Reading Notes PDE Mahabharata Part C

PDE Mahabharata: Riddles at the Lake by Donald A. Mackenzie

Pandava – the five acknowledged sons of Pandu

Brahmin – one of the classes in the Hindu system including priests and teachers

Yudhishthira – the eldest son of King Pandu and Queen Kunti and the king of Indraprastha

Nakula – fourth of the five Pandava brothers

Banyan – a fig that begins its life as an epiphyte i.e. a plant that grows on another plant

            Sahadeva – the youngest of the five Pandava brothers. Nakula and Sahadev were twins

            Arjuna – The third Pandava brother. It is believed that Arjuna was the best archer in the world at their time

            Bhima – is the second born of the Pandavas.  Bhima is responsible for slaying all hundred Kaurava brothers in the Kurukshetra War.

            Yaksha - a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or       capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness.

            Brahma – a creator god in Hinduism and the creator of the four Vedas.

            Dharma – signifies behaviors that are considered to be in accord with Ṛta, the order that makes life and universe possible.

           Vedas – large body of religious texts originating in ancient India

           When the pandava reach a pond in the midst of their exile, they are overcome with thirst. In this pond is a being advising them to not drink the water until they have answered a set of questions. Yudhishthira is the only one of his brothers to answer the questions before drinking the water and therefore the only one that does not die. Yudhishthira requests that his brothers be brought back to life once he had completed the set of riddles. The brothers are then brought back to life but are unrecognizable for a whole year. I don’t understand why Yudhishthira requests that his brothers not be recognizable for a whole year. This story reminds me a bit of the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they are crossing the bridge.

                                    (Yudhishthira Statue: Image from Wikimedia Commons) 

Week 6 Storylab

                                   (Copyright Symbol: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Kaufman

               The Four C’s: Capacity, Competence, Commitment, and Creativity should be differentiated. A graph was shown about the amount of predicted human potential a person should have. I disagree, Scott, with this graph. How can one person or a group of people who are most likely very similar in educational background compose a statistic on how much potential another person can have. I disagree with forming a way to analyze peoples potential but if one needed to the four Cs is a better way then others because it includes many other things other then intelligence scores. Scott shared a personal story about how in his younger days of learning he was placed in special education and eventually exited the program and was excelling in this high school classes. Scott wanted to do more and wanted to enter advanced classes however he was denied because the deciding factor was what his IQ score was at age 11. Speaking personally, I was not the brightest kid or very gifted at the age of 11 and from age 11 to the end of high school my intelligence and personality changed a lot, like EVERYONE else. To be judged on an outdated and inaccurate assessment of potential is unjust and wildly unfair. I want to conclude my notes with a quote that Scott mentions in his Talk “At what point is my achievement allowed to trump my potential”. This sat with me, why should something that you could do define what you instead of what you actually have done. Actions should triumph test scores, and IQ scores, and what’s written on a paper, we have to take into account the whole person.

Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley

               Culture is a network, this is a concept Nina expresses in her video. She is talking a lot about copy right laws and how they have limited the ability for people to share and spread art. She compares art and culture to the neurons because the information must flow through them because they are all connected. This video is called Copyright is Brain damage because what copyright does is it cuts off that connection of art and culture, like the neurons, and leaves everything brain dead. Nina encourages people to ignore copyright and to ignore this brain dead state and freely express themselves in their art.

Wikipedia Trail from Mahabharata to Kurukshetra War

     The Article I began with was the Mahabharata. I chose this article because I wanted a broad overview of this new epic we are reading. It helped me to understand the basic premise of the epic and its characters. I then went to an article about Vyasa, this helped me to understand that this is a main character and the narrator of this epic. I also learned that he is thought to be a decedent of the god Vishnu. I then went to an article about Pandava, where I learned that these are the five sons of Pandu who all share a wife. They are important to the story because they are the cousins to the mother main characters. These two sets of cousins fought a war against each other which is the last article I read. The Kurukshetra War, was fought between these two sets of cousins because they all wanted the throne for the kingdom of Kuru.

(Kurukshetra War: Image from Wikipedia)

Reading Notes PDE Mahabharata: The Gambling Match Part B

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata: The Gambling Match by Donald A. Mackenzie

                                     (Roulette Wheel: Image from Wikimedia Commons)     

     This story is interesting in that it is following a common trend that I have noticed. The way the kings and gods are portrayed in these stories is much different then those in western stories. The gods and kings in these stories are like normal people with anger and jealousy and rage. You often see in western stories that gods and kings and royalty can not make mistakes, they are incapable of human actions and are portrayed as above humans. This is probably the reason so many people blindly follow them and idealize them. However, it is possible for the exact same reason that the Indian people idolize their kings and gods, because they are no different then them and are capable of the same emotions. In this story I have found another common theme, unlike in some stories where rage is showed as violence, in this story rage is shown by knowledge and deceit. Instead of Duryodhana calling in an army to attack Yudhishthira and his land he invites him to gamble. However, he is very tricky and has rigged the game to win every time. One thing I found strange was that Yudhishthira never questioned anything that was happening like how Duryodhana had his uncle role the dice for him or how out of the many games they played Yudhishthira did not win a single one. It is unlikely to win zero games out of many even when gambling and Yudhishthira should have been more cautious before he gave away everything. Vidura tries to help his nephew Yudhishthira by explaining that he set himself free before gambling away his wife and that she could not be taken however his help does not work.  

Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata: Vyasa and Ganesha, Part A

Bibliography: PDE Mahabharata: Vyasa and Ganesha by John Mandeville Macfie.

                                   (Son and Daughter of Uparichara: Wikimedia Commons)

     

     This story begins in what appears to be the middle of a scene or the middle of another story. Vyasa is trying to find someone to write down all of the knowledge a person could know about life on earth and heaven. It leaves the reader to wonder, if Vyasa is writing down everything there is to know then by default, he must know everything there is to know. If he does have this knowledge, how did he get it? Is he a god, do the gods talk to him, is he immortal? He must be talking to the gods since on of them has offered to be his scribe. I am unsure what the comment about not putting the pen down means quit yet. My guess is that Vyasa will talk about something he does not want in the book but Ganesha will write it for everyone else to know, like jealousy or anger. In the next part of this story speaking of Vyasa’s father, I think it is interesting that the gods have the emotion of fear. In so many western stories the gods are so unlike humans that they do not have emotions like fear or jealousy like humans do. The gods also bribed King Uparichara which is also not very god like compared to western stories. It is typical and unsurprising that the king would not except his daughter and only his son. I have a feeling the daughter will play a large role in this story and the king may be sorry he did not except her. The style of writing is different from other stories we have read. There is no dialogue in this story only narrative, also different from this story is that the narrator is not a character, they speak as if this happened before their time.   

Week 5 Story

     Sita and Rama have become immortal and are now living in the modern-day world but nothing has changed. Sita is still singing the blues and is often sad because of Rama. She never really forgave him for exiling her. Rama is often to busy being a leader to the village to pay much attention to her and Sita is growing increasingly saddened over it. While she increasingly grows more and more sad everyday, she sings more and more. One day Sita was singing in a park while Rama was out tending for the village and a young man comes up to her.

“Hello my name is Pierre, do you know you have the most beautiful voice I have ever heard.” Says Pierre.

“Thank you so much I often sing in private where no one can hear me?” Commented Sita.

“That is such a shame the whole world should be able to hear your voice. I am actually the leader of the London Opera and just by hearing your voice I wanted to invite you to sing in our company. We could use a voice like yours.” Said Pierre.

“That is very kind of you to say but I don’t think I will be able to because of my husband and my life here in India.” Said Sita.

“Well that is truly a shame but if you change your mind, this is where you can find me.” Pierre handed her a card with is number on it and continued on his walk in the park.

Sita was thrilled for the opportunity but was afraid of how Rama would react. Sita continued to sit in the park and sing until she needed to head home to prepare dinner. The whole afternoon and evening Sita thought of the reaction Rama would have if she told him she wanted to leave to join an opera. While Rama and Sita ate dinner Rama only talked of work and himself and never questioned how Sita was doing. Sita then realized that Rama never asked how she was doing and never gave her praise for the things she did. The next morning during breakfast Sita built up the courage to tell Rama about the opportunity and his reaction was just what she expected.

“You can not leave me here in India to go sing in another country, I forbid it.” Said Rama

“But Rama it is an amazing opportunity and you can come visit me all the time and come see me sing.” Said Sita

“You can not go and leave me here, you will never make it far in the opera, you have never had training before. Said Sita.

“You are right Rama, I will not succeed. I will see you when you get home after work.” Said Sita.

After Rama went to work Sita continued with her daily ritual of her walk in the park and was sad that she could not go sing in the opera. She sat on a bench in the park and thought about her life. She realized that this was not the life she envisioned for herself when she was a girl and she thought yes, I may not succeed in the opera but I most certainly will not if I do not try. Sita ran home packed a small bag and left a note on the dinning room saying “Rama, I love you but I love to sing as well and I have to try. Please come see me soon. I love you.”  

Authors note: This story is adapted from Nina Paleys recreation of the Ramayana. In her story she uses the same plot as the original story but during many points of the video she has Sita singing about her troubles in a separate scene.

(UK Opera 1933: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Reading Notes Video

                                    (Sita sings the blues: Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

This form of the story was my favorite by far because it is a different type of format. It is much easier to follow along because I am not taking time to figure out how to pronounce the words. I really enjoyed the three narrators and how they all have slightly different versions of the story but it is still the story. I also enjoy that they bring a humors side to the story that was not previously there. I think it is helpful that the narrators are explaining the story because you can here the story talked through instead of reading it. It is interesting that they also use modern objects and ideas through out the story and while the narrators are talking. I am confused of the significance of adding in the story of the couple from San Francisco. I am also confused by the changing the animation of the characters like when Sita is signing. I like that the story talks about where the places are in this day and age as they highlight it on a pop-up map. It is interesting the mixing of cultures because it seems that when Sita is signing the tone is very cabaret like, representing a western style of music. I really enjoy that the three narrators explain the confusing aspects of the epic as well as give a short history of the characters and the individual stories. This form of the story appealed to me because I am a visual person and it was much easier to understand the aspects of the story with images and video to support them.