Portfolio Index

Welcome to my portfolio index. I have included the links to 6 of my favorite stories. You can read about each one in the blurb under the link and decide which one sounds the best to you. My personal favorite is Lakshmana's Letters. I hope you enjoy!


Lakshmana's Letters

Blurb: Lakshmana misses his mom while wandering the woods with Sita and Rama. He writes her several letters to which he receives no response. See how he is feeling about the situation he has gotten himself into.


Manthara's Revenge

Blurb: While reading the Ramayana did you wonder what had turned Manthara wicked? Find out what it was in this tale of ignorance and revenge.


Ravana's Story

Blurb: Think you know the real reason Ravana steals Sita from Rama? Read what Ravana has to say about it in this tragic love story.


Vision Quest

Blurb: Don't miss this exciting tale about visions and fighting.


Yashoda's Diary

Blurb: In this story we get a first-hand look at Krishna's amazing power and how his mother begins to realize it.


Vishnu's Karma

Blurb: This is the story of how King Bali was raised above the gods. Find out how the gods respond in this exciting story.

Week 12 Storytelling: The Magic Jewel

Once upon a time a man named James was riding on a ship from India to a far off island. About half way through the journey the ship was caught in a huge storm and was crushed beneath the waves. James managed to find the door to the captain’s quarters floating in the waters among the chaos. It was the only wooden door on the ship. The captain himself was already floating on it but when James swam closer he noticed the captain had been knocked unconscious. When James tried to get on the door it sank under the weight of the two men. He pushed the captain off into the water and climbed on top of the door alone. Then he fell asleep.

James woke up to see the sun peeking out through the clouds. The waters were calm. He could see an island no bigger than large pasture about half a mile off. He paddled over to it to check for food and water. The island was covered in white sand and almost completely bare. James could see one tree at the far side of the island so he decided to go to it. After an hour of seasick stumbling, he reached the tree. He was surprised to see a pic taking a nap in the tree’s shade. His first thought was to kill the pig for food, but then he noticed a small jewel in the sand only six inches from the pig’s mouth.

He reached down and picked it up. As soon as the jewel was in his hand James began floating in the air. It now made sense how the pig had gotten here. He let out a quick holler of excitement, which woke the pig up. The pig, not seeing the jewel in the sand, began frantically searching for it. Then he noticed James floating in the air above him.

“Hey that’s my jewel! Can I please have it back?” asked the pig.

“No, I think I’ll keep it,” said James.

James decided he needed a good meal before flying to the island he had been headed to with the ship. He flew over to the tree and broke off a branch that would make a good-sized club to beat the pig to death with. Just as he did lightning struck the top of the tree and James was thrown to the ground. For a moment he was stunned and is muscles failed to move when he told them to. He watched the pig walk over and grab the jewel out of his hand with its mouth.

“You know, if you would have given it back to me when I asked, I would have given you a ride anywhere that you wanted to go” said the pig as he flew off and left James there to die.

Flying Pig from Wikipedia

Author's Note:
In the original story the man washes up on shore after the ship wrecks and he finds the jewel. He realizes its power and drops a branch of the tree on the pig. This wakes the pig up. The pig sees the man with his jewel and runs into the tree killing himself. The man then flies to three men's houses, kills each of them, and takes their magical treasures as well. He then takes over a kingdom and rules for the rest of his life.

In my version I focused on the shipwreck and the controversy with the pig on the island. I gave the pig the ability to talk so that he could ask for the jewel back. James responds with a cocky answer, which makes the reader dislike him more. I switched the roles of who ended with the jewel and who died.

Bibliography: Jataka Tales (The Magic Treasures) by H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas (1916).

Week 12 Reading Diary cont: The Magic Treasures

Jataka Tales (The Magic Treasures) by H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas (1916).

