Course Improvements

Creating thematic reading units

I think thematic reading units would be a great addition to this course. While the first several weeks are clear on what to read, the weeks thereafter could benefit from organized reading plans. This would help anyone who wants to spend several weeks reading through a specific type of story (e.g. Bidpai tales) but doesn't know which specific reading selections would provide the best overview of that particular genre. These reading units could be accompanied by an article about the specific genre (what it is, when it originated, etc.). These thematic units should be optional, in case someone wants to read from a more diverse selection of stories.

Other texts

Another option that could be added would be editions of traditional Indian stories in book form. These books would be easily available for purchase online (e.g. modern Penguin editions) or in Bizzell Library. This would help provide an even greater variety of texts for students taking this course.

Story: The Young Parrot and the Farmer

“The young parrot brings food to his parents.” Scene from “The Young Parent.”

Illustration by H. Willebeek Le Mair (1939).

The Young Parrot and the Farmer

One day, a flock of parrots were on a farmer’s field, eating all of the loose rice. However, they left the plants alone. The farmer’s servant was out there and saw one of the younger parrots gathering a great deal of rice in its beak, but not eating it. Once the birds had left, the servant went to tell the farmer about it.

The farmer was surprised by this and said to his servant, “Trap this parrot, but do not kill it. I want to speak to it and see why it is storing away rice.”

Before the parrots returned the next day, the servant set up the trap.

Suddenly, the young parrot felt itself caught. It looked down and saw a piece of string wrapped around its foot. It struggled and bit at the string, but it was unable to free itself. The servant, who had been waiting in the bushes, grabbed this parrot and took it to the farmer.

The bird was frightened but didn’t struggle.

“What is this?” the farmer cried. “A bird who is not scared of humans?”

“No, I’m not afraid of humans” the young parrot replied. Both the farmer and his servant were shocked. A talking parrot? “I’m only afraid of not being able to return to my parents.”

“Why are you afraid of that?”

“Because they cannot fly and if I do not return to them, they will surely starve for lack of rice.”

“So you are storing up the rice in your beak for them?”

“Yes, I store it up each time my flock and I find a field of rice.”

“How honorable,” replied the farmer. “I thought of keeping you as a pet, but I will let you go, so that you may serve your family.”

“Thank you,” replied the young parrot. “I and my kind will never forget this kind deed. If you ever need help, simply whistle three times and my flock will come to your aid.”

Several weeks passed. By now, the farmer’s fields were rich with rice. It was sure to be one of the best harvests in centuries. While the farmer was out admiring his fields, he saw a dark cloud on the horizon.

“How odd,” he thought. “The monsoon season is not close and yet there is a huge dark cloud coming towards my farm.”

As this “cloud” drew closer, the farmer realized what it truly was. The buzzing of the cloud could be heard from miles away.

“Locusts!” the farmer cried.

He despaired at this. It was just his luck that a swarm of locusts would eat his best harvest. He had no idea what to do. He would never be able to stop all of them. The locust swarm landed in his neighbor’s fields and began to eat everything there. The farmer almost lost all hope, but then he remembered the promise that the young parrot had made some time ago.

The farmer whistled three times as loud as he could and soon a whole flock of parrots flew down from the forest.

The young parrot came to him and asked, “What do you need, kind farmer?”

The farmer pointed out the swarm but a mile or two away. He said, “There is a swarm of locusts that has descended on my neighbor’s farm. You must eat all of them or the whole countryside will be ravaged and hundreds will starve.”

The parrots flew off in a hurry. Within a few minutes, all of the locusts had either fallen to the ground, dead, or had been gobbled up by the parrots.

When the young parrot returned to the farmer, the farmer said, “You have saved me, my family, and the entire village. You may eat of my fields whenever you like.”

Every year after this, not a single locust descended on the farmer’s fields and the flock of parrots always had enough to eat.

Author’s Note

I adapted this story from “The Young Parrot,” in Twenty Jataka Tales. In the original story, the young parrot saves rice for his parents, is trapped by the farmer, and is later set free. I decided to expand on this story by having the farmer be rewarded for his kindness. In the original story, the parrot only thanks him for his kindness and flies off. Karma plays a large role in my adaptation. Not only is the parrot set free because of his sense of familial obligation, but the farmer and the rest of the village are saved because the farmer performed a kind deed.  

