Keeping Up with AMORE

Cat and cock. Source: Flickr . The Cat and the Cock the bodhisatta was born as a cock and lived in the forest with a retinue of many hundred cocks a she-cat lived near by and deceived all of the cocks by a device and ate them; however, she could not deceive the bodhisatta she created a plan to deceive him since bodhisatta was not easily deceived like the other cocks she started talking to the cock and saying she will be his wife the bodhisatta compared them two and how they should not be husband and wife since she has 4 legs and he only 2 she would not give up so she spoke again the bodhisatta did not give him; therefore he drove her away and she was never seen again Bibliography:  https://archive.org/stream/jatakatales00fran#page/258/mode/2up

Monkey in nest. Source: Flickr Unasked-For Advice While Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as a young singila bird When he grew into a big bird, he settled in the Himalaya country and built him a nest that was proof against the rain During the rainy season, a monkey came by to sit near Bodhisatta because he was cold The bodhisatta and the monkey had a conversation and did not come to a good end The monkey smashed his shelter and ended things Bibliography:  https://archive.org/stream/jatakatales00fran#page/228/mode/2up

Parrots. Source: Unsplash . The Tell-Tale Parrot The Bodhisatta came into the world as a young parrot named Radha and his youngest brother named Potthapada When they were young, they were caught by a fowler and handed over to the brahmin in Benares The brahmin cared for them like they were his children The brahmin had a wicked wife and no one watched her The brahmin had to go away on a business trip and told his parrots to keep watch of their mother in season and out of season and to observe whether or not any many visits her As soon as the husband left, the woman began to do wrong Day and night, the visitors came and went -- there was no end to them Potthapada observed her wrongdoings and told Radha "Our master gave this woman into our charge, and here she is doing wickedness. I will speak to her" Radna told him not to but he did not listen and said to his mother "Mother, why do you commit sin?" The mother has been waiting to kill him and this was ...

Chameleon. Source: Flickr . The Treacherous Chameleon When Bradmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born a lizard When he grew up he lived in river bank with a handful of other lizards The Bodhisatta had a son, a young lizard, who was great friends with a chameleon Their relationship was reported to the lizard king and the king said "that such friendship was misplaced, for chameleons were low creatures, and that if the intimacy was persisted in, calamity would befall the whole of the tribe of lizards The young lizard continued his intimacy with the chameleon As time went on, the young lizard grew of great size but the chameleon did not One day in the summer, the ants came out after a thunder-storm and the lizards darted hither and thither catching them and eating them lizard trapper came into the forest with spade and dogs to dig them out The chameleon went up to the man and asked why he was in the forest The lizard trapper told him he was there to ...

The Too-Clever Merchant While Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into a merchant's family and his name was Wise When he grew up he entered into partnership with another merchant named Wisest and traded with him The two took 500 wagons of merchandise from Benares to the country-districts, where they disposed of their wares, returning afterwards with the proceeds to the city When it came time for dividing, the Wisest said, "I must have a double share" Wise asked him, "why?' Wisest replied back, "Because while you are only Wise, I am Wisest. And Wise ought to have only one share to Wisest's two" Wise said, "But we both had an equal interest in the stock-in-trade and the oxens and waggons. Why should you have two shares?" Wisest said, "Because I am Wisest" They kept arguing about the situation until Wisest came up with a plan Wisest made his father hide in a hollow tree and told the old man to sa...

Mosquito. Source:  svg . The Foolish Friend While Brahmadatta was reigining in Benares, the Bodhisatta gained his livelihood as a trader In those days in Kasi, there dwelt a number of carpenters Of all the carpenters, there was a bald grey-haired man who was chopping up some wood, while his head glistened like a copper bowl, when a mosquito settled on his scalp and stung him The carpenter said to his son, "My boy, there's a mosquito stinging me on the head; do drive it away." The son told him to hold still but the father rushed him The son raised a sharp axe on high with intent to only kill the mosquito, but he cleft his father's head in twain; therefor, the old man fell dead on the spot Bodhisatta saw this and said "Sense-lacking friends are worse than foes with sense; Witness the son that sought the gnat to slay, But cleft, poor fool, his father's skull in twain." Bibliography:  https://archive.org/stream/jatakatales00fran#page/44/mo...

The King and the Stick-Gatherer The king, Benares Brahmadatta was roaming around looking for fruits and flowers when he stumbled across a woman who was picking up sticks in the grove The king fell in love with her at first sight and became intimate with her right then and there, which is when Bodhisatta was conceived The woman felt heavy from within as though weighed down with the bolt of Indra, she knew that she was going to become a mother and told the king The king gave her the signet-ring from his finger and said "if it be a girl, spend this ring on her nurture; but if it be a boy, bring ring and child to me" The woman gave birth to a boy and eventually questioned his mother about who his father was The mother told him he was the son of the King of Benares The boy asked her for proof and she explained to him the ring story After the story, the boy asked her to take him to his father The mother took Bodhisatta to the king and told the king this was his son He d...

