Week 6 Story: Mahabharata

There was once a god who’s favorite pastime was to watch over the human mortals who lived their simple lives down below. He would often play games with the mortals without them knowing and use his powers to influence events down below simply for his own entertainment. Today he was watching over a fisherman and quickly became bored with the simple and slow day of the simple fisherman. The god decided to spice things up in this fisherman’s life and sent down his spawn into a fish below. The fish produced 2 human children much to the fisherman’s surprise. The fisherman scooped up the children in his net finding one boy and one girl. He carefully dried them off before placing them in a basket with some towels to keep them warm. He quickly went to the king of his land and told him what he had seen and then presented the children to him. Amazed with the tale, the king and his advisors were enamored with the children and knew that they were a gift from a god up above. The king took the boy as his own; however, he gifted the fisherman with the girl as gratitude for bringing such amazing spectacles to him. 

The fisherman had no wife and no other family. He now had his only daughter, the girl born from the fish and he named her Satyavati. She quickly became the most important thing in his life and as she grew she became one of the most beautiful women of the land. This should have brought her many suitors but there was a problem. Satyavati was born with a fishy smell that repelled almost everyone except for her father the fisherman who loved her dearly and had become used to the smell of fish due to his profession. This caused Satyavati to live a lonely life as she almost always stayed at home and helped her father with the fishing. 

                  One day while she was traveling the river, Satyavati saw a being on the side of the river and she was compelled to bring the boat up to the bank and speak to him. This being was the rishi Parashara. The rishi was amazed with the girls beauty and was immediately attracted to her. He asked the girl to join him in embrace but the girl quickly declined as she believed him to be a random being on the side of the river. Satyavati was about to get back into her boat and leave when the rishi offered her a deal. If she embraced him, she would still keep her innocence and remain a virgin and she would also lose her fishy smell. Satyavati believed that this would change her life at no cost to her so she quickly accepted. After this event, Satyavati no longer had the fishy smell. She instead gave off the most amazing fragrance in the land and could be smelled for 7 miles. A child was also born on this island after their embrace. Because he was born on an island he was called Dwaipayana or island-born.

Shantanu and Satyavati

Authors Note: This story was inspired by the tale of how Vyasa was born from the Mahabharata. Vyasa was the author of the Mahabharata and was born from the woman who was born from a fish. I was intrigued by this story due to its very unique births and characters. The fishy smelling woman was slightly funny to me and the god from above who caused these two children to be born from the fish was interesting. The original story that I read was very short so for my story I decided to expand on it and add much more detail and events to give the reader a way to go more in depth with this story. I enjoyed giving the girl more difficulties with the fish smell and adding more about the fisherman allowing him to be a loving and dedicated father. In the original story the fisherman had a wife but I wanted to make him more of a lone wolf so that this gift of a daughter would have even more of an impact on his previously simple and lonely life. I also liked giving the god more of a purposeful impact in this story instead of accidental insemination from the original. 

Week 4 Story: The Cyclops Defeated

An updated version of this story is on my portfolio.

The Cyclops began the day by eating two more of my men for breakfast. After this he wandered out of the cave leaving us trapped inside once again. Knowing that we needed to defeat the beast in order to escape, I realized that we needed a weapon large enough to take the Cyclops down.  Looking around the cave I saw the Cyclops' club. It was the size of a small tree and appeared to be our best option. I ordered my men to smooth the tree down and I sharpened the end to give it a deadly point. Now we needed to figure out how to get this large steak into the eye of the Cyclops.

Later that day the Cyclops returned and again ate two more of my men. Once he finished his meal and sat down I approached him with the weed that we had taken from the land of the Ciconians. It had been blessed by Snoop the god of marijuana to be irresistible once one used it. "Great beast! I brought this as a gift to you before you began to attack us. How could anyone visit a being who acts as cruelly as you do?"

He loaded his giant pipe with my gifts and began to puff large clouds towards the entrance of the cave. "This is straight gas," the Cyclops proclaimed "refill my pipe and tell me your name so that I may pay you back with a gift of your own human. The fertile earth produces rich marijuana plants, and Zues' rain swells them: but this is sent straight from the heavens above.

"Nobody. My name is Nobody." I told the Cyclops who was too high to question me. Talking slower than he was before the giant mumbled "Then my gift to nobody is that I will devour him last of his crew."

As he said this, his droopy, bloodshot eye began to shut and the Cyclops slumped onto the floor. I quickly rallied my men and we lifted the giant steak that we had crafted. We jammed it into his eye and twisted it around to make sure that he was blinded.

