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Oriental mythologies share amongst them many similarities, one of which is their departure from the convention of the myths of Europe such as that of the Greek. We present to you a slice out of the pie of oriental mythology hoping that by doing so, you would be able to notice various differences in terms of the style and the tone of the myths of East and West.

For one, the gods in the East are much less omnipotent as those from the West. The glamour that is associated with the Greek gods and goddesses are a far cry from those in Oriental mythologies. The problem with Oriental mythologies is also the fact that history is very often interwined with fiction, blurring the line between facts and myths, especially so in the case of China. We have taken much care to choose only myths which did not involve history, and as such we present to you a selection of oriental myths.

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Chinese Creation
In the beginning there was nothing but chaos in the universe. In this chaos was a giant egg, and in it dwelt Pangu, who was yet to be born. When the egg finally hatched, Pangu had grown as large as a giant, and he awoke from his deep sleep with such a great force that the egg shattered into many pieces. The lighter pieces floated up and formed the heavens, whilst the heavier pieces sank to form the earth.

Having heaven and earth now separate and distinct, Pangu feared that one day the heavens might sink and the earth might rise, destroying the boundary. To prevent this from happening, he stood between the earth and the sky and used his hands to hold the sky, and his feet to support the earth.

Pangu held the world up for eighteen thousand years, growing ten feet by day. When he eventually died, the heaven and earth had a thirty thousand mile separation and was safe from merging. So Pangu, after holding up the sky for many millenniums, finally fell into an eternal sleep from the exhaustion.

The many parts of his body became the many elements in the world. His breath turned into the winds and the clouds, and his voice turned into the growling thunder. His eyes became the sun and the moon and his limbs became the cardinal directions. His bloody became the rivers and his flesh became soil. His hair became the heavenly bodies and his body hair became the grass and flowers of the earth. From the hard parts of his body like his teeth and bones came stones and metals, and finally, the parasites on his body became man.

The Chinese also tell of another myth which explained the creation of Mankind. It was the story of Nu Wa, the goddess who took the form of half human and half snake. The earth was still young, and she took much pleasure in taking in the sights of the new world. In spite of the many beautiful landforms and sceneries, she thought something was missing. It was companionship and company, and so, she set out to creating beings in her likeness.

Nu Wa sat beside a river and looked at her reflection in the water, after which scooping up a handful of mud from the river bed and moulding it in her likeness.
However, instead of making a snake like lower body like hers, she gave the little mud figures legs so they could stand upright. When it was done, she placed the little figure on the ground, and almost immediately it came alive.

The little person delighted Nu Wa very much, and she was determined to make more of these little people so that the world would be full of them. Nu Wa worked night and day moudling the people, but soon she was tired and she realized that she could not possibly create that many people. She therefore turned to her godly powers to finish the task. She took a vine and dipped it into mud, then, swinging the vine, she flung mud all around. When the mud touched the ground, they became human beings. The world was now full of human beings, and to allow them to reproduce on their own, Nu Wa split humans into two groups- male and female, so that they may reproduce on their own.

Legend has it that the descendants of the people created personally by Nu Wa were the powerful and influential, whilst those who were created off the vine were the poor peasants.

After the creation of the world, many ages past, and one day the gods Gongong and Zhurong decided to compare their powers in a duel. The duel began and eventually Zhurong won. Gongong was overcome with shame, so much that he tried to end his own life by flinging himself against a high mountain. Unfortunately, the mountain was one of those which held up the sky, and when the god rammed himself against the mountain, the mountain moved and a huge hole had been torn in the sky.

From the hole issued fire and water, where a flood covered the earth whilst many homes were destroyed in fire, and entire harvests were burnt to ashes. Nu Wa, on seeing this, was worried for her little creatures, and she set out to repairing the hole in the sky. She used coloured stones and melted them into a cement which she used to close the hole. To make sure the sky never collapsed again, she took a giant tortoise and placed its four legs at each cardinal point to hold up the heavens.

Now the humans were safe, and the world was back to its original state. However, the heavens had been tilted in the process and it now had a northwesterly tilt, which caused all the water of China to drain into the sea in the east.

