Famous Last Words: Week 13

As the semester is winding down, things are kind of in a resting state. It’s kind of like the calm before the storm (finals). I know this calm feeling isn't going to last very long though because finals are looming in the near future and I am not looking forward to that. At this point, I’m just ready to finish off the semester and enjoy my summer and I can’t enjoy my summer unless I do well on all my finals and finish the semester strong. Hopefully all goes well and smooth these next few weeks!

This class has definitely been an intriguing class. I’ve learned a lot more from reading these stories and other people’s blogs than I thought I would. As the semester went on and the class progressed, I found myself looking forward to reading other people’s blogs because some people write so well and their stories just jump out at you and come to life! I think my best writing for this week was my storytelling assignment. I was pretty happy with the outcome of that after I proofread it and submitted it. Another reason I like this class is because it helps me keep my writing skills polished, which is never a bad thing. Writing has always came easy to me, but practice always makes perfect, or at least near perfect!

I really liked that this week’s project commenting assignment was actually voting for our favorite projects. There were so many to choose from but I already had my favorites that I would choose to go back and comment on for the extra credit commenting assignments. Overall, I’ve had a great experience in this class and I’m glad I wait listed myself for a whole semester before actually taking this class. It was definitely worth the wait in my opinion!

The calm before the storm (final exams); Flickr

Portfolio Index

Story #1: Dasaratha's Death

Story #2: Hanuman

Story #3: Sita's Innocence 

Story #4: Arjuna the Archer

Story #5: Bhishma's Sendoff

Week 13 Storytelling: Bhishma's Sendoff

“How can I do this?” thought Arjuna to himself. “I regard Bhishma as a grandfather to me and I would never be able to live it down if I killed him!” he cried to Krishna.

“Fine,” said Krishna with a heavy voice. “I shall do it myself.”

Krishna retrieved his discus and prepared to end Bhishma’s life with one quick throw. It would be quick and painless. Arjuna yelled out and stopped Krishna from doing so. He did not want to be the reason Krishna broke his oath to not use a single weapon during the war.

“I will do it,” said Arjuna.

Krishna nodded his head and motioned to the direction of Bhishma. Arjuna faced towards Bhishma and slowly pulled out his bow and a handful of arrows. This was going to be Arjuna’s legacy. It was finally time to leave his mark and prove to the world that he was the best. He fought with a good heart and knew that this was the right decision. He closed his eyes and cleared his head. A feeling of calmness washed over Arjuna. It was now or never.

Arjuna let the arrows fly and one by one they each struck Bhishma, ripping through his body which caused a jolt of remorse and guilt through Arjuna’s conscience for each arrow. Bhishma was an old man, but he was an exceptionally great warrior. His battle skills had impressed everyone to the point that when Bhishma fell, the war ceased for the moment to give everyone an opportunity to pay their respects to this great man. Arjuna looked up as the heavens opened directly above them and flowers rained down onto the battlefield. This was the gods paying their respects to Bhishma, a token of appreciation for his bravery.

As Bhishma slowly slid off the mighty chariot, the arrows protruding from his body pierced the ground which made a makeshift bed. Arjuna had aimed the arrows perfectly to make a bed for Bhishma to lie on. The rest of the men on the field nodded in appreciation for what Arjuna had done. Whispers went through the men as they heard talk of how Bhishma could choose the exact moment of his death, time and place. This was true and Bhishma was not going to die until the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. This was his personal choice, reasons unknown for why he chose that particular day.

“Water,” mumbled Bhishma.

Arjuna shot an arrow at the ground, which caused a fountain of water to shoot into Bhishma’s mouth. It is said that it was Ganga herself who supplied the water to her son. Krishna stepped down from his chariot and walked over to where Bhishma lay. He could see that Bhishma was in pain and was struggling to keep himself calm and relaxed. Krishna bestowed upon him a deep, calming, peaceful sleep that freed Bhishma of the pain.  This was the perfect way to end Bhishma’s long, valiant stand against the Pandava army. He knew the Pandavas were the better people in the end to come out of the war victorious, but he also knew that he was the biggest obstacle in their path to winning the war. He fought faithfully for the Kaurava army, even though he knew what he was fighting against, and was arguably the best commander of the army. He would be a legend after he passed on and that’s what kept him calm.

It’s funny how this moment had brought the two sides to a peaceful halt, as if they had finally gotten along. This was not going to last long, as the impending war that was soon to return loomed in the near future like a dark cloud hanging low in the sky.

