Week 14 Storytelling: Eye for an Eye

"Where am I?" thought the man. He had tried to open his eyes, but he still couldn't see anything. The man tried to move, but he found himself restrained. His hands and feet had been bound by what appeared to be some form of rope. He was able to sit up from what felt like a stone floor. How long had he been here? How did he get here? He couldn't remember. The man looked around him, but still, he saw nothing. He was in complete and utter darkness.

The man shuffled around in place trying desperately to find some source of light, but it was to no avail. "I must be in some sort of cave," he inferred. "But how did I get here? The last thing I remember was... nothing. I don't remember anything! Who am I?!"

"Kamsa...  Kamsa..."

"What? Kamsa?" said the man quizzically. Then, it all came rushing back to him. "Kamsa, that's my name. I had been holding a large festival at Mathura, the capital of my kingdom. However, it had just been a ruse to get at Krishna. Krishna! This must be his doing. When I get a hold of - "

"Kamsa..."

"Wait, where is that coming from? Who's there? How did I get here?!" yelled Kamsa, shrinking back. Just then, there was a flash of light and a small woosh as a match was lit. Kamsa was immediately blinded as this new source of light cut through the darkness. As his eyes adjusted, Kamsa was struck with terror at what he saw. There were three man-like creatures with pitch-black skin in front of him. Their mouths were filled to the brim with razor sharp fangs, their heads were adorned with large, twisting horns, and they had long claws extending from their fingertips, but most terrifying of all, they each had dark, black holes where their eyes should be.

Yamadutas
Naraka Wiki

The nearest creature spoke up in a hissing voice, "Who we are is of little consequence, but as for how you got here... Oh, I think you know the answer to that question." A horrifying smile spread across his lips.

Then, Kamsa remembered. During the festival, Krishna had attacked him, and they had been engaged in combat. However, Kamsa had been losing, badly. Krishna knocked him on his back, and Kamsa was too beaten to stand back up. Krishna lifted up his hand into a mighty fist, dropped it onto Kamsa's head, and everything went black.

Recognizing the realization on Kamsa's face, one of the demons bellowed, "Hahaha! Welcome to Naraka!" The creatures chuckled in unison moving in around Kamsa. Each of them pulled out a large club, and before Kamsa could say anything, they began to beat him with a wretched rhythm. The beating lasted for several minutes before, unable to handle the pain any longer, Kamsa passed out.

When Kamsa awoke, he looked around. He was unable to move much due to the grievous injuries covering his body, but he seemed be on a conveyor system. At the end of the conveyor was a large metal roller. Next to the roller stood a tall dark figure. Kamsa recognized him from his childhood stories. It was Yama, the god of death.

"Please! I beg of you," Kamsa pleaded. "Have mercy on me! Please let me go, and I will never do wrong again!"

In reply, Yama smiled and flipped a switch turning on the conveyor system.


Author's Note:

This story is based on one of the stories from the Bhagawat about Krishna. In the stories, Kamsa, the main character in this story, is a cruel tyrant, and he is told that one day his nephew will kill him. So, he killed all the children of his sibling, up until Krishna was born, and Krishna was smuggled to a small village to keep him safe. Several years later, Krishna came back and killed Kamsa.

For my story, I wanted to look at what would happen to Kamsa in the afterlife. As Krishna grew up, Kamsa tried to kill him several times, and Kamsa did many evil things besides, so he definitely deserved some punishment after death. The descriptions I gave are based on Naraka, the Hindu hell. In Hinduism, there are different hells for different sins, and I thought Kamsa's actions fit with Tamisra and Shukaramukha which I described in my story.

