Hannah's Indian Epics Blog

Image Credit. ORRA Diamond Necklace. Source: ORRA .      There were once two jewelry stores in the town of Seri. One owner was very humble, kind, and gave fair prices to all his customers. All of his customers returned and bought more jewelry from him because he had become their friend. The other jeweler was a spiteful, wicked man who always tried to get the top price he could for each of his jewels and never tried to form relationships with his customers.     A woman whose name was Maureen entered the spiteful jeweler's store hoping to get an appraisal on her favorite necklace. Maureen was a woman of few possessions. Her necklace was one of her prized possessions. However, it was Maureen's oldest granddaughter's 18th birthday and she wanted to make sure that the day was incredibly special for her granddaughter. The spiteful jeweler took one look at Maureen's diamond necklace and could tell that the woman did not know the worth of it. He quickly told her,...

Image Credit. Are You an Owl or are You a Crow? Source: Steemit .       So I was more intrigued by the titles of the reading b but I now for the second reading of the week I am going back to part a of the Babbitt Jataka Tales. The merchant of Seri was a good read in this group of stories. I like how the grandmother, even though they were poor and that the bowl had special meaning to them, agreed to trade the bowl so that her granddaughter could get something. The greedy merchant was a fool to throw the bowl on the ground and then walk away. I was glad that it was the happy merchant that got to profit from the gold bowl. I also like how the story ended. It was yet another happy ending in the Jataka Tales. I think that these stories are so short that they will be easy to recreate and add in some detail that I think the original stories lack.    The story called "Why the Owl Is Not the King of the Birds" was interesting to me as well. It was so short I think...

Image Credit. White Elephant. Source: 999thepoint .       For this week's reading, I decided to read some of the Jataka Tales instead of more Krishna. I really liked the Jataka Tales when we read them at the beginning of the semester and all of the stories in part b I really enjoyed. The first story that caught my eye was the story of "The Princes and the Water-Sprite". This story was very engaging and while there was not much detail it was still a well-rounded story. The brother's attitudes caught me off guard. Even though the mother preferred the youngest son the older brothers were not angry with him for being the favorite and for being the reason that they were banished. It is also interesting how common banishments are in Indian mythology. The water-sprite is a tricky character who is able to change shape. This ability makes all of his encounters different. I like that the oldest brother chose the younger brother to save but also got to save the middle bro...