The Cyclops screamed in terrible pain so loudly that I thought I would lose my hearing. We jumped back and hid so that the beast wouldn't harm us as he stumbled about. Rushing to the exit of the cave the other Cyclops came near. "Polyphemus, what is causing you to make such a ruckus? Are you being attacked by a mortal."

"Nobody is in my cave and stabbed my eye!" he roared.

Smelling the marijuana in the air the others determined that he was high and left him to suffer.

(Greek vase painting)

Author's Note: The source story that I used was The Cyclops Defeated from Homer's Odyssey, translated by Tony Kline. I took a similar approach to this story as the original; however, one major change that I made was to use marijuana instead of wine which was used in the original. I thought that this would give the story a different feel and seem to make it relevant to the changing times of today. I also thought that it would make the Cyclops look like more of a fool to the others when they went to check on him at the end of the story. 

Week 2 Story

There was once a tiger hunting for his next meal. While he was prowling through the tall grass, he became stuck in a trap. He violently tried to escape from the trap by biting and clawing at the bars, but it was all in vein as even a strong beast such as him couldn't break the metal.

As the tiger grew more and more helpless and hungry, a Brahman strolled through the field by the tiger.

"Oh kind Brahman, please free me from this vile trap!" begged the tiger.

"Why would I do this for you?" the Brahman questioned. "Surely you would eat me the moment you became free."

"No no no," exclaimed the tiger, "I would be so grateful to you that I would serve as your loyal protecter."

The tigers begging and promises made the kind Brahman feel sorry for the poor tiger stuck in the trap. He decided to release the trap and free the tiger. "HA!" screamed the tiger, as he sprung free from the trap and jumped on his savior, "you are such a dumb old man! A beast like me would never serve such a weak creature like you. Instead I shall eat you to quench my hunger."

Now it was the Brahman's turn to beg for his freedom. The tiger decided to allow the Brahman to ask three things their opinion on wether or not the tiger was acting fairly.

First, the Brahman asked a near by tree how it felt about the matter. The tree dryly told the poor Brahman "I provide protection from the rays of the sun to those wandering in the heat, but in repayment they just eat my fruit and break my branches for kindling. Toughen up and fight your own battles."

Next, the Brahman cried to a hawk flying overhead but the hawk simply responded "I keep to my own business and fly in the sky. I don't want to be a part of your dispute."

Lastly the Brahman begged the road to help him. The road grumpy said "Everybody who I've ever met has simply trampled on me, often with their much heavier cattle. I have no desire to help you."

Defeated, the Brahman began walking back to where the tiger was waiting. Along his way, he met a jackal who asked "Why such a long face Brahman? The weather is nice and today is a good day to travel!"

The Brahman told the jackal what had happened but this just seemed to cause the jackal further puzzlement. "This doesn't make any sense to me!" exclaimed the jackal. "Maybe you could take me to the scene of where this all took place and then I may be able to understand your predicament.

"Finally, my meal has returned! And you brought a snack back with you." the tiger said sinisterly to the Brahman.

"Before you devour me, you must let me explain what happened to this simple minded jackal."

Once again, the Brahman explained to the jackal what had happened without skipping a single piece of information in an attempt to prolong his life that was soon to come to an end.

"All of this hurts my head!" cried the jackal while rubbing his temples. "Ok so the tiger laid the trap and you, Mr. Brahman, became stuck in-"

"No!" the tiger yelled angrily, "I was the one in the trap you moron!"

"That makes more sense," the jackal responded feigning terror. "So the hawk was stuck in the trap- no wait, I was in the trap. No that doesn't seem to make sense. Mr. Brahman was riding the tiger. Ahh no that's impossible. I'll never be able to figure this out, for my brain is just not big enough."

Enraged by the jackal's ineptitude, the tiger roared "It's not that complicated! I am the tiger-"

"Ok that makes sense."

"This is the trap-"

"Alright."

"And I was stuck in the trap."

"Got it! Wait, no, how did you get in the trap?" the jackal asked with a look of confusion.

"What? How? The way that an animal normally gets into a trap!"

"Oh well I don't know how that is for I am so confused right now."

The tigers fuse was about to blow and he quickly jumped back into the trap and yelled, "That's how I got into the trap!"

With a sly smile on his face the jackal quickly slammed the trap shut, locking the tiger back inside. "Ohhhh I get it now," the jackal said, "I think it should stay this way."


Author's note: I took this story and adapted it to my own words. I was intrigued by the trickery of both the tiger and the jackal and loved the premise of this story. The anger that the tiger had was because he thought he was so much smarter than the jackal and I love how this was shown because in the end, it was the jackal who was the smartest.

Story source: Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912)

Image Information: Illustration by John Batten