Animal Vahanas: Styles Brainstorm

Topic: My storybook will be about the animal vahanas of the gods and goddesses. I plan on finding four different situations in the books that involve the gods or goddesses using their vahanas.  One story I want to include is when Indra lends his chariot to Rama. Here Rama uses this chariot pulled by Uchchaihshravas, who is a seven-headed flying horse. Uchchaihshravas is often seen as a vahana of Indra. Another story I want to look at retelling is when Shiva’s bow is given to King Jakana. I may use these stories in my storybook, but the way they will be used and told about depends on what style I choose.

Bibliography:

Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

•         I will add more bibliography information when the final stories are decided. This is just the book we have read, and I have used to do some of my research so far.

Possible Styles:

Animal Storytellers: One obvious style to look at would be to have each of the vahanas tell a story from the Ramayana or Mahabharata. They would tell this from their own point of view, as they experienced what was happening. Examples are Uchchaihshravas actually telling the story of Rama battling Ravana from his perspective. Or I could tell the story of Nandi the bull talking about how he brought the bow of Shiva to King Janaka (even though this did not really happen). This is a good option because we do not usually hear the stories from the vahanas perspective. This would probably use an anthology, and all of the stories would just be told separately.

Gods and Goddesses View: This style would be told from the perspective of each of the gods and goddesses that has a vahana. They would tell either the story of their vahana and how they came to be their vahana, or tell about how their vahana helped them to accomplish something they would not have been able to alone. This would be good because it could give some background about each of the vahanas. This would be an anthology because they would all be stories about vahanas, but they would be told as separate stories.

Vahana retreat: We all know that working for a god or goddess can be very hard work. I thought it would be interesting if I sent all of the vahanas on a retreat. Here they could just hang out and relax. While relaxing they could spend some time with one another and tell of their successes or failures. This would still be the different Vahanas telling their story, but it would be to each other. Some of them could be boastful or even saddened by something that happened to them. This would use a frametale, such as all the vahanas sitting around a fire drinking hot chocolate or eating something and talking to one another.

Vahana Group Therapy: Since I am a Psychology major I think therapy can be very helpful for people to get over things. I thought it could be a funny take on therapy to send some of the vahanas to group therapy where they can talk about all the problems they have with their god or goddess. It would be a chance for them to complain about how hard they are worked, or some of the dumb things the different gods and goddesses do. This option gives me a chance to make up a personality for each of the vahanas and portray it through their therapy session. This style would use a frametale; the frametale would be the group therapy session. The therapist asking each of them questions would serve to connect the stories. Each vahana would have a chance to reply.  

(Rama on Indra's Chariot, Source)