Reading Notes: Fables of Bidpai, Part B
Hi guys!
Today I read part B of the Fables of Bidpai. I just love these short stories!
One story was called The Lion and the Hare. In this story, there is a lion that rules. The lion used to kill any animal it saw fit, but the other animals decided this was unfair. They proposed that they would send the animals they saw fit to the lion. This reminded me a lot of the story where the Pandava brothers are in hiding in a village. The man and women they are staying in are selected to send on member form their house as a meal for a neighborhood beast. Arjuna offers to go and kills the beast. The hare is Arjuna. In the fable, the hare tricks the lion to drown himself by attacking his reflection in the water.
I loved being able to connect these two stories. I think it is fun to compare the hare to Arjuna, a powerful warrior. This shows that smarts can be just as beneficial as strength. There are multiple ways of completing the same task. I wonder if Arjuna could defeat the beast with smarts? What would get a beast like that to kill itself?
The story mentions a neighborhood of Bagdad. I wonder where they got this name. I googled it to find out, but did not find very much information. I know Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, but I could not find a neighborhood. So, I wonder where this story actually takes place. One thing I loved about this story was the surprise at the end. It was a trickster ending and I had no idea what was going to happen next. This helped keep me invested.
Bibliography: Fables of Bidpai, Part A written by Maude Barrows Dutton [link here]
Lion from Creative Commons
Today I read part B of the Fables of Bidpai. I just love these short stories!
One story was called The Lion and the Hare. In this story, there is a lion that rules. The lion used to kill any animal it saw fit, but the other animals decided this was unfair. They proposed that they would send the animals they saw fit to the lion. This reminded me a lot of the story where the Pandava brothers are in hiding in a village. The man and women they are staying in are selected to send on member form their house as a meal for a neighborhood beast. Arjuna offers to go and kills the beast. The hare is Arjuna. In the fable, the hare tricks the lion to drown himself by attacking his reflection in the water.
I loved being able to connect these two stories. I think it is fun to compare the hare to Arjuna, a powerful warrior. This shows that smarts can be just as beneficial as strength. There are multiple ways of completing the same task. I wonder if Arjuna could defeat the beast with smarts? What would get a beast like that to kill itself?
The story mentions a neighborhood of Bagdad. I wonder where they got this name. I googled it to find out, but did not find very much information. I know Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, but I could not find a neighborhood. So, I wonder where this story actually takes place. One thing I loved about this story was the surprise at the end. It was a trickster ending and I had no idea what was going to happen next. This helped keep me invested.
Bibliography: Fables of Bidpai, Part A written by Maude Barrows Dutton [link here]
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