Indian Epics

In the notes below you will find my reading notes from part B of  The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India  by W. H. D. Rouse. Spend a Pound to Win A Penny A monkey was sitting up in a tree and waiting for a pot of peas to be cooked inside of a house. The peas finished cooking and the people went away so the monkey got a hand full of peas. The monkey dropped one pea and became distressed so he went looking for the one pea. While he was looking the other people came back and started pelting the monkey with rocks and the monkey dropped all the rest of the peas he was carrying. Union is Strength A hunter would hunt for quails by sounding a call that sounded just like quails. He would throw the net over the birds and then take them home for supper the next day. One smart quail told the others to poke their heads through the net and then begin flapping their wings. So all of the quails could get out of the net. So the quails were able to get away. One day more quails g...

In the notes below you will find my reading notes from part A of The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. The Giant Crab A giant crab lived in a lake all by itself because it would attack and drown any animal that would come near the lake. The crab grew bigger and bigger due to all of the animals it would eat. A pair of elephants, husband and wife went to the lake to get some water. Right when they were about to leave the crab nipped the husband on his leg. The crab wanted a kiss from the wife. The wife flirted back with the crab hoping that he would let go of her husband and he did. The husband jumped on the crab's back and broke his shell. All of the other animals were so pleased that they made the elephants king and queen. The Hypocritical Cat A cat sat by a river where there were holes that rats would go in and out of. He never tried to eat the rats because most of them would have run away. So the cat would stand every morning on one leg with his...

Hello everyone, Below you will find a collection of notes from  part B  of readings from Ellen C. Babbitt's More Jataka Tales . Part A Notes How the Monkey Saved His Troop Every night monkeys went to a mango tree where the fruit had dropped. A king found out about the fruit and liked the fruit so much he needed to know where the tree stood. When they found the tree the king collected all of the fruit laying on the ground. The monkeys came later that night and saw that all of the fruit on the ground was gone so they picked the fruit from the tree. The monkeys were so loud that it woke up the king and later archers stood at the base of the tree ready to kill the monkeys. The king saw how good the chief monkey took care of his troop and the king said he would take care of the chief monkey for the rest of his life. The Brave Little Bowman A crooked little man used a bow and arrow very well. The little man wanted to get work from the king's army. Along the way he met ...

Hello everyone, Below you will find a collection of notes from  part A  of readings from Ellen C. Babbitt's More Jataka Tales . The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls A queen put her pearls away in a box and a girl monkey watched. The monkey waited until the servants fell asleep. The monkey hid the pearls in the hole of a tree. The guard woke up and realized that the pearls were missing. The chief suggested that one of the girl monkeys took the pearls. The guards and the chief tricked the girl monkey by hanging more beads. All the monkeys except for the one which stole the pearls came to look at the beads. The Three Fishes Three fish, Very-Thoughtful, Thoughtful and Thoughtless swam away from their safe home. Very-Thoughtful suggested that the fishes turn around because of fisherman, but the others didn't want to turn back. Thoughtful and Thoughtless swam into a fisherman's net and Very-Thoughtful saved them. The Tricky Wolf and the Rats Tricky Wolf wanted to ca...

An updated version of this story can be found here . Once upon a time there lived a bale of turtles in the north end of a very long river. The weather became much colder so the turtles found themselves huddling closer together and digging themselves deeper into to the bed of the river every night. The leader of the bale was Anthony. Anthony was a wise and old turtle and everyone respected him expect for the foolish and young turtle, Timothy. Anthony announced to the bale that he thought it should be time to migrate to the south end of the river due to the cold weather. Anthony explained that the journey would be dangerous, but it would be better than freezing to death. The foolish and young turtle Timothy announced to the bale that he was going to start on the journey by himself because he didn't want the others holding him back and causing more danger. So Timothy left on his journey to the south end of the river by himself. (Image from Pinterest ) A day later the res...

Hello everyone, Below you will find a collection of notes from part B of readings from Babbitt Jataka Tales Part A notes  The Wise and Foolish Merchant The foolish merchant was selfish want wanted to start the path before the wise merchant so he could sell his goods at a price he wanted, have clean and fresh water, etc. The wise merchant want good with that because the foolish merchant would end up doing all of the work for him. The Elephant Girly-Face Girl-Face the elephant heard bad robbers talking about giving no mercy to anyone who got in their way. Girl-Face took this as advice to hurt anyone who came near her. The king realized this was the problem and had good men talk about how bad it was to hurt others so Girly-Face realized that it was better to be nice to others. The King's White Elephant An elephant approached carpenters because he has something stuck in its foot. The carpenters took out the splinter and made sure the elephant want all good. The elephant t...

Hello everyone, Below you will find a collection of notes from part A of readings from Babbitt Jataka Tales. The Monkey and the Crocodile The crocodile wanted to trick the monkey into riding on his back to get to the island of the water with ripe fruit. The crocodile's mom wanted to eat the heart of the monkey. The monkey tricks the crocodile and escapes. How the turtle saves his own life The princes of a king went to a lake that their father had gotten made for them. The princes encountered a turtle who they thought was a demon. The princes told the king and the king ordered his men to catch the turtle. The king's men threw the turtle in the river because the one of the king's men thought that would be a horrible death for the turtle. The turtle survived. The Merchant of Seri A golden bowl belonged to a little girl's grandfather but the family did not know what the bowl was worth. Two merchants stopped by the house and the girl begged for a new bowl from her...