Topic Brainstorm

Kamadeva, The God of Love

This topic interests me because I have always been a sucker for a good love story so I assume the God of Love is responsible for many. Although Kamadeva is portrayed as the "cupid" god since he wields bow and arrows, I want to take a more modern route if I were to tell his stories. I do not have any previous knowledge about Kamadeva, however, if I were to chose this as my storybook topic, I want to learn all about him and the many stories he has been involved in. 

(Kamadeva, God of Love; Source: Wikipedia)

Here are the love stories and people I would like to retell their stories and explore more:

Pradyumna, the reincarnate of Kamadeva: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pradyumna

The love story of Rama and Sita: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sita#Marriage

The love story of Nala and Damyanti: http://ritsin.com/story-nala-damyanti-love-unknown-mahabharata-vana-parva.html/#comments

The love story of Ruru and Pramadvara: https://thejatakas.blogspot.com/2017/07/0067-ruru-and-pramadvara.html

Karma

This is another topic that I find very interesting. The idea and concept of Karma has always been intriguing. For this topic, I would want to examine in closer details different stories and the actions that the characters take. For example, in the anthology reading we did, I further analyzed the crane and the crab story. This story shows a great example of Karma as the crane does continuous bad things with no punishment until the end of the story when the crab punishes him by killing him. 

Here are some different concepts that surround karma in the Hindu religion:

Karma in Hinduism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma#In_Hinduism

Samsara in Hinduism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra#Sams%C4%81ra_in_Hinduism

Reincarnation

Reincarnation is a topic as of lately that has become more interesting to me. I think this topic could be cool from a storybook standpoint. I could follow the reincarnation of 2 or 3 gods and tell their stories from their multiple reborn souls. I do not have much knowledge about reincarnation or about specific gods who have been reincarnated so I think learning about all the different souls and how different the personalities are will be interesting.

Here are some different god and characters I could possibly learn more about from their original souls to their reincarnated souls:

Kamadeva reincarnated to Pradyumna: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamadeva#Reincarnation_as_Krishna's_son 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pradyumna#Birth,_Childhood_&_Youth

Sita reincarnated to Vedavati: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sita

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedavati

Draupadi reincarnated to Nalayani: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draupadi

http://innertraditions.blogspot.com/2010/12/nalayani-past-life-of-draupadi.html

Jataka Tales

Reading through the different Jataka Tales during Week 2 anthology was very interesting. The different styles of storytelling traditions from the Buddhist helped me understand characters and look a characters in a different way. My knowledge about the Jataka Tales is very base level but I think a cool way to use this topic for my project would be to retell the tales in different ways. I think using one specific tales and retelling it 2 or 3 different ways using different characters and settings would be interesting to show how the theme and the message stays the same.

(Image depicting many of the Jataka Tales: Source: Wikimedia)

Here are some possible tales that I would consider retelling:

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit: https://sites.google.com/view/jatakas/rabbit

The Cunning Crane and the Crab: https://sites.google.com/view/jatakas/crane-and-crab

The Crocodile in the River: https://sites.google.com/view/jatakas/crocodile