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Chang E and Houyi
At the beginning of time, there were ten suns in the sky, sons of the God of the East, Dijun, and the Goddess of the Sun, Xihe. Each day, the sons traveled across the sky one by one, carried by their mother across the heavens bringing warmth and light to the earth in its course. However, the suns grew tired of the routine, and they decided to rebel against their parents.

The ten suns agreed upon sharing the sky, and at once, ten suns shone from the heaven at the same time. The heat of the suns was unbearable, and the rivers below dried up and crops withered and died. Animals and monsters from deep forests scavenged human settlements for food and the ground became so dry it cracked and split.

Dijun, the father of the suns, tried to persuade his children not to bring calamity upon the earth, but they ignored him and continued in their mischief. Finally, when he had no other option, he summoned the great archer of the heavens, Houyi. Dijin gave Houyi a quiver of arrows and a bow, and he instructed him to subdue the sons and to restore peace on earth.

Houyi took the bow and arrows and arrived on the scorched earth. Like Dijin, he tried persuading the suns to take their turn, but soon gave up, and took up his bow and shot an arrow into the sky. The arrow hit a sun, as it exploded and fell to the ground with a thud, in the form of a black raven with three legs. Houyi proceeded to do this for the next eight suns, and when he finally came to the last sun, a great sage intervened and prevented him from shooting the sun, because without the sun, the world would be a cold and desolate place. So Houyi spared the last sun, leaving it to continue on its daily routines, warning it against any trouble in the future.

Houyi then proceeded to shooting the wild animals that had came out to feed during the dry season. When Houyi returned to heaven, Dijin was sympathetic and enraged. He knew that he had asked Houyi to subdue his sons, but Houyi had in fact killed his children, which Dijin could not forgive either. Eventually, Houyi was sent to earth with his wife Chang E, from their home in heaven.

Chang E was especially enraged by the goddess' decision, for it was not her who had shot down the nine suns. Being demoted from her place in the heavens, she was naturally sore about it. She thus complained constantly about it, and finally, Houyi decided to take the only possible path back to immortality- to find the Queen Mother of the West on Mount Kunlun, and to obtain an elixir of immortality.

When the Queen Mother heard their story, she was sympathetic, and she decided to give in to their wish, but she could not return them to their place in the heavens for it would have been against the will of heaven. She therefore gave them elixirs of eternal life, and put them into a box by which they might keep the elixirs until an auspicious day when they may take it. Before sending them off however, she explain that two elixirs would cause the person to become immortality, in the fashion of the elixir of immortality.

The couple was grateful to the Queen Mother, and returned home and waited for an auspicious day. However, as time passed, Chang E felt more and more indignant on why she should not be returned her place in heaven. Thus, she stole the elixirs from her husband, and took both the elixirs behind his back.

On taking the pills, she began to float into the air. Before she went back to heaven, she decided to visit the moon, for she had not the face to face the gods after having stolen an elixir from her husband. When she arrived on the moon, she found it empty and lifeless, and when she finally decided to go to heaven, she found herself unable to float anymore. Thus Chang E stayed on the moon, as the Goddess of the Moon.

Houyi was distraught when he found out about it. Not only had he lost his wife, he had also lost the elixir of life. Not wanting his skills to die along with him, he took on a disciple, Peng Meng, whom he trained till Peng Meng's skills were matched with his in all fields except in archery, where Houyi was easily able to surpass Peng Meng. He grew jealous of his teacher's archery skills, and his inability to defeat him and finally, while Houyi was vulnerable, he took the opportunity and killed him.

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The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid
There was once a poor young peasant who worked as a farmer. His lands were barren and did not yield much, and he was never able to earn enough money to improve his living. In spite of this, he was a polite and honest person, and was well liked by those who knew him. The most valuable thing he had was an ox which he used to pull the plough to till the fields.

One day, the peasant's ox told the peasant that it was in fact the Ox Star which had been sent down to earth as a slave to atone for mistakes it had made while it was in heaven. The Ox Star however, was grateful for the peasant's kindness and care during the period, and it had decided to repay him by helping him find a wife.

The Ox Star led the peasant to the side of a lake, where he bid the man hide in the undergrowth. It told him that this was the pool in which the heavenly maidens bathed in. The man did as he was told, and true enough, a group of beautiful girls came to the lake. They took off their clothes and left them at the side of the lake whilst they stepped into the lake to bathe.

