Week 9 Storytelling: Satisfying Agni

I am Agni, God of Fire. Like everybody, I get hungry sometimes. Unlike most people, though, I can’t just decide to kill something and eat it. No. I can only eat those creatures that lose their lives in a fire I do not start. Most people don’t intend to start fires, though. So I don’t get to eat too often. 

Not too long ago I had grown quite hungry. It had been several months since any fires that claimed lives had been set. 

A man named Arjuna heard of this. He desired to win my favor, so he set out to start a fire. “How should I go about properly satisfying Agni?” he asked himself out loud. “No ordinary fire will do. I must get him plenty to eat!”

He went on talking to himself for quite a while before he settled on setting the Khandava Forest aflame. “The Khandava Forest is so big and full of life. All of the animals in there shall do!”

So he went to the edge of the forest. “How can I make sure that all of the animals go to Agni? And how can I make sure no men or women in there die?” he wondered to himself. “I know! I’ll cast a spell over the forest trapping in all of the creatures except for humans!”

Forest Fire Source

He cast a spell blocking off all of the exits to the forest. Only humans could cross the barrier. Then, he set fire to the forest. 

The trees went up in flames. The smoke billowed into the sky and could be seen hundreds of miles away. Animals and hermits rushed to the edges of the forest, but only the men could get through. 

All of the animals were trapped inside and eaten up by the fire. They went to nourish me. Oh, there were so many of them! Thousands of little squirrels and opossums and deer! I could barely eat them all!

At the end of the fire, all of the lives in the forest had been consumed. I was so full! I can’t remember a time when I was more satisfied!

Now it will be quite a while before I hunger again. 

To show my gratitude towards Arjuna, I blessed him with gifts. I gave him the great bow Gandiva and a quiver that never runs out of arrows. This has made him nearly unconquerable to his enemies.

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Author’s note:  This story was inspired by Narayan’s 1978 version of the Mahabharata. I’m not a huge fan of the moral of this story, but I couldn’t think of a way to change it without changing the story too much. The situation that plays out here reminds me of the meat industry in this country. People want to eat lots of meat as long as they don’t kill it themselves. I thought about telling a modern-day version in this setting, but couldn’t think of a good reward for the meat producers.

Week 9 Reading Diary B

“He had no mind of his own, and was in a perpetual conflict with his better instincts.”—about Dhritarashtra, page 60

“I know what Arjuna can accomplish. I know Drupada and his growing might…. They are building up an invincible camp. Many others will be joining them soon…. Krishna by himself will be chief support soon…. Don’t let your past error continue and take you down the path of annihilation.”—Drona to Dhritarashtra, page 61

These names are very hard to keep up with, only made harder by the fact that I didn’t get Reading A done…

Citizens and traders from Hastinapura moved to Indraprastha because of convenience—why was it convenient? Page 63

Brief description of the story of Sunda and Upasunda, brothers who fought over same woman—potential storytelling topic, page 64

Ulupi picked up more wives while in exile, page 64 why didn’t he have to share them, too?

Arjuna’s bow—gift from Agni—potential storytelling post, page 66

Vidura the messenger doesn’t seem too loyal to his king, page 70

What is a “kshatriya”? page 71 why are they required to accept a challenge?

Yudhistira has a gambling problem, page 73

Sakuni never placed a counter-bet, page 73

“It seems to me that men can never survive in this world by merely praising tolerance.”—Draupadi, page 94

Potential storytelling topic page 99

Week 8 Reading Diary

In the instructions, it is suggested that you write three or four paragraphs summing up your thoughts or make a list of bullet points describing a character or situation. I haven’t been doing this. Part of the reason why I haven’t is that when I started, I didn’t know what was noteworthy and what wasn’t. Also, at the beginning, I didn’t find much to comment on. The Reading Guides covered the big things and the little observations I made would be hard to organize into paragraphs. I take notes as I read and include quotes that stand out to me. I then publish these notes. They feel somewhat disorganized as I read over them, but I feel like that would be a little different if I covered the plot in my notes.

When I went to review my Reading Diary posts, I started with week 2 and moved closer to the present. The first thing I noticed was that I took a lot more notes at the beginning than at the end. The second thing I noticed was that many of the things I took note of at the beginning don’t really seem to matter now. Either I took note of something that was completely irrelevant (it had no effect on the story, its meaning, or my perception of the culture) or something that became so obvious and important later in the story that I didn’t need to take not of it (example:  “Rama cared about the people of Ayodhya”). I also wrote down more quotes at the beginning, but I think this is because I like Narayan’s storytelling style better. I also took more notes about foreshadowing in the beginning than I have lately; this may be because of Narayan’s storytelling style, too. The first week I didn’t add any page numbers. I wish I had. Starting week three, I gave page numbers with quotes, but not general notes. I continued to do this in most posts that followed. I wish I had given page numbers for each observation. I remember that when I wrote many of these notes, I would compare them to the Reading Guides and delete any notes that were just explaining plot. I wish I had thrown in a few notes on the plot so that now when I’m looking for specific stories I have the option to find them without going to the Reading Guide first.

I like the average length of posts I’ve made. I feel like it gives me enough information to relive what I was thinking, but not too much to weed through. I do need to start making bullet points or putting a space between notes. Sometimes just glancing over it can be hard to distinguish whether it’s a new note or the continuation of a note.

Sometimes I use my diary posts to write my storytelling post. I don’t really use them for much more. This past week I consulted my diary posts to try to find stories about the vahanas and they did not help me at all (I should probably start noting when I find a vahana story in my reading diaries).

I guess I’ve been doing okay with the reading assignments. I’ve gotten all of them done. Some are harder than others because I’m tired or that section of the book isn’t the most interesting, etc. Like in other classes, I’m really good at getting a gist for what the reading says. I’d retain more information if I listened to someone tell me the story.