Extra Credit Reading, Week 10

PASHU Animal Tales from Hindu Mythology
By: Devdutt Pattanaik

Jaimini

This story takes place during the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas at Kurukshetra. During this war, there is a parrot that flies over the battle. When an arrow from the war flies up and strikes its pregnant belly, four eggs fall from the belly and onto the ground. Thankfully the ground was soft and wet so the eggs do not break and the birds inside are safe. One of the elephants in the war was wearing a bell and as it passes, the bell falls from its neck and drops on top of the eggs. This shields the eggs from any danger. Since the eggs are protected, they eventually hatch and four baby parrots are left. These parrots are found by sages who have come to clear the battlefield. They realized how lucky it was that they survived but also knew all of the vast knowledge they had gained while listening amongst the war. They gave the birds the gift of human speech so that they could go and share their knowledge with the rest of the world. This would eventually be called the Jaimini Mahabharata.

Lab, Week 10, Crash Course Mythology

Crash Course Videos

Video 1:

Myths are complicated for a number of reasons. First, the line between religion and myths can be very blurry. Also, the origin, author, or why it was written is not often known. Even if it is written by someone like Homer for instance, it turns out it was just being translated and it's not the actual origin.

Origin stories are where a happening is explained through the story of a myth. For instance, the story of Persephone. She is kidnapped by Hades and he tricks her or she eats on her own accord 6 pomegranate seeds. Because of this she has to spend 6 months out of the year in the underworld with Hades and the other 6 she is allowed to stay with her parents in Olympus. This is used to explain why we have seasons because when Persephone was home, her mother would make all the crops bloom and the sun would shine and fields would be bountiful. However, when Persephone was gone, her mother would mourn for how much she missed her. She would make it cold and so nothing could grow until Persephone came back.

Video 2:

Euhemerism: "myths as primitive explanations of the natural world or as time distorted accounts of long-past historical accounts."

An example of this is how there is the theory that Zeus was actually a human king. His doings were just so great that as his stories were told over time they were morphed into stories where he was portrayed as a god instead of a human king.

Video 3:

Trends in stories of heroes

1) call to adventure
2) refusal to the call
3) supernatural aid
4) crossing first threshold
5) the belly of the whale
6) the road of trails
7) the meeting with the goddess
8) woman as temptress
9) atonement with the father
10) apotheosis
11) the ultimate boon

Hero Journey - Source: YouTube

Reading Notes: Jatakas, Part B

The Elephant Girly-face
by  Ellen C. Babbitt

There once was a very kind and gentle elephant named girly-face. He never hurt anyone. One night, a band of robbers were outside of where girly-face sleeps and they woke him up talking about all they were going to do. They talked about how they must be cruel and show no mercy and harm others. Girly-face listened to this and thought that he was being taught to be like that. The next morning he killed his keeper and a few other men. Finally a wise man explained that girly-face must have heard someone talking about this kind of behavior and they all realized it was because of the robbers. So to counteract this, they sent a group of good men to sit outside one night and talk while girly-face listened. They talked about how they must never do any harm to others and girly-face learned from what they said and went back to being a good elephant for the rest of time. I think the moral of this story is that it is important to be conscious of those who you surround yourself with. It is easy to become influenced by those around you, in good ways and in bad ways.

Girly-face the elephant, Source:free stock photos

Link to Stories

Reading Notes: Jatakas, Part A

The Monkey and the Crocodile
by  Ellen C. Babbitt

The crocodile really wanted the monkey's heart to take to his mom which is kind of sweet in a sad way. The crocodile tries to trick the monkey by telling him that he will take him to the island with all the ripe fruit on his back. The monkey agrees but then the crocodile tries to drown him. The monkey tricks the crocodile into thinking that his heart is back on land and that he forgot it there. The crocodile believes him and takes him back to shore where the  monkey escapes. In part two, the crocodile is watching the monkey again and devises a plan to trap him on an island in the middle. He sits there, waiting for the monkey and when it's dark the monkey prepares to hop on the island but realizes it is larger than normal and calls out to the rock. He tricks the crocodile by making him believe that he normally talks to the rock so the crocodile responds in lieu of the rock, exposing himself to the monkey who knows exactly who it is. So then the monkey tricks the crocodile into opening up wide so he can jump into his mouth but he actually does that so the crocodile will close his eyes and the monkey can jump on top and over him to get to land.

