Once upon a time, in a far away land, both gods and demons were presented with the challenge of churning the ocean in order to receive great treasure. They had previously been wiped out by the recreation of the universe, so they had a big desire to gain some treasure back. Now, as we all know gods and demons don't exactly work well together, but against their will, the gods had to suck up their own pride and ask the demons if they would help them in their task of churning the ocean of milk. They knew that it could not be done on their own, and they needed the demon's strength. In exchange for their help, they gods offered them an equal share of the treasure. The demons agreed and they got on to brainstorming ideas on how to churn this entire ocean full of milk! One demon came up with an idea fairly quick, "How about we rip out Mount Madura from unders its roots and use it as a stick for churning the ocean! I'm brilliant!" and everyone agreed with the idea. They grabbed a hold of the mountain from underneath and was able to spin it around like a stick, using it to move the ocean waters. While churning the ocean waters, there were many things that happened along the way. In the midst of the churning, the god Vasuki began to vomit a poison into the ocean, threatening to contaminate the ocean water, Shiva took the vomit in his mouth, turning his mouth blue. As the churning went on after the first incident, Mount Madura began to sink into the ocean bed and had to be saved by Visnu, in the form of a tortoise avatar, Kooma. He took one for the team and used his own back as a pivot point for the churning stick. Next, the churning began to uncontrollably produced treasures! Laksmi, the goddess of wine, Chandra the moon, Rambha the nymph, Kaustubha a jewel, Parijata the wishing tree, Surabhi the cow of plenty, Airavata the white elephant, Sanka a conch shell, Dhanas a mighty bow, and Visha the poison vomited by Vasuki. And last but not least, the ocean produced the Armit, and both gods and demons immediately tried to seize it, but the demons were first. But, while they were quarrelling for the treasure, Visnu took the form of a beautiful woman, taking the Armit and giving it to the gods, while giving the demons liquor. The demons were quick to catch on and tried to grab the Armit. In the midst of the quarrel it fell down on earth, in four places. These places on earth are now known to be of great religious importances, and serve as locations for the Kumba Mela, an extremely large pilgrimage.
Author's Note: I chose to retell this story because it was actually one of the stories I put in my storybook. I am writing a travel brochure, and I used one of the locations where the Armit landed in India, as one of my destinations, and told all about its importance. I decided to retell this story without changing much of the general storyline, because it is already such a simple and easy story to read. This story is one of my favorites that we have read this year, so I was quick to want to retell it once again!
Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata.
Hey, Alyssa! I really enjoyed your storytelling post. I’m glad you chose to re-tell a story that you genuinely enjoy and that you had that chance. The picture you chose was also really great because it was colorful and provided such a great image to look at while reading the story. Keep up the good work and I’m looking forward to reading your storybook version of this story.
ReplyDeleteHey again! This is a great story. I like how you chose to set it up to feel like a fairytale. You did a great job of altering the story without taking away from its simplicity and you chose a great picture! I don't believe that I've had the chance to look at your storybook, but I'll definitely choose yours as one of my free choices in the next couple of weeks. The idea of a travel brochure is very intriguing!
ReplyDeleteHey Alyssa, i just finished reading your story and love the format you chose for your post. I haven't read too many stories that are set up similar to a fairy tale. My eyes were really drawn to the image you used. It is very bright and colorful and wish it was bigger so i could see the detail better! Overall, great post!
ReplyDeleteI think your storytelling this week was great! I liked how you started off with “once upon a time.” I have been wanting to do that all semester. I liked how you did not change the storyline that much and you simply retold the main events. The image you have chosen is terrific because I have never seen it and I think it it painted perfectly and really helps your readers understand what is going on. Great job.
ReplyDeleteI read your authors note and I had the same experience with one of my stories. I liked retelling it so much that I had to do it again in my storybook (with some plot adjustments of course). I love the imagery you create in this story, I could just picture this violent, churning then Vasuki vomiting in it.
ReplyDeleteHi again Alyssa, I would like to start off by saying that I liked how you started the story off like it was a story I would be telling a young child with the once upon a time. I also liked this story a lot while I was reading it so I enjoyed reading another version of it. Good Job on the story!
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