Indian Epics Blog

There were these two little boys who had grown up on the same street ever since they were born. They were best friends, always hanging out and playing together. Their names were Mike and Will. Neither Mike or Will were happy unless they were together. One day Mike went to go knock on Will's door to see if he wanted to play soccer with him. No one answered the door, which was odd because Will or his parents were always home. Then he looked around back for a car and sure enough there wasn't a car. Mike started to freak out because if Will was going to go somewhere he definitely would have told Mike. Because Mike had been watching a lot of scary movies, since it was October of course, he decided Will and his family had obviously been kidnapped. Mike knew the entry code to get into Will's house so he decided to go inside and see if he could figure out what happened so he could let the police know. Mike hastily entered the code and  ran up to Will's room, but he wasn...

I really enjoyed the story about the dog and the elephant. It's fun to see unlikely animals become friends. If I were to retell this story I could change them to different animals or turn them to humans. I really enjoyed reading the rest of the stories, but the elephant and the dog one was definitely my favorite. The wise goat and the wolf was another great story. It was cunning and fun to read. I'm not sure how I might retell it just yet, but I think it would be fun to try. Title: More Jataka Tales Author: Ellen C. Babbitt Illustrator: Ellsworth Young Year: 1922 The Elephant and the Dog Reunited

After reading Part A at first, I couldn't see myself retelling any of the stories, but I went back and spent a little more time reading them and I enjoyed the Rose-Bud story where the four princes saw the same tree just at different times, but none of them ever thought it was pretty. It would be interesting to change it from a tree to maybe a garden or something else and the people who go look at it don't think it's worth anything except the last person who sees it fully grown and it's potential. More Jataka Tales Title: More Jataka Tales Author: Ellen C. Babbitt Illustrator: Ellsworth Young Year: 1922

One day, a boy named Giles. Giles grew up with a big family and had a lot of brothers and sisters, but he was the youngest. All of his siblings were so different. Some were quiet, others were kind, and some were down right mean. Giles did not know what kind of person he was yet and he wanted to figure it out. He was around his siblings all the time so always over heard their conversations and saw what they were doing. So everyday after school he decided to start imitating one of his siblings so he could figure out if he was quiet, kind, mean, or anything else like his siblings. On the first day, he overheard he eldest sibling Britney talking to her friend about how being mean helped her get what she wanted. So the next day Giles decided to be mean. He started yelling at his parents and telling them what he wanted instead of asking. At first his parents thought he might just be having a hard day, but as the day went on he just kept being mean. They decided to wait until the next d...

The elephant girly-face was a very interesting story to read and I think it would be a fun one to retell, but instead of an elephant I would make him a human being where he hears about how he should act and then does so accordingly. Cover of the Jatakas Tales Title: Jataka Tales Author: Ellen C. Babbitt Illustrator: Ellsworth Young Year: 1912

I really liked the story about how the turtle saved himself. It would be fun to change the turtle to a different animal or do retell the story from the turtle's perspective. I thought the story about the ox had a really good moral of the story. I would like to retell it, but I'm not sure exactly what I would do with it just yet. Those were the only two stories that spoke out to me. Man telling the King to throw the Turtle in the lake.  Title: Jataka Tales Author: Ellen C. Babbitt Illustrator: Ellsworth Young Year: 1912

It was a hot summer's day. As the sun rose high in the sky the competitors took their place. Today was the day and by the end one of them have Draupadi's hand in marriage.  All in all, there were four competitors. These five men came from all over, each from a different kingdom. They all wanted to win Draupadi's hand in marriage in order to unite their kingdom with her father's. Also, it did not hurt that Draupadi was the most beautiful woman in all the land. The men had to compete in an activity of Draupadi's choosing. Since Draupadi is a woman who enjoys strength so she obviously chooses archery. First off, Bhima goes.  He completely misses the mark. Totally embarrassed, but thankful he had one more try he goes again. The second time he hits the outer rim of the mark, but at least this time he hit the target. Inside his head he was hoping that the other contestants did as poorly as he did.  After Bhima goes, next up to the target is Karna. He was born as a c...