From Here To India- My Epics of India Course Blog

Today I learned while revising my Introduction for my storybook that I can imbed videos!

      For my story lab this week I decided to watch the Crash Course mythology videos. The first video was entitled "What is Myth?".  I thought it was very interesting when it opened by talking about how myth involves things like psychology and science. It also talked about how there are different versions of myth, which I had learned about in my Classical Mythology course. For instance, just about everyone has a version of a great flood! It's also open to interpretations. Another interesting thing he mentioned was that in some cases, the line between myth and religion is blurry. The Bible has a version of the great flood story, and that book is a part of one of today's most wide-spread religions, Christianity. Towards the end of the video he defines myth for us and says that myth "Is a story, but a special kind of story, that has two primary characteristics: significance and staying power." I really like that definition of myth, and I think it's very re...

     I really liked how the story between Bhima and Hidimbi ended happily, so I wanted to focus my notes on this one.      After the Pandavas escaped the wooden castle that was set aflame, Bhima carried his mother and everyone else through the forest. Eventually they found a place to rest for the night. While everyone slept except Bhima, the rakshasa names Hidimba smelled them and sent his sister, Hidimbi to the group to bring the people to him. However, when Hidimba raced there and laid eyes upon Bhima, she fell in love with him and wanted him to be her husband. So she transformed into a beautiful woman and asked him to be with her. She offered to help take everyone on her back so that they all could escape Hidimba if only Bhima would marry her. Bhima refused, saying that he could easily carry them, but they needed sleep.      Now Hidimba at this point was impatient, so he went to them. He then wanted to kill his sister for betraying him...

     The part of the story I wanted to focus on for Part A was the story about Bhima and the Nagas. This is a pretty short portion of the story but it captures my attention.      Duryodhana was jealous of Bhima, and decided that he wanted Bhima dead. He poisoned Bhima's food one day, and Bhima fell asleep. While this happened, Duryodhana tied up Bhima and tossed him into the Ganges river.      As he sank, fierce snakes called Nagas attacked Bhima, but somehow the poison of the Nagas counteracted the poison Bhima had already swallowed from his food, so he woke up. Bhima broke his bonds and scattered the nagas. The Nagas attacking Bhima      It turned out that Bhima had sunk down to the city of serpents. The king of the nagas, Vasuki, desired to meet this great hero. Aryaka, great-grandsire of Kunti, met Bhima, and desired that Bhima should be given a draught of strength. Bhima drank from it and and fell into a slumbe...