The Magic Treasures is great story about an evil man that lucked upon the tools to make himself king. He was shipwrecked and floated to the shore of an island on one of the planks of wood from the ship. Upon arriving he spotted a sleeping pig with a jewel near its mouth. When he stole this jewel form it he realized that it gave him the ability to fly. He woke the pig up in an effort to eat it, and the pig realized his jewel was gone and killed himself. Then the man flew far away until he spotted a hut. The owner of the hut possessed an axe that would go cut and return whatever it was told. The two men traded objects. When the evil man received the axe he told it to kill the man who had just traded it away so that he could get the jewel back. This is where I think he was lucky that the other man didn’t have the same idea and kill him first for his jewel. Evil men take advantage of the kindness of others. He went on to do the same thing to the owners of the next two houses and acquired a drum that could scare away the enemies or make them your friends and a bowl that could flow a river of curds. With these four objects he was unstoppable and killed a king to take over his kingdom. The story ended with the evil man living a great life and dying a happy ruler. I feel like it should have an ending that is not so favorable for this man.

King Henry I from Wikimedia Commons

Week 12 Reading Diary: The Valiant Dwarf

Jataka Tales (The Valiant Dwarf) by H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas (1916).

The Valiant Dwarf was by far my favorite story from the first half of this weeks reading. I always hear that first impressions are very important and apparently the dwarf knew it too. Even being the most skilled bowman in the land, he did not think a king would accept his services because of his appearance. He was also very smart and devised a plan to have a more acceptable looking young man serve as the appearance he needed while he focused on the tasks he was good at. This reminds me of the movie Ratatouille where a mouse has a great talent for cooking, but would never be accepted as a great chef because of who he is. So he makes an unlikely bond with the newest chef at a top tier restaurant who has no talent for cooking. This worked out well for the young man and the dwarf until the young man decided he didn’t need the dwarf anymore. At this point the young man is asked to defend the castle from an army that is attempting to take it. The dwarf doesn’t help the young man wiggle his way out of this situation. He is so scared he leaves the battle while the dwarf wins it. Everyone’s true colors are shown and the king takes the dwarf into his guard. This story could be put into so many different settings with a different skill set that is fitting for each one. For instance, I could make it about a professional athlete in modern day America. Or I could use animals as the characters and have a rat show a lion how to be a great hunter.

Dwarf form wikimedia commons

Week 11 Storytelling: The Crane's Revenge

There once was a young crane that lived at the edge of a small pond with his parents. He loved his home because there were tons of other animals around to play with. He was friends with turtles and frogs, but his best friend was a young crab that was the same age as him. The one species that the cranes had never gotten along with was the fish. This was because the cranes ate the fish. One spring day the crane’s parents were teaching him how to catch the fish. He watched as his mother and father tossed a dead bug into the water and stood very still at the waters edge waiting for a fish to spot it. All of the sudden the largest fish that the crane had ever seen shot out of the water and pulled both of his parents under with it. He waited horrified by the event, waiting for his parents to come back up, but they never did. He ran straight to the crab family home where he explained to them what had happened. They took him in and raised him as one of their own. That summer the crane hit puberty and grew to his full size. It was a hot dry summer and the pond slowly got lower and lower until it was so low that the fish were struggling to survive. The crane blamed all of the fish for what had happened to his parents and hated them all equally. He stood next to the pond one day thinking of how he could get back at the fish. A small fish poked his head out of the water.

“What are you thinking about crane?”

“I feel bad for all of you fish. I am thinking about how I can help you. There is a larger pond just across this field that I could take you to in my beak.”

“You’re lying! You just want to eat us!”

The cranes friend the crab who had been swimming in the pond swam over.

“I’ve seen that pond before. Does it really still have a lot of water?”

“Yes, it has tons of water! Come with me and I’ll show you.”

The crane leaned down to the water so the crab could grab his neck to hold on. Then he flew to the other pond and back and dropped the crab back off at the pond.

“Wow! There is tons of room for everyone at that other pond. I would go with the crane unless you want to dry up here.”

Not knowing that the crane and the crab were good friends the fish agreed to go with the crane one by one, and one by one the crane took the fish to a tree where he dropped them into a fork in the branches. He killed each one of them and he and the crab ate them all together. He finally got his revenge.