Bibliography:

Naraka, Wikipedia, link
Bhagawat: The Krishna Avatar, 2000, Amar Chitra Katha

Week 14 Reading, continued: Bhagawat

Reading: Bhagawat: The Krishna Avatar, Amar Chitra Katha

 This section of the story deals with Krishna's life as a prince after beating Kamsa. After beating Kamsa, Krishna made up for lost time in his training as a warrior. He and Balarama managed to complete their training in 64 days, and to thank their teacher, they brought his son back from the dead. Also, stereotypical training montage (Although I guess if he did it first, it wasn't stereotypical then.):

Krishna and Balarama Training
taken from Bhagawat

Krishna was attacked several times by a relative of Kamsa. Every time, he brought a army numbering in the tens of thousands, and every time, his army was slaughtered. I swear, I keep thinking this book couldn't describe anything more amazing, and it keeps stepping it up.

This chapter is named after the fortress Dwaraka that Krishna makes during this time. However, this section doesn't seem to have a set goal like the previous chapters. The biggest thing it seems to be doing is setting up for Krishna's interactions with the Pandavas. Other than that, it seems to just kind of ramble on with different stories.

Week 14 Reading: Bhagawat

Reading: Bhagawat: The Krishna Avatar, Amar Chitra Katha

Finally get to the story where Krishna fights Kamsa, and it doesn't happen until the very end. On top of that, it barely lasts any time at all. It actually reminds me of Ocean's Eleven in that way. The majority of the story goes over Kamsa's complicated, multi-staged plan to kill Krishna and Balarama, Krishna's brother. Of course, it all failed.

This story was actually pretty gory as compared to the earlier ones. Sure, Krishna had killed enemies before, but his time he's described as decapitating them or wring them out like a wet cloth. More than one's he pulls out his enemy's horns and kill them with them. There was just a lot of fighting in this chapter, and that seems to be the theme of the stories.

Krishna Fighting an Elephant
taken from Bhagawat

I think my favorite of them was when Krishna fights an elephant. He comes up on it at the entrance to Kamsa's celebration, and the elephant attacks him. Krishna dodges it and taunts and teases the elephant for a while. Then, when he tires of the fight, Krishna knocks down the elephant with a single tug of its trunk and kills it with it's own tusk.

Week 13 Reading, continued: Bhagawat

Reading: Bhagawat: The Krishna Avatar, Amar Chitra Katha

This chapter focused mostly on the story of how Krishna saved his village from a giant storm by holding up a mountain like an umbrella. This chapter consisted of several smaller stories. If I had to pick a general idea tying all of them together, it would be the process of the people coming to respect and even worship Krishna.

Krishna lifting up the mountain
taken from the Bhagawat

Krishna does a lot of things that would get anyone else in trouble, but according to the narrator, he is just testing the villagers. So, when they find out, they end up thanking him in the end. It's a little weird, and I don't know if I can take the idea that Krishna does all the things he does without any other motive than to test his followers. It seems to me like he does a lot of it for fun.

Anyways, it was kind of funny how he fooled the whole village into thinking that their local mountain was a deity. I guess Indra was a little arrogant in expecting worship from the villagers, but I don't think that it was a good idea to get them to expect help from an inanimate object. I feel like I'm split on the reasoning for most of Krishna's actions.

Week 13 Storytelling: The Dig

Let's see... It was mid-afternoon when it happened, I think. It was late in the summer, so it was quite hot. We had been at the dig site for 3 months at that point, and we hadn't found anything. Earlier that year, we had received a sponsorship from a local museum to dig for ancient Hindu artifacts in southern India. However, it hadn't been going well, and our sponsors were getting impatient. Tempers were starting to flair from the stress, but that's when it happened. That's when we found it.

"I'm telling you Jim. There's nothing here. We should head to the cave up north," said Alex.

"No, we're not done here yet," I replied. "Remember, patience is a virtue." Alex rolled her eyes to that. "Let's finish up here today, and we can discuss moving north afterwards, " I continued.

"Aah!" *thud*

"Tommy!" cried Alex. "Are you alright?!" We ran over to Tommy's section of the dig site, and almost fell into the 30 foot sinkhole that had appeared.

The sinkhole
Source

"There must have been a collapse, " I stated. " Tommy! You down there?!"

"I'm here, and there's no need to yell. I can hear you just fine," moaned Tommy from crater.

