Reading Notes Part A: PDE Mahabharata

Image Source King Shantanu falling in love with Satyavati.

Vyssa was born by Indra’s semen falling into a river and a female fish swallowing it. 10 months later two children were born. The female gave birth to another child named Vyasa. King Shantanu was walking throughout the Ganges when suddenly a maiden appeared and they wed together. The goddess then gave birth to a son, and she sent him to the Ganges. The King did not want to cause a scene about what the goddess had just done so he kept quiet. The goddess had 7 more children destroying each of them. When the eighth kid was born and the King could not handle each of their kids being destroyed so his pent-up anger caused him to give a stern speech to the goddess and the vow from their marriage was broken. The goddess then took the last child with her and vanished. The goddess returned to King Shantanu with a noble son who has the power of Vasus. She then separated from Shantanu and was to never be seen again. The King spent all of his time and attention towards his new son who he named Devavrata. 

King Shantanu was all alone due to his first wife leaving him, therefore he began to move on to Satyavati. The fisher story of the girl who was found inside of the fish is retold. It is mentioned that the girl found grew up to be a lovely girl with a fishy odor. One day a boat with the Brahmin Parashara approached her and saw how beautiful she was. He had decided that he wanted her to be the mother of his sons and soon she became just that. The son grew before her eyes and was named Vyasa. Vyasa went into the depths of the forest and told his mother that if she ever needed anything to just think of him and he would appear to help her. Then, Satyavati became a virgin again and King Shantanu fell in love with her and wanted her to be his bride.

Bibliography:

Author: Donald A. MacKenzie

Title: King Shantanu and Satyavati

Link: Link to story

Week 5 Story: Mario and Peach but Ramayana Style

Image Source Princess Peach plays Sita in this story.

Image Source Mario plays Rama in this story.

Mario, Princess Peach and Mario's brother Luigi had a long six months. Mario was exiled from his kingdom at his father's command and Princess Peach and Luigi had no choice but to follow after him. As they were slowly but surely getting accustomed to living in the woods, Princess Peach began to wander off one early morning to pick apples from a nearby tree. Bowser, an evil ruler, noticed Princess Peach by herself and decided that he wanted to steal her away from the infamous Mario. Bowser sent out one of his spiky turtles to disguise himself as a turtle that was lost and injured. The turtle set off and Princess Peach quickly noticed the hurt turtle. She sprinted over to him and just as she began to pick him up was swooped up from a cloud into Bowser's powerful arms. Princess Peach desperately tried to get away from Bowser's powerful grip but could not get out. She began to drop jewelry in hope Mario would find it and notice something was wrong. Mario and Luigi were still at the campsite sound asleep until Toad, the mushroom, rushed over to them exclaiming she had seen Bowser take Peach away to his kingdom! Mario awakened and was enraged by this news. He immediately commanded Toad to go to Bowser's Kingdom in hopes of finding Princess Peach and bringing her back to him. Toad began to head to Bowser's Kingdom in disguise as one of his evil turtles and found Peach sitting on top of a green pipe. Toad tried to persuade Peach to escape with him to the woods and return back to Mario. Peach was weary to do so and ordered Toad to have Mario rescue her himself. Toad came back to Mario with the news and Mario and Luigi set out to save Princess Peach. Mario and Luigi arrived at the Kingdom and heard Princess Peach cry out in help. Mario and Luigi went through a series of lava, turtles, and swinging swords before they finally arrived in the room that held Bowser. They entered the room and after several times of shooting him with fire and jumping on his head, Bowser was finally defeated. Princess Peach squealed with joy as she was finally saved. Mario, Peach, and Luigi all returned to the woods where they were safe at last.

Author's Note: I wanted to change the story of the Ramayana and began to think how similar it was to the plot of Mario and Peach. I thought it would be a fun twist to use the moment where Sita gets stolen by Ravana and Hanuman goes out to find her. When Hanuman returns, Rama and Lakshmana set out to defeat Ravana and get back Sita. I used this same plot as Mario and Luigi go to save Princess Peach from Bowser, using Toad as the messenger. I had a lot of fun thinking of this story and adding my own twist to the Ramayana.

