Reading Note: Week 13 Part A

Jataka Fiery Sand

Once upon a time there was a merchant that was part of a caravan making his way across the desert to his destination. The sand was too hot for them to walk on, so they slept during the day and walked during the night. They had a guide that would guide them to where they had to go for, he knew the stars and could use them to navigate. They would set up camp at daybreak and water the oxen and start the fires so they could make their food. Their food consisted mainly of rice. On an early evening day, the guide told the men that after that night they should be in town. He advised the men that they would not be in need of the water or the rice and that they could toss it out. So, the men after having their meals did as the guide suggested. The next day the guide fell asleep and they became lost. They wandered aimlessly without water and rice. They eventually found some grass and the merchant said that there must be water underneath the grass. He took a spade and started to dig. They dug and they dug deeper and deeper until they hit a rock bed. The merchant said that he heard water underneath the rock and that they were close. The boy took his hammer and started beating on the rock harder and harder. Eventually the hammer broke on the rock and water sprang forth filling the well. This allowed the men and the oxen to survive and move on. 

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen Babbitt  

 

Sand Mountain Background by Analogicus

Reeding Notes Week 12 Part B

Monkey King Cont.

The king found the fruit and the monkeys. He ordered his men to surround them and let none of them escape so that they may eat them. The monkeys heard this and were afraid. They asked their king what they should do. They also heard the men mention that they were to capture the monkeys in the morning not leaving much time for them to escape. The monkey king thought a while and came up with a plan to use reeds tied to his feet to creat a bridge for his people to cross over. When he did this the reeds were to short so it did not work. He with all his might clung to the branch and called all his eighty thousand followers to run over his back onto the reed so they might not die. They all did this and lived. One of the monkeys however jumped upon his back and broke it for he was quite heavy. The King Brahmadatta saw this and shed much tears for the monkey king seeing what had happened. The monkey king mentioned to Brahmadatta that it was okay if he died because his people would live on. This caused the king to have a change of heart and to rule his people with love.

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka tales retold by Noor Inayat

Monkey Making a Face by Unkown

Reading Notes Week 12 Part A

Monkey Bridge

A Giant monkey ruled eighty thousand monkeys and they all lived together in the Himalaya Mountains. There was a stream through where they lived that fell onto this wonderful tree. The tree would produce the most wonderful fruits. The monkeys were really happy and lived most of their days eating and relaxing. They would eat the fruit which tasted like honey. The Giant monkey advised them that they should destroy all the fruit as it was produced so it would not fall in the stream and lead to the villages of man. For man would come in search of it and would take all the fruit. They obeyed this order for a very long time till one fell through the cracks. The fruit was carried away on an ant’s nose and picked up in the large city of Benares. The fruit was then found by King Brahmadatta as he was bathing. They were amazed by the dazzling fruit and wondered where it had come from. Another that was with him told him that it was a mango and that it grew it the Himalayas. The men tasted it and they all agreed the fruit was divine. And the king himself went in search of this fruit.

Bibliography: Twenty Jataka tales retold by Noor Inayat

Coaita or Spider Monkey by George Shaw

Week 11 Story

Fowler and His Quail

Once in a kingdom far away there was a very greedy and spiteful king. The King did everything he could to make as much money as possible at the expense of his people. He had many different jobs in his kingdom that would draw in much wealth but the one that brought in the most was that of the Fowler. The Fowlers in the country hunted down Golden Quails. They did this because the quails would lay golden eggs that were of much worth. The Fowler was always treated by the King quite well and he would always catch a plentiful bounty for his King. One day however the King decided he did not have enough wealth. When the Fowler came to his throne room to have his bounty appraised by the Valuer he was told that they were worth much less than the going price. The wicked Valuer agreed to lower the price so that he could bring in more money for his family.

The Fowler went home with his bounty refusing to let them go for that price. He then went to the kingdom next to his and sold them for the original going price. He decided to never go to the King with his bounties again. The king caught onto this and decided to hire his own personal Fowler. When the Fowler arrived he went to work catching the Golden Quail for the king. He did this until there was barely enough quails to go around. The Fowler would soon be out of work. He decided to make a deal with the quails. He went to the leader of the quails and told them of a way that they could be free if they worked together. He told them they were to poke their heads out of the net and fly away to the nearest tree. They would make sure the net was caught and they would fly away. For this information the quail allowed the Fowler a few eggs from them as payment. For the rest of the Fowler's days he was well taken care of by an honest king and his quail.

