Storybook Topic Research
I love exploring new foods and the way food is involved in culture and human interaction, so I've chosen to focus on the topic of food for my storybook.
Story Idea 1:
This story comes from a Jataka tale about a Brahman who intends to perform a ritual sacrifice of a goat for the "feast of the dead." When the goat is being prepared for slaughter it breaks out is laughter then in tears. When asked why the goat explains he was a Brahman, too, in a past life and as punishment for killing a goat as sacrifice has had to be born as a goat and die as a sacrifice 500 times. As this is his 500th life he is happy to be free of the cycle, but he is sad that the Brahman that will sacrifice him will be doomed to the same punishment.
This story extolls the virtues of vegetarianism which is one of many culinary traditions in India that could be the foundations of a story.
MATAKA-BHATTA JĀTAKA, On Offering Food to the Dead from Buddhist birth stories: or, Jataka tales, Volume 1, by V. Fausböll
Modak: The Hindu god Ganesha’s favorite dessert by Bishruta August
Story Idea 1:
This story comes from a Jataka tale about a Brahman who intends to perform a ritual sacrifice of a goat for the "feast of the dead." When the goat is being prepared for slaughter it breaks out is laughter then in tears. When asked why the goat explains he was a Brahman, too, in a past life and as punishment for killing a goat as sacrifice has had to be born as a goat and die as a sacrifice 500 times. As this is his 500th life he is happy to be free of the cycle, but he is sad that the Brahman that will sacrifice him will be doomed to the same punishment.
This story extolls the virtues of vegetarianism which is one of many culinary traditions in India that could be the foundations of a story.
MATAKA-BHATTA JĀTAKA, On Offering Food to the Dead from Buddhist birth stories: or, Jataka tales, Volume 1, by V. Fausböll
Story Idea 2:
From a Southern Indian folk tale this story recounts a pilgrim who leaves food for an old Brahman who is starving, but when the Brahman isn't looking the venom from a snake drops onto the rice. When the Brahman eats the rice he instantly dies. The pilgrim is then blamed for the murder and imprisoned in a temple of Kali by the villagers until Kali herself burns village down to punish them for hastily punishing an innocent man.
This story revolves around a fateful meal which I think could be fun to play with in a story.
Story of the Poisoned Food from Tales of the Sun, by Mrs. Howard Kingscote and Pandit Natesa Sastri
Story Idea 3:
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| Ookadiche Modak By Himanshu Jagtap (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
I have seen it mentioned in multiple places that Ganesha's favorite food is modak because when his mother Parvati offered some modak to whomever won a contest between Ganesha and his brother Ganesha won. I haven't found a good copy of that story yet, but the ways that modak are incorporated into the worship of Ganesha is interesting. For example it is customary to offer 21 modaks as a gift to Ganesha at the conclusion of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Maharashtra.
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