Reading Notes: Kincaid. Tales from the Indian epics, Part A

Notes:  

The Churning of the Ocean

• Could write a story about Mount Meru

             - Lesser gods met up there
             - They want to obtain the ambrosia which will make them immortal like the three supreme
                   gods, Vishnu, Brahmadeva, and Shiva.
            - but the ambrosia layed at the bottom of the ocean.

• Could write a story about Vishnu and how he told the lesser gods to churn the ocean with the demons aide. 
• Could write a story about Mount Mandara

           - They use this mountain to actually church the ocean.

• Could write a story about how Brahmadeva begged lord Vishnu to give the gods and demons greater strength to churn the ocean. 
• What if the immortal gods wanted to lesser gods to fail and not obtain the ambrosia. 
• I could write a story about everything that came out of the water. 
• I could tell a story about Vishnu

           - and how he drank the poisonous fluid which overlaid the ambrosia
          -the demons tried to steal the ambrosia but Vishnu took it back and only gave it to the gods
           and gave none to the demons who are still mortal to this day.
          - One demon disguised himself as a god and tricked Vishnu into giving him some
          - Vishnu cuts his head off before it passes his thoat
          - The Sun god is the one who warned Vishnu about this.

(The Churning of the Ocean)

Veda's Pupil

• A sage in India named Veda took on a Brahman boy named Uttanka as his pupil
• When the boy grew up he wanted to give Veda something kind in return

            - Veda's wife wanted King Paushyas wife's earrings.

• I could write a story about how Uttanka encounters a giant and eats a meal in haste.

            - At first he is afraid to eat the food but does anyway when he finds out Veda has eaten it
              before too.
            - My story he could turn into something or he passes out and winds up at the palace

• He has a strange altercation at the palace with the King. 

           - I could write a whole story on the dinner and how they cursed each other.
           - Maybe turn the characters into children at lunch in elementary school

• Of course Uttanka gets the earrings stolen by Takshaka, the snake prince, like the queen warned. 
• Indra saw him weeping by the snake burrow and sent a thunderbolt to the stick he was digging with.

           - turns out all his help was aided by gods.
           - the giant was Indra and the was his mighty elephant
           - the horse that gave him a ride home was Agni, the god of fire
          - god who burned the snake city down was Parjanya, the god of rain

King Janamejaya's Snake Sacrifice

• King Prajapati had 2 daughters
• Gave them to King Kashyapa to marry; the queens name's were Kadru & Vinata
• He granted them 2 wishes;

         - Kadru, the eldest, wished to be the mother of a thousand snakes
        - Vinata wished to be the mother of 2 sons who were = in strength to the thousand snakes
      * What if I made a story and they wished for different things like to be the mother of something
           else, maybe wolves or lizards or something like that.

• Instead of Vinata being jealous of Kadru maybe I can have Kadru being jealous of Vinata. Maybe over a boy instead of their children and the horse that rose from the ocean. 

            - Maybe Kadru took Vinata's clothes from her closet without asking; the typical sister fight.

• Vinata lost the bet to Kadru and now Vinata has to be her slave. 

        - But the only reason she won is b/c Kadru had her snake son's lie for her; she cursed them about
          being burned in a  fire.... like in Veda's Pupil!!!
          * I could make some kind of story out of this! More modern day though with 2 sisters fighting.
             Maybe the sisters always made bets to one another until one day it got our of hand.

• Garuda, Vinata's son was finally born but into slavery.

            - Kadru's snake sons told him that if he brought the ambrosia from Indra to give to them then
               they would set him & his mom free

• I could write a spin off story about the brothers Vivavasu and Supratika

          - Supratkia was being greedy and wanted to divide their wealth but Vivavasu wanted to share it
          - Supratika turned into an elephant; Vivavasu turned into a tortoise

• I could write a story about how the god Indra protected the ambrosia jar

          - Vayu, the wind god blew dust into the eyes of any oncoming foeman
          - ring of fire
          - 2 poisonous snakes

• god Vishnu stopped Garuda

            - granted him a boon; Garuda chose to drink some of the ambrosia

• Indra stopped Garuda after that and encouraged him to not give the snakes the ambrosia

           - Garuda gave them the ambrosia but Indra took it before they could drink it

• I don't want to write a story about all the snake drama and the Bharatas. 

        - Janamejaya ruled after Takshaka killed Parikshit the Bharata

• Could write a story bout how Aruna became the charioteer of the Sun pg. 44

Vrigu and Agni

• Vrigu was a mighty rishi
• Puloma was a lovely maiden and her father offered her in marriage to Vrigu
• Demon King Paulama was originally promised the beautiful Puloma but the promise was broke when she married Vrigu

            - Agni told Paulama that Puloma is not his since he never married her
           - Paulama did not care and took Puloma anyway

• This is a story about why Agni can tell if someone is pure or not and why people walk through his flames to prove their purity

             - Like when Sita walked through the fire to prove her purity to Rama.

• I could write a story about the time period of the absence of Agni

             Bibliography: Tales from the Indian Epics. C.A. Kincaid. 1918.