Week 10 Reading Notes: Divine Archer Part B

Divine Archer Part B

"Ravana" Source: Wiki Commons

• Rama and Sugriva kill Vali
• Rama tasks Hanuman to search for Sita
• Hanuman jumps over the river which holds a river monster to Lanka
• Ravana's brother helps Hanuman find Sita, but Hanuman is captured
• Ravana sets Hanuman's tail on fire and Hanuman burns down the city with it and returns back to Rama
• Both sides prepare for war despite some protests
• Rama and the crew build a bridge to Lanka and hits Ravana with an arrow to the crown
• Lots of battling, Lakshmana is injured and Rama kills Kumbhakarna, Ravana's giant brother
• Indra helps out Rama giving him a chariot and weapons
• Rama kills Ravana using the bow
• Rama thinks Sita was having an affair with Ravana so he makes her prove it by walking through fire
• Rama still does not believe Sita and sends her into exile
• Sita has two sons but again he is skeptical 
• They prove they are his sons and the sage Valmiki brings Sita to Rama
• To prove once again that she was faithful, Sita asks mother earth to take her and she does

Bibliography

Divine Archer by Gould

Week 10 Reading Notes: Divine Archer Part A

Divine Archer Part A

Source: Wiki Commons

• This story is a different perspective of the Ramayana
• King Dasaratha has four sons: Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana, and Shatrughna
• Rama is the greatest of the four sons
• The hermit Vishvamitra needs help to beat demons
• King Dasaratha sends Rama and Lakshmana to defeat the demons, which they do
• Sita is the daughter of King Janaka
• Rama and Sita instantly fall in love
• In order to have the blessing, Rama must bend the bow of Shiva, of course he does
• Rama is again regarded as an avatar of the god Vishnu
• Parashurama appears and gives Rama the bow of Vishnu
• Rama and his brother all get married on the same day
• King Dash wants to make Rama the next king but Bharata's mother, Kaikeyi opposes
• Kaikeyi was granted two wishes by King Dash so he must send Rama into exile and make Bharata king
• Sita and Lakshmana join Rama on his exile
• A curse bestowed upon King Dash comes true, that he would lose a son for accidentally killing a young boy
• King Dash dies
• Bharata had been away during all of this so he did not know what his mother had done and he is angry
• Bharata seeks out Rama to bring him back but he refuses, instead he takes Rama's shoes and puts them at the base of the throne
• I like Bharata a lot, seems like a cool loyal dude
• Rama is given celestial weapons by the sage Agastya and gives him advice on where to relocate
• Rama and the gang are attacked by a demon army sent upon them by Shurpanakha
• The demon woman, Shurpanakha, has a brother Ravana
• Ravana is a demon with 10 heads and 20 arms
• Ravana plans to capture sita by using a golden deer
• Ravana kidnaps Sita, Jatayu a vulture king tries to stop him but fails
• Sugriva and Hanuman finally meet Rama. They are the monkey kings
• They agree to help each other

Bibliography

Divine Archer by Gould

Reading Notes Wee 9: Princes of Elephant City

Reading Notes Part B

 "Bhisma vs Arjuna" Source: Wiki Commons

• The five pandava brother finish their exile and must live the 13th year in disguise
• Kichaka tries to rape Draupadi and Bhima destroys him
• This story has changed my perspective, Bhima is now my favorite character
• There is a chariot battle including Prince Uttara
• The Pandavas win and Dury wants them to have another 12 years of exile
• Reading this has also changed my opinion on the brothers, now I am on the Pandavas side
• The two sides agree to go to war
• The Kuavara side is much bigger
• Arjuna basically kills Bhishma but the goddess saves his death until the solstice
• Drona is killed by Draupadi's brother
• With Karna commanding the army, him and Bhima finally battle
• Bhima kills Karna after his chariot gets stuck and drinks his blood as promised
• Duryodhana is a coward and hides in a lake
• Bhima breaks his leg
• The Kauvaras raid the camp at night killing everyone besides the Pandava brothers
• This seems like the only reason to raid the camp would be to kill the Pandava brothers..?
• All of the 100 brothers are dead
• Yudi becomes king and rules a great kingdom for many years
• Krishna becomes king and is cursed, he commands the people not to drink but they do and everyone kills each other
• The brothers grow old and are very weak
• They decided to leave and embark with only a dog
• On the journey to heaven all of the brothers die except Yudi
• He travels to hell and brings them all back to heaven including the Kauvaras and they all love each other

