Indian Epics

NOTE: This story is now published on my portfolio site, here . Hippolyta held her little Diana, finally asleep after a long day of learning from all of her aunts. The angelic looking 7-year-old had a slight smile on her face, resting with her head in the lap of her mother. Looking down at her, Hippolyta reflected on the mystery of her child, formed from clay and given breath by the gods, who had scarcely interacted with humans or Amazons for centuries. She wondered what was awaiting Diana; what would her destiny be? The pride Hippolyta felt over her daughter and her incredible abilities at such a young age and her adoration for the child were tempered by a constant uneasiness at the thought of Diana's destiny, still unknown. The Amazons were a proud race of women, all as fiercely loyal to each other as sisters, and all more accomplished in every way than even the most powerful of men in the world outside of Themyscira. Isolated on their island for centuries, the women had spent t...

Part A begins with The Birth of Krishna and ends with The Lifting of the Mountain. I so greatly enjoyed the descriptiveness of Sister Nivedita's writing. She is masterful, not only with helping the reader envision the surroundings and setting of the story, but also with eliciting the desired emotions in the readers regarding the characters, especially that of the new arrived earthly incarnation of Vishnu. Even in the very beginning with that brief moment when they saw their new-born as the powerful celestial being he was, the reader is caught in the same moment of breathless rapture as the parents in the story.  I love that even from the very beginning of the history, the baby has to experience the real struggles of living on earth, but his apart-ness is ever present. He is not exempt from trials, but the way in which he faces them, and those working to help him face them, is set apart. These old stories also do a great job of incorporating the inner workings of the chara...

For this first Week 11 Reading, I'll be going over the fourth and final group of the Shedlock Jataka tales. These include The Crow that Thought It Knew, The Well-Trained Elephant, The Judas Tree, The River Fish and the Money, The Dreamer in the Wood, The Rice Measure, The Poisonous Trees, and The Wise Physician.  This is a photo of a modern White Elephant , which is still used in royal Asian families as a symbol of power.  The Crow that Thought It Knew is yet another of the stories that seems almost incomplete involving the Bhodisat - so many of them involved grand actions on his part but this story does not. In the rewritten stories, I think I'll keep a more grand tone when involving the Bhodisat. The Well-Trained Elephant had that more traditional grandeur associated with the lesson to be learned from the Bhodisat's incarnation. I like in this story and others that not only is the wicked character punished, but the power and virtue of the Bhodisat is given to bene...