Author's Notes: I decided to put together A Measure of Rice and The Quarrel of Quails. In A Measure of Rice the Valuer was an honest man that was pushed out of his job by a greedy king who wanted him to lie to take more money for himself. In The Quarrel of Quails a Fowler would catch the quails until the wise old quail instructed the other quails to work together to escape by flying into a thorn thicket and fly out of the net. They did this until one time the quails got into an argument because one of the quails stepped on another's head. So they were captured and all sold off. I decided to make it to where the Valuer in my story was evil as well as the King. Also I decided to make the Fowler out to be a good honest man trying to make a living. He is the one who advised the quail what to do. 

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Northern Bob White Quail by Brian Stansberry

Reading Notes: Jataka Part B

Greed above All

There once was a greedy king that wanted as much money as he could squeeze out of his subjects. There was a person that worked for him that would tell what the measure of something was and how much it costed. He was known as the Valuer and was a very honest and hardworking man. The king thought to himself how he might get more money out of his subjects and his eyes set on the Valuer. He thought to himself if he had any other Valuer he would be make loads more money. He needed to get rid of this man and put another in his place that will charge more for things so that he might make more money. There was a peasant that came to the palace that the king thought would be perfect for the job. So the king offered him the job and the man took it. A horse-dealer brought five hundred horses to the court to sale and the Valuer said they were worth a measure of rice. The horse-dealer went to the honest man who had once been the Valuer and asked what he should do. The Valuer advised him to give the new Valuer a fine present and tell him that since he put a price on the horses he should then put a price on the measure of rice. So the horse-dealer did this and the peasant then went to the king and asked the king that he got these horses for a measure of rice, and if he should put a price on the rice. The king anxious to make more money agreed to this, for he thought he could make even more money off this man. The peasant Valuer then said to the king the value of the rice is that of the kingdom. To this he was laughed out and the king was ashamed.  

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Greedy Old King Walking by Unknown

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales Part A

Teamwork of Quails

There once was a flock of quails that listened to their very wise leader. There was a Fowler that made his money off catching the quails. He would go out every day and throw his net over them and catch them. He would do this by imitating the voice of the leader quail. The other quail would think it was the leader calling and would fly to the Fowler only to be captured. The very wise quail saw what was happening and devised a plan on how to beat the Fowler. He decided to call all the quail to him and instruct them when the Fowler calls to fly to him. When they were all in the net they would poke their heads out of the holes and fly away to the nearest thorn bush where the net would get tangled and they could fly themselves to safety. So they did this multiple times. This lead the Fowler's wife to be most angry with him for not bringing home any money. He said that he just couldn’t catch them for they were all working together. So for a time the quails were safe. Then one day when the net came over the top of all the quails like it did everyday one of the quails accidentally stepped on the head of another quail. The one who got stepped on made a big fuss over it. All the quails took sides over this matter to when the Fowler went to get the net the quails did not work together. One group would say to the other you fly away not I. So the Fowler succeeded and took all the quails home. This brought him much money. The moral of the story is working together is better than working separately. Also to be able to forgive another.

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Northern Bob White Quail by Brian Stansberry 

Week 10 Story

Corpious

There once was a great kingdom in the east that was ruled by a very wicked king named Demetrius. Demetrius was concerned with absolute power and wealth and wanted as much land as he could get under his control. The people hated what he had done to their once great nation. They were all struggling to make ends meet just wanting to survive. One day when the great king was on the road headed home from his latest hunt a great rumbling shook the earth and said to him.

“You shall be slain by the child of your beloved brother.”

Demetrius didn’t know what to do for he loved him almost as much as the money and power he had accumulated. When Demetrius got home he finally got the courage to do what must be done and ordered him and his wife to be thrown in prison for the remainder of their lives. He pleaded with him to let her go for they had done nothing wrong. Eventually his brother started having children with his wife. Each time he would go to see the new child and would cut each of their heads off. When it got to the 7^th child Demetrius decided it was enough. The killing had to stop here and he must kill the couple so he could end this nightmare. On the 8^th child the gods intervened and spirited the male child away to the womb of another woman. Demetrius came down to the dungeon none the wiser and killed both of them. The child however grew in the womb of his new mother giving her life many blessings. His new mother knew in her heart that he was destined for greatness and that he was truly an Avatar. She loved him so much and named him Corpious. She found out he was an Avatar when he scared away a giant snake with his flute playing saving his friends from the grip of death. Corpious would go on to change the world.

Author’s Notes: I decided to stick closely to the videos on Krishna by Epified. I only changed a few things such as the king killed the children by banging them against the bars of the cell. Also he did not kill the 7^th child for that child was spirited away to a different mother’s womb. The eighth child, or Krishna, was walked out of the jail by his father while the entire town was sleeping. I made it to where Corpious was transferred to a different mother’s womb and both his parents died.

Bibliography: Krishna Series by Epified Tv (India)

Cowherd Prince-Gopal Krishna by Infinite Eyes