Storybook Plan

Who Will Tell the Story?

The stories within my storybook will be told by Vishvakarma. Vishvakarma will be discussing different inventions of his and the stories associated with his inventions. I think this is an effective way to discuss the story of Lanka while also analyzing just how much each god can affect a story within Indian Mythology.

Main Ideas

During this storybook, I want to learn more about what Vishvakarma is credited with inventing. Further, I want to see how Vishvakarma affected Indian mythology with his inventions. I also found myself interested in Lanka while reading the Ramayana, and I thought that there was plenty of information to dissect how Vishvakarma is subtly intertwined with many of the stories about Lanka.

Story 1: The City of Lanka

The first story will be a broad discussion on the architecture and history of Lanka. This story will focus on how the architecture has shaped stories told in the Ramayana and stories that took place before the Ramayana. This story serves as the background of the final story - the battle for Lanka.

Sources:

Lanka from Wikipedia

Kubera Comic

Story 2: Vishvakarma's Chariot Shop

This story will be a conglomerate of stories about various chariots made by Vishvakarma and a quick overview of the history associated with each chariot. Eventually, Pushpaka will be mentioned, which helps with tying the chariot story in with the overall theme of Vishvakarma and Lanka.

Sources:

Kubera Comic

Vimana from Wikipedia 

Indra from Wikipedia

Story 3: The Bridge to Lanka

This story will serve as a bridge, pun intended, to the final story of my storybook. Vishvakarma's son, Nala, constructs the bridge to Lanka which allows me to further tie this story together with Vishvakarma. The Thai version of the bridge to Lanka may be mixed with the Indian version to gather up even more information on the bridge. This story will end with Rama's army entering into Lanka.

Sources:

Nala from Wikipedia

Adam's Bridge from Wikipedia
PDE Ramayana (primarily focusing on Donald A. Mackenzie's stories)
Suvannamacha from Wikipedia

Story 4: The Battle for Lanka

This story will tie together all of the previous stories. Lanka, Pushpaka, and Rama's Bridge will all be discussed in this story. There will also be other inventions of Vishvakarma discussed in this story; many of the weapons used in the battle for Lanka were invented by Vishvakarma. This story will also discuss Rama's first thoughts when he entered Lanka, but I will somehow make a way to appear as if Rama told Vishvakarma his thoughts on Lanka so I can retain the Vishvakarma point of view throughout the story.

Sources:

Vishvakarma from Wikipedia

PDE Ramayana (primarily focusing on Donald A. Mackenzie's stories)

Kubera Comic

Indra from Wikipedia

Topic Research: Vishvakarma

General Notes:

After my previous project brainstorming post, Professor Gibbs gave me some story recommendations for Vishvakarma and also recommended that I tell the story from Vishvakarma's point of view. I really, really liked the idea of telling the stories from Vishvakarma's point of view as that gives me a lot more freedom in which stories I can tell and how to tell the story. I've compiled some story ideas, but I may change my mind if I learn of other interesting stories I want to retell. I have included four potential stories to tell as I wanted more freedom to decide when I get start writing my stories.

Story 1: Rama Builds a Bridge to Lanka

According to this story from the Ramayana, Rama gathers an army of vanara, intelligent monkeys, to help construct a bridge from India to Lanka to get Sita back from Ravana. The lead architect of the bridge is named Nala, a vanara who happens to be Vishvakarma's son. The bridge discussed in this story of the Ramayana exists today, though it is covered by approximately 3 feet of water. The bridge was constructed out of stones.

When I tell this story, I may talk about how Vishvakarma gave guidance to Nala to build the bridge. I can use some simple engineering knowledge discussed from Vishvakarma's point of view to make it seem like Vishvakarma really designed the bridge.

The vanaras build a bridge to Lanka with Nala and Nila shown as blue and white monkeys
talking with Lakshmana and Rama. From Wikimedia

Sources:

Nala from Wikipedia

Adam's Bridge from Wikipedia

Story 2: Vishvakarma's Chariot Shop

Vishvakarma was credited with designing many different chariots or palaces that flew through the skies including the Pushpaka, Indra's chariot, and 

This story has the potential to be expanded into multiple stories told about battles/other events that took place using Vishvakarma's chariots that he helped construct. However, I struggled to find complete stories for each of the different chariots. If I can find complete stories that mention the chariots, I can use Vishvakarma as a storyteller for three stories in which Vishvakarma describes his chariot he made then discuss stories from Vishvakarma's point of view. I think that this story has potential to expand, assuming I can locate stories from the Ramayan a

Sources:

Kubera Comic

Vimana from Wikipedia 

Indra from Wikipedia - This source briefly discusses Indra's chariot

Story 3: Vishvakarma's Celestial Weapons

Vishvakarma was also accredited with the creation of some of the astras used in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Some astras I have found to be specifically accredited to Vishvakarma include astras used by Shiva and Vishnu. 