The man quickly hid one of the girl's clothes in the undergrowth, before appearing before the bathing maidens. The maidens panicked and they grabbed their clothes and flew away, all except one, who was unable to find her clothes. The man approached her, and after a while, the maiden realized the peasant meant no harm, and on listening to his request for her hand in marriage, she agreed to marry him.

The maiden was in fact the granddaughter of heaven. She was the goddess of weaving and with her proficiency in the art, they made much money and the peasant was finally able to lift himself out of poverty. They lived in marital bliss and had two children, a girl and a boy. They managed to remain unnoticed by heaven for many years, but were finally discovered.

The gods were appalled with the fact that the weaving maid had stayed on earth for a man, and thus sent heavenly guards to bring her back to heaven. The peasant saw the guards come and whisk his wife off to heaven, and there was nothing he could do. His ox had been watching all this while, and it told the peasant that it was dying soon. When it was dead, the peasant should skin it and use its skin to fly into the heavens and meet his wife.

The man did as he was told, and he carried their two children and he set off into the sky. He soon found his wife in the heavens, but just as they were about to meet each other, the Queen Mother of the West stopped them by putting a river between them, known as the milky way. The two lovers were distraught, unable to meet each other though able to see each other.

Just as the situation seemed desperate, their daughter innocently told her father to use the ladle he had used to carry the basket, to scoop the water out of the river so he could cross. The heavens were touched by this act, and so they decided that the family should be allowed to be reunited once a year. On the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, magpies from all over fly to form a bridge over the raging river, so the two lovers can meet.

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Indian Cosmology
Of all the many gods of India, three reign supreme above all the rest. They are known as the triad, and they are Brahma- the Creator, Shiva- the Destroyer and Vishnu- the Preserver. Vishnu acts as the moderating voice between creation and destruction, and together, the triad lives in a different plane of time from humans.

Indian mythology is built upon the core idea of the four Ages of Man. The myth tells of the four Yugas, or ages. These four ages are named after four throws of a dice, namely Krita, Treta, Dwapara and Kali. These four ages also lay the foundations for the cyclic perception of time, and the transfer of souls between bodies after death.

The first age, Kitra Yuga, was the perfect age of man. During that time, no gods were in existence, neither were there demons. All men were good and were free from sin. There were no illnesses or diseases. However, soon came the second age. The Treta Yuga was the time when man's virtue decreased by about one quarter. In this age, sacrifices began and humans were no longer pure as they used to be. The third age was the Dwapara Yuga in which people in the world were inflicted with desire, disease and calamity. Human virtue was half of what it was during the Kitra Yuga. Lastly, it is the Kali Yuga, which is the age we are living in. In this age, only one quarter of virtue has remained, and people have become evil.

Four ages lasts over four hundred million years, and one thousand of these periods translate to one day in the life of the creator, Brahma. After one day, the creator sleeps for a night which lasts just as long. Just before his slumber, the universe is ravaged by fire and flood, to be recreated when he wakes up in the morning. Three hundred and sixty days make up a year in the life of Brahma, and after one hundred years, Brahma would die, and for the next hundred years, there would be nothing but chaos, as it was before creation. After this, a new Brahma would arise, and the universe would be created again.

So goes the never ending cycle of creation and destruction, in the same fashion of the cycles of birth and death in the idea of reincarnation.

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Shiva's Blue Throat
The Devta gods had offended a great sage. As punishment, the sage made the Devtas weak and powerless. In the on going battle between the gods and the demons, this would have proved to be a great disadvantage to the Devtas. The thought about how to solve the problem for a long time, but did not know how to remove their aliment. Finally, they decided to approach Vishnu, the Preserver.

Vishnu advised them to enlist the help of their archenemies, the demons, to uproot Mount Mandara. With this mountain, they would need to use the divine serpent, Vasuki, to hold the mountain up as gods and demons together held the serpent and used the mountain to stir the ocean. From this, would be produced the remedy for the Devtas ailment, in the form of the nectar of immortality. The Devtas originally did not wish to approach the demons for help, but seeing that they had no other choice, they agreed reluctantly.