The Ox Who Won the Forfeit
by  Ellen C. Babbitt

Stories with animals and morals are my FAVORITE. The man knows that his ox is the strongest so he takes the ox to the village so that he can win money on a bet over how strong the ox is. However, when the ox is loaded up with all the carts, the man yells at him and whips him. The ox doesn't respond to this because he isn't used to it and the man loses all the money. When they get back the man is very sad and the ox asks him why he whipped him and called him those mean names. The man apologized and promised never to do that again. The ox says that the man has always been a good owner except for that and they could go back and try again. This time the man treats the ox with respect and the ox is able to pull all the carts and the man wins the money. The moral of the story is that people respond better to respect than they do to harsh words and aggressiveness.

Picture of Ox - Source: Ox

The Sandy Road
by  Ellen C. Babbitt

There was a group of merchants traveling through a very sandy desert. They could only travel at night because the sunshine made the sand too hot to travel on. They do this for many nights until they are only one day travels away from where they need to go. The pilot gets too confident and lets the ox lead on their own while he naps because he is so tired from not sleeping throughout the journey much. The oxen lead them astray and finally when the pilot wakes up they are very off track and now are without resources. The pilot travels until he finds water for everyone and it saves them. Then they get back on track and make it okay.


Link to Stories

Reading Week 9 Part A-B Mahabharata

I really liked this retelling of the Mahabharata. There were a lot of reasons why it was so great but I think a lot of what made them so great was there short length. When I first started them I was a little frustrated with how short each one seemed. However, as we made our way through the videos I realized that I was understanding them a lot faster than I normally do because they are broken up into easier to understand chunks. It also was so beneficial to have the video aspect because the drawings helped me to keep the characters separated better than when I was reading about them. I felt like I got a lot more lost on the characters when I was reading the stories of the Mahabharata vs when I was reading the Ramayana. In this section of videos everything is discussed from Bhishma's birth along with his brothers all the way to Ekalavya's story of how he became the amazing archer he was. His story was that he went to Drona and asked him to be his guru long ago. Drona refused and Ekalavya's determination led him to create a statue of Drona that he practiced in front of from that day forward. He worked very hard and became the best. Drona asked him to cut off his right thumb to lessen his abilities and Ekalavya did it, ending his legendary skills. 

Mahabharata

Depiction of Ekalavya cutting his thumb
Source: Wikipedia https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekalavya

Week 8 Progress

I am mostly okay with my progress so far! I like my grade in the class right now but I feel like I am doing assignments the day they are due consistently. I would rather be about a week ahead just in case I were to run into any situation where I am too busy. This Spring Break I was going to try to get as far ahead as possible so that when the semester starts back up again I'll have some wiggle room or maybe even get to finish a little early.

Inspirational cat because we are at the halfway mark!
Source: Cat

Week 8 Comments and Feedbacks

Overall, I have really appreciated all of the feedback and comments and my work throughout this semester in this class. I feel like the entire class does such a great job of keeping their comments uplifting while preserving the effectiveness of the comment. For myself,  I think that my feedback has progressed a lot throughout the past few weeks. In the beginning, I think I worried more about offending someone by mentioning what I thought could improve their writing. Now since I've been on the other side too I know that I appreciate the honest feedback so much! This has encouraged me to really be honest in my feedback and work to give them something of real substance. Looking at peoples introduction pages has been one of my favorite parts. I love the little snippet I get to see into their lives. Even though its short, everyone chooses what they feel is most important to share with the entire class so you get to see what they are most passionate about and what makes them the happiest and that just kind of gives me second hand happiness! I think I am happy with my comment wall and my introduction!

Picture of a cat. Source: http://growthmindsetmemes.blogspot.com/search/label/Feedback%20Cats

I chose this picture because I think this is something I forget A LOT. Especially since getting to college. I think it is a good reminder that you aren't defined by your failures!

Week 8 Reading and Writing

          Overall, I am very happy with how the reading and writing assignments have been going for me! I think I was a bit confused in the beginning of the semester but now that we have gotten into a rhythm, things are better! I am spending less time trying to figure out assignments and more time on the quality of my writing. I am happy with both my blog and my website. If I had to pick one I like more it would probably be my storybook. I probably like my storybook more just because of the topics that are being covered in those stories. Also it seems a little bit neater than my blog. It isn't necessarily that my blog is messy, it's just a lot more full. My favorite reading so far was the Ramayana, it was a little difficult at first because I was having a hard time keeping up with all the characters. However, once I figured out who everyone was I really enjoyed the storyline. I use my reading notes extensively when I am writing my stories! I think I have finally figured out what information is most important to me during the actual writing process and it makes it that much easier to write notes that are relevant to me.

I chose this photo from when I was writing my notes revisiting the Ramayana through the video Sita Sings the Blues
That was still my favorite assignment and it brought back good memories so that is why I chose this picture.
Source:Blogger