Reading Notes Part A: Sacred Tails of India


The Sacred Tales of  India is a book that is exactly how it sounds. The book.is filled with sacred tales, specifically sacred rituals. There are four parts to this manual; however, I'm only going to be reading Parts A and B. In Part A, there are three stories that the author capitalizes on The Divine Brothers, Snatched from Death, and By Itu's Favor. 
Sweet Indian Bakery
The story that appealed to me the most was By Itu's Favor. I was initially drawn in by the summary of the ceremony/ritual that is to be performed in reverence of the deity, Itu. Itu is honored and represented by a small earthen jar. This small earthen jar reminded me of my story, My Life's A Charm. The story I wrote had a character who possessed a small trinket that shape-shifted into a magical being. Furthermore, I was curious to see how the story would play out involving the jar and the god, Itu.

The story began with that seemed like a fable or tall tale to learn about integrity. The beginning depicted a story about how a Brahman gave his wife a task to bake cakes for a yearly ceremony and was instructed not to eat one morsel of the cake. Much to the reader's surprise, the wife still allowed some of the cakes to be eaten. There were consequences for eating the cake. His two daughters were to be banished because of their wrongdoing, because the mother allowed them to eat the cake. With that being said, they were required to make a long trip into exile. The father set out on their journey with them at the start, but then created a scene that made him look as though he were murdered. So, the girls continued their journey and traveled for miles through a forest with exhausted feet until they had come across a young woman on the outskirts of a village. The young woman had been practicing ritual to Itu, the woman in which the cake was supposed to be offered to before the daughters ate.

The young woman encouraged the girls to worship Itu,but they had to wash themselves first in a lake. Nearing the lake not too far from the village, the girls were able to see that the lake had to dried up. The drought of the lake could be accredited to the fact that the young girls had never worshiped Itu. Once they came to that knowledge and humbled them selves to Itu's deity, she refilled the lake.

Bibliography: Neogi, D. N. "Sacred Tales of India." Sacred Tales of India. N.p., 1916. Web. 11 Apr. 2017

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