Bibliography

Noor Inayat (Khan). (1939). Twenty Jataka Tales.

Reading notes: Twenty Jataka Tales (Part B)

The flying horse from “The Goblin Town” flies the sailors home. Illustration by H. Willebeek Le Mair (1939).

The Two Pigs

1. Even though the mother is surrounded by drunken men, she refuses to give up her adopted pig-children. Loyalty to family is a common theme in these tories.
2. The men treat the pigs as people and are rewarded with a more peaceful society.

The Patient Buffalo

1. This monkey is extremely annoying. Surely, the buffalo will get some form of justice.
2. The buffalo is rewarded for not using his great power to hurt the weak or act sadistically.

The Sarabha

1. Although the king tries to hunt the Sarabha and kill it, the Sarabha tries to help him.
2. The Sarabha sees the king suffering and knows that it must help him as it would a family member.
3. This king does not forget the help he has received. For every good deed, the person or animal who performed it is rewarded.

The Goblin Town

1. I think the sailors who stayed are justified in that decision. If strange horse-bird creatures flew down from the heavvens, I’d be wary of riding it.
2. How will the men who stayed fare? Will they be eaten by goblins or will they be able to fend the goblins off?

The Great Elephant

1. The elephant sacrifices himself when he sees men in dire need.
2. The elephant gets the short end of the stick in this situation. Being remembered doesn’t seem like a great reward for sacrificing himself.
3. What would happen if the elephant had played a trick on them and never sacrificed himself? What if he had just lied about the elephant body because he was mischievous?

The Quarrelsome Quails

1. This story is a lot like the other animal king ones. If the king’s subjects listen to him, they will never be harmed.
2. The quails who cause internal strife in the flock are punished with death.

The Forest Fire

1. The little quail may not be physically strong, but he has enough power to push back flames.
2. I expected the quail to die because he didn’t do what his parents wanted and eat the insects.

The End of the World

1. The hare overreacts, but he isn’t punished for it.
2. He’s made an honest mistake and the lion seems to forgive him.

The Golden Goose

1. While a king may be majestic, nothing lasts forever.
2. The goose seems to indicate that wealth and promises are beholden to the passage of time.

The Noble Horse

1. The horse asks for mercy for the other kings.
2. This mercy is likely given only because the horse was great in battle. How would the horse’s request have been received if the horse hadn’t done much?

Bibliography

Noor Inayat (Khan). (1939). Twenty Jataka Tales

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales (Part A)

“The young parrot brings food to his parents.” Scene from “The Young Parent.”

Illustration by H. Willebeek Le Mair (1939).

The Monkey-Bridge

1. These monkeys live in a paradise. Given the nature of stories like this, it’s likely that this paradise will be destroyed due to one of the monkey’s carelessness.
2. Is the king greedy for the fruit or appreciative of its greatness?
3. The humans are soiling previously untouched nature.
4. The monkeys were careless and so are punished. However, their wise king will help them survive.
5. The humans and the monkeys are punished for intruding on nature and having allowed this intrusion, respectively.

The Guilty Dogs

1. Like the previous story, there is a wise king who wants to protect his subjects. In most of these stories, all of the problems could be solved if the subjects had only listened to the king.
2. However, in this story, one of the kings (the human one) is rash. It is only through wise arguments that he comes to the proper decision.

Banyan

1. Mercy will probably be rewarded.
2. The king also decides to spare the deer. As always, mercy proves more honorable than violence.

The Tortoise and the Geese

1. The tortoise was rash in his speaking.
2. He’s punished for speaking (or trying to speak) in anger at the children.

The Fairy and the Hare

1. Each of the animals is generous, but the hare is the most generous among them.
2. This is because he offers, not his property, but his life, in order to help other people.
3. Of course, there’s someone (a fairy) there with the power to test him and punish him or reward him.  

The Golden Feathers

1. Why did the husband not reveal his identity? That would have ensured that he wasn’t forcibly plucked of his feathers.
2. The mother is ungracious for fortune’s gifts and is punished for it. Are the daughters punished for not stopping her?

The Young Parrot

1. The other parrots might be punished for not helping the young parrot and for being cowardly.
2. What would happen if the field-owner needed help in the future? Doesn’t he deserve something in return for having let the young parrot go?