Author’s Note: I chose to write about this part of the story because it’s such an important moment in the Mahabharata. Bhishma is a well-respected character and his death was a big deal. Arjuna is also my favorite character in out of all the Indian Epics characters. There were probably so many feelings involved with all the characters in this moment that I couldn’t explain them all. I tried as best I could in this story because I thought it would be an interesting idea to imagine. I think Arjuna was affected the most by this event.

I didn't really change much from the original version. I basically just told the story from Arjuna's point of view. In this section, Krishna proceeds to kill Bhishma but Arjuna stops him because Krishna made a vow not to use any weapons. When Bhishma is finally killed by Arjuna, the whole world celebrates his successful and respected life.

I chose this image because it shows Bhishma lying on his bed of arrows while all the other men sat around him paying their respects. It was the only time during the war that both sides were united together and I thought that was a memorable part of the Mahabharata. 

Bibliography: Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata.

Everyone paying their respects to Bhishma; Wikimedia Commons

Week 13 Reading Diary B: Bhishma's Grand Death

In this section of the reading the war officially begins between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Bhishma leads Duryodhana’s army while Dhristadumnya leads the Pandava army. The part that really stood out to me was how Bhishma’s downfall took place. From the very beginning, Arjuna is hesitant to fight Bhishma because he regards him as a grandfather. Although Bhishma was an old man, he was still very powerful and awed everyone on the battlefield. To defeat Bhishma, Arjuna seeks the help of Sikhandin to take down Bhishma. Bhishma is shot and wounded with so many arrows that when he falls down out of his chariot, his body doesn’t even touch the ground. As soon as Bhishma falls, all the fighting and bloodshed stops immediately and flowers sprinkle down upon everyone from heaven. A pillow is made for Bhishma’s head and he is given water to drink. The cool thing is that Bhishma has the power to choose the exact time and place of his death so he decided to lie on his bed of arrows until the shortest day of the year arrives. To relieve Bhishma of the terrible pain he must be feeling, Krishna puts him in a deep sleep.

I thought this scene was so graceful and intense at the same time. The respect Bhishma draws from everyone is mind blowing. I don’t think anyone has had a death like this in any of the epics I have read so far in this class. It is definitely one of my favorite scenes from the Mahabharata. 

Bhishma on his bed of arrows; Wikipedia

Week 13 Reading Diary A: The War is Brewing

During a part of their exile, the Pandavas chase a deer deep into the depths of a forest. Once in the forest, Yudhishthira sends his brothers, one after the other, to get water for them at the lake. For some reason, none of them return and Yudhishthira grows to become very worried. When he arrives at the lake, he finds the dead bodies of his brothers. An unknown voice speaks to him and tells him that he must answer all of the questions if he wants his brothers to return alive. Yudhishthira answers all the questions and then learns that this is a test given to him by his father Dharma who is a divine being. Yama revives the dead Pandava brothers.

I found this scene to be very interesting because it seems super intense. I wonder what was going through Yudhishthira’s mind when he realized that his brothers had died. If it were me, I would feel so bad because it would've been my fault that they died. Yudhishthira was the one who sent his own brothers to fetch the water instead of going himself.

I’m also glad that Arjuna decides to choose having Krishna on his side during the battle over Krishna’s humongous army. Duryodhana is ecstatic when he learns that he will be getting Krishna’s army because it is the best army in the world. I would've made the same decision if I were in Arjuna’s position because Krishna is such a strong character. He’d easily win the war!

Arjuna meets Krishna; Wikipedia

Week 12 Storytelling: Mankanaka

Mankanaka was a very odd fellow who did some pretty questionable things. One action of his that was very questionable was that he had chosen to live in the forest alone, in hopes of finding his “inner peace”, as if that was ever going to happen! He had also decided that he would never eat anything except the greenest, freshest, most luscious looking grass. It had been twelve years since Mankanaka had isolated himself in the forest and he had yet to eat anything else.

The deer were getting highly fed up with Mankanaka because he was basically either THEIR grass. How absurd was it that a human was eating deer food?! And besides, they had been here before Mankanaka had even been born. This was no place for silly little humans to be clowning around. So the deer got together and decided they were going to do something about Mankanaka. They had heard that if humans ate grass for long enough, their blood would turn into grass juice. Mankanaka, of course, was oblivious to this rumor and the deer figured that if he saw himself oozing out green grass juice instead of normal red blood, he would stop either their grass. It seemed like a brilliant plan to the deer at the time, but little did they know they were about to cause mayhem…

As night fell and Mankanaka fell asleep to the sound of crickets chirping and the wind blowing the leaves on the towering trees, a deer slowly crept up to Mankanaka to finally put this plan into action. It was all or nothing now, although the deer had probably the easiest job you could think of. All he had to do was bite Mankanaka hard enough to draw blood, or in this case grass juice, and he was done! The deer slowly lowered his head down to Mankanaka’s arm, looked around to see if the coast was clear, and then proceeded chomped down on his arm. Green grass juice spurted out of Mankanaka’s arm as the deer galloped off into the distance. Mankanaka woke up howling in pain and looked at his arm, which was throbbing as if it had just been amputated.

