Indian Epics

The Forest and its Ghosts kingdom was prosperous under Yudhishthira's government "blind old" Dhristarashtra mourned the death of his son and decided to retire to the jungle to live in a humble dwelling Queen Gandhari, Kunti (mother of the Pandavas), and Vidura  all also very old  Yudhishthira, his brothers, and Draupadi journeyed to the place of their elders in the jungle when they get there everyone is present but Vidura who has gone to the banks of the Ganges basically to wait for death they all went to him and waited with him until he died while they mourned Vidura Vyasa the great sage came to them and told them to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges and that when night falls all of their loved ones will return to them when night fell the waters foamed and parted and the heroes slain in the war began to rise in chariots, on horseback, or on elephants  a host of minstrels came with the risen dead and sang of the deeds of the heroes and beautiful girls ...

The Himalayas  Yudhisthira (Arjuna was in Indra's celestial dwelling) and the 3 younger Pandava brothers and their shared wife, Draupadi, lived in the forest called Kamyaka where they met great sages, Yudhisthira learned dice skills, and were shown mystical waters that cleansed their sins after being in Kamyaka for awhile they moved further north into the Himalayas  the location of Kubera's dwelling Kubera is the lord of treasure and king of the yakshas  Dwelling of Kubera palaces of crystal & gold walls studded with jewels beautiful gardens  Kubera told Yudhishthira to be "patient and long-suffering and to wait for the time and the place for displaying kshatriya prowess" the exiles (Pandavas and Draupadi) wandered on from the kingdom of Kubera "sighed for Arjuna" "beheld the bright car of Indra" "worshipped Matali the charioteer" Indra came with Asparas (female spirits of the clouds) and Gandharvas (male natur...

Wife of the Five Pandavas   Arjuna won Draupadi (daughter of Drupada) as his bride at the swayamwara When the eldest brother (Yudhishthira) tells his mother (Queen Kunti) that they have returned with a gift she tells them that they must share it informs his mother that it is Draupadi and she should be Arjuna's bride since he won her  Arjuna says Yudhishthira should have her since he is the eldest Yudhishthira says that the matter should be decided by the gods and King Drupada it is revealed that the bretheren are the Pandava  this made Drupada happy and he entertained the brothers in his palace for many days eventually the rishi Vyasa was called to decided which brother should wed Draupadi Vyasa, like Queen Kunti, says that she must marry each brother because it had already been decided by the gods because she was the reincarnation of a pious woman who had prayed to Shiva for a husban five times and the god promised her 5 husbands as a reward in her next...

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 chil...

(Feedback Cat from icanhascheezburger ) (Feedback Cat from growthmindsetmemes.blogspot.com ) Be a Mirror: Give Readers Feedback That Fosters a Growth Mindset - Gravity Goldberg The main points I took away from this article are the strategies of "be specific" and "make sure it can transfer." If I have learned anything from the writing classes I have taken that function as workshops is that feedback that starts and ends with "I didn't like this specific part," or "This paragraph didn't work for me," are the worst types of feedback a writer can get. Those phrases are not specific and give the write nothing to work on to improve both the specific piece that is being referred to and their craft. Which is where "make sure it can transfer" comes in. Making sure the feedback can transfer is important because it will help the writer with not only the piece they are working on at the moment but future projects as well.  ...

I have been going over ideas in my head and I know that I want to do a storybook rather than a portfolio.  I might retell the Ramayana in a new, unique way. Don't ask me what that new and/or unique way is because I have no idea yet, but I'm working on it. Source:  http://ackguide.blogspot.com/p/ramayana.html Source:  https://www.tatacliq.com/que/ramayana-modern-retelling/ I am leaning more toward this option: I want to take the deities and mythological creatures found in these epics and create a completely new epic of my own. Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deities Source: https://spiritualray.com/list-of-hindu-gods-goddesses-their-powers I have also been thinking about taking some of the women from the various stories and making them the heroes or gender flipping the male leads to make them women. Gender flipping always makes for a fun read and fresh look at an old tale. Source:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draupadi So...