ନବଗୁଞ୍ଜର
The Nabagunjra Framework
Nine storytelling moves, drawn from a creature of nine forms in Odia mythology, and the tenth that makes them whole.
A framework by Sushma Tripathy
Stories shaped with teams and brands across India
The Myth
A creature Arjuna did not recognise
In a fifteenth-century Odia telling of the Mahabharata by Sarala Das, Krishna appears to Arjuna not as himself, but as Navagunjara, a creature assembled from nine different animals and forms: a rooster's head, a peacock's neck, a bull's hump, a lion's waist, an elephant's foreleg, a deer's hind leg, a tiger's hind leg, a serpent's tail, and a human hand holding a lotus.
Arjuna does not recognise the creature. He raises his bow, ready to strike at what looks unfamiliar and threatening. Only when he looks again, past the strangeness of each part, does he see the divine whole. He lowers his bow.
Fear of the unfamiliar gives way to recognition of the integrated whole.
That arc is the spine of the Nabagunjra framework.
The Principle
A leader does not need one clean story. A leader needs to integrate nine.
Most people try to tell a story the way Arjuna first saw the creature: as a collection of strange, disconnected parts, a statistic here, an anecdote there, a conclusion that does not follow. Nabagunjra teaches the nine moves that assemble those parts into something a room recognises as whole, true and worth remembering.
The Nine Moves
Nine parts, one story
The Tenth Move
Assemble
The whole creature, seen at once, is the tenth move. It is not a tenth body part. It is the moment Arjuna lowers his bow, the point where nine separate moves resolve into one story a room can hold in its head.
The nine moves cluster into three stages:
Where Nabagunjra Shows Up
Wherever a story has to hold a room
The Business Storytelling Deck, used in keynotes on human capability in the age of AI.
Keynote talks, including the Charioteer framing of AI as the Saarthi, the tireless charioteer who never picks up the bow.
1:1 Signature Story Programs for leaders and founders.
Corporate storytelling workshops for teams and organizations.
Book mentoring, where the nine moves shape chapter and manuscript structure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Good questions
What is the Nabagunjra framework?
Nabagunjra is a nine-move storytelling framework developed by Sushma Tripathy, built from Navagunjara, the nine-form composite creature from a fifteenth-century Odia telling of the Mahabharata. It guides how a leader turns lived experience into a structured story.
Where does the name Nabagunjra come from?
It comes from Navagunjara, a creature from Odia mythology made of nine animal forms, which appears to Arjuna in the Mahabharata as told by the Odia poet Sarala Das.
Is Nabagunjra a coaching method?
No. Nabagunjra is a storytelling framework, not a coaching or therapeutic method. It is used to build finished stories, pitches, keynotes and books.
Who is Nabagunjra for?
Leaders, CEOs, CXOs, speakers, consultants and founders who need to structure a keynote, a pitch, a brand story or a book.
Ready to lower the bow?
Bring the nine parts you already have. We will find the story that holds them.