What he saw should have scared Mankanaka, but he was a strange fellow of course. When he realized that his blood had become grass juice, Mankanaka started grinning from ear to ear, as happy as can be! This was so cool to him! Instead of bleeding red, he was now oozing out green and this made him so excited that Mankanaka started to dance. He danced and danced so much that the whole world started dancing with him. All of the dancing commotion was creating problems in the ocean from the rumbling and stomping of everyone’s feet. Large tsunamis and whirlpools were formed from the chaos and wreaked havoc all across the world. The deer looked on in shock, appalled at what they had done.

The gods could take this no longer so they sent a messenger to Mankanaka telling him that the gods had requested that he stop dancing and destroying the world. Mankanaka had been so excited and happy, that he had not realized what a mess he had caused. He quit dancing and vowed to the gods that he would never eat grass again and cause this sort of mayhem ever again. After this incident, Mankanaka decided to go back home to his family and surprise them. He was done with the forest life and was ready to live out his own dreams!

Author’s Note: I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to write about this week but I finally ended up deciding to write about the story of Mankanaka. I found this section to be pretty comical and entertaining and figured I could add my own twist to it and make it more interesting. I found the whole concept of his blood turning to grass juice to be pretty funny. Leave it to these old epics to have the wackiest stuff you can think of!

I chose this image because it's how I pictured the forest that Mankanaka was in to be. It's so green and fertile, anyone would be tempted to eat the grass here. Okay, not really but I wanted the portrayal of this forest to pop out to the reader from the image selection and I think this picture does that pretty well.

Bibliography: Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata. 

The dazzling green forest; Wikipedia 

Week 12 Reading Diary B: Savitri

For the second half of this week’s reading assignment, I found the story of Savitri to be particularly intriguing. I find it impressive that she took matter in her own hands to find a man suitable for herself and rode a golden chariot to find the man that she would want to marry. Approaching a man in a golden chariot would probably make a very good impression in my opinion!

While looking for her dream husband, Savitri runs into Satyavan in the forest. Satyavan is the son of a blind king living in exile. He only had only one year to live but Savitri decides this is the man she wants to marry even though he would be dying very soon. Soon enough, Satyavan passes away and Yama comes to claim his soul. Before he leaves, Savitri asks Yama if she can follow Yama. Impressed, Yama grants Savitri an assortment of wishes. Her wishes include curing the blindness of her father-in-law, restoring her father-in-law’s kingdom, giving her own father a hundred sons, and having a hundred sons with her husband. For this last request to occur, Yama tells Savitri that she would have to give up half of her living days and give them to Satyavan so he can come back to life and have kids with her. Savitri agrees without hesitation and Satyavan comes back to life and lives happily with Savitri and their hundred kids until their days are over.

I really enjoyed this story because it showed how much Savitri cared for her family.

Savitri and Satyavan; Wikipedia

Week 12 Reading Diary A: The Game of Dice

I found this section of Buck’s Mahabharata to be somewhat depressing because Yudhishthira loses pretty much everything in his game of dice against Duryodhana and Shakuni. If I were losing that badly in a gambling game, I would quit while I still had possession of my belongings! I’m surprised Yudhishthira doesn’t stop before it gets that bad. Luckily, Krishna comes the rescue and saves Draupadi when she is getting harassed by Duryodhana and Duhshasana. Dhritarashtra also intervenes shortly after Krishna and proceeds to return Draupadi, the rest of the Pandava brothers, and their wealth and material possessions back to Yudhishthira per Draupadi’s request. Duryodhana, enraged that Dhritarashtra has returned everything back to the Pandavas, proposes one more roll of the dice. The loser in this last throw would be thrown into exile in the forest. Unfortunately, Yudhishthira loses ones again and he and Pandavas, along with Draupadi, head to the forest to fulfill their promise of living in exile.

I think it is ridiculous how after losing everything and luckily getting everything back, that Yudhishthira still agrees to roll the dice one more time to see who would go into exile. Obviously luck wasn’t on his side, and he should’ve had better judgment in deciding whether to play again and risk everything or not. I guess the Pandavas exile though, progresses the story of the Mahabharata and leads to Arjuna’s adventures in Indra’s heaven, Amaravati.

