Topics Brainstorm

1. Possible Topic: Traveling India. This particular idea is very enticing to me because I enjoy traveling so much.  When I was reading the Ramayana, I was intrigued to find out that there is a Ganges river in India.  I think it would be interesting to map the places important to the stories to put them in context.
Research so far. There is an entire Wikipedia disambiguation page for places in the Ramayana.  The ancient city of Ayodhya still exists.  It might be interesting to write a storybook that combines the city today with its ancient version.

In the city of Ayodhya

Image by Ramnath Bhat

2. Possible Topic: Rakshasas. Rakshasas have been a big part of the Ramayana so far, so I imagine there is a lot more interesting stories to go along with them.  I also think it is interesting that someone can be cursed to live as a rakshasa as Viradha was.
Research so far. All rakshasas we have read about so far have been evil, but apparently this is not a universal trait.  Ravana's multiple heads make him intriguing as well.  He is an especially distinctive stick figure in my notes.  Because there are so many rakshasas, there would be plenty of material to use in a storybook.

Ravana

Image from Wikipedia

3. Possible Topic: Avatars. From the Ramayana reading, I know that Rama is the avatar of Vishnu and Sita is the avatar of Lakshmi.  I've never heard the term avatar used to refer to an incarnation of a god on Earth.  I think this topic is really interesting because I can learn about a specific god through the stories of his avatars on Earth.
Research so far.  I am most interested in focusing on the avatars of Vishnu.  According to the Wikipedia page, Vishnu has 10 avatars also known as the Dashavatara.  I find it interesting that with each incarnation, Vishnu's avatar's become more evolved.  His first avatar is Matsya, a fish.  Then he is a tortoise, a boar, a half man half lion, dwarf, and then a man.  I feel like this particular topic has a lot of potential directions.  I could tell a storybook that ties together themes or morals from several of these stories, or I could have Vishnu's avatars interact in some way.

4. Possible Topic: Monkeys. This is a little more specific than the animal characters listed in the suggested topics, but monkeys seem to be very recurring so far.  I was also impressed by the image shown below of Rama building the bridge.
Research so far.   It looks like the monkeys in the Ramayana are referred to as the Vanaras.  It is also unclear whether the Vanaras were monkeys or forest dwelling people.  In addition to Hanuman, there is Sugriva, Vali, Makardhwaja  among others.  It seems that they are most prominent in the Ramayana but are also mentioned in the Mahabharata.

Rama Builds the Bridge

Image from Images and PDE Epics

Week 2 Storytelling: Aarabhi and Angga

Tick.  Tick.  Tick.  Tick.  Ajnamasa had never seen anything like it.  Before him was a giant wooden tower.  A weight swung back and forth, back and forth.  There was a circle of numbers at the top of the tower, and two large metal pointers crept slowly around the numbers.  A cricket wearing a top hat sat on the ledge just below the numbers.  How peculiar.  Ajnamasa had never seen a cricket wearing a top hat.  Most of the crickets he knew wore baseball caps.  To Ajnamasa's left was a giant mountain, or a plateau, or a lot of plateaus stacked on top of each other.  Either way, he hadn't brought his climbing gear so he continued forward.

A Top Hat

Image by Tom Simpson

Meanwhile, Sara of the House Attini, First of Her Name, Queen of the Pheidoles, Lady of the Seven Hills and Protector of the Realm was visiting the granary to inspect the stores.  A recent drought made finding food very challenging.  Just a few hours ago she had sent sixty thousand of her sons to scout a nearby house for food.  She prayed to the Great Talpidae that they would be successful.

Ajnamasa could tell that this is where the humans kept their food.  He imagined that this is what a French bakery smelled like.  He remembered the wonderful crumbs of a baguette he ate when he was still too small to reach the ration dispenser.  A giant bell ringed.  Ajnamasa found a piece of chicken on the floor.  While he was enjoying his barbecue chicken, he heard footsteps behind him.  He turned around to see a a large man in a white uniform.  There was a red diamond on his shirt with white lettering that said something.  Ajnamasa squinted to make out "O... R... K... I... ... ..."  He was suddenly very tired.  His eyelids drooped and he fell asleep.

It had been three days since Queen Sara had sent the scouts and there had been no news so far.  She decided that it was time to send her granddaughter Nashua to discover where her uncles had disappeared to.  Two hours later, Nashua returned with a load of food and the bad news.  "They have all perished.  I looked for water to make the oblations which would send their souls to heaven, but there was none."  Queen Sara sunk to the ground in grief.  At least they found enough food to feed the kingdom.