Dried Up Pond from Wikipedia

Author's Note:
In the original story the crane tells the fish that he will take them to the bigger pond, and when they don't believe him. He takes one of the larger fish to see it and brings him back so that he can convince the rest of the fish that it is alright to go with him. The crane then takes them all and kills them one at a time. Then he returns to the drying up pond to find a crab. He decides to try to trick this crab the same way he did the fish, but the crab is a little bit smarter than the fish. He convinces the crane to let him ride on his back and hold on to his neck with a claw. When the crane tries to make his move the crab decapitates him.

In my version the crab and the crane are friends that are trying to get revenge on the fish for killing the cranes parents. They work together to trick the fish and end up convincing them to go with the crane. The result is the same as the original story.

Bibliography: Jataka Tales (The Crane and the Crab) by H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas (1916).

Week 11 Reading Diary: The Crane and the Crab

Jataka Tales (The Crane and the Crab) by H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas (1916).

I love the story of the crane and the crab! It starts off with a small pond full of fish that is drying up in the summer heat. This crane sees this and plans a way to eat all of these fish. One of the fish asks him what he is thinking and convinces them that he wants to take them to a larger pond where they will have more room. The fish are obviously skeptical, but the clever crane agrees to show one of them the pond and bring him back to assure all of the other fish. Sure enough they all trust him and one by one are taken to a tree where he kills them and eats them. When no fish are left in the small pond the crane seeks out a crab that is still living there. The crab is skeptical of the crane as well and only agrees to go if he can hold on to the cranes neck on the trip over. This is where the crane gets tricked and lets him ride while holding onto his neck with one of the crab’s claws. When the crane tries to make his move the crab lops off his head. Karma is so sweet! This story could be told by using different animals or switching the animal’s roles in the story. I could also make the character backstabbing humans rather then flesh-eating animals. There are a lot of ways that I could go with this story that would be a lot of fun.

Crane from Wikipedia

Week 10 Reading Diary cont: Shiva

Shiva by Edmund Charles Cox (1887).

Shiva and Brahma get in a disagreement and Brahma sentences Shiva to the wilderness to live without shelter until he is deemed free of blame. It said that he must withstand the heat, the cold, hunger, and thirst. His wife Uma accompanies him through this harsh journey, but not without getting a few words in about it. Several times Uma asks Shiva if they can find shelter, but each time he explains that he does not have the means of obtaining shelter and that they will just have to wait it out. However, he does eventually tell her that they will be covered by a cloud that will shield them from the rain. This happens shortly after he says it will. He is then pardoned for his actions and he and Uma are able to settle down in a house in the mountains. Then the king of death steals Uma from Shiva and he is filled with sadness. Vishnu feels bad for Shiva and seeks to make him feel better. He allows Uma to be reborn and she grows up to be the most beautiful woman in all of the land. She has to prove that she is worthy of being with Shiva, but after many long tests she succeeds. The leader of the Asuras drove the gods out of their places and claimed himself ruler of heaven and earth. The part of this story where Shiva and Uma are in the woods without shelter could easily be put into a modern day setting in which a wife is unhappy with what her husband has provided her with.

Shiva Street Art Ron Mader Flickr

Week 10 Reading Diary: Krishna Under the Ocean

How Krishna Went Under the Ocean by Edmund Charles Cox (1887).

In this story Krishna and Balaram learn all the sciences that are known to man in less than a week. That is amazing! I can’t imagine how useful that would be to have the capacity to cover and retain all of that material so quickly. In return their teacher only wants his son back who was swallowed by a beast in the ocean. Krishna has learned to love their teacher for teaching him practically everything he knows so he takes this situation personally. He approaches the ocean with anger and demands to have the boy returned to his father. The ocean is frightened of him, but will not help because it did not take the boy. It tells him that a dragon named Shankhasur who resides in a shell at the bottom of the ocean took him. Therefor, Krishna walks straight into the ocean to find the beast that had taken the boy. He finds Shankhasur and cuts off his head. Then he rips open his stomach, but to his surprise the boy is not there. He keeps the shell of the beast and turns it into a weapon, then continues his search. He then heads to the city of the angel of death. Whenever king Yam, the ruler of the city, saw Krishna coming he fetched the boy and presented him to Krishna immediately. He pleaded for forgiveness and Krishna pardones him. He returns to his teacher with the boy and then returns home. This is an awesome story that could be altered in so many ways, but my favorite idea is to change it from a narrator style to either letters or a diary entry written by Krishna. 