The Empty Lake

1. With a good enough king, it seems that the people will never suffer long.

The Swan Kingdom

1. It is good to be wary of too beautiful lakes.

The Master's Test

1. This was adapted in one of the Amar Chitra Katha comic books.
2. Although respect for and obedience to one’s elders is important, absolute obedience is not good.
3. This moral lesson isn’t surprising when one considers all of the unwise brahman and rash kings that pop up in Indian folktales and epics.

Bibliography

Noor Inayat (Khan). (1939). Twenty Jataka Tales.

Portfolio Introduction

In my portfolio, I intend to have stories that share a common theme, such as sacrifice or duty. In stories such as the Ramayana, these concepts are considered important to the cohesion of society. Those who have sacrificed themselves or who have followed their duty are praised, while those who are greedy are presented in a negative light.

Index

The Celestial Weapons
After they help Rama fight a horde of rakshasas, some of the celestial weapons feel as though the prince hasn't given them the credit they are due.

Hanuman and the Curse
After the events of the Ramayana, Hanuman gets himself into all kinds of trouble.

The Elephant and the Dog
An elephant and a dog become best friends but are torn apart by war.

The Tortoise and the Heron
A tortoise promises to save his subjects from an impending drought.

The Bear and the Bees
A bear must make an important decision.

The Bear and the Bees

A beehive hanging off of a tree branch in India.

Photograph by Muhammad Mahdi Karim (2012).

A long time ago, two brothers were arguing over whether they should sell their calf. The eldest brother wanted to keep the calf in order to get milk from it, while the youngest brother wanted to sell it now. It was a very fat cow. It could make a lot of milk or a lot of meat. So the two brothers argued and argued. One day, while they were standing out in their field arguing, a brahman wandered by.

Thinking that the wise man could provide them with the answer, they pleaded with him. “Oh, wise brahman, please tell us whether we should sell our cow or keep it.”

The brahman didn’t give them a straight answer, but began this story:

One day, a bear was walking in the jungle when he encountered a cat. The cat was trying to climb a tree in order to reach a beehive which hung on the highest branch. Every few seconds, a bee would swoop down and sting the cat. At this, the cat would fall back down. Even after a dozen stings, the cat still tried to climb the tree.

So distracted was the cat by her activity that she didn’t even notice the bear approaching her. The bear was rather bored and decided to play with this cat. He took his great paw and swiped at the cat. This certainly got the feline’s attention.

“What are you doing?" the cat shouted at the bear. "Are you trying to kill me?”

“No,” the bear replied, dejectedly, “I was only trying to play. I’m so bored and there’s nothing else to do.”

“Bored, eh?” The cat began to think of a plan by which to get the honey in that beehive. She didn’t think much of the bear’s intelligence and assumed he would do anything he was told. “I know something you can do,” the cat said.

“What is it?” asked the bear.

“You can climb this tree and get the beehive for me.”

“Why do you want to get the beehive?”

“It’s filled with a sweet golden goo.”

“That sounds tasty,” the bear said, licking his lips.

“It certainly is.”

“Can I have some if I help you get it down?”

The cat hadn’t expected this, but half of the honey was better than nothing at all. “Alright,” she said. “We’ll split the honey once you knock it off the tree.”

The bear started to climb and soon reached the top branch. The bees by then had lost all of their soldiers. Only the queen, her advisors, and the workers remained. When the bear started crawling across the branch in order to reach the beehive, he heard a tiny buzzing in his ear. He swatted by his ear but the buzzing resumed soon after. This buzzing almost sounded like speech. He listened more closely and could actually make out something.

“Bear, you must help us!” they cried.

Befuddled, the bear asked, “Who’s talking?”

“I am the queen of this hive. We are in dire straits. We have lost all of our soldiers and our hive is completely defenseless.”

“What would you have me do about it? I am only a bear.”

“You can guard us from other animals. You are big and strong and no animal would dare challenge you.”

“What about the cat? She asked me to knock your hive down so that she and I could split the honey inside.”

“If you do that, you will only get honey once. If you defend us, we will give you honey each day.”

“Will I get more honey that way?” the bear asked, even more confused than before.

“Yes, you will, in the long run.”

At this point, the cat had grown impatient. She yelled, “What’s going on up there?”

“Nothing,” the bear replied. “I’m almost there.”

The queen bee said to the bear, “First, we need you to scare off the cat. She will probably take the hive for herself while you’re still in the tree.”

“I don’t think so," the bear said. "She seems trustworthy to me.”