The only way to send Queen Sara's sixty thousand sons to heaven was to bring the waters of the nearby River Angga to where they lay.  Sara ordered an enormous tunnel to be built to divert the water into the house.  Thirty thousand nights of Sara's reign came and went.  The Tunnel was still unfinished.  Nashua was crowned as queen and continued the project, but thirty-two thousand nights passed in her reign.  The Tunnel was still unfinished.  Pilida was crowned.  Thirty thousand nights came and went.  The Tunnel was still unfinished.

The River Angga

Image by amitd

After Pilida's death, Aarabhi was crowned.  Queen Aarabhi directed half of her subjects to work on the wall while the other half devoted themselves to adorning the Great Talpidae with gifts.  Now Talpidae was very pleased.  He had followed the progress of the Tunnel since its inception, and he decided now was his time to help.  With his mighty claws, Talpidae flew forward through the dirt until he arrived at the River Angga.  The torrent rushed through the Tunnel and into the house where it washed over the remains of Queen Sara's sixty thousand sons, and their souls ascended to heaven.

The Great Talpidae

Image from Wikipedia

Author's Note:  I wanted to retell the story of Bhagiratha and Ganga because I find the genealogy absolutely fascinating.  I felt that ants could relate to having sixty thousand children, so I decided to tell the story through their point of view.  It also made sense that, in order to redirect the flow of a river, ants would attempt to dig a tunnel.  Most of the names that I used were partial anagrams from the original story or actual scientific categories of real animals.

Bibliography:

"Bhagiratha and Ganga" by John Campbell, from The Great Indian Epics (1894). Web Source: PDE Ramayana.

Reading Diary B: Public Domain Ramayana

24. The Sandals - Not only is Rama a hero, but so are his brothers.  Bharata is humble enough to refuse the throne.  Instead, he rules from a location of exile and has his brother's shoes as the symbol of rule.  It is interesting that Rama's shoes are the symbol of authority.  It seems like he could have sent one of his many surplus weapons.


30. Battle with Khara - I really like the imagery when Khara's army is described as "black tremendous clouds rushing towards the rising sun."  His arrows "swept among the rakshasas like fire in a sun-dried forest."  This scene (along with much of the rest of the story) reminds me of a Tolkienesque fantasy.  I just image swarming armies of orcs closing in on a few hobbits and a wizard.  This seems to be Rama's most insurmountable challenge yet.  Yet he alone is able to defeat an army of thousands.

Rama defeats Khara

Image from Images and PDE Epics Blog

35. Ravana and Sita - The loss of Sita reveals weakness in Rama.  Until this point, Rama has been nearly without mistake and invincible.  But despite the warning from his brother about the deception of rakshasas, Rama chases after the golden deer and leaves Sita.  It shows that the only way to overcome Rama is through cleverness and wit; he is unbeatable through sheer force.  However, I expect that Ravana won't get away with his deed for long.


36. Jatayu - Jatayu seems like a very interesting character.  I'd like to know more about this bird that watches over the forest.

Reading Diary A: Public Domain Ramayana

5. Thataka - Rama does really well for his first battle.  He slays Thataka and gets magical weapons.

Rama and Lakshmana battle the rakshasas

Image from Images and PDE Epics Blog

6. Bhagiratha and Ganga - I do love a good geneaology.  Boy does Sagara have an interesting family tree.  Somehow one of his wives has 60,000 sons!  If someone had twins every 9 months, it would take 22,485 years to have all 60,000 kids.  Of course, Sagara reigned for 30,000 years so there is plenty of time to spare.  If the oldest son could grow 6 inches of beard hair every year, he could have a beard 3.4 kilometers long by the time the youngest was born!  It sounds like Feodor Vassilyev is going to be put out of business.  When the 60,000 sons get burnt to ashes along with all their beards, it takes five generations (and 62,000+ years) to bring down the River Ganga to send them off to heaven.  Bhagiratha son of Dilipa son of Anshuman son of Asamanja son of Sagara finally does the trick.

Imagine a 3.4km beard

Image from Aaron Morton

14. Manthara and Kaikeyi - Here is where things turn sour.  Up to this point, Rama has smashed in the heads of rakshasas and won the hand of the fair Sita.  Just when he is about to rule the kingdom, Manthara messes things up.  Manthara is described as an ugly hunchbacked woman.  I tend to picture her as the wicked witch from Snow White, except without an apple.

Witch from Snow White

Image from Joe Penniston

19. Dasharatha's Karma - Dasharatha is having a really bad time.  He lost his son, and now we are told a story from his youth when he accidentally kills a young boy.  In Orange is the New Black, Yoga Jones does something similar.  She shoots what she thinks is a deer eating her marijuana plants but is actually a little kid.  Jones ends up in prison and Dasharatha looses his son and dies in sorrow.  If only they had both taken a gun safety class.