Vishnu Under the Ocean from Wikipedia

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Week 9 Storytelling: Vishnu's Karma

There once was a Danava (species of supernatural giants) king who was known to be more generous and loving than any other. His name was King Bali. Before he came along kings had used their power to conquer everything they possibly could, but this was not the way of King Bali. King Bali won the love of the people as well as the gods by accommodating the needs of everyone under his rule. He could do no wrong. The gods and goddesses of heaven even began to pack up and leave so that they could move to the King Bali’s kingdom.

The amount of attention and praise that King Bali was getting began to wear on Indra, the ruler of heaven and the gods. He no longer held power. This pushed him so far that he went the throne of Vishnu to pray to him.

“Vishnu, nobody praises me anymore. I no longer possess the power I used to because of King Bali’s greatness. Everyone loves him more than me. Please let me retire and hand my position as ruler of heaven and earth over to King Bali.”

Vishnu responds.

“Indra, a man of the earth cannot be the ruler of heaven. I will not allow such a thing to happen. I will, however, fix this problem and give you back your reign. I am going to earth to be born as a child, and I will trick King Bali into a making a mistake. When all of the heavens and earth see him fail they will once again worship you and ask for your forgiveness.”

Vishnu incarnates himself in the womb of a woman so that he may be born into the world as a boy. When he grows to be a toddler he decides it is time to set things straight. He approaches the king in the king’s court one day as many of the citizens do to ask him for a favor.

“Will you grant me the amount of land that can be covered by my three steps?”

“Boy, you can wish for anything that you desire. What you request will do you no good.”

“That is all that I ask for. Will you give me what I ask for?”

At this point the king's righthand man realized that this was the powerful Vishnu and warned King Bali against accepting this request. The king in disbelief told the boy he would give him the land. Taking matters into his own hands, the righthand man snuck off and crawled inside the holy water pot to cover the spout so that no water could escape. It is required for the holy water to be poured in order for the deed to be official. No matter how hard they tried, nobody could get the water to come out. Therefore, Vishnu’s plan was ruined and he spent the rest of his life on earth as a mortal unable to return to heaven. King Bali continued to rule happily and Indra remained powerless in heaven.

Vishnu with Indra on Wikimedia Commons

Author's Note:

The original story is basically the same as my story up until the end. It has King Bali falling into Vishnu’s trap. When the holy water fails to come out of the pot, Vishnu suggests that the king clean out the spout with Kusha grass. The king does so and without knowing pokes his righthand man in the eye and blinds him. The pain causes the man to flee. Then the water is poured. Vishnu then takes his true form and covers the earth with one foot and heaven with the other. He asks the king what he will give him for his third foot and Bali tells him to put it on his own head. He is then sent to the infernal regions.

I decided to use the “twist the ending” storytelling style because I did not agree with the way the original story ended. King Bali was a great ruler and had the whole world and heaven running smoothly in the eyes of all but one. I thought the story would be better with a happy ending. In my story the kings righthand man successfully plugs the holy water pot so that his wish to Vishnu cannot be successfully granted. This way he does not lose his life and Vishnu and Indra suffer for plotting against him.


Bibliography: The Danava King by Manmatha Dutt (1893).

Week 9 Reading Diary cont: The Danava King

Gleanings from Indian Classics: Tales by Manmatha Dutt (1893).


