Epics of India

The story I am thinking about writing is the one I just took notes for. It is the mantra that Kunti gained from sage Durvasa after she showed him kindness when all others at the palace only showed fear. He whispered the mantra to her and told her only that it could summon any god. I guess she was bored, because she decided to just try it out and ended up summoning the sun god Surya. She ended up having a child with him. I am only really interested in the mantra itself here. If I write a new story from this, that is the part I am going to keep. I had mentioned in my reading notes a little bit of the kind of battle I would want to write about, but I think I can flesh that description out a little more. I want some kind of wide open battlefield on the outskirts of a well defended city. I might set it in the Terai-Duar  grasslands, where everything is pretty open and flat. I think I will start it at a late stage in the battle, where the city gate is about to be breached. This ...

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, an...