Indian Epics

100 Word Story : Percy staggered through the forest until he came upon an unfamiliar sight. Appearing before him was a camp almost exactly like Camp-Half Blood.  As he entered the gates, he was met by many demigods. They introduced themselves as sons and daughters of Hindu gods and how excited they were to meet Poseidon's son.  Soon the headmaster of the camp, Guru Venkaswami approached Percy. He had asked Percy to arrive to the camp, so that he could join forces in their fight against the fearsome Rakshi.  Together Percy and Rahul, son of Indra, would attempt to defeat the evil demon. Two sentence story: Percy Jackson arrived to the Hindu Demigod Camp in need of assistance. Rahul, son of Indra, and Percy would travel together to defeat the Rakshi demon.  Sources: There was no particular source for this story other than my previous readings of Percy Jackson and Indian stories.  Author's Note: I am a big Percy Jackson fan, so I thought it would be cool to introdu...

100 word story As Rama took the throne, he could not forget his loyal follower, Hanuman. The powerful monkey deity had saved his brother, wife, and aided in the war effort. For all he had done, Rama must surely reward Hanuman greatly. He remembered the great mountain that Hanuman had seized to bring the medicine fruit to bring back his slain soldiers and brother. Thus, Rama decided Hanuman shall became the king of the Himalayas so that he may protect India from invaders and watch over the medicine plant for Rama. Upon hearing the news Hanuman, flew to begin his kingdom.  Two sentence story Rama was proud of Hanuman's effort in the battle and decided to reward him. Hanuman thus became the king of the Himalayas to forever grow the medicine plant and guard against invaders.  Bilbiography:  Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914) Author's Note: One of my favorite parts of Ramayana was the role of Hanuman. His loyalty, wit, and courage was admirable, and I...

 The final part of the public domain Ramayana brought to conclusion a truly "epic" epic although with some surprises at the end. The battle was interesting and great, and I enjoyed how some of the conflicts faced by the hero's were solved. In particular was how Hanuman picked up the mountain with the plant medicine used to revive those who died. There were some moments that surprised me such as Lakshama's death, but in the end the hero's won. This is similar to the overall message of Ramayana, signifying the battle of good and evil with good winning. The part of how it took a special arrow to defeat Ravana reminded me of the Greek mythological figure Hydra who also had many heads like Ravana and needed a special method to defeat. Again, this parallel between cultures is something I have seen often throughout the epic. The end of the epic was something new to me as I had not read the part where Rama banishes Sita. It was surprising to me see him do that, but it rea...

 Part C brought the plot closer to the final conflict as well as many interesting individual stories. Like I saw with the stories in Part A and B, there were some parallels with stories and myths that I have seen in other cultures. One example was the story of Sampati and Jatayu and how they fell upon flying too close to the sun. This reminded me of the Greek mythology story of Icarus and Daedalus when Icarus' wings melted for flying too close to the sun as well. Another aspect of the stories that I enjoy are images. They really help with envisioning the plot and as an avid art museum-goer, I enjoy seeing some of the different artistic styles used in the images. The picture of the golden city in Lanka was very neat to see, especially considering that it sold for $30,000 in an auction house. Gong back to the plot, I found it noteworthy how Sita refused to escape with Hanuman as she could not touch another man. This concept of remaining pure and virginity seems to be prominent in oth...