u/Cynical-Rambler
An Episode of the Ramayana: Indrajit and His Nagapasha Arrow
Indrajit: named after his feat of one-time managed to imprison Indra, king of heaven, led his army of Asura to attack the army of monkeys led by the human prince, Lakshmana.
Quotes of the following came from Wikipedia, because of I'm too lazy to write it myself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indrajit
>Indrajita used his supreme magical powers, darting across the clouds and skies like a bolt of lightning. He combined his skills of sorcery and illusion warfare, repeatedly vanishing and reappearing behind Lakshmana's back.
>Meghnada (Indrajit) used his most nefarious weapon Nagapasha (a trap made of a million snakes)
Nagapasha have the abililty to manifested as hundreds and thousands of Naga. This weapon, given by the creator of the universe, previously defeated Hanuman years earlier.
The many snakes power froze the monkey army including its general.
Quotes of the following is from a translation of the Valimki Ramayana. https://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga45/yuddha_45_frame.htm
>The bodies of both those warriors, Rama and Lakshmana were densely transfixed with serpentine arrows by the enraged Indrajit.
>Those two princes, in the forefront of battle, bounded by that net work of arrows in the twinkling of an eye, became incapable of even looking up.
> Seeing the two brothers - Rama and Lakshmana lying motionless and breathless on the floor, Indrajit thought they were dead.
>Seeing Rama and Lakshmana riddle with arrows and pierced in every limb and bone of their bodies, a great fear had taken possession of Sugreeva.
Long story short, a Garuda king came to help, chased the dragons away.
Skipped more scenes, Indrajit ended up dead in the sky, shot by Rama. (Before anybody came to say ackshually, it is Lakshmana not Rama, that is the Valimki Ramayana version. This ending of Indrajit came from a different folk version which is adapted to this play of the Khmer Ramakerti).
His head if fallen to the ground, would burned through 16 planes of the Earth, so his half-brother, Angada and Angada's cousin, Hanuman, flew to the sky to carry his head on a pedestal.
Photo taken from a performance from a local Khmer troupe I walked in on. Like many traditional performances, it is free for the public.
u/Cynical-Rambler — 11 days ago
▲ 30 r/AskHistorians
How much validity to the theory that Zodiac Killer is a myth/hoax combining different unrelated crimes? Particularly by someone like Dave Toschi?
I recently watch David Fincher 2007 film Zodiac. While I like the movie, I have many suspicions on the case as it was presented on the screen. Most of what was shown is the perspective of the author who wrote a best-selling book, and the lead investigator, Dave Toschi.
At one point in the film and irl, Dave Toschi was disciplined for supposedly written fan letters to himself. Those letters got in published in the media that he was shown throughout the film as having a working relationship with. The guy got so famous, he got Clint Eastwood playing a character inspired by him. At that point, I wonder in case Toschi actually wrote the Zodiac letters, considering the amount of fame he was getting from the case.
Meanwhile, the case is repeatedly shown to have full of seemingly unrelated crimes that the film debunked. The only thing that connect the crimes are what the "Zodiac Killer" sent to the press. The main suspect, Arthur Leigh Allen, was a suspect mainly because Toschi and Graysmith think he was, even if he kept getting exonorated.
I just recently listen to a podcast from an nonfiction author and excop, Eddie McNamara, who coincidently voiced the same suspicions and did more research. He published a book Zodiactually: The Real Story of a Fake Serial Killer in 2026 saying that the cases are unrelated. Iirc, he said that if the ZK did exist as a serial killer, the victims were likely no more than three, not seven. Also, discovered that another author, Thomas Henry Horan, also claimed that it is a hoax in what is dubbed the "Zodiac Hoax Theory".
Considering that this case is amongst the most famous and studied serial killer case (if indeed it is a serial killer case), had criminologists also have consider the possibility that the Zodiac Killer is also just a media creation, or they actually have good reasons to believe that the murders are related to one killer, as the film and pop culture believed?
u/Cynical-Rambler — 13 days ago
Lotus Flowers and Their Reflections
u/Cynical-Rambler — 24 days ago
Thinking of Samsara: Wheel of Fate
A human may previously was a lizard. A lizard may previously a human.
u/Cynical-Rambler — 1 month ago
▲ 3 r/mythology
One night near dawn, the Maharaja of the Kosala kingdom, dreamed of 16 different strange scenes. He woke up terrified and confused. Immediately, he called the Brahman priests to divine. The priest came up with three results: 1. Annihilation of the royal wealth. 2. Annihilation of the royal health. 3. The end of the king life. To avoid these annihilation, animal sacrifices can be perform.
Learning this, his wife told, go instead to the Brahman named Gautama. "Let him divine these strange dreams." The king then went to Jetavana where the Sramana Gautama, the Holy Buddha Parama Guru, preach most of his sermons.
The Maharaja described his dream one by one, and the Buddha told me, "this is nothing to do with your reign, these dreams foretold what will happen to different kingdoms in the new Buddhist era following Tathagata entering Nirvanna".
I don't want to write all sixteen, so here is a select few.
The first scene the king dreamed is of four bulls from four direction, rushing to fight in the center and do nothing. The Buddha forecasts of there will be times when black skies all over which seem to rain, don't rain and rain where it should not rain. Farmers got screwed by the weather as they can't plan anything.
The fifth scene the king dreamed of horse having two mouth. People bring it grass to eat, the horse eat from two mouths at once. The Buddha forecasts of there will be times of some kingdoms, where the rulers don't have understanding of karma, good or bad deeds, letting magistrates take all bribes from both the sides of civil suits.
The 10th scene the king dreamed is of a rice being cooked in a single pot but when taken out: one part is raw, one part is burned, one part is fine. The Buddha forecasts of there everybody in the state, from the rulers, officials, priests, city and rural folks, the sramana and the brahmans, and even the gods themselves, lack any sort of dharma or karma practice. Storms then blow and shake the palaces the gods.The gods became angry and erratic, pouring rains here, blocking rains there. In short, crazy weather.
I just think of this story for whatever reason. Maybe because the Vesak day, was last week.
u/Cynical-Rambler — 2 months ago
Typically, Yaksha stand on the entrance, but in this pagoda, who cared. With all the amounts of nagas, lions, garudas, devas, ancestral spirits, earth spirits, sky spirits,.. which decorated the place, the only being that can cause damage are the humans.
There is the whole charm to non-standardized artists making their own unique spins to their works. Right next to it is an over-thousand year old Hindu temple, dedicated to Shiva, with decorations of the stories of Vishnu, housing dozens of Buddhist statues along a Phallic symbol dedicated to the Trimuti, along with rooms dedicated to female and male ancestor and ascetic spirits. Housing next to the stone temple, is a shrine housing the local Iron-Fan (or Iron-Propeller) Ancestral Guardian and his wife. All these are on top of a mountain named after a king named after Surya.
That's bottom-up worship for you.
Inside this Vihara, there are long white Nagas that weren't painted or drawn. Look unfinished Asked the old men who take care of the place. They said "years ago, there is a pay dispute, and the painters just said screw it. No pay, no paint."
u/Cynical-Rambler — 2 months ago