“She’s not trustworthy at all,” replied the queen bee. The royal advisors, who had gathered around her, agreed with this statement.  

The bear wasn’t so convinced. In fact, he was rather angered by this statement. He took his great paw and swiped at the hive. It was now hanging by a thread. He swiped again and the whole thing came crashing down.

“Oh no,” the bear cried, his eyes filling with tears. “What have I done?”

The cat said to him, “You’ve gotten me a great deal of honey!” With that, the feline took the hive in her mouth and ran off.

The bear knew he should have listened to the queen bee. Had he been more patient and level-headed, he could have gotten honey each day. Now, he had nothing at all.

After hearing the story, the men decided that it would be best to keep the cow. They thanked the brahman, who went on his way. For many years, the cow and its offspring gave these brothers and their families as much milk as they could drink.

Author’s Note

I didn’t have a specific story in mind when I was writing this. It’s in the style of the Fables of Bidpai. That is, the characters are all animals and a moral lesson is provided at the very end. Of course, there’s a trickster character, the cat, who misleads the protagonist, the bear. I considered having the bear act as a defender of the bees for some time before realizing he could have the honey all at once. However, this story seems to work better in that the bear doesn’t come to this realization but rather is tricked into knocking the beehive down. Either way, he learns a lesson about patience and not acting rashly.

I added a frame story in order to make the moral more clear. It’s no longer just about a bear who’s tricked by a cat, but about two brothers who must make an important decision regarding their cow.

Bibliography

Maude Dutton. The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai. 1908.

Story: The Dullard

A Bengal tiger in India.

Photograph by Paul Mannix (2009).

The Dullard

Many years ago, there once was group of three brahmans. They had each lived in the forest for seven years. During those seven years, they had become knowledgeable in matters related to karma, to dharma, and to all of the underlying truths of life.

Although these three brahmans had lived together for seven years, one of them had always remained an outsider. They called him “the dullard.” They had only let him into their group because they pitied him. They thought him incredibly dull.

One day, the brahman agreed that it was time to leave the forest. They had learned a great deal during their isolation. They thought they could make great use of it by buying and selling goods. They could become some of the wealthiest merchants in the kingdom and, perhaps, gain positions in the king’s court.

Of course, the smarter two didn’t think the dullard would amount to much. Even so, they let him go. It would certainly be funny to see him prove a terrible merchant. In all likelihood, he would lose all that he had within a week.

The three brahmans packed up their few belongings and headed out of the forest. Along the way, they came across a skeleton. The wisest brahman looked closely at the skeleton.

“Why, this is the skeleton of a tiger!”

“How odd,” said the second wisest brahman. “You know what we should do?”

“What?”

“We should bring it back to life. We’ve learned so much in our seven years in the forest. We should able to do that.”

“That sounds a good idea,” said the wisest brahman.

But the dullard disagreed. He said to the two other brahman, “It’s a tiger! If we bring it back to life, it’ll eat all of us!”

The other brahmans laughed at him. “Why would it eat us? Wouldn’t it know a brahman when it saw one? We all know that tigers don’t eat brahmans.”

At this, the wisest brahman used his powers to put muscle and skin back on the tiger’s bones. Then, the second wisest brahman breathed into its mouth in order to restore it to life.

“Ah,” he said. “We are able to bring the dead back to life! Forget being merchants. With those power, we could become kings over all of India!”

Before the brahman could finish his sentence, the tiger leapt at him. The beast tore at him with her claws and soon he was just a bloody pile. The dullard leapt into a tree, where he hoped the tiger wouldn’t be able to get him. Meanwhile, the wisest brahman was trying to calm down the tiger.

“We have brought you back to life, oh tiger! Surely you should be thanking us, not eating us!”

The tiger attacked this brahman too and made a meal of him. The dullard remained in his tree until the tiger had gone away.

Moral: A man with wisdom but no common sense is like a palace with art but no furniture.

Author’s Note

In this story, I adapted a tale told in an Amar Chitra Katha comic book, “The Dullard.” In this tale, a group of wandering brahman bring a lion back to life, only to have it attack them. The dullard of  the group is the only one who survives. He warned them, but they didn’t listen. My story is a pretty close adaptations of the original. I may eventually add another passage or a sequel about how the dullard came to be one of the most revered men in the kingdom.

Bibliography

The Dullard. Amar Chitra Katha, v. 585.