The Patient Buffalo there one was a great buffalo with might horns who laid under a tree asleep a monkey popped out and said "but i am not afraid of him, nor's he afraid of me' the monkey started dancing on the buffalo's back and the buffalo did no such thing back the monkey was trying hard to make the buffalo angry but he couldn't one day, a fairy appeared and told the buffalo of his strength the fairy asked why he doesn't react to the monkey's action because with one blow, he can knock the monkey out the buffalo replied back saying the monkey is small and nature has not given him much brain; therefore, why should he punish the monkey and make him suffer in order for him to be happy? the fairy was pleased with his answer and granted him a charm, so that no one can cause him to suffer again The seventh little quail talking to the flames. The Forest Fire the mother and father quail had seven little quails waiting to be fed the parents wo...

Guilty Dog. Source: Pixabay . The Guilty Dogs A king drove the city in his magnificent chariot, but at the end of the night, the chariot was left in the courtyard with the harnesses It started to rain during the night; therefore the palace dogs wanted to have some fun, so they chewed up the leather harnesses and slipped away before the dawn The king found out about his harnesses and his men told him the straps were chewed up by the dogs The king commanded them to kill every dog they see in the city The dogs heard about the kings order and cried bitterly because the innocent ones did not have anything to do with this The chief dog of the pack asked why they were all sad because it is impossible for any dog of the city to enter the palace gates besides the dogs of the palace The chief dog stepped up by going out to find out guilty one to show to the king to protect the innocent dogs from getting killed The chief dog went along through the city and at every step, men were s...

Union is Strength There was a clever Fowler who could imitate the quail's note exactly; therefore, he used this to call the quails to trick them After he uses the call, a number of quails would come out together and the Fowler would throw a net over them and bagged them all There was one clever bird out of the whole population who helped the quails to freedom The clever bird told his fellow bird friends to pop their head out through one of the meshes of the net when they felt the net drop over them, and then at the word, they fly away together They used this method the next time they heard the call; it was a huge success for them because they got the net stuck into a bush in order for them to escape The Fowler did not give up because he knew they would fight sooner or later, so he kept on trying to catch them One day, a fight occurred because a quail stepped on another's toe This wasn't good because they kept fighting and no one was able to lift up the net by them...

The Dishonest Friend A man went on a journey and he asked his friend to take care of the plough until he returns The friend promised to take great care of it; however, as soon as the man left, he sold the man's plough and kept the money The man came back from his journey and asked for the plough back The friend explained that his house got infested with rats and one night, a very big rat came by and ate the plough up One day the man took the friend's boy for a walk and hid him in this house and said he was not to leave until he came back The man went back to his friend and the friend panicked and basically accused him of murdering his son The man told him a hawk carried him away but the friend did not believe him They took this to the court and the judge said "Who ever heard of a hawk carrying off a boy?" Then the man said out of pettiness "And who ever heard, my lord, of a rat eating a plough?" After this, the plough and the son was returned to ...

Lion on a hill . The Foolhardy Wolf There was a lion who ate all of the buffalo meat he wanted  After eating he went to take a nap, which is when he stumbled across a hungry wolf The wolf knew he had no chance against the lion, so he threw himself at the lion The wolf asked him to be the lion's servant and serve him The lion told the wolf, "Each day you must go to the mountain top, and see whether there are any elephants, or ponies, or buffalos about. If you see any, come to me and say: 'Great Lion, come forth in thy might. Food is in sight.' Then I will kill and eat, and give part of the meat to you" The wolf did as he was told and eventually he grew big and strong The wolf became confident in his ability to kill; therefore, he wanted to prove to the lion he could, so he attempted to kill an elephant The lion told the wolf, "Wolf, only Lions can kill elephants. The world has never seen a Wolf that could kill an elephant. Give up this notion of...

The Three Fishes 3 fishes named Thoughtful, Very-Thoughtful, and Thoughtless Very-Thoughtful warned the other two fish that danger is near the river they just moved to and that they should move back to the country river where no men lived Thoughtful & Thoughtless kept putting off their going from day to day Thoughtful and Thoughtless swam ahead of Very-Thoughtful and got caught in the net Very-Thoughtful saw this happened and saved them The two other fishes thanked Very-Thoughtful and they went back to the river country 3 Fishes. Source: Flickr . Bibliography: The Three Fishes by Ellen C. Babbitt

Drona trains the princes . Part 1 The five tall sons of Pandu never complained when they were under their uncle's rule, even though their uncle hated them The five sons were put in a tournament to test their skills and they all excelled in every trial, with Arjun being the best archer Arjun was put up to a challenge to show his skill in the use of the bow and succeeded successfully However, a mysterious warrior (Karna) comes into the arena to challenge Arjun and basically had the same skill sets as him Duryodhan crowned Karna as king of Huga and a charioteer comes dashing into the arena, which caused Karna to bow down because it was his father Bibliography: Wilson. The Five Tall Sons Of Pandu https://archive.org/stream/indianstorybook015651mbp#page/n67/mode/2up