The Danava King was my favorite story from the second half of this weeks reading. I really enjoy learning about royalty and the different ways people have lead their people throughout history. This story tells about how king Bali was arguably the best king every in just about every way. He won over the gods as well as the people he ruled. Everyone under his rule was so pleased that masses of people began to move from their homes to come under his rule. People even started to worship him instead of the gods. Indra finds himself in a bind because he does not know how to stop this. He can’t wage war because he is not being beat by war. Indra prays to Vishnu to let him retire and let king Bali take his place as ruler of heaven. Vsihnu refuses him of this and takes matters into his own hands. Vishnu incarnates himself as a boy on earth. He then goes to king Bali and asks for land that can be covered by his three feet. The king refuses nobody, therefor he agrees to these terms even after being warned against this. Vishnu reveals himself and covers the heavens and earth with his feet. King Bali was then sent to the infernal regions. This would be a cool story to rewrite so that king Bali overcomes Vishnu. I’m brainstorming on the best way to do that, but at least the story will have a happy ending that way because king Bali has done no wrong.

Vamana Page from Wikipedia

Week 9 Reading Diary: Battle of Gods and Demons

Gleanings from Indian Classics: Tales by Manmatha Dutt (1893). 

I really enjoyed the Battle of Gods and Demons section of this reading; it was right up my alley. It discusses the never ending struggle between the gods and demons. At first the gods proved to have the upper hand in this conflict as they cheated the demons out of their share of the ocean. This enabled them to become stronger than the demons and easily overcome them at first. Eventually the demons grew stronger and were able to steel women and children from heaven. In particular, one gods wife who was stolen resulted in the gods waging war on the demons again by meeting them on their own territory. This did not go well for the gods because some of the demons had been made invincible. The gods retreated back to heaven, but the demons followed and conquered them their scattering the gods every which way. I obviously side with the gods rather than the demons usually, but in this particular story the gods seemed to have started everything. It is very ungodly like to lie to someone else. There are a lot of things I could do to this story in order to give it my own twist. I could reverse the roles of the gods and demons because it seems more likely that the demons would do something like that. I could also tell the battles differently to make them more vivid and exciting. There are a lot of character in the story, which allows a lot of room for changing who they are and what they do.

War in Heaven Page from Wikipedia

 

Storytelling for Week 7: Yashoda's Diary

Dear diary,

The weirdest thing happened today. A beautiful woman asked to come into our house and nurse Krishna. I would usually not allow this as I am skeptical of strangers, but somehow I found myself permitting her to do so. Just after beginning to nurse him she started screaming. I rushed to relieve her of Krishna’s clench, but she died before I was able to help. Then she changed form into a giant beast whose limbs stretched every which way. I don’t really understand all of this, but I thank the gods for keeping my baby boy safe.

Dear diary,

It has been a couple weeks since I last wrote. Today I placed Krishna under Nanda’s wagon so that he might sleep in the shade. A little while later I heard a loud crash from outside. The weight of all the pots and pans in the wagon must have made the wood give out. By the time Nanda and I reached the mess I was almost in tears. I looked up to see Krishna laughing from beneath the pile of metal. I am so thankful my baby has survived another accident. The gods must really favor him.

Dear diary,

Only two days have passed since I last feared for Krishna’s life. This morning a terrible windstorm blew through our town and made a huge mess of the houses and farms. When the winds died down I realized that Krishna was no longer in the house. Once again tears began to fill my eyes. A little while later Nanda and some of the neighbors found him a mile away laughing on the chest of a dead giant. He seems to fear nothing. I’m not sure if he killed this creature too or if the dead beast was swept into the storm like Krishna and they simply landed together. Either way I am starting to think that all of this is more than him just having a knack for finding trouble. His brother isn't always doing crazy things like this. Could my baby be cursed?