Bibliography

The Indian Heroes by: C. A. Kincaid

Reading Notes Week 9 - The Princes of Elephant City

Reading Notes

Source: Wikipedia

• This is a similar retelling of the Mahabharata
• Dhritarashtra and Pandu are brothers
• Pandu has five sons known as the Pandava brothers (sons of god)
• Pandu die and Dhritarashtra becomes king
• Dhritarashtra has 100 sons (Kauravas) lead by the oldest, Duryodhana
• Drona teaches the boys but favors the Pandava brothers
• Bhima kills Baka and Hidimba both monsters
• Arjuna wins Draupadi and she marries all 5 brothers
• Arjuna goes into exile because he spent more time with Draupadi
• He marries a water-nymph and defeats and alligator monster
• Arjuna burns down the forrest for Agni
• Bhima kills Jarasandha in a match after Yudhishthira tries to become emperor 
• Duryodhana plans to trick Yudhishthira by inviting him to a gambling match
• Shakuni beats Yudi at the gambling dice game and takes everything
• This includes his brothers and Draupadi
• Bhima curses Dushasana after trying to rape Draupadi
• King Dhritarashtra returns everything Yudi lost
• He immediately looses it all again including the 12 years of exile of his brothers
• After defeating Shiva, Arjuna is granted golden armor
• Yudi saves his brother Bhima from a king in the form of a serpent by answering riddles

Bibliography

The Indian Heroes by: C. A. Kincaid

Week 8: Growth Mindset

Strengths and Weaknesses

"Strong Brain" Source: Pixabay

After reflecting on my personal strengths and weaknesses I realized they differ depending on the situation. Looking at the list, I find myself only focusing on grades for classes I have little interest in and focusing on learning in classes where I enjoy the material. The same goes for doing the bare minimum. Lack of motivation and flat out laziness play a lot in to this. In classes where I find motivation to learn I perform with my best work but in classes where I lack interest I usually find myself doing the bare minimum just to get the grade I want. My biggest  weakness I need to grow into a strength is procrastination. I am very bad at doing things last minute, this usually is true for any class. However, at work or anything outside of school this is not true. Listing out my weaknesses on paper makes me realize what I need to work on. This helps develop a plan to grow these weaknesses simply by realization.

Week 8 Reflections

Reflection

"Writing" Source: Pixabay

Reading

Over the past seven weeks I have enjoyed most of the readings I have read so far. My favorite was reading about the gods and goddesses in "Hindu Gods and Heroes". Mahabharata was probably my least favorite, it was really similar to Ramayana and kind of seemed like the same story each week. My reading schedule has usually consisted of reading on the assigned days. My reading notes have made the weekly stories easier. I try and get a good description of the characters and the main theme/ plot for that section of the story. In the near future I would like to read an epic about heroes and possibly the Jataka tales.

Writing

I have really enjoyed creating the stories I have written thus far. I learned writing and creativity comes really easy for me if I just sit down and get started. That is my favorite part, having ideas flowing and putting them down on paper. My biggest problems are probably grammar issues. I usually turn to my english major roommate for help. I love what I have going for my storybook right now, it gives a lot of room for imagination. I would like to fix some of the grammar issues I come across so it doesn't stop my writing flow.

Connecting

Reading through other peoples stories I find myself admiring the flow and descriptive writing they have. Some points I would like to avoid is too much narrative between the characters. I am not the best writer but I think I have given decent feedback to the best of my ability. In the future I can look for grammatical errors in my peer's writings, this would be good practice for me as well.

Story Planning Week 7: Jara

Jara Chapter Planning

"Glacier Night" Source: Pixabay

Ideas

• Unlike the other two stories, I want to show Jara receiving her exile news from her father
• Show some grudge towards her father, much like her cousin Kaloo
• Jara is sixteen and the sister to Rama
• Jara is dark skinned
• Jara can manipulate light and expel it form her eyes
• Her eyes are usually glowing but varying in intensity depending on mood
• Exiled to the northern glaciers
• This is the farthest from home out of the exile locations
• Light only shines for a few hours per day
• She is considered the least dangerous 
• The god/goddess she meets becomes a parent figure in place of her father

Notes

"Pandava brothers = The Princes of Elephant City"

-Rama and Jara are similar to the Pandava brothers

"Arjuna is exiled and his adventures begin including burning the forrest with Agni"

-Jara could meet a god/goddess like Arjuna did while on exile

Styles

-Similar format to the Rama and Kaloo chapter's, besides the start

-Narrative between Jara and her father

-Narrative between Jara and her god/goddess she meets

-Show a transition of Jara

Character Sketch

-Jara: 16, dark skin, glowing eyes, strong

-Father: powerful, remorseful, betrayal

-God/Goddess: powerful, mentor, father/mother figure

Bibliography

Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition

Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition

Authors Note
This story is loosely based off the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata.  I used some characters from this story and ideas of dark and light to fuel the overlying theme. The idea of the cousins came from Mahabharata. In this story one of the cousins is exiled and has an encounter with the god Agni where he burns down the forrest for him. The Pandava brothers have all sorts of adventures in the forrest including Arjuna getting his golden armor form Shiva, and Yudhishthira answering all of the serpents riddles