Skip to main content

Reading Notes: Nine Ideal Women Part B

I read the stories of Sakuntala and Savitri, both incredible women.
A depiction of Sakuntala in the river.
I found the story of Sakuntala interesting at first because, unlike the others, the story goes on for a few pages without even mentioning her. This is of course because she had not yet been born, but in the other stories the main character appears much sooner. I thought also, how heartbreaking it was that her mother left her as a baby to die, since she could not go back to heaven with a human child.

The story of Sakuntala is much closer to some of the modern fairy tales we have today, and seemed to me to be told in a similar fashion. The way she's described as blushing and being teased when the Maharajah first comes and talks to her, and her interactions with the world seems more familiar than many of the other stories I've read.

I love when these stories talk about the origins of something we still see today, whether or not they are accurate. This story held the origins of paining on a canvas - the Marahajah was missing Sakuntala so much that he invented the art of portraiture.

This is Savitri and her husband when she was trying to fend off death.
The story of Savitri, read online in a previous week of assignments, is what inspired me to buy the book Nine Ideal Indian Women for the free reading portion of the class. Her story of warding off death for the love of her husband was so powerful, and I wanted to learn about the other epic women of Indian mythology.

While I love the story even more now that I've read the version written by Ms. Devee, it is not my favorite. I did find out, however, that her love for her husband is so famed in India that married women still swear and oath and celebrate a day called the Savitri Brata, which they hope will mean that they never have to be widows.




Citation:
Devee, M. S. (2018). Nine Ideal Indian Women. London: Forgotten Books.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reading Notes: Nine Ideal Indian Women; The Story of Savitri

The story of Savitri had a great affect on me this week because of her strength, and ability to know what she wanted from life. When she was presented with situations that she did not like, she accepted what was inevitable, but knew her own power and what she was able to accomplish, and used it. I loved the style of writing throughout the story (enough to buy the whole book on Amazon), because all of the descriptions were about the relationships between characters or what they were feeling. There are definitely some beautiful stories that have a lot of detail poured into the surroundings and the background to set up a better mental image, but the relational writing here was beautiful. This depiction of Savitri following her husband into the woods spoke to me because she did not try to plead or prevent what she knew was inevitable, but she did everything she could to deal with it when it happened.  Bibliography:  Devee, M. S. (1970, January 01). Nine ideal Indian Wo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reading Notes: Jataka Part B

For this week I read: The Bull That Demanded Fair Treatment, The Bull that Proved His Gratitude, Horse that Held Out to the End, The Monkey that Saved the Herd, The Mallard that Asked for Too Much, The Merchant Who Overcame All Obstacles, The Elephant that Was Honored in Old Age, and The Faithful Friend.  In The Bull That Demanded Fair Treatment, the common theme of the importance of respectful treatment of all living things is shown. This theme is consistent in most stories, and is usually only acceptably broken when the object of disrespect has compromised their own personal integrity in some way. Again in this story, the main character traits were played out through dialogue, either to the self or to other characters in the story. In The Bull that Proved His Gratitude, a similar story comes about - there is a bull treated very well, he wants to make a living for his owner, he pulls some heavy things, and in the end is rewarded by further adoration from his owner. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Introduction to a Nonprofit Enthusiast

I am studying Nonprofit Administration, and graduating in May. I come from St. Louis, MO, where I've spent just over half of my life. I have two siblings, a 9 year-old brother and a 2 year-old sister, both the best little humans to grace this earth. I've enjoyed my time at OU, during which I spent a semester at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea. During my time there, I was able to hike many of the mountains surrounding Daegu, visit some gorgeous temples and sites of historical significance, and also hop over to Japan for a little less than a week. I've also been to Frankfurt, Heidelberg, and surrounding towns in Germany. I love both places.     My most recent international travel took me to Monterrey, Mexico, with my fiancé and his mother. He was born there, and still has a large part of his family living there. It was lovely to meet them, and they were kind enough to take me all over the city, visiting museums and parks, and eating lots of amazing foo...
27 comments
Read more