Storytelling for week 6: The forest

 The Forest

    The Sun god put the Pandavas and their wives in the forest. The god decreed that whatever food they gathered they had to set apart a portion of it for him. This angered the Pandavas and their wives. They worked so hard gathering their food. Most of the fruits in the forest were high up in the forest and plus there are hungry wild animals roaming all over the forest. The Pandavas and their wives hated their lives in the forest. They did not have a stable home, the rain was horrible, and they were not free to do anything. Their every move was watched by the Sung god.
    After twelve long years of living the forest, they decided to formulate a plan to escape the forest. They had enough of the forest and the Sun god. Now, the forest was bordered with walls. The walls were impossible to climb over; they were so high. Therefore they decided to build a tunnel. They worked on the tunnel during the night because the sun god was not there. He only came out during the day.
   When finally their tunnel was complete. They gathered all the food they had saved up and packed their belongings during the day for at night they were going go into the tunnel and escape the forest. When it was finally night time, they went to the tunnel only find that it was flooded with water from the rain from the day before. They had to reschedule their escape to another day when the flood went down.
   Finally the day came when the tunnel was acceptable to crawl through. While the Pandavas were walking toward the tunnel, the Sun god was following close behind. The Pandavas and their wives did not know this but the Sun god uses the creatures of the forest as spies. One of the creatures informed him of their plan of escape.
   One of them finally noticed that they were being followed by the Sun god and informed the group. The leader of the group offered himself as a sacrifice. He would run off and distract the Sun god so that the others could escape. The group had no other choice but follow through with this plan. The leader ran towards the Sun god and the rest of the group escaped.




Author's Note:
This story was based on the story of Life in the Forest. I kept the whole concept that the forest is a horrible place to live in because of the wild animals and bad weather. I wanted the story to be a little more adventurous so I made it a story about an escape, sacrifice, and courage.












"Life in the Forest" by Indian Myth and Legend (1913). Web Source: Public Domain Edition.

Reading Diary B: public domain Mahabharata

    Although I did not enjoy this portion of this week's reading as much as the first there were still some chapters that stood out to me. One chapter that I enjoyed was Ashwatthama's Jewel. In this chapter, Draupadi grieves for the death of her brother and her five sons. In her grief she requests the head of AShwawtthaman. In place of his head she will accept a jewel of his. Apparently the jewel that he has is just as precious as his life is to him. Arjuna found Ashwatthamann and took the jewel from him and gave it to Draupadi.
   Another chapter that I though was interesting was the Horse Sacrifice. In this chapter, a horse is sacrificed. Before sacrificing the horse, they had to determine if it was pure. This did this by pressing its ear and if milk flowed out of it, it means that it is indeed pure. The animal has to pure in order to be considered good enough for the gods. Bhima began the sacrifice by severing its head. To further determine that the animal was pure the inspected the insides of the horse. A bright lite appeared inside the animal; this means that the animal is indeed pure and is good enough for the god Vishnu.
    The third chapter that I though was interesting was Death of Krishna.In this chapter, the people were drinking and began to fight. Fathers were killing sons and sons were killing fathers. Krishna was trying to fight the rebels but died upon leaving the city. He was mistaken for a gazelle by a hunter and was shot.

(Death of Krishna)

Reading Diary A: Mahabharata public domain

    I really enjoyed this portion of the public domain Mahabharata. One of the stories I enjoyed was the first one, which was Life in the Forest. In this chapter, the writer introduces what it is like living in the forest to the reader. He does so by describing what kinds of foods they eat. They ate fruits, roots, and produce. It is pretty much what you would expect. For twelves years Pandavas and his wife Draupadi live in the forest -- living minimally and simply. Whatever food they obtained, they had to share a portion of it with the holy men. Although their live was simple, their home was pleasant. They were surrounded by fruits and flowers. I wished they would have included a picture in color depicting the abundance of the forest though.
    Another chapter that I enjoyed was Krishna's Visit. In this portion of the reading Krishna visits Draupadi. Draupadi uses this opportunity to complain to Krishna. She complains about her husband to Krishna. She accuses her husband of not caring about her. Her husband Pandavas saw her afflicted but did not do anything to save her. Krishna comforts her and promises her that she will be the queen over kings.
    I chose the image below because I really felt like if fit into the story of Krishna’s Visit. Not only is it a beautiful picture but it really captures the relationship between Krishna and Draupadi. It shos Draupadi confiding in Krishna and Krishna offering advise to Draupadi.

(Draupadi and Krishna)