Dear diary,

Three months have passed since the windstorm and I am thankful to say I have not feared for Krishna’s life since, but that doesn’t mean weird things have stopped happening. This kid is definitely special. Today I attempted to tie him up to our grinding stone with a cord after he ruined a large amount of the butter I had just made. However, I could not get the cord around his waist no matter how many lengths of it I tied together. This didn’t make any sense to me. Then, he tied the cord around himself! I just don’t even know what to say. How could he have done it when I couldn’t? Why would he do it? Then I returned to churning butter. When I looked back Krishna and the grinding stone were gone. I found him near the edge of the woods in the back yard dragging the stone across the ground. It took three horses and a dozen neighbors to move that thing into our yard. I swear if Krishna is not a god himself, then he has the blood of one running through his veins.

Dear diary,

Today my eyes were truly opened. All the questions that I have about Krishna were answered. He came clean to me and opened his mouth. When I looked inside I saw the most beautiful sights I had ever seen in my life. I saw all of the oceans and the whole universe. It was all too much to bear and I fainted. I woke up in Krishna's arms. In the end it doesn't change the way I see him. He is still just my baby boy and I love him the same way I always have.

Krishna Killing Putana

Author's Notes:

The original story includes a lot more events and details about the childhood of Krishna than I included. It also mentions his brother Balarama a few times. The story is told from a narrator’s point of view.

I left out Balarama and took out some of the content for the purpose of keeping the story shorter. I wanted to focus on the events that would have really stuck out to Yashoda. I used the diary writing style for my version of the story because I believe this gives us the best view of what someone is thinking. I think this is because we are willing to be most open with ourselves and the point of a diary is to be able to recall events and how we felt during them as if they were happening again. I wrote Yashoda’s thoughts and reactions as if she were a normal mother today instead of a mother back in these times. Yashoda probably would not actually have been as surprised by the things in this story as I wrote her to be because these supernatural events are very common in these stories.

I chose this picture of Krishna killing Putana because it is one of the key events in the story. This is where Yashoda first sees the mystery of Krishna’s power start to emerge.

Bibliography: Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories by C. A. Kincaid (1920).

Week 7 Reading Diary continued: Sambara and Jarasandha's Deaths

Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories by C. A. Kincaid (1920).

I really enjoy stories about karma and I feel that the following story is a perfect example of it. The mighty demon Sambara disguises himself so that he can steal the six day old Pradyumna from his parents. He then tosses the baby into the ocean and goes about his way. Pradyumna is swallowed by a great fish, which is then caught by a fisherman. That fisherman sells the fish to Sambara’s wife to be eaten. When she cuts the fish open she finds the baby and raises him to kill her evil husband. This is a long chain of coincidences or maybe fate that ends up biting Sambara in the butt. I would like to tell this story from Pradyumna’s point of view. I could either use the letters home writing style I used before or do a journal entry style.

I love all of the fights that are told in these stories. Thank goodness they continue to happen one after another. Krishna needs help defeating Jarasandha whom he has failed to defeat before. He takes Arjuna and Bhima to Magadha where Jarasandha rules discguised as Brahmins. It is there that Bhima and Jarasandha wrestle for hours in front of a crowd. Eventually Bhima lifts Jarasandha in the air and throws him to the ground, which breaks his back. These are all of the details given about this fight. I would like to tell the fight with more imagination and context. Maybe adding some dialogue to give the feeling of being at the fight.

Bhima Slays Jarasandha

Week 7 Reading Diary: Krishna's Younger Days

Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories by C. A. Kincaid (1920).

I really like the story of Krishna’s birth. It is very fast paced so one exciting thing after another is happening throughout. When the gods are a big part of a story it seems to be very exciting also because of all of the supernatural things they can do. This would be a great story to tell from Kansa’s point of view. We know that he hates the earth and humans more than the rest of the demons and that the insinuation of his death by the eighth born child of Vasudeva drives him crazy. However, we don’t really know why this causes him to throw his own father into prison other than just wanting the power to do whatever he wants. There is a lot of room to play with this story.

