Epics of India Fall 2020

Indra and Vritra I will be doing my storybook about Indra and his various adventures and stories. I will mainly focus on how Indra became king of heaven, his fall from grace, and redemption story. So far, I have three stories I want to look at:  Indra and Vritra : Indra defeats Vritra, a demon who wrecks havoc, and is crowned king of heaven, but this does not last for long. Indra and the Ants :  After Indra defeated the demon he wanted a huge palace to commerate his great feat, so he told the architect of heaven to design him a great palace. But whatever design he came up with did not satisfy Indra. Bhrama saw this and decided that Indra needed to be punished so set a trial for Indra which would make him repent.   Indra and Shachi :  During this time, someone else had to rule Svarga with Indra gone so Nahusha took the throne, but none of the gods liked his rule and Shachi, Indra's wife, begged him to come back and defeat Nahusha, which Indra did and became the k...

Indra on his mount Airavata       I am still set on doing a storybook about Indra the of Svarga, or heaven. He is also the god of storms and lighting and is known for his feat of defeating Vritra, a demon who terrorized the world. After Indra defeated the demon he wanted a huge palace to commerate his great feat, so he told the architect of heaven to design him a great palace. But whatever design he came up with did not satisfy Indra. Bhrama saw this and decided that Indra needed to be punished so set a trial for Indra which would make him repent. During this time, someone else had to rule Svarga with Indra gone so Nahusha took the throne, but none of the gods liked his rule and Shachi, Indra's wife, begged him to come back and defeat Nahusha, which Indra did and became the king of Svarga again.     The three stories I have chosen are the ones above:     Indra and Vritra     Indra and the Ants     Indra and Shachi

Indra     Indra has always interested me as he has always been a popular pop cultural reference and I have heard about him many times in Indian stories. One new thing I learned about Indra was that he is present in some Buddhist epics as Shaka. I would be interested to delve more into his background and see how his character changes over history. Gurus and Sages     In every Indian epic that I have read, even most Indian folklore that I have read, involve gurus/sages in one form or the other. I would like to look more into Parashurama and Vishvamitra, and learn how they have affected Indian epics and how they grew into that prominent role. Chiranjivi     Immortals have always intrigued me and I have never heard of the seven immortals before, besides Hanuman and the sages, so this is a very new and interesting topic to me to explore. Karma     I am a big believer in karma and I know of its prominence in many religions, especially Hinduism. In ...