Week 6 Story Planning: Fiery Acquistions



In the Mahabharata, Arjuna's acquisition of Gandiva is very briefly mentioned. It was gifted to him from the god Agni, after he burned a forest with the aid of Krishna. They burned the forest for Agni for his own 'well-being,' as he needed the fats of the animals consumed in the inferno. That is more or less all the story has to offer of this incident.

Looking further into the tale, I have found several extra details regarding Gandiva, Agni, and Arjuna. Gandiva is a mythical bow with 108 strings, one of them celestial in nature, that thundered when an arrow was loosed from it. With it, Arjuna defeated entire armies, before eventually relinquishing it when his fighting was done.

Arjuna is son of Indra, and the reincarnation of Nara (Vishnu's companion). Also of particular interest to me is the fact that his chariot bore a banner of Hanuman, whom I've already had a bit of fun writing about. Apparently, Arjuna met Krishna (Vishnu) in the Khandava Vana, and fought against Indra to burn it for Agni. Burning the forest killed many demons and snakes, which I assume to be Nagas here. They spared a single demon, Mayasura, who built a great palace for the Pandavas in return.

Agni, god of fire, is perceived on earth as fire, in the atmosphere as lightning, and in the sky as the sun. He is essentially the means for gods to receive sacrificial offerings, and he is invoked in many rituals. Also apparently spared from the inferno were 4 great birds, and Aswasena. The fire burned for fifteen days. In this particular conflict, Arjuna and Aswasena, son of the Naga chief, did mighty battle.

I believe I could pull all this into a brief story about Agni appearing dramatically to Arjuna and offering him a quest to keep him from dying. I can probably depict Agni as dying embers or something, and play with the imagery there.
Fire Demon by PopeFucker
Agni appears to Arjuna

Bibliography:
Title: The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic
Author: R. K. Narayan
Year: 1978

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 24, 2018 at 3:03 PM

    Geoff, I think your story concept is exciting, particularly because we seem to like the same elements in the stories, such as the magic weaponry and the battles. I wish I had the "dying ember" concept of Agni when I wrote my version of the story, because it would have definitely planted a strong image in the readers mind as to what the main I was describing looked like, as well as provide more insight into the fact Agni is the god of fire.

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