I decided to do reading diary B instead of A this week because it was not a continuation of reading diary A and the titles were more curious to me. The first story was that of Ruru and Pramadvara. It is a story of a man who instantly fell in love with a woman. He takes her to his home but she dies from a snake's bite. He prays to the gods and allows to give half of his remaining life to his wife. However, he grows to resent snakes and kills as many as he can. That is until he meets a cursed rock snake who tells him to stop being bitter and enjoy the rest of his days being happy with his living wife. I like this story because it reminds us to forgive and not live our lives with bitterness and resentment.
The second story was that of The Frog King's Daughter. Another story set in Ayodhya. He should have known something was up when she said that she would marry him on the condition that he will never let her look at water on the ground. He honestly believed that a frog, killed his wife and ordered an all out execution of all frogs. The frog King cursed his daughter's sons with hatred of the Brahmas. This is the second story of the series that calls for the execution of an animal race due to spitefulness.
The last story is called the Tale of the Pole Star. A King had two wives but favored the beautiful one over the good natured one. The beautiful one resented the son of the good natured one. So much so, that he went into the forest to pray for years. The god Krishna then told him to go back home and win the love of the people. The son of the beautiful one was cocky and died in battle while Prince Dhruv vindicated his death and eventually became King but then eventually turned into the pole star.
Title: Tales from the Indian EpicsAuthor: C. A. KincaidIllustrator: M. V. DhurandharYear: 1918
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