When the demons heard of the plan, they were elated for they knew from this they would be able to attain the nectar of immortality which would make them very much stronger than they were. They therefore joined with the Devtas to uproot the mountain. Eventually, when the stirring was about to commence, the leader of the Devtas, Indra, insisted on having the head end of the serpent. The demons figured that the Devtas wished to obtain some advantage from having the head end, therefore they denied Indra and took the head end for themselves.

In fact, this was a ploy on the part of the Devtas, as instructed by Vishnu. The head of the serpent produced venom that would weaken the demons when they held it. However, the demons were oblivious to this, and they started stirring the ocean without knowing they were getting weaker.

So the churning went on for one hundred years, and in the process, many things came out of the ocean. One of this was the beautiful goddess, Lakshmi, who emerged from the ocean on a lotus flower. The divine bovine, Surabhi, also was produced from the stirring. Surabhi later had a son, Nandi, whom became the mount of Shiva, the Destroyer. A crescent moon also arose from the waves, and Shiva snatched it up and placed the crescent upon his forehead.

In the middle of the stirring, the venom suddenly ejected venom from all his one hundred heads that was so poisonous that it almost destroyed everything on earth. Shiva, under Vishnu's persuasion, heroically swallowed all the poison which the serpent produced. The poison was harmless to Shiva, for he was the supreme God and the Destroyer. However, the venomous poison left a blue colour on his throat that would not go away.

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The Death of Sati
Dakasha was a powerful god, had a daughter named Sati. Sati wanted to marry Shiva, but her father was against it. However, Sati went on against her fathers wishes to marry Shiva, and eventually, Dakasha harboured a deep hatred for him.

One day, Dakasha was sacrificing a holy horse to Vishnu, and had invited all the gods to the ceremony except Shiva. Sati was angry, and she decided to go to the sacrifice because it was held in her house after all. Before she went, she consulted her husband, Shiva, who cautioned her that her father would insult him, and told her not to take revenge on anyone, and to be careful of her anger.

With this, Sita left for the ceremony, and true enough, like Shiva had said, Dakasha started hurling insults at Shiva once Sita entered the hall. At first, Sita managed to remain calm and composed, taking the insults with a pinch of salt, but as the insults got worse and worse, Sita finally was unable to tolerate it anymore, and grew mad at her father. However, she had remembered Shiva's words to not take revenge on anyone. When she was at the point of exploding, she disowned her father, and killed herself by burning herself in the sacrificial fire.

When Shiva learnt of his beloved wife's demise, he was very angry, and he created a demon who destroyed the ceremony along with everyone who had attended it. Vishnu was appalled and requested Shiva to bring them back to life, but Shiva refused only until after much persuasion, then did Shiva finally relent. When Dakasha was brought back to life, he was terrified, and he gave in to Shiva, telling him that he was a greater god than he was. To mark his foolishness, Shiva made him wear a goat's head forever. After this, Shiva went into meditation, to wait for his wife to be reincarnated as Parvati.

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Ten Avatars of Vishnu
Vishnu is the preserver, who maintains balance in the universe. He took on many different forms, known as avatars, in different situations, when evil elements threatened this balance. Ten different avatars have been documented in the mythology.

Mastya
In the Mastya Avatar, Vishnu appeared in the form of a fish. A king named Manu had been performing penance, repaying for his sins for many thousand years. While he was bathing in the river, a fish swam into his hand and asked the king to save it. The king agreed, and he put the fish into a jar of water. However, as soon as the fish was in the jar, it started to grow. Soon, the jar was too small for the fish and Manu had to take the fish out and throw it into the river. The fish was soon too small for the river, and Manu threw it into the ocean.

The fish soon revealed itself to be Vishnu himself. He told the Manu that the era was ending soon, with a huge flood which would drown the world along with all the living creatures. He told the king to build a big boat, and to gather seven sages, seeds of all the plants in the world and one of every animal in the world. When the flood came, Manu should get everything on the boat and Vishnu himself would appear as a fish again, to push to boat to Mount Himavan where they may survive the flood.

The king had everything ready in seven days, and the fish steered the ship to Mount Himavan, where the whole company survived the flood. After the flood, the king started the rebirth of the new era.

