Epics of India - MLLL 4993-996

Author's Notes This story was primarily inspired by a part in the Ramayana titled 'The Bridge' 1 . However, this story does contain a lot of the background information from the rest of the Ramayana. I had already typed up a majority of the background before realizing that is was not really on topic, but it did not make sense to delete it. I envisioned that most of the Gods from the Ramayana would take the forms of animals. Rama himself is the commanding ant, and those who follow him are the rest of his friends and allies. It is not correct for ants to have mates in the case of Rama and Sita's ant versions; this has been ignored to simplify the story. Additionally, there is no love interest between Ron and the queen, which is different from the dynamic between Rama and Sita. The Madhya Pradesh is the largest forest in India 2 . Here is a picture of it! Source The Journey of the Ants Background It was a normal day in the Madhya Pradesh forest. The wind ble...

Story 1 - The Bridge 1 The bridge was interesting because it is the first part in the Ramayana where I noticed that the Gods did not answer to the requests of Rama. This lack of response from the God of the Ocean leads to Rama threatening to burn away all of the water so he and his army could cross. Responding to these threats the King of the Sea tells Rama to find another way by building a bridge across the sea. Most interestingly, this bridge can still be seen today. Here is an aerial image of it by CC-by-sa PlaneMad/Wikimedia. Story 2 - Kumbhakarna 2 This story was funny because the length that the rakshasas had to go to in order to awake the giant Kumbhakarna early. It is a bit crazy that being trampled by elephants or having trumpets played in ones ears had little effect on the sleeping giant. However, the gentle caress of beautiful women woke him up instantly. This depiction of Kumbhakarna reminds me greatly of Snorlax from Pokemon, perhaps a trainer could stumble...

Story 1 - Sampati and Jatayu 1 The story of Sampati and Jatayu has the underlying theme of getting carried away. Quite literally, in this case, the two eagles that 'flew too high in the sky'. It feel as though the meeting of Sampati is the result of Karma's influence. As Rama witnessed the death of Jatayu, he is then destined to find his brother in order to locate Ravana, Jatayu's killer 2 3 . It is through helping Jatayu, is Sampati inclined to inform them about the whereabouts of Sita's location. Story 2 - Hanuman's Leap 4 I found this story to be entertaining do to the outlandishness of the jumping competition between the monkeys. It started simple with them simply one-upping each other, but then it is told that Hanuman was able to jump "three thousand leagues towards [the sun]" In owning up to these stories of prowess, Hanuman is given the task up bounding across the sea to the city of Lanka. Of course, he was able to do so. Story 3 - Ha...