Indian Epics

This is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, deliverer of the TED Talk that opened my eyes further to dangers of only reading one story.  The first TED talk I listened to was "The danger of a single story" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This story hit me hard - she talks about how only telling on story and stopping there, or only reading and looking for stories told from one perspective is not only dangerous, but generationally destructive. Especially in today's world, where it is so easy, and often encouraged, to surround yourself only with perspectives that support what you already think, it is too easy to only tell one story. And when only one story is told, it leads to the subject of the story fulfilling it, sometimes in small ways, but more often in major ones. She gives a personal example, talking about how the issue of immigration in the US became so closely tied to Mexicans, with the pervasive images portraying dejected, broken refugees, detainees at the border trying t...

For the second set of readings this week, I've elected to move on from Jataka tales briefly and talk about two tales by Maharanee Sunity Devee. I came across this book earlier in the semester and immediately ordered it. I was curious to look into the ideal woman according to these old myths, and wondering whether their standards for women are consistent in any way with our current standards. These tales I'll be working through come from the book Nine Ideal Indian Women,  and as they are considerably longer than the Jataka tales, I'll only be doing two or three at a time. These stories also have more complex timelines and more characters involved, so I think having more detailed discussion is appropriate. A depiction of Sati being decorated for her visit to her father that would ultimately be her mortal downfall. This is an original print from the books illustrations. The first story I read was that of Sati, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy king, who married the ...

For this week's reading, I'll be going through Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat Khan. Although I have done many of my reading notes on Jataka tales, each author's interpretation of them is so different that I learn new things from them each time. The first ten stories are The Monkey Bridge, The Guilty Dogs, Banyan, The Tortoise and the Geese, The Fairy and the Hare, The Golden Feathers, The Young Parrot, The Empty Lake, The Swan Kingdom,  and The Master's Test.  Right off the bat, I loved Inayat's interpretation and story-telling style. Her stories have a flow to them that was missing from some of the other versions of the Jataka tales I've read, which could sometimes tend to be more brief. Hers take on much more of a poetic sound, turning the stories into tales rather than short fables to learn from. This, to me, makes them more memorable and enjoyable to read. Another thing I enjoyed greatly was her attention to detail. They add to the reader's abil...