Indian Epics

Hindu Mythological Wars Ancient Hindu wars are the battles described in the Hindu texts of ancient India. These battles depict great heroes, demons, magic weapons, supernatural beings. Most of the major wars were said to be fought to uphold Dharma (righteousness that brings prosperity to humanity) over Adharma (wickedness that causes humanity to suffer). Source: Hindu Mythological Wars Wiki Celestial Weapons Brahmastra: is a weapon said to be embedded with the power of Brahma that releases millions of missiles that can cause mass destruction and even the end of civilizations if not wielded by a celestial fighter. The power of this weapon is compared to that of modern nuclear weapons. Source: Celestial Weapons   Nuclear Weapon "A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or from a combination of fission and fusion reactions." Source: Nuclear Weapon Wiki Nuclear Fallout "Is the residual r...

Image Attribution: Floating Castle Wallpaper on walldevil.com uploaded by Melissa Quote Attribution: Henry David Thoreau from Walden  taken from a personal copy of the book

"Draupadi Dragged to the Assembly" I chose to read and take notes on this particular story because I have a soft spot for Draupadi Tells the story of Draupadi after her husbands gamble her away in a game  When she is fetched by the pratikamin she becomes angry and tells him to return to her husband and ask who her lord was when he gambled her away, was it before or after he had gambled himself  Duryodhana sends the pratikamin back to get Draupadi so that she may come to the hall and ask Yudhiṣṭhira the question herself the pratikamin returned to Draupadi again and she gives a speech about morality and sends the man to return to the assembly without her again Yudhiṣṭhira tells the pratikamin to fetch her even if she is clothed only in a single cloth because it is Duryodhana's command Yudhiṣṭhira's 4 brothers, who were also married to Draupadi, were ready to challenge Duryodhana and his 100 brothers to a fight but still awaited Yudhiṣṭhira's next move mor...

"The Elephant Girly-Face" another fable-like tale that teaches a lesson once a king had an elephant that was so gentle and good and looked so kind that he named him girly-face girly-face, the elephant, sat in his stall one night as some robbers knelt nearby discussing their plans the robbers said that they would break in and kill anyone who wakes up because a robber shouldn't be afraid to kill and should never be good, not even for a moment  girly-face heard the men talking and thought that this was how he was supposed to act the next morning the keeper of the elephants went to feet girly-face and the elephant picked him up with his trunk and threw him to the ground killing him then girly-face killed another keep who had come to see what was happening girly-face was said to have acted so ugly for days and days that food was left for him but no one would come near him the king sent one of his wise men to see what was wrong with girly-face the wise man had...

The Monkey and the Crocodile This version of the Jataka Tales is simplified and retold for children the monkey and the crocodile is about a crocodile who sets out to catch a monkey because his mother wants to eat monkey heart the young crocodile devises a plan to catch the monkey he visits the monkey's tree and convinces the monkey to jump on his back telling the monkey he will carry him across the water to an island with many ripe fruit trees the crocodile dives into the water while the monkey is still on his back the monkey holds on because he doesn't know what is in the water and is afraid to let go when the crocodile surfaces the monkey is sputtering and asks why the crocodile took him underwater the crocodile is stupid and tells monkey of his plans to drown him and feed his heart to his mother the monkey outwits the crocodile by convincing him that he had left his heart on the bank high in his tree the crocodile carried the monkey back to the tree and de...