Storybook Plan: Sanskrit in the Indian Epics

LINK TO MY STORYBOOK HERE

Hello VagaBuddies!

Storybook from Shrek: Shrek Wiki

First of all I want to say I am excited to begin this storybook process! I am excited to learn a little bit about the Sanskrit language, and deepen my understanding of these Indian Epics in the process!
Organizationally, here is how I imagine my Storybook going. I will be focusing on a few words of Sanskrit in total, one or two for each story. I will provide the definition, a pronunciation guide and maybe even some other interesting uses or etymology of the word if it applies!
Next, I will connect each word to a mantra that focuses on that word. (ie - if the word is devotion then I will find a mantra about devotion). The mantra (or mantras) will then lead into a story from an Indian epic like the Ramayana or the Mahabharata.

For the first page, I want to cover the Ganga origin story from the Ramayana as the main story. I really admired Bhagiratha's devotion to his family, and the interplay between Shiva and Ganga as gods. For my Sanskrit words, I would choose either 'devotion' (for Bhagiratha) or 'goddess' (for Ganga). Both of those would have great mantras to choose from!
For the second page, I want to focus on the word 'purity' or 'faith' (or 'dharma' and compare Rama's dharma as a king vs. his dharma as a husband), because I want to talk about the story of Rama testing Sita's faithfulness at the end of the Ramayana. That scene in particular always interesting me, because Rama seems too harsh, so maybe the mantras I use will help explain Rama's actions.
For the third page, I want to do something with Hanuman, because he is literally the best. I would probably focus on something such as 'loyalty' or 'intelligence' or 'strength' since those are some of the most defining characteristics of Hanuman that come to mind for me.

Overall, I hope to convey a little bit of understanding and appreciation for Sanskrit through my Storybook. I aim to enrich an understanding of the Indian epics with an understanding of the language that it was originally composed in.

Language:
Alphabet: Omniglot
How many Ramayanas are there? : UC Press


Story References:

GANGA
Ganga Storam
- भगवति  Bhagavati: Goddess (Wikipedia)
- Devotion


-जय Jaya: Victory (Wikipedia)

Images:

Sanskrit in Sanskrit (Wikipedia Commons)


Top10Central


Ceas Yoga

Week 4 Story: Ravana vs. Rama (Ramayana retelling)

Ravana charged onto the battlefield on his powerful chariot, wielding a different fearsome weapon in each of his twenty hands. As others saw the king of the asuras' assault, they quickly moved out of the way so as to not be trampled in the chariot's path. The gods too witnessed the ferocity of Ravana's assault and gifted Rama with Indra's chariot and skilled charioteer.

Rama and Ravana meet each other chariots: Detechter

When the two powerful foes met on the battle field, their greeting was one of floods of arrows towards the other. Every arrow Ravana shot from each of his ten bows was expertly deflected or negated by arrows shot by Rama.
Seeing that his physical attacks were going nowhere, Ravana called upon his magical weapons and abilities to wage a second wave on Rama. Ravana shot a magical arrow called 'Danda', gifted to him by Shiva. It was capable of locking onto a target and pulverizing it into a thousand pieces, but Rama intercept the missile in mid-air, snapping the arrow. Then Ravana deployed 'Maya', a weapon that induced hallucinations and illusions on the battlefield. This weapon made it appear to be that all of the vanquished enemies began to rise again from death. Rama's army began to despair. They too had suffered terrible loses, yet they were apparently meant to defeat the same enemies twice and with a weaker force. Matali, Rama's charioteer, then guided Rama to tap into his own divinity and past lives,  deploying his own weapon called 'Gnana' (meaning 'wisdom'). This rare weapon dispelled all the illusions and revealed them to be simply mirages. Next, Ravana deployed an asthra called 'Thama' who plunged the entire world into darkness. These arrows each also had heads with tongues of flame and fangs of sharp metal. They engulfed the world and Ravana was sure that this feat would arrest Rama's attention enough for him to destroy Rama's army. But, Rama immediately understood this newest attack, and deployed 'Shivasthra', a weapon that brought light into all the dark places in the world. This completely countered Thama and rendered it useless. Ravana then hefted one of his most deadly weapons, a trident empowered with destructive capabilities gifted to him by the gods. Today, we would say that this trident had the power of ten atomic bombs. Ravana launched this trident with deadly accuracy at Rama, who immediately understood the danger he was in. To counter, Rama deployed one of his most powerful tools, a single-use shield called 'Carminasthra' that had the ability to neutralize any attack that hit it, no matter how powerful. With this shield in hand, Rama braced himself and the trident hit the shield with a dull thud and dropped to the ground. It was at this moment that Ravana, before so sure of his victory, began to understand how formidable his opponent was, and both sides of the war could feel favor tipping to the side of Rama.