Kurma
Vishnu once took the form of a tortoise, called Kurma. The Devta gods had once offended a great sage, and as punishment, the sage rendered all of the Devtas weak and powerless. The Devats approached Vishnu for a solution. Vishnu told them to recruit the help of the demons in the mixing of the ocean to produce the medicine which would cure them of their weakness. The demons, hoping to get their share of the potion, agreed to help. They used Mount Mandara to stir the ocean, using the serpent Vasuki to hold the mountain up. The Devtas tricked the demons when they requested to hold the head end of Vasuki.

The demons thought the gods wanted the head end for some advantage, insisting on having the head end for themselves. In fact, when the demons held the head end, the serpent's poison filled them and they were greatly weakened. In the process of the stirring, the mountain nearly fell completely into the ocean. Vishnu took the form of a tortoise, and held up the mountain until the stirring was complete.

The demons snatched the potion once it was made, but Vishnu then came in the guise of a beautiful woman and tricked the demons into allowing her to distribute the potion. Vishnu gave the Devtas their share of the potion, then before reaching the demons, he disappeared into thin air, leaving the demons weak and sore.

Varaha
Vishnu once took the form of a boar, named Varaha. A demon named Hiranyaksha managed to gain invulnerability from all creatures, men and gods, from Brahma the Creator. Somehow, the boar was not on the list of creatures. Hiranyaksha went all over the world committing heinous crimes with his newfound invincibility, and he stole Holy Scriptures from Brahma himself, and pushed the world into the sea. On seeing this, Vishnu turned himself into a huge boar. He used his tusks to lift the world out of the sea, then proceeded to kill Hiranyaksha and returned the Holy Scriptures back to Brahma.

Narasimha
Vishnu also once appeared in the form of a half-man half-lion. The king of the demons, Hiranyaksha, wanted immortality. He prayed to Brahma by wanting to repay for his sins. Brahma was moved, and granted him his wish, such that Hiranyaksha would not be killed by man nor animal. He could not be killed during night or day, and neither inside nor outside a building. After he had gained his wish, Hiranyaksha felt like a god, and he did not allow worship of any other god.

However, his son, Prahlada, was a worshipper of Vishnu. Hiranyaksha tried ways and means to kill his son, but was unable to. Enraged, he asked Prahlada where Vishnu was. Prahlada answered that Vishnu was everywhere. In retaliation, his father knocked down a pillar in the house and asked if Vishnu was there. On this, Vishnu emerged from the pillar, which was neither inside nor outside the house. He was in the form of Narasimha, half-man, half-lion, which was neither man nor creature. It was in the evening, which was neither day nor night. Vishnu killed Hiranyaksha, thus saving Prahlada's life

Vamana
Vishnu once appeared in the form of a dwarf. Bali, the grandson of Prahlada, was a mighty and powerful demon. Bali had managed to conquer the whole world with the help of his followers. The gods were afraid that he might conquer all three worlds, and therefore approached Vishnu for his help. Vishnu was then born into the family of a priest, as the dwarf Vamana.

When Vamana had grown up to a considerable age, he went around begging for alms, and came up Bali's household. Bali was happy to give to the dwarf anything he asked for, and finally, Vamana asked for all the land that came under his three feet. Looking at his small size, Bali readily agreed, but just as that happened, Vamana grew many times in size, covering the whole world in his stride. He then used his leg to step on Bali, killing him, and saving the world from the demons.

Parashurama
Vishnu once appeared in the form of a brave human warrior. The Kshatriyas were getting arrogant and they were starting to suppress the Brahmans. At this, Vishnu was born into a family of Brahmans as Parashurama. Jamadgni and Renuka were his parents, and he grew into a fine young man. Parashurama always carried around an axe which was given to him by Shiva, whom which he was a devotee of.

Kartavirya, a king, came to the house of Jamadgni while he was out, and stole Jamadgni's cow which gave an endless supply of milk. When Jamadgni came back and found out what had happened, he was so angry he went out and killed the king, and brought the cow back. The king's son sought out Jamadgni and killed him. Parashurama went to the palace and challenged the king's son to a fight, along with twenty-one other Kshatriyas, of which he won every one of them, avenging his father's death, and heralding the defeat of the Kshatriyas by the Brahmans.