"You aren't hurt are you?" asked Alex.

"Just my pride," returned Tommy. "Anyways, you guys should come down here. I think I found something." Alex and I sent each other a nervous glance before climbing down. Luckily the indention wasn't too steep, so as long as we avoided any loose rocks, we were able to reach the bottom without too much fuss.

"This better not be another broken stew pot, Tom--" I cut off. When we reached bottom a huge opening came into view from the side of the crater.  It was at least 40 or 50 feet tall, and it appeared to extend down deep into the ground. Around the entrance large spikes protruded from around the cave.

"Tommy, I think you found something," stated Alex.

"I know right?" Tommy replied excitedly. "Check out the floor. It's smooth, like a paved path, and the walls are covered in intricate designs."

"Yeah, they look almost like scales..." Alex noticed. "What do you think Jim?"

"This is definitely something," I stated. "The stonework doesn't match the styles of the period, based on the sediment in the area. I would date it back at least 2 or 3 thousand years, if not more. But, somethings off. The stone reminds me of something. I just can't put my finger on it."

"I know what you mean, " declared Tommy. "I would have sworn I'd seen it before. Anyways, it look like it goes pretty deep. Do ya'll think we should go a little deeper? There might be more clues inside."

"Yeah," I nodded. "It seems stable enough inside, and there isn't any noticeable stress from the collapse. We'll just need to be careful."

"It's decided then!" declared Alex. "I'll run up and get some flashlights, and we can check it out." She ran up the embankment and cam back quickly with some flashlights and canteens. "I though we might want some water. Better safe than sorry."

We distributed the flashlights and headed down into the cave. As we walked down, the cave narrowed slightly and the walls became smooth.

"I've got it!" yelled Tommy, startling the rest of us.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I know what this is. I can't believe I didn't notice it at first. I just can't believe we'd find one this big..."

"Spit it out Tommy" Alex said.

"It's a fossil!"

Just then, there was a deep rumble in the cavern, and the walls glowed with a dull red. Next, the whole cavern shook violently, and before we could do anything, the entrance collapsed behind us. There was a moment of silence as we all stood in shock. Then, there was another rumble. It was strange though. It didn't sound like an earthquake. It sounded more like laughter...


Author's note:

This story is based off of one of the stories of Krishna in the Bhagawat Purana. In the original story, a powerful demon shape-shifts into a giant serpent, and tricks Krishna and his friends into entering his mouth. Before the demon could close his mouth though, Krishna, notices the trick and grows to an enormous size. His body fills the serpents mouth, suffocating and killing it, and everyone is able to leave safe and sound. Over time the serpents body hardened and the village boys would play around on its body.

Krishna's friends entering the serpent's mouth
Source

For my story, I imagined the serpent being buried under the earth over time and some archeologists stumbling upon it. I though it would be terrifying if the serpent came back to life while they were exploring its body. I wanted to tell it like the beginning of a thriller, so I gave it a foreboding tone with some foreshadowing as to what might happen.

Bibliography:

Bhagawat: The Krishna Avatar, Amar Chitra Katha (2000)

Week 13 Reading, continued: Bhagawat

Reading: Bhagawat: The Krishna Avatar, Amar Chitra Katha

The second chapter of the book continues very similarly to how the first had left off. From what I can gather, it covers Krishna's life from a toddler to about 6-7 years old. His acts of heroism have only gotten more amazing. In one day, he killed two demons by tossing one into the air and literally ripping the other limb from limb.

I thought that particular story was a little funny because it was only children who witnessed this, and when they went to tell the adults, all the adults immediately believed them. From what I had read, no one had witnessed Krishna's greatness up to that point, so they had no reason to believe it. But, they just went along with it, praising Krishna.

Balarama, Krishna's brother, is no slouch himself at this point. He grabbed hold of a tree and shook all the fruit from it, and tossed a disguised demon around like a rag doll. Although, the most amazing this he's done is definitely when he was carried away by a giant Asura. As soon as Balarama notices, he punches the Asura and caves in his skull. It reminds me of One Punch Man, a funny web-comic.

