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| Brahma Dreaming by John Jackson Illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini Published 2013 Image from Indian Epics Reading Guides |
I *love* this book! This is a delightful collection of stories from Hindu Mythology with illustrations, pen and ink style, that are just breathtaking! I was originally planning on listening to this in Audiobook format, but on a whim, decided to see if I could track it down in the library. I am so glad that I did! The illustrations are captivating, and I have found myself pausing to dwell on just those alone, contemplating everything that is written about that particular illustration. I've actually been spending quite a bit of time with this book, I just haven't gotten around to writing up some Reading Notes about it, so these notes are going to serve as a sort of Re-Read for me -- but that's ok, because this book is totally worth it!
Reading A:
Tales of Creation: In the beginning, there was only the sound of Aum. It became power, and had form, and had 3 faces: Brahma (Creator), Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer.Then there were 7 wise men, and they were the beginning of humanity.
- Brahma Dreamt the World. "It is the beginning of the first world," he said. And time began.
The CurseThe Milk Ocean: My favorite, favorite, favorite story I've come across in this whole semester. I could write so many offshoot stories about the milk ocean, what comes out of it, how it gets churned.
- Things that have come out of the Milk Ocean's Churning:
- The Moon
- A thousand beautiful girls, who became the stars
- A White Horse
- Lakshmi
- A Mist of blue poison
- A gold bowl filled with ambrosia, carried by an old man, who was the 1st physician ----- this is really unique and interesting, and I've love to do a mash up of this idea with the old man who is the keymaker/keyholder from the Matrix movie
The Lie Kadru, the mother of all snakes, lies to her sister about the color of a flying horse's tail. She coerces her black snake children to latch onto the horse's tail, so she can win the bet, and her sister will become her slave. Tsk, Tsk, Tsk.
The Sons of King Sagara
- Down into the depths of the Earth, past: Nagaloka (snake home in the underworld), past the buffalo demon Mehisha, past the palace of V'ritra, King of Demons, past the graves, past the goblins (Pisachas) that eat the flesh of the dead, finally between the legs of the giant elephants holding the earth on their backs, and into the vaulted cavern holding the cauldron Kapila.
- Interesting that in their creation stories, the middle of the earth is fire and hot lava, which is pretty accurate
- This is fleshing out the story of Ansuman praying to Ganga to come down and quench the ashes of his uncles to carry them back to life or to the afterlife.
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| Matsya Avatar The fish, the flood, and Manu Wikimedia Commons |
- So, So, So interesting that this is similar to the story of the Great Flood, where a ship is built, and he has to watch all the earth be swallowed by water. The fish carries him to land and safety.
- Manu came to make the beginning of the SECOND World this way