Bibliography:

Author: Donald A. McKenzie

Title: Ravana and Sita

Link: Story

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues

Image Source

During this film, the narrator, Nina, is reading the book of the Ramayana. In the story, Rama's father exiles Rama from the kingdom, along with Lakshmana and Sita. The story mainly follows Sita's journey. Ravana seduces Sita using a golden deer to distract her away from Rama and the proceeds to steal her in his chariot. Sita leaves behind jewelry to leave a trail for Rama. Rama then meets Hanuman and they come to the conclusion to save Sita together. Hanuman goes to scope out the Kingdom of Ravana in Sri Lanka and finds Sita singing the blues. Sita does not want to be saved by anyone besides Rama so Hanuman goes back to retrieve him, however, he gets set on fire. Hanuman gets saved by having the fire not burn him and sets the town on fire. Rama comes to rescue Sita however there is tension between the two. Rama does not trust Sita after she stayed in another man’s house. The town is not happy with Sita and it begins to ruin Rama’s reputation. Rama does not want to have a bad reputation as a King so he sends Lakshmana to exile Sita. During this time, Sita tells Rama that she is pregnant and continually tries to prove her pureness. While she is exiled, Valmiki takes Sita in and Sita gives birth to two sons. Valmiki teaches them the songs of Rama and Rama hears these songs and figures out that those are coming from his sons. They meet, and Rama begs for Sita back. She then says her final words to Rama and passes away with Rama passing away shortly after.



The story retells the Ramayana story, however there are three narrators from India who all have different viewpoints of what happened throughout the story. I thought this was a cool idea because it gives differing perspectives on what the story means and what occurred. Nina, the narrator, also has a storyline in this video. She goes to India to follow her boyfriend, then goes back to New York for her job, when her boyfriend decides to break up with her. I thought including her storyline made the narrative more personal and more modern, but also included a nice break from the Ramayana story.


Bibliography:
Author: Nina Paley
Title: Sita Sings the Blues
Link: Link to story

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Week 4 Story: The Adventures of Dolpha, Lakship and Shellita

Image Source. My story focused on Shellita being stolen by Waveana in the middle of the night and the hunt for her. It features Shellita's spouse, Dolpha and his brother Lakship. 

Long ago, there was a mermaid and a dolphin who was exiled from the mermaids Kingdom. While swimming through the reefs one day the dolphin named Dolpha, found his brother resting on the ocean floor.

“Lakship, what are you doing here?” asked Dolpha.

“Brother! I have been searching for you for days, bad news has hit the kingdom. Father has passed away and mother sent me to look for you”

Dolpha and his mermaid spouse, Shellita, grieved over the news Lakship had just given to them. Lakship decided that there was no use to go back to the kingdom and decided to stay with Dolpha. They roamed around the ocean floor looking for the next warm coral reef to stay in for the night. One night, as they were sleeping, Shellita heard a rustling through the seaweed. Shellita awoke from her slumber and went to investigate what had made the loud noise as Dolpha and Lakship stayed sound asleep. Shellita was met with a whale who tried talking her into leaving Dolpha as he would not be the right man for her. When Shellita decided to stay loyal to Dolpha the whale became enraged and scooped her up under his large fins and kidnapped her in the dark of the night. The stingray named Rayu saw the whale take Shellita and immediately swam away to find Dolpha and Lakship to relay the news.

“Lakship! Dolpha! It’s Shellita, she is in trouble!”

Dolpha and Lakship awoke in terror screaming at Rayu to tell them everything he saw.