Rama
Vishnu once took the form of the hero who became the main character in the epic, the Ramayana. The prince of Ayodhya, he faced many trials and tribulations. At one point, he was banished to a forest. His wife, Sita, was kidnapped by Ravana, a demon king. Finally, with help, he manages to rescue his wife, kill Ravana and return to his rightful place as the king of Ayodhya.

Krishna
Krishna was the eighth avatar of Vishnu, and was one of the main characters of the epic, the Mahabharata. He killed the bull-demon Arishta, the horse-demon Keshin, and Kamsa, the evil king of Mathura.

Buddha
One of Vishnu's Avatars was Buddha, the founder of the Buddhist religion. He was born as the crown prince of Kapilavastu, to his parents Suddhodana and Maya. His name was originally Siddhartha, and it meant "All Things Fulfilled". However, his mother soon died, and he was brought up by Maya's sister. Buddha grew up, full of sympathy for the death of the living.

When Buddha could not find the answers he was looking for from people, he decided to look for them himself. Thus, he left his wife and children, and set out to the deep forests where he led a life of isolation. After many years, he finally became enlightened, and proceeded to spread his teachings across the world.

Kalki
Kalki is the last and final avatar of Vishnu, the form he would take in the future. Kalki is a human and he rides a white horse, holding a blazing sword. At the end of the current era, he would punish all the evil people in the world, and destroy the whole world, to create a golden age again, as it has happened many times before.

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The Ramayana
There was once a king named Dasaratha who ruled the kingdom of Ayodhya. However, the king had no sons from any of his wives. He therefore decided to perform a ritual in which he made large sacrifices to the gods, in want of a son. The gods finally gave him a fruit which would enable his wives to bear a son. He split the apple into to halves and gave them to two particular wives. One half went to his eldest wife, Kausalya, whilst the other half went to his favourite queen, Kaikeyi. Both Kasusalya and Kaikeyi favoured the queen Sumitra. Eventually, each person gave a portion of their share to Sumitra, so she may bear a son too.

About nine months later, the sons were born. The eldest son was born by Kasusalya, and his name was Rama. Rama was in fact an incarnation of the Preserver, Vishnu, who had taken the form of Rama to kill the demon god Ravana when he grew up. The other sons that were born were Bharat, born by Kaikeyi, and the two sons of Sumitra who had gotten two shares of the apple, Laxman and Shatrugna.

Very soon the four sons grew into fine princes. There were taught by the sages and brought up by the royal family. They were traveling one day, when they came to another city, where the King, King Janaka, was holding a ceremony in search for a husband for his daughter, princess Sita. It was a contest for the prospective grooms to lift a heavy bow, which Shiva personally presented, and anyone who passed the test would have Sita's hand in marriage. The princes tried the bow each, but none of them were able to lift it, except Rama, who did it with ease.

There was much celebration, and the wedding of Rama and Sita was held there and then, before the whole company, this time with addition of Rama's wife, returned to Ayodhya.

However, things were not so smooth for Rama. In the palace, Queen Kaikeyi, mother of prince Bharat, had remembered the two wishes the king had promised to her. Many years before, Kaikeyi had saved the king from a tiger, and to repay her, the king had promised her two wishes, which she had not taken yet. Under the instigation of her maid, Kaikeyi now demanded two wishes from the king. Firstly, it was that her son, Bharat, should become king, and not Rama as it should otherwise be. The second wish was that Rama should be banished to the deep jungles for fourteen years. Dasratha had no choice but to grant her the two wishes, and soon after passing the decree, he died.

When Rama left for the forest, his wife, Sita, and his favourite brother, Laxman, followed him. Bharat soon found out about this, and he was appalled by what his mother had done. He tried to persuade his brother to come back to rule the kingdom, but Rama had his mind on abiding by the late king's decision, and told Bharat to wait fourteen years before he returned. In the mean time, Bharat did not wish to take the throne, but yet he could not leave the place vacant. He finally decided to rule on behalf of Rama, and he placed Rama's slippers upon the throne, and became a wise and benevolent ruler.

