to follow his teachings again, so he tells them the story of the Hermit and the Hare, which he reveals to them was actually one of his past lives. Buddha meets some musicians and he tells them to...

(source) Howdy again everyone, NitroDubbz here. Today I'm reading more of the life of Buddha. Let's get started. Previously: Siddhartha just went off into the forest to be a hermit. He becomes an ascetic under Arata Kamala. He realizes that all that the hermits are doing is indulging in suffering. They haven't overcome or figured anything important out. So he decides to leave them and head to Magadha. Siddhartha arrives at the city of Rajagriha and meditates on a mountainside near the city. People are so moved by his presence that they inform the king who rides out to meet him. The king offers Siddhartha his kingdom and all the riches that he has, but Siddhartha told him that he has rid himself of desire. The king is moved and asks Siddhartha to return and teach him once he has discovered the truth. Siddhartha decides to leave the city and gains some disciples along the way. Siddhartha then sits at the banks of the Nairanjana and meditates until he stops breathin...

(source) Howdy folks, NitroDubbz here. I'm back today with more of the life of Buddha. So without further ado, let's begin! Suddhodhana doesn't want Siddhartha to leave. So he builds him huge, lavish palaces and forbids him from leaving them. Siddhartha is just chilling and laying around enjoying life pretty much. Then his wife, Gopa, bears him a son. Then someone comes to the temple talking about how beauty has begun to return to the forest after winter has ended. Siddhartha is drawn to the forest and Suddhodhana reluctantly allows him to leave. Suddhodhana orders the streets cleared of beggars, elderly, and the infirm, to prevent Siddhartha from seeing the bad parts of life. But the Gods want Siddhartha to experience all of life, so they put an old man in the middle of the road for him to see. Siddhartha is also introduced to sickness and death. He gets to his destination where a bunch of maidens are waiting to seduce him, but he just mopes around and ignores...

(source) Howdy everyone, NitroDubbz here. Today I'm going to be reading the Life of Buddha. The story starts off with a fair and just king (Suddhodhana) of a very wealthy and extravagant kingdom, and his favorite wife, Maya. Maya wants to be kept away in the highest part of the palace, as far from earthly discomforts as she can, but she also wants the poor and unfortunate taken care of. Maya then has a dream from the Gods about giving birth to Siddhartha. She then gives birth to Siddhartha and the hermit Asita comes to visit and confirms that Siddhartha has come to put an end to rebirth. I'm not sure if in this context rebirth is reincarnation or the resetting of the universe like the Yugas with Shiva. Unforunately, Maya dies seven days after giving birth to Siddhartha. Mahaprajapati, Maya's sister, ends up taking care of Siddhartha as if he was her own. When Siddhartha is older, Mahaprajapati takes him to the temple and all the statues of the Gods come to life a...

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...

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...

(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...

The final battle (source) Hello again everyone, NitroDubbz here. Today we're reading more Mahabharata. So Yudhistira decides to send Krishna to Hastinapura to ask for the five villages, which is refused. Then Duryodhana prepares for war, assembling millions of troops, but it starts raining Fanta Orange, which is a bad omen. Arjuna sees all of his cousins and family preparing for war, and his confidence wavers. He decides that the kingdom isn't worth killing his kinsmen. Krishna then explains to him that the Kauravas had already destroyed themselves through their bad karma brought about by their selfish acts of betrayal. Arjuna then regains confidence. The battle begins and one-by-one the Kauravas and their allies are dispatched. Bhima fights Duryodhana and fulfills the vow he made to "smash his thigh" for disrespecting Draupadi.  After the battle, Yudhistira has second thoughts, he starts regretting all the blood that they shed and wishes he could live ...

(source) Hey everyone, Nitrodubbz here again back with more Mahabharata. The Pandava brothers are still in exile, this time they come across a lake while looking for some stuff that an ascetic lost. They're all thirsty so they drink from the lake and die, when Yudhistira comes along, the God of the lake (secretly Yama) tests him to see if he is pure of heart. When Yudhistira answers his questions correctly, he revives his brothers and grants them the ability to remain incognito, allowing them to live in a city without being recognized and exiled back into the wilderness for another twelve years. They go to this city, I can't remember the name, but the king's name is Virata. Their cousins get concerned that the twelve years is almost up, and the spies have returned with no reports of the Pandava brothers because of their blessing granted by Yama. However, they hear of a rumor that the general of Virata has died, so they figure it might have something to do wit...

(source) Hey everyone, NitroDubbz here again with Narayan's Mahabharata. The Pandava brothers all got married to Draupadi and now have gone off and built a prosperous city in the desert. Yudhistira then gets cleaned out in a game of dice by his cousin Sakuni, who is working with his other brothers to try and weaken the Pandava brother's empire because they are jealous and worried of their growing power and influence. However, Sakuni goes too far and Vidura, the advisor to king Dhritarashtra, warns that Sakuni is only going to anger the Pandava brothers and make their vengeance twice as bad. Dhritarashtra, initially ignoring Vidura, changes his mind when he is moved by Draupadi's prayer to Vishnu that was answered with a miracle. He grants her several boons, restoring the freedom of the Pandava brothers and their kingdom. Then the Pandava brothers get invited to another game and lose all their stuff and are banished to the wildnerness this time. Then Vidura goes and j...

(source) Hello everyone, NitroDubbz here! It's that time of the month again, more readings! This time it's the Mahabharata. I chose to read the R.K. Narayan translation, since last time I enjoyed the Narayan Ramayana so much, I thought I'd go with his version of the Mahabharata. Okay so there's a lot to take in here. There are way more characters and backstory than in the Ramayana. I'm going to be summarizing more than analyzing, but that's for my own sake so I can try to keep everything straight. It's also difficult even ignoring the foreign names, because I think we remember people by their attributes and personalities, but there's not much characterization in this story so it's very difficult to keep track of everyone. So essentially there are three princes, a blind one, a pale one, and a normal one, who all have a bunch of kids. The Pandava brothers and some other people seem to be the focus of this story. Their master, Drona, who ...

O_O (source) Hello again everyone, NitroDubbz here. I am back with F.J. Gould's version of "The Ramayana", called "The Divine Archer" This version of the Ramayana comes with a map of India that is very helpful. As for what's different in this version of the story, there's more focus on Hanuman in this version. Hanuman is informed to Sita's location by a vulture, and he battles a serpent as a test of courage. Also instead of growing huge and stepping across the ocean, he leaps across rocks to get to Lanka. In this version, Sita's "purity test" is explained in more detail. Rama is forced through public opinion to send Sita out into the wilderness, where she bears him children. Then she returns to see Rama and her sons, only to disappear into the underworld to rest because she is weary. Not exactly a happy ending, I prefer the other version. Well, that's all for today folks. Until next time, I'm NitroDubbz. https://b...