Krishna’s childhood is also exiting! The part about his mother tying the cord around his belly is my favorite part. No matter how many pieces she ties together it still will not reach around him. Then he feels bad for her and ties it around himself. I cannot imagine the confusion she is experiencing at this point. I do love battle. This chapter contains two different demons coming to kill Krishna. The first one is not exactly a battle, but he does suck the lifeblood out of her to which I am sure she fought to stop. The second is more of a battle, but is very short lived. It would be fun to make one of these events a more evenly matched fight.

Baby Krishna

Storytelling for Week 6: Vision Quest

Arjuna always seemed to find himself in this sort of predicament. On the one hand he felt that he needed to stay loyal to his brother Duryodhana who was also his king, but on the other hand he felt obligated to help the unfortunate Pandavas who had recently been exiled by Duryodhana because of his jealousy towards them. In most cases he would have picked family over some acquaintances that he had only met a few months ago, but in this particular case he did not agree with Duryodhana’s motives and he pitied the Pandavas. He knew how being exiled felt; he had been there before. So here Arjuna sat in the great forest contemplating his next move.

He had it! He would go to the sacred grounds at the base of the Himalaya Mountains to fast and pray to get in contact with the gods. The gods always know best, so he could ask them what to do and surely it would be the right decision. He packed what few possessions he had right away and began his journey.

It took him over a week to make the trip. Every day he ate less food than the day before to prepare for fasting once he arrived. Several times he spotted animals that he could have easily shot with his bow and arrow, but he did not think it was right to end a life just to eat a little bit of the body. He snacked mostly on fruits and roots. Finally he arrived at the sacred grounds where his parents had brought him as a child. It was beautiful in every direction as far as the eye could see. Nothing had changed since he had last been here.

Arjuna began to pray day in and day out. He worshiped small statues of the gods that the elders of the land had placed there long ago. For several days he did not even see another living creature, much less one of the gods. On the fifth day Arjuna was praying next to a tree at sunrise. He heard a twig snap several yards behind him. He whipped around to see a wild boar grazing in a bush. They locked eyes. Arjuna’s bow was far away at the place where he had slept and he had no weapons on him. The beast charged at him and lunged forward. Arjuna caught the boar by the tusks and threw him to the ground. They wrestled around on the ground exchanging blows for some time. As Arjuna was about to land a blow that would end the beast’s life it changed forms into a human-like figure. Arjuna recognized the face to be that of the god Shiva.

Arjuna rolled off of Shiva and knelt on the ground before him. Shiva congratulated him on the fight and presented him with the divine bow saying that he was to protect the Pandavas with it. The bow was stiff and made of oak and strung with the hair of gods. Arjuna knew that it held a lot of power. Then Shiva disappeared and Arjuna was left alone in the forest.

He immediately found his own bow and shot a squirrel with it. Then he roasted it over a fire and feasted on it. It was the best meal he had ever had. After the meal he returned to the divine bow again to admire its beauty, but to his surprise it was nothing but a stick with long grass stuck to it. He realized that the whole thing had been a delusion.

Arjuna receives the divine bow

Author's Note:

In the original version of this story Arjuna travels to the base of the Himalaya Mountains in order to get the bow knowing that he is going to protect his brothers, the Pandavas. He encounters a boar and shoots it with his bow at the same time that a hunter shoots it. They see each other and begin to fight, but the hunter eventually reveals himself as the god Shiva. He gives the bow to Arjuna and he takes the bow to be with the Pandavas.

I decided to make Arjuna and Duryodhana brothers simply to make it a more dramatic decision for Arjuna. I changed Arjuna’s reason for going to the mountains. In this story he is seeking advice from the gods on whose side to take in his dilemma. Then I had Shiva take the shape of the boar instead of the other hunter that shot the boar.  Finally, in my version of the story Arjuna never really saw Shiva or received the bow from him. He hallucinated from lack of food and upon eating again he realized this.

I chose this picture because it captures the central theme of this story. The whole mission was for Arjuna to find the gods and receive their advice. When Shiva reveals himself the entire story is brought together and the mission is completed.  

Bibliography: 

PDE Mahabharata: Arjuna and Shiva by Sister Nivedita (1914)