Back in the forest, many events happened revolving about Rama. The most important of these events was when the sister of Ravana, the demon king, whose name was Surpanakha, fell in love with Rama when she saw him walking in the forest. When she approached Rama for his hand in marriage, Rama refused her bluntly, asking her to take his brother, Laxman instead. However, Laxman too did not wish to take Surpanakha as his wife, which made Surpanakha very angry. She saw Sita as the obstacle to her proposition of marriage, and therefore set out to killing Sita. The brothers, however, were skilled in the ways of fighting, and they managed to defend Sita, while Laxman sliced off her nose and ears.

Now Surpanakha was not to be undone so easily. She got her brother Khara, to try to take revenge for her upon Rama, but Rama managed to defeat him easily and kill him. Finally, she took her last resort and went to Ravana for help. Ravana was immune to all creatures, from a boon he had gotten from the Destroyer, Shiva himself. However, humans had been left out from the group because Ravana thought humans too little of a threat to him. In fact, Ravana himself had taken quite a fancy to the beautiful Sita, and so they engaged their uncle who was a magician, and together hatched a ploy to abduct Sita.

They struck while Rama, Sita and Laxman were in the forest one morning. The magician transformed himself into a graceful deer, and attracted Sita's attention, who quickly asked Rama to chase it. When Rama was out of sight, the magician made the sounds of Rama shouting for help, which quickly alerted Laxman. Laxman wanted to go to help Rama, but yet he was afraid that Sita might come to harm alone. Therefore, he drew a line on the ground and asked Sita to stay behind the line where she would be safe, before running off in the direction of the cries. With Laxman gone, Ravana now appeared in the form of a poor beggar. He approached Sita for alms, and Sita, in all innocence, crossed the line to give the alms to the begger. Once she was past the line, Ravana turned back into his form and snatched Sita.

When Rama and Laxman came back, they could not find Sita anywhere in sight. They searched high and low for her, for many miles around, and finally came to the kingdom of Kishkindha, which was inhabited entirely by monkeys. Outside the city walls, they met the monkey named Sugreeva. Sugreeva was the rightful heir to the throne, but had been removed by his brother. In a stroke of luck, Sugreeva had found some jewels that Sita had dropped during her abduction by Ravana. Picking on this lead, Rama and Laxman helped Sugreeva regain the throne, and Sugreeva mobilized his army of monkeys to searching out Sita's whereabouts. Finally, after much searching, a monkey reported to have seen Sita in Lanka, across the sea from the mainland.

Immediately, the party set out to attacking Lanka. The monkeys formed a bridge across the sea and they managed to pass across. Finally, Rama managed to beat Ravana, and he got Sita back. Just about this time, fourteen years of banishment was up, and Rama, together with Laxman and Sita returned to Ayodhya to rule as the rightful king and queen.

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The Mahabharata
There was once a king named Santanu, who ruled the kingdom of Hastinapura. The throne was never passed to Santanu's son, but was instead passed to his grandchildren, the cousins Dhritarshtra and Pandu. However, Pandu was enthroned instead of Dhritarshtra because he was blind. The cousins soon got married, and Pandu had five sons, named Yudhistira, Bihma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, and there were called the Pandavas. Dhritarshtra on the other hand, had one hundred sons, and one daughter. They were called the Kauravas.

An unfortunate twist of fate led to the death of King Pandu, leaving the blind Dhritarshtra with no choice but to ascend the throne. In the palace, the Pandavas and Kauravas were in constant strife. With the death of Pandu now, it was apparent that the oldest son would be the one to take the throne after Dhritarshtra died. The oldest son was Yudhistira, who was from the Pandavas. The scheming Kauravas were unhappy with this, and together they began plotting against Yudhistira.

The chance for the Kauravas soon came, to kill the Pandavas. They constructed a house of wood and other materials that easily burned, and invited the Pandavas to stay in it. The Pandavas were on their guard, and easily got to know of the Kauravas plan to burn them. Without the Kauravas knowing, they dug an underground passage under the building, and when the fire started, they escaped and went into hiding in the forest, with the Kauravas thinking they were dead.