“It’s the whale Waveana, he has stolen Shellita! He tried to seduce her into becoming his wife and she denied him, making him steal her away. Quick! Follow her before it becomes too late”

Rayu showed Dolpha and Lakship the way in which Shellita was stolen in the night and they hurriedly followed after her. Dolpha quickly approached the land of Swordelleya and found the King Swordfish, Sanduman, to have him and his army of swordfish help fight Waveana and return Shellita to him. Sanduman decided to transform himself into a small clown fish to go and investigate where Shellita was in Waveana’s mansion. He, within minutes, found Waveana fast asleep with an empty space beside him. He continued to look throughout he mansion in hopes Shellita could return home and he and Dolpha would be reunited at last…

Author’s Note: I was inspired to take the story from the Ramayana to retell the moment where Sita was stolen by Ravana in the middle of the night. I thought putting a twist of the characters being in the ocean would be fun and exciting to write. Originally, I tried to retell a different part of the Ramayana story and ended up thinking this story made a better fit for an under the sea theme. I loved this section of the Ramayana and find that there a lot of ways this story can be retold.

Bibliography:

Author: Sister Nivedita

Title: Hanuman in Lakna 

Link: Link to story

Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana, Part D

Image Information. After the many obstacles, Rama has faced he is now reunited with Sita and is crowned King.

Rama and his army try to get across the ocean to Lanka by firing a fiery dart across the ocean to dry it up. The King of the Ocean rose above the ocean and made Nala construct a bridge for them to get across. Rama arrives at Lanka and is enraged. Ravana sends spies out in the shape of monkeys however they urge him to surrender Sita. Ravana tries to tell Sita that Rama died and his head was going to be brought in and Sita wanted to die next to Rama too. In the midst of telling Sita the news, Ravana was called out to war and Sita knew she had been lied to. Garuda tries to heal Rama’s soldiers. Ravana’s best solider was his brother Kumbhakarna, an incredibly powerful demon. Brahama made it to where Kumbhakarna sleeps for six months and is allowed to be woken up for one day. Ravana’s soldiers tried to awaken him. Kumbhakarna ate then began to defeat Hanuman and stole Sugriva, however, Rama sent flaming arrows that severed he hear. Another enemy, Indrajit, enters the battle and Hanuman tries to save the army. Ravana tries to use Indrajit to trick Rama into thinking Sita has been killed on the battlefield, but Vibhishana tells Rama it is a lie and they begin to plan an ambush and kill Indrajit. Ravana grieves for Indrajit and vows revenge. Ravana tries to kill Lakshmana with a dart and it pierces Lakshmana making Hanuman go get the healer to save him. Rama becomes happy when his brother escapes death. The Gods have been watching the battle and Indra decides to take a chariot to help Rama. They have him the chariot and the royal bow to defeat Ravana. Agastya came to help Rama and finally Rama used a flaming splendor of Brahma to kill Ravana. Ravana’s wife mourns his death and Ravana’s funeral takes place. Sita and Rama are finally reunited. Rama is still upset that Sita was with another man and therefore tests her. Sita goes into a fire to show she was not touched by Ravana and Rama takes her back. Sita and Rama go back in Ravana’s chariot talking about the memories and places they had been when in exile. Rama reunites with his brother just before his 14-year exile time is up. Rama becomes king since his exile is over. When Sita comes back into the kingdom the people were wary of her intentions and Rama finally gave in and exiled her. Time went on and Sita took hermitage with Valmiki. Sita and Rama’s sons both found Rama and Rama made a messenger make Sita promise in front of the people that she was pure. As she was renouncing that she was innocent the heavens took Sita and Rama was heavy-hearted. After Rama’s brother departs too, Rama decides it’s his time to go and urges Sugriva’s army to follow but Hanuman states he is supposed to live forever. Rama departs becoming Vishnu again.

My favorite part of the story was the battle and Rama saving Sita. I think this would be the focus of my story this week because it is an interesting plot and also has a major twist at the end.

Bibliography:

Author: Donald A. McKenzie

Title: Valmiki's Hermitage

Link: Link to story