One Punch Man killing a monster with one punch
Source

Week 13 Reading: Bhagawat

Reading: Bhagawat: The Krishna Avatar, Amar Chitra Katha


 I'm starting on a set of comics about Krishna's life. This first story deals with his birth and early childhood. The story has a narrator recounting Krishna's life to a younger person, and everything is told for a kind of omniscient point of view, but the story seems to only have information from those around Krishna.

Most of the story focuses on the amazing, if sometimes silly, exploits of baby Krishna. It's actually different from what I'm used to in stories of Krishna. Generally, Krishna is treated as if he has an adult's mind from birth, and there is a bit of that here and there, but for the most part, Krishna is very childlike.

They glazed over my favorite part which is when Krishna eats some fruit that he wasn't supposed to. They didn't even mention the fruit. They just talked about the boys tattling on Krishna, and his mother seeing the universe in his mouth.

Krishna knocking over two trees
taken from Bhagawat

I think my favorite part from this story is when he topples two trees because he walked between them with a mortar on his back. Apparently, he freed a couple of cursed beings, but they don't really say what happened to them. That might be worth looking into.

Tech Tip: Pinterest

I wanted to do a quick tech tip, and I've been hesitant to get onto Pinterest, but I'm finally doing it for this post. I have to say, I kind of like pinterest. I haven't used it before, (I tend to avoid social media sites.) but it's really intuitive, and it was easy for me to find some really cool pictures. It also seems like it will be a really useful place to keep track of images I use for blog posts and their sources. I might even start using it for other projects as well.

Link to Pinterest board:
https://www.pinterest.com/bonner5171/indian-epics-portfolio/

Week 12 Storytelling: Captain's Log

Captain's Log, INS - Indra, 2016

Starfleet Seal
Source

Captain's Log,
Star Date: 69751.

While touching down on planet Dandaka-IX, Sita discovered an unknown life-form. The creature resembled a deer from Sol-III; however, it's fur had a golden glow, and its body appeared to be covered in jewels. We were running low on fuel, and Sita believed the beast's hide might be worth something at the bazaar on Ayodhya-II. So, Lieutenant Lakshman and I set out to capture the beast.

Captain's Log,
Star Date: 69751.5.

Lakshman and I discovered that the creature was an Rakshasa drone. Its outward appearance had simply been a hologram. Upon discovering this, we immediately contacted the Indra, but we received no response. After rushing back to the ship, we discovered that it had been raided, and Sita was missing. After getting the ship into working order, we began searching for the raiders.

Captain's Log,
Star Date: 69753.8.

Shortly after beginning our pursuit, we found the raider ship's ion trail. The trail wasn't too big, probably from a D'Kora class vessel. We followed it for several hours before we came upon the wreckage of a Star Fleet ship, the INS-Ganga. Upon boarding the ship, Lakshman found the log of the ship's Captain, Jatayu. I've included a section from the log:

---

Captain's Log,
Star Date: 69752.2.

While on our final patrol loop for the day, we came into contact with an Asura raider ship. When we attempted contact to inform the ship that they were infringing on Star Fleet space, we discovered that the Captain of the ship was the Rakshasa Admiral Ravana. He had knowingly invaded our territory and captured a scientist from one of our exploratory vessels. Before we could negotiate or contact base, he fired a photon torpedo at our communications array.

We've been cut off from the rest of the fleet. While we are putting the best fight we can, it is unlikely that we will make it out of this battle. So, should anyone find this, please inform High Command immediately. The Rakshasan Empire has committed an act of war on the Federation.

---

A copy of both my log and Jatayu's is being sent to High Command as we speak. However, I do not feel that we can resume our mission and wait for orders, as is standard protocol. I must see to the safety of my captured crew mate Sita. Therefore, I will be breaking from my mission and embarking into Asuran space in pursuit of Ravana. I am aware of the repercussions of this action and am willing to face the consequences. I cannot guarantee my return. As such, consider this the final entry into my Captain's Log.

