Skip to main content

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part A

  • King Shantanu and Ganga
    • I chose to focus on this story because I like the idea of Ganga having agency and not just submitting to her husband. She makes the rules of the marriage and once he breaks them she is no longer bound to him
    • The story focuses on King Shantanu and the goddess Ganga
    • Ganga marries King Shantanu in human form but before they are married she says that he can never speak harshly toward her or try to keep her from doing as she pleased; if he does this she is allowed to freely leave him
    • The long and Ganga have 7 children and she throws each one into the Ganges River 
      • the king does not know that these children are actually the Vasus who were cursed to be born as human babies because of upsetting Vashishtha 
      • she threw them into the river after birth so they could regain their celestial forms
    • the king kept his word and never spoke harshly to Ganga even though he was upset about her throwing his children into the river
      • until the 8th child - Devavrata 
      • he unleashed his pent-up anger when she tried to drown the 8th baby giving Ganga the freedom to leave as their marriage vows entailed 
      • she left with the child
      • revealed that she was a goddess to the king and why she had thrown the babies into the river
      • she disappeared but eventually returned to the King with his son, described as fair and noble who was endowed with an 8th of the Vasus' powers 
  • Storytelling ideas: According to Wikipedia the Vasus are elemental based deities and I want to focus on them rather than Ganga, the Kind, or Devarata. I want to do something with the elemental powers and I was thinking of writing something fun like a witchy element-based magic coven or something. I don't know, stay tuned. 
(Elemental picture from Witchy Chick)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Comment Wall

23 comments
Read more

Week 14 Review

This video caught my eye because I had heard the story of Esther many times in church but I liked the way they told the story in this video. The song was clever and the video was humorous. Also, I didn't know what the festival of Purim was or that it celebrated the story of Esther, pretty cool stuff.  ( Image Source ) I loved this image because it is an important thing to remember when writing. As a writer, I am always hypercritical of my own work. That's, why it took me so long to conclude that I should: a) be an English Writing major and b) actually let people read my writing. There have been several posts this week about remembering that a fear of being wrong or striving to be perfect will only hold you back.
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 14 Reading: Seven Secrets of the Goddess Part B

Rural cultures v. urban cultures rural valued fertility - associated with women urban valued obedience - associated with men, making women subservient  indicated control and discipline urbanization led to more rules and the idea of evil - one who does not submit to the rules Chinese myth Yin & Yang work in harmony to create life Yin - male dragon in the sky yang- the earth like a phoenix that recreates itself from ashes  Confucian traditions favor culture over nature favoring hierarchy, making the man more important  patriarchal societies link women with nature and men with culture culture domesticates nature --> men are asked to domesticate women Mesopotamian myth Marduk (male god-king) defeats Tiamat the primal female monster and brings order to the world stories like this abound across cultures Adam & Eve Eve tempts Adam to eat the forbidden fruit before Eve, God created Lilith who refused to be subservient to Adam a...
Post a Comment
Read more