My original intent was to discuss some of the weapons Vishvakarma created, thereby introducing many gods/goddesses. I could also focus down on one astra and its adventures through stories as told from Vishvakarma's point of view. One potential complication is that different Indian mythology sources accredit the creation of astras to different deities.

Sources:

Astra from Wikipedia

Sudarshana Chakra from Wikipedia

Story 4: The Story of Lanka

Lanka was the city which has ties to Shiva, Kubera, Ravana, and the battle between Ravana and Rama. Vishvakarma was said to have made the palace in the city of gold. The palace was so beautiful that it ended up creating drama when the palace would trade hands between owners throughout Indian mythology.

This story is very related to the Pushpaka story and serves as a complete story if I decide to go more in-depth on each chariot and the surrounding stories. I would talk about Vishvakarma's many creations in Lanka throughout the Ramayana.

Golden palace in Lanka from Wikipedia

Sources:

Lanka from Wikipedia

Kubera Comic

Project Topic Brainstorm

Topic 1: Weapons of the Gods

The weapons of the gods is an interesting topic because I can go in many directions with it. I am very interested in history and could retell any of the modern weapons races using stories from Indian mythology. Time periods that quickly come to mind are: World War 1, World War II, and the post World War II weapons race. Some immediate parallels between modern weaponry I noticed were: Pinaka and supersonic planes and missiles, the Teen Baan and bombs, Trishula and nuclear weapons. I will look up the weapons on Wikipedia, and follow some Wikipedia Trails to stories about the weapons. 

Source: Professor Gibbs's List of Weapons of the Gods Readings

A depiction of Trishula on a piece of art from Wikimedia

Topic 2: Vishvakarma

Professor Gibbs told me about Vishvakarma in my introduction post. Vishvakarma is engineer and architect of the universe. He is worshipped by many engineers, architects, and craftsmen. As a civil engineer, engineering and architecture interest me greatly. I appreciate the complexity of modern-day structures such as bridges and buildings. I will likely search for more stories of Vishvakarma to help adapt stories of him. Specifically, I'd like to dive deeper into the City of Gold stories. However, I could already likely write stories about some feats of engineering and architecture and relate these to Vishvakarma.

Source: Wikipedia

Depiction of Vishvakarma from Wikimedia

Topic 3: Rama, Ravana, and Sita

In many of the storybooks I read through, the main plot was Ravana kidnapping Sita and Rama trying to get Sita back. I'm interested in potentially using this topic because I read many good stories using the Ramayana as the adapted plot during the storybooks reading assignment. The stories took the plot from the Ramayana, the first Indian Epic we will be reading in this Indian Epics class. I could write a story paralleling the plot of the Ramayana but simplified into a more modern setting. To accomplish this, I will need to read the Ramayana reading assignments in the upcoming weeks. I've found that Wikipedia is a good source to find more parts and characters within the Ramayana, and I will have the Ramayana readings bookmarked, so I've used Wikipedia as the source.

Source: Wikipedia

A picture of  Rama and Sita at their wedding from Flickr

Topic 4: Gods/Goddesses

After reading potential project topics from Professor Gibbs's list, I decided that the gods/goddesses offer a lot of story potential. I've decided to include many gods in the stories as it will allow me more room to weave a story, and I am interested in learning more about what each of the gods/goddesses do. If I were to start on the storybook today for the gods/goddesses, I would write a storybook trying to parallel the gods/goddesses to a modern setting such as: the gods as a business group, the gods as college friends, or another topic. Currently, I've read through a Wikipedia article and know that there are gods for about everything in Hinduism. To write stories, I will dive deeper into gods that interest me, such as Brahma, Vishvakarma, and Ganesha.

Source: List of Gods on Wikipedia

An image of Ganesha from Flickr