Ravana wield several different weapons against Rama on the battlefield: Quora

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Author's Note: This week was a good palate cleanser for me. I decided to depart from the style of my previous two stories and go back to something more basic: a simple retelling with a few minor corrections. This story is based on the magical weapons wielded by Rama and Ravana against each other in their battle. I really enjoyed whenever Rama countered one of Ravana's attacks with the perfect magical counter, but sometimes the story did not justify quite how Rama was able to neutralize some of the attacks. One in particular, the trident, left something to be desired. In the original text, Narayan's Ramayana, Rama just uttered a mantra and the trident just suddenly stopped an inch from his chest. This was unsatisfying to me,  because it felt like a copout instead of an actual counter. So in my version, I have Rama counter the trident with a weapon called 'Carminasthra', single-use invincible shield. 'Carmin' is the Sanskrit word for shield and it seemed fitting to me to name the tool something along the lines of its purpose.

Narayan, R. K. "The Ramayana"

Reading Notes: Narayan's Ramayana Part D

Hello VagaBuddies

Time for the biggest reading in the whole Ramayana because Part D included the climax of this story!
At the start of this reading, my love of Hanuman was overwhelmingly confirmed when he sneaked into Lanka, Ravana's capital city, to find Sita. To do this, he mastered his supernatural shapeshifting powers, first becoming big enough to cross the sea in a step and then small enough to explore the evil city unnoticed (My monkey dude is magic too!!). He found Sita just in time, because she was close to committing suicide out of despair. Hanuman, who also has a way with words, comforted her and gave her Rama's ring, a token of his commitment to her. Then, Hanuman destroyed much of the city, allowed himself to be captured, and, when he was set on fire for being a spy, spread the fire all across the city, burning much of it down to the ground. I KNEW I LIKED THIS MONKEY FOR A REASON! Much later, after returning back to Rama, while Rama's camp was debating on whether to receive the defecting Vibishana, Hanuman was the sole voice of compassion of Rama's advisers. Hanuman remembered that Vibishana saved his life when he was captured by Ravana, and could feel that Vibishana was virtuous. Basically, Hanuman joined Lakshmana as the strong, wise sidekick who dominates everyone.

More Hanuman. Just cuz : Pinterest

Rama vs. Ravana : Dazzling Goa (WordPress)

Besides other amazing things Hanuman did, this reading also had the climatic fight between Rama and Ravana! Rama, who defeated enemy commander after enemy commander, had enraged Ravana so much that he tried to fight Rama, but was immediately shut down. After recovering, and even bringing in some extra forces and using magic/trickery, Ravana was still losing every battle to Rama and his allies. One thing that did bug me a slight bit though, was when Ravana sent out Vishnu's trident that was supposed to be super destructive, but Rama just chanted a mantra and the trident was useless. I liked it much better when Rama countered Ravana's attacks with a specific asthra that could counter it. He could have easily had a single-use impenetrable shield or something, but instead the trident just failed because Rama said some magic words that had never been mentioned before.
Anyway, I also thought it was interesting that after the battle, Rama made Sita prove herself again, which even Narayan pointed out as self-contradictory based on his response to Sugreeva or Ahalya, who could both return to their spouses after explicit acts of infidelity.
Regardless,  I still really loved the ending, with its heart-pounding action, last-minute saves, and giant party to end it all. Narayan's commentary really came out on the last epilogue, describing how the author tries to draw out the end of the story, and I really liked learning that little bit.

And for my last reading notes for the Ramayana, VagaBuon Voyage!


Narayan, R. K. "The Ramayana" pp 131-171

Reading Notes: Narayan's Ramayana Part C

Hello VagaBuddies,

For this reading in the Ramayana, I was introduced to my new favorite character: Hanuman! But before I get to that beautiful monkey man, I have some honorable mentions.

The beast Hanuman himself: YouTube

First, here is where I finally get a mention of the UFO "Ravana's flying chariot." Although it isn't talked about in great depth, I can still easily see how some conspiracy theorists would latch upon this vehicle as evidence of UFO's in ancient texts. I am just surprised how the 'Ancient Technologies in the Ramayana' video didn't mention how Ravana could fly just by himself (jetpacks anyone?). In general though, this seen was very action packed and exciting.
For my first honorable mention, I want to praise the OG Big Bird: Jatayu. I loved Jatayu's final stand in this reading, which had him give his life towards trying to stop Ravana's kidnapping of Sita. Not only was this translation excellent (having great flow, pacing, and sense of action), but it was also just an incredibly moving scene. This bird, through his devotion to their father Dasaratha, destroyed Ravana's chariot in order to try to save Sita. Although he was ultimately unsuccessful, he died a hero.
NOW IS THE TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE MONKEYS. Ok so backstory: Monkeys are my favorite animal. I read every book about monkeys that was in my grade school's library. Twice. I made a whole monkey-themed activity book, fitted with acrostics, crosswords, word searches, drawings, different monkey-animal combinations, etc. And though I've since grown out of my main monkey-craze, imagine my inner childlike joy at having a smart, strong, and cool monkey character in the form of Hanuman appear in the Ramayana. Not only is this guy incredibly wise, but he is also the son of the wind god, which gives him immense powers besides being a giant monkey. As Rama's greatest devotee, he clearly sees Rama as the incarnation of Vishnu that he is, and is eager to serve him.

This is a Hanuman stan blog now:  Free Wallpapers

Now that this is basically going to be a Hanuman stan account, I am so excited to read more Hanuman stories and see him fight in battle next to Rama.
Bye for now.

Narayan, R. K. "The Ramayana" pp 89-131