Week 9: Narayan's Mahabharata (pp. 1-83)Assignments - Reading Guide A - Reading Guide B - Mahabharata Resources |
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Your assignment is to choose one of the story retelling suggestions listed below. If you want to write on a different topic, contact the instructor first (make sure you do that at least one day before the deadline so that you can receive an answer back in time).
Author's Note. You need to include a brief author's note in which you explain the storytelling style you chose along with any important changes you made to the original story in creating your own version.
Image. You are required to include at least one image with the story, along with a link to the webpage where you found the image, plus information about the image. You are free to re-use the images you find at the course website, or you can choose some other image to use that you find on the internet. Remember: even if you are re-using an image from the course website, you need to provide image information about it.
Title. You need to include the words "Storytelling for Week ___" in the title you give to the post, along with a title for your actual story (for example, "Storytelling for Week 2: Inside the Mind of Manthara")
Length. Your Storytelling post needs to be a minimum of 300 words long (maximum 1000 words). Make sure you do a spellcheck and a word count, and that you proofread your post by reading it out loud.
When you are done, complete the Gradebook Declaration.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY: I have published a blog post with the words "Storytelling for Week ___" in the title, along with a specific title for my story. My post is between 300 words minimum and 1000 words maximum. I have spellchecked and proofread the post. I have included an author's note. I have included an image, along with Image Information. |
Madri on the funeral pyre. Consider the episode where Madri decides to join her husband Pandu in death, ascending on to his funeral pyre. Tell this story either from Madri's point of view as she decides to do this and ascends the pyre, or from Kunti's point of view as she watches her co-wife choose this fate. Write an internal monologue where you explore the thoughts and feelings of Madri or of Kunti.
The swayamvara of Draupadi. Narayan provides a lot of information about Draupadi's swayamvara (pp. 32-34). For your story, retell the events of the swayamvara from Draupadi's perspective, including her thoughts and anything that she might say out loud. Remember that Draupadi does not know the outcome, and probably never would have guessed how things were going to turn out. What are her thoughts as she sees this unexpected series of events unfold? (It is up to you if you want to extend the story up to her discovery that she will have five husbands!)
The love story of Nalayani and Moudgalya. Vyasa explains Draupadi's fate of having five husbands by telling the story of Nalayani and Moudgalya. Provide your own retelling of this story with an emphasis on the prayer to Iśvara that Nalayani makes. As she addresses the god in making her request, she should tell the whole story from start to finish in the first person. If you want, you can also include your version of the dialogue that she has with the god in answer to her prayer.
Maya's assembly hall at Indraprastha. You know something about the illusions in the assembly hall built by Maya for the Pandavas at Indraprastha, because Duryodhana tells Śakuni about how he was humiliated there (pp. 49-50). For your storytelling, provide a detailed description of the assembly hall, and make sure you make it clear who is telling the story to whom (Maya the architect describing it to the Pandavas? Draupadi taking Krishna on a tour of the assembly hall when he comes to them as a guest? there are all kinds of characters you could choose to use as the speaker(s) and hearer(s) for this description).
Draupadi dragged by Duhśasana.. Choose at least three people who are present in the assembly hall when Duhśasana drags her in by the hair, and tell us what they are thinking. What are their thoughts? their feelings? What do they see happening before their eyes? (or, in the case of Dhritarashtra and Gandhari, what do they hear - since neither of them can see what is happening).
Arjuna and Urvaśi. Narayan provides an abbreviated account of the encounter between Arjuna and Urvaśi when he rejects her advances and she curses him (p. 82). Provide your own more detailed version of this encounter, making sure you include both a description of the setting, the action, and some dialogue between the characters. It is optional whether you want to include the final part of the story where Indra speaks to Arjuna afterwards.
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Modern Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. The textual material made available at this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. No claims are made regarding the status of images used at this website; if you own the copyright privileges to any of these images and believe your copyright privileges have been violated, please contact the webmaster. Page last updated: January 15, 2005 1:35 AM |