I really enjoyed this section of the Mahabharata and can’t wait to read the second half of the reading assignment for this week!

The game of dice; Wikipedia 

Famous Last Words: Week 11

I’ve finally came to realize that this has probably been my busiest semester yet. I feel like as soon as I finish an assignment for one class, I have another pile of assignments already waiting for me in another class. I guess that’s what I get for enrolling it seventeen credit hours this semester…It’s been a good experience though. I feel like I can definitely handle stress better than I could before and that I’ve learned a lot this semester. My semester isn’t getting any easier anytime soon because I have three exams this upcoming week. So I’m basically going to be a living zombie at the library all week. My exams are in Physics, O-Chem 2, and Understanding Music. Two out of those three classes are going to be miserable. Can you guess which two?

I’m enjoying the Mahabharata this week because I think it’s at an interesting part of the story line. I think my best writing of the week was the storytelling assignment for this week. I really enjoy reading about Arjuna because is my favorite character in the Mahabharata so I’m glad I had the opportunity to write my own version of a story about him. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

This week when I was doing the project comments, I came across an awesome storybook by another student in the Indian Epics class. It was based on the animal avatars of Vishnu, but this person represented the avatars by planets in space. I thought it was a brilliant idea and got really into the stories. They were very well written and did a great job in keeping my interest. I definitely recommend this storybook to anyone who wants to read a good one.

Hopefully my week ends up going smoother than I’m anticipating it to be!

My favorite character, Arjuna; Wikipedia

Week 11 Storytelling: Arjuna the Archer

Arjuna took a deep breath and stood up when his name was called. He went by the name of Karan since he was disguised as a Brahmin after he and his brothers had escaped the trap fire set by Duryodhana. Arjuna slowly walked up to where the magnificent bow lay, nervous but confident at the same time. This bow was the talk of legends! No one had managed to string the bow yet, let alone shoot it at a moving target. If he could do it, HE’D be the talk of legends AND he’d win Draupadi, the daughter of King Drupada.

All day, Arjuna had watched countless men walk up to the bow confident as can be and struggle to even pick it up! Only a few had been able to actually pick it up and attempt to string it and no one had successfully strung the bow yet. Arjuna placed his hand on the bow and a strange sensation washed over his body. It felt as if he and the bow were meant to be, that this bow had a special connection with him. With this feeling surging through him, Arjuna knew he could win the competition. He easily picked up the bow and proceeded to string it. The string was taut and hard to stretch out to its full length. It took all of Arjuna’s strength to pull the string long enough to reach both ends of the bow to hook it on. He finally managed to do it and the string snapped into place with a nice click! The crowd stared on in amazement and wondered how such a normal Brahmin like himself had managed to do something that had yet to be accomplished.

Now came the easy part for Arjuna as he had never doubted his ability to shoot down his target. He thought back to his training with Drona and let that be his motivation to succeed. The tricky part was aiming correctly because the objective of this test was to shoot the spinning target by looking at the reflection of it through a puddle of water. Arjuna stood up feeling powerful as ever and the crowd looked on in awe, as if they could feel the power emanating from him. He aimed his bow upwards toward the target and looked downward into the puddle to stabilize his aim. Once ready, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and shot the arrow.

He opened his eyes to the crowd gasping in awe and cheering for him. He had done it! King Drupada walked up to him with his beautiful daughter following right behind him.

“What a show you have put on!” he roared with a huge smile on his face. “You are fit to be the husband of my daughter now. Do you accept?” he asked.

Arjuna said yes and the crowd cheered and whistled for the two! From this day on, Arjuna was known as the mighty archer and his tale lives on forever!

Author’s Note: I chose to write about this scene because Arjuna is one of my favorite characters when it comes to Indian Epics. I thought this scene accurately portrayed Arjuna’s excellence in archery and I just wanted to tell it in my own words. The ease with which Arjuna accomplished this major feat should be noted because everyone who attempted prior to Arjuna failed miserably. This section is also the reason how Draupadi ends up marrying the Pandavas.

I told this story more from a scene I had seen in a television series that was a rendition of the Mahabharata. I thought it was more interesting than the book in my opinion although they were similar. I kind of see it as Arjuna’s starting tale to glory and fame! He’s known for his skills in archery and war and this is a good portrayal of those characteristics that he possesses in my opinion.

I chose this image for my story because I thought it was a very intriguing portrayal of Draupadi’s swamyavara. The fish spinning on that wheel was how the target was portrayed in the television rendition that I saw. It doesn’t show the puddle of water however, that Arjuna uses to aim at the target.

Bibliography: Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata.

Arjuna wins Draupadi; Wikimedia Commons