The Pandavas traveled in disguise, without anyone knowing who they were. One day, they came upon the king of another city, Panchala, in the forest. The king was looking for a bride for his daughter, and whoever could bend a large bow, and hit a target, would have her as his husband. Many people tried, including the Pandavas, and eventually Arjuna managed to do so. The princess, Draupadi, became the common wife of the five sons of Pandu, and very soon, word spread far and wide that they were still alive.

When they came back to Hastinapura, the eldest of the Kauravas, Duryodhana, was king, but with return of the Pandavas, the elders decided that the kingdom should be shared. So the Pandavas set off, and they set up a new capital in the city. Yudhistira ruled this capital well, and it prospered and flourished.

When Duryodhana saw this, he was very jealous and he decided to get rid of the Pandavas once and for all. He hatched and a plan to get rid of the Pandavas by a game of dice, where the stake was banishment from the kingdom from twelve years, following which, having to stay in the kingdom unnoticed for a year.

Duryodhana employed the skill of his uncle who was proficient at playing dice, and eventually, the Pandavas lost. So that Pandavas were exiled for twelve years to the deep forest. Many interesting things happened during these twelve years, and it soon was over, and the Pandavas had to live in disguise for one year. The party pretended to be cooks, counselors and dancers, whilst they stayed at the court of a neighbouring city.

However, when the queen's brother of the city took a fancy to Draupadi, Arjuna killed him, and on hearing the news, Duryodhana knew the Pandavas must be in the city. He eventually incited another king who had a long feud with the city, to attack the city, hoping by doing so, their cover would be gone, and he would be able to exile the Pandavas for another twelve years.

The war lasted some time, but the Pandavas managed to turn the tide of the war against their assailants without revealing their true identity. When they finally revealed their true identity, the king of the city as delighted, and offered his daughter's hand in marriage to Arjuna's son.

However, things would not be settled to easily. Once the Pandavas had finished their thirteen year exile, war was starting to brew. Alliances were quickly forged by both the Pandavas and the Kauravas, in preparation of the huge war that was about to take place. One important character in the midst of the recruitment was Lord Krishna, who was in fact the incarnation of Vishnu, the preserver, himself.

Both sides wanted his help, and eventually Krishna gave both sides the choice in way of help. The Pandavas chose Krishna alone and unarmed, whilst the Kauravas chose Krishna's army. Both sides were happy, thinking they had gotten the better deal.

While the tensions between the two parties rose, many people tried to strike a peace deal between the two parties, including Krishna himself, but time again, the peace envoys were turned down by Duryodhana, who was confident about winning the war.

The long due war had soon begun. Krishna advised Arjuna to pray to the goddess Durga, and as Arjuna did so, the goddess herself appeared before Arjuna, and granted him victory in the war, over the Kauravas. But Arjuna looked out at the battlefield, and so many people he knew on the enemy's side. He could not bear to kill any of them, and eventually refused to fight. However, Krishna eventually managed to convince Arjuna that it was in fact his duty to fight for the Pandavas, and that it was the right thing to do, and so the war began.

The battle raged on for many days without end. Many people died in the bloody war, as well as many old scores and rivalries being settled. Krishna at many points intervened to change the course of the war, but it was inevitable as the Pandavas won the eighteen day war, with Bhima breaking Duryodhana's thigh bones. That night, the Kauravas led a night attack on the Pandavas camp, killing many people there. As fate dictated, Krishna had brought the Pandava brothers to a victory celebration, saving them all from the massacre.

When the Pandavas returned, they found almost everyone they knew, and everyone whom had fought for them dead. In despair, they believed it was time for them to leave the world too. They marched to the Himalayas to the north, where the gate of heaven was. Draupadi was the first who was not able to take the strain, and she died, whilst the brothers walked on. It was not long before they could not take it too, and started to fall before reaching the peak of the mountain.

Finally, only the oldest brother, Yudhistira managed to make it to the gate of heaven, along wth his dog. The dog revealed itself to be a god, and he gave Yudhistira one last test. With all the Kauravas in heaven, and the Pandavas in hell, he was given the choice of where he wanted to go. He would rather go to hell, than desert his brothers, and therefore chose to go to hell. Eventually, he was finally told that his brothers were in fact in heaven, and that it was only a test, which he had passed, and now he would be admitted to the realm of eternal bliss.

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