Sincerely,
Captain Dasharathi Rama


Author's Note:

This story is based on the capture of Sita by Ravana in the Ramayana. In the original story, Ravana distracts Rama with a bejeweled deer and captures Sita while he is away. Shortly afterwards, he is spotted by the giant vulture Jatayu. Jatayu attacks Ravana but is defeated. Before he dies, Jatayu informs Rama of what had happened, and Rama sets out after Ravana.

For this story, I had wanted to do a sort of captain's log like in Star Trek, and after thinking a while, I thought this story would fit the style best. I set up Rama as the Captain of an exploratory vessel and told the story from his view. I was going for a brief, brisk style, giving only details Rama would think were necessary in a report. Instead of giving a long exposition at the beginning, I tried to give small hints as to the surrounding story and universe. I tried to pull a lot from the Star Trek universe and intermingle it with ancient Indian mythos. Finally, I thought it would be a good ending to have Rama break off from his original mission and go gallivanting off into enemy territory to save Sita, similar to something Captain Kirk might do.


Bibliography:
Narayan, R. K. (2006-08-29). The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (Penguin Classics) (p. 16). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. link

Week 12 Reading Diary: Ramayan 3392 AD II

Reading: Ramayana 3392 AD II, Shamik Dasgupta, 2007

 I couldn't get ahold of the first volume, so I'm going to go ahead an continue reading the second volume for now.

The story was pretty similar to the original up to the point where they meet "Vish" for the second time. Then, it completely changes. Seeta runs off on her own, and Rama and Lakshman are captured. I think this is a representation of the battles Rama has with the Rakshasas in the forest. He and his brother end up fighting against a lot of Rakshasas in a thunder-dome-like arena. It's a pretty cool re-imagining of how the party split up, and I think it makes the characters a lot more dynamic than the original. A lot of problems they've encountered are from their own actions rather than some deus ex machina. Of course, Seeta is a sort of deus ex machina personified, but that's neither here nor there.

Deus Ex Seeta
Taken by me, from Ramayan 3392

The world they created for this book is quite interesting, but I have to say my favorite part is what they did to the characters. The original characters of the Ramayana are interesting, but compared to the ones in this story they're almost one dimensional. Even Rama gets angry and makes mistakes. He doesn't just walk through life immediately succeeding. He has to work for everything.

Week 11 Reading Diary: Ramayan 3392

Reading: Ramayana 3392 AD II, Shamik Dasgupta, 2008

Okay, so this reading was a little weird for me. I was supposed to be reading the first volume, but I ended up getting the second. Apparently, the library has the volumes marked backwards. I made it halfway before realizing it, so I’ll go ahead and do my first diary for that and start at the beginning for the rest.

The book had quite a good synopsis of what had happened so far, to the point that I wasn’t sure if that was just the way they were telling the first part of the story. I felt a little lost in places, but not even having read the first book, I could follow along. Of course, I have read the Ramayana already, so that’s something.

Anyways, aside from the confusion, this is awesome. The whole post-apocalyptic mythos is very creative, and they do a very good job of weaving in traditional Indian mythology. There are some very strong metaphors, and the story is more in line with the hero’s journey than the original in some ways. It even has a land called “Nark” which holds Lanka and is basically a metaphor for the dark side.

Dark Side Poster
Source, Artist: Frenchtouch29

The art is amazing. It has some of my favorite renditions of the non-human creatures in Indian epics. The style is very visceral and turbulent. It feels like I’m watching an action movie when I read it. Which, I think is very fitting for the Mad Max-esque tone of the narrative.
 

Monkey People
Taken by me, from Ramayan 3392

If my storybook didn’t follow the traditional stories as closely as it does, I think that this book would be a great resource of inspiration for changes that I might want to make. They made the story as different from the Ramayana as possible while still keeping it very much the same where it counts.