Palace of Illusions Reading Notes Part A

The Palace of Illusions
a novel, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
published 2008
Image from Indian Epics Reading Guides

• Krishna had an attempt on his life when his nurse-maid tried to poison him through her breast milk. Of course, he survived. 
• He has nicknamed Draupadi Krishnaa, which is the female name of Krishna, but also the one whose attraction cannot be resisted
• I loved her grandmother character here (Dhai)! So good! I want to use her to expand on this story in so many different ways.
• The feminist viewpoint/perspective here is so captivating. Divakaruni is doing a great job of reminding us of the origination of her inspiration for the story, the Mahabharata, while also fleshing out Draupadi to make her a real person, with a life story, wants, desires, insecurities, and a wondering about where her life will take her. 

Krishna and all of his women that he has seduced,
including, possibly, soon to be Draupadi as well
Image: 18th Century Indian painting via Wikipedia

I started listening to this book on AudioBook, but I wanted to have a better feel for the layout of the book, and how long it would take me. I'm actually really grateful that I looked this book up online, because there is a wonderful introduction that Divakaruni wrote that isn't mentioned in the AudioBook version at all. Divakaruni does an inspirational job at explaining why she wanted to write a story from the perspective that she did, and how she couldn't put away that nagging feeling of "If I ever write a book about this, I'm going to write it this way....." Very much like an Author's Note that we do at the end of our stories as well. 

Reading A
1 Fire
2 Blue
3 Milk

• Milk! Oh my gosh, Milk! Almost made me cry! A little boy hears from his friends how creamy, sweet, and delicious milk is, but his family is poor. He comes home and asks his mother to get milk for him also, so that he can know what milk tastes like. They're too poor to afford it, to she mixes some flour, water, and a hint of jaggery to it. The boy drinks it, is delighted that now he, too, knows what milk tastes like, and the mother begins crying. The pure, blind trust the boy has in his mother is beautiful, but it's the fact that she had to stoop to deceiving him that is heart breaking for the mother, and also nearly broke my own heart. I love this little vignette. 

4 Cosmology  -- This chapter is like a lovely review of the entire class so far -- all of the research, extra time exploring the intracacies of the Hindu gods are paying off here -- I'm able to sit back and enjoy the review. It's so good!
5 Smoke --- oooooooh, foreboding is being set up here! Yes! I love this! We later find out that this mysterious Sadhu-Ji is Vyasa. 

Brahma Dreaming Reading Notes

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 Beginning
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. 

Matsya Avatar
The fish, the flood, and Manu
Wikimedia Commons

The Fish: Manu, the fist man, has pity on a fish and saves him by placing him in a jar of water. The fish grows, and grows, and grows, and finally outgrows the ocean. Moral of the story is have compassion, but not too much compassion, for there is an order to the world that is to be obeyed. 

• 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