The Elephant Girly-face There once was a king who had an elephant named Girly-face because he was so gentle and kind However, one day, some robbers came by and basically taught Girly-face how to act by the way they were talking They said "Once inside the house kill any one who wakens. A robber must not be afraid to kill. A robber must be cruel and have no pity. He must never be good, even for a moment." After hearing this, Girly-face started to act out and killed everyone which caused him to be ugly The king heard about his wrong-doings and sent one of his wise men to find out what was happening The wise man came to the conclusion that Girly-face heard some bad men talking; therefore, a solution to this problem is to get good men talking After Girly-face heard good men talking about how it is wrong to hurt any one, he started being gentle and good again Girly-face. Source: Pixabay . Bibliography:  http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2013/06/reading-guide-ba...

Turtle in Water. Source: Pixabay . How the Turtle Saved His Own Life A king had a lake make in the courtyard for the young princes to play in The king asked the men to put some fishes into the lake and there was a turtle in the lake as well The boys had never seen a turtle before, so it startled them and they thought it was a demon in the lake The men caught this "demon" and the king ordered them to kill the turtle Many different ways was brought up on how to kill the turtle but one stood out the most An old man who was afraid of the water said to throw it in the water The turtle heard what the old man said and asked why he must be killed in this way because it was the "cruelest" way to kill him Immediately after hearing this from the turtle, the king ordered his men to throw it into the lake Little did they know this was the turtle's safest spot to be in The Merchant of Seri Two merchants sold brass and tinware in towns (one was greedy) ...

Bhima and Hidimba "Now there lived in the forest on a shala  tree a ferocious rakshasa named Hidimba . He was of grim visage and terrible to behold; his eyes were red, and he was red-haired and red-bearded; his cheeks were of cloud color and his mouth was large, with long, sharp-pointed teeth which gleamed in darkness; his ears were shaped like to arrows; his neck was broad as a tree, his belly was large, and his legs were of great length." I really liked how this part of the story was very descriptive Bhima and Baka The townspeople in Ekachakra is controlled by  Baka Baka makes sure the people are protected from the enemies; however, to pay him back, the townspeople have to send him a cartful of rice, two buffalos, and a man or woman from one the townspeople's house every week If the house who is in charge of fulfilling the Baka's order failed to complete their duty, he comes to their house and devours every member in that house Bhima comes to the town...

Vyasa and Ganesha Uparichara (king of Chedi) was feared for robbing gods of their power; therefore, they sent Indra to bribe him with a crystal car that has the ability to carry him in the sky However, while he was flying through the sky, his semen dropped into a river and was ingested by a female fish who was later caught by a fisherman After the fisherman caught the female fish, a girl and boy came forth The fisherman told the king about his find and the king took the boy in his possession and left the girl to be nurtured by the fisherman's wife The girl, Satyavati is beautiful person but she had an odd, fishy smell to her Because of her beauty, she was persuaded by the rishi   Parashara to keep her virginity, and in return, she wanted him to get rid of her fishy smell  The rishi lived up to her condition and she became so sweet-smelling that it could be smelled from miles away King Shantanu and Ganga King Shantanu  was walking by the Ganges river when...

Kumbhakarna Rakshasas are a scary creature, but have you heard of Kumbhakarna ? Kumbhakarna is the ultimate demon who devoured human beings left and right. However, Brahma demanded that he would be asleep for six months and be awake for only a day. Every time that day comes, he would eat a meal and food coma.  One day, Kumbhakarna wakes up but not to loud noises or being trampled over but to beautiful women caressing him.  This is interesting because he woke up before he hit the six months mark. Ravana and Lakshmana Ravana and Lakshmana battle it out. Ravana threw a dart and punctured Lakshmana's heart. Lakshmana dies right then and there, but wait! Hanuman comes in to revive him with some healing herbs.  Lakshmana comes back much more powerful.  I might take some parts of this story and change it up a little bit to make it my own.  Valmiki's Hermitage Sita is sent into exile by Rama and gives birth to two sons, named Lava and Kusha. Ram...

King Sugriva "Tears of love the tender Tara on her slaughtered hero shed; E'en Sugriva's bosom melted when he saw his brother dead," "Hanuman of sun-like radiance, lofty as a hill of gold, clasped his hands in due obeisance, spake in accents calm and bold." I really liked how the two lines above were worded. Hanuman in Lanka Hanuman promises Rama that he will find Sita. This is the first time he is searching for in Lanka Hanuman finds Ravana sleeping but Sita was nowhere to be found He wanders far and wide, and he still can't find Sita The Ashoka Grove After wandering to Ashoka Grove, Hanuman finally finds Sita Sita and Ravana Ravana finds Sita and asks for her hand in marriage Sita rejects him, which shows her loyalty towards Rama Hanuman and Sita Hanuman approaches Sita when it is the right time and she assumed that Ravana was taking on another form to trick her.  She got reassurance from the vanara spy who s...