INDIAN EPICS Course Overview

---

(This is a Week 2 assignment for MLLL-4993-995.)

---

By this point, you've completed the Orientation, and now it is time to begin your encounter with the world of stories from India. You will start with some Buddhist Jataka tales from India this week (that's the other Week 2 reading assignment), and then tell your own version of one of those stories (that's the Week 2 Story assignment). The idea is to choose plot elements and/or characters from the Indian storytelling tradition that you can use as the basis for your own story, creating something new by re-imagining something old. This idea of "new stories from old stories" is the central theme of the whole class, as you will see.

Then in Week 3, you will begin reading the Indian epic known as the Ramayana, and you will also be telling your own stories based on that epic. You will be writing stories like this all semester long, and I hope that by the end of the semester you will have developed your storytelling skills in all kinds of new ways.

Just as one example of a new take on the old Ramayana, check out Krishna Das and MC Yogi's Hanuman rap! The characters of the Ramayana are alive and well in this YouTube video; you might not recognize any of the characters yet, but you will get to know Hanuman, Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita very well over the next few weeks:

In addition to reading the Ramayana, you will also be reading the Mahabharata this semester; those are the two great epics of the Indian tradition.

Don't worry if this is all new to you: : you will be exploring this new world step by step, exploring the Ramayana (Ra-MA-ya-na) in Weeks 3-4-5 and exploring the Mahabharata (Ma-ha-BHA-ra-ta) in Weeks 6-7-9, with other Indian reading options in the later part of the semester. For this assignment, I'll provide a quick overview of both epics to get things started.

Ramayana and Mahabharata Overview

Weeks 3 and 4: Ramayana. During these two weeks, you will be reading the epic story of Prince Rama and his war with Ravana, the king of the rakshasas (demons). There are three reading options to choose from: R. K. Narayan's novelistic adaptation published in 1973, or an anthology of different versions of the epic drawn from free public domain sources online... or a brand-new free book that I wrote specifically for this class and published in December: Tiny Tales from the Ramayana. I really hope some of you will choose this option and let me know what you think!

Week 5: Break week / extra credit. Week 5 is going to be a break week in this class in Spring 2021 (these pandemic semesters are exhausting: you are going to need a break!) ... which means the reading in Week 5 is extra credit, and if you enjoy the Ramayana, perhaps you will want to read and explore. You can browse the extra Ramayana options now to get a sense of what's available.

Weeks 6 and 7: Mahabharata. During these two weeks, you will be reading about the epic battle between the five Pandava brothers and their ally Krishna on the one side and, on the other side, the Pandavas' cousins, led by Duryodhana and his ally Karna (who doesn't even know that he is a half-brother of the Pandavas). Have you heard of the Bhagavad-Gita? The Gita forms part of the Mahabharata's epic story. As in Weeks 3-4, there are three reading options to choose from: a modern novelistic adaptation by R. K Narayan, or an anthology of different versions of the epic drawn from free public domain sources online... and another free book I wrote just for this class: Tiny Tales of the Mahabharata. Like with the Ramayana book, I hope some of you will choose this option and let me know what you think!

Week 9: Mahabharata again. Week 8 is a review week and then in Week 9 (like in Week 5), you'll have a chance to revisit the Mahabharata for one more week, reading the epic from a different perspective. Again, there are free online versions to choose from, along with comic books and graphic novels in Bizzell. You can browse the Week 9 Mahabharata options now if you want to see what to expect.

More Stories for the Second Half of the Semester

After you have gotten acquainted with the two epics, you will decide what you want to do with the remaining weeks of the semester; I'll explain more about that later on. You will have a chance to explore the epic cycle of legends about Krishna, or maybe you will want to learn about the many Hindu gods and goddesses, or perhaps you will want to read traditional folktales, including more Buddhist jataka tales. You can also choose to focus on learning more about the Ramayana or more about the Mahabharata. I hope everybody will be able to find good reading options and/or good videos that you will enjoy watching.

Indian Comic Books in Bizzell

Thanks to a grant from OU Libraries, I was able to purchase a complete set of Amar Chitra Katha comic books: 40 pounds of comic books shipped from Mumbai to Norman! Those comic books are all available now on Reserve in Bizzell, and you can browse the comic book inventory here: Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) Comic Books. Use the tabs at the top of the ACK blog to see the different types of story traditions — Ramayana, Mahabharata, Krishna, etc. I hope you will want to go to the Library to read these fantastic comic books, and you can also use the comic book titles and contents to find the stories that grab your attention. Some of the comic books have detailed Reading Guides to fill in background information and help you put the story of the comic book into a larger storytelling context; as I learn what comic books are of interest to people this semester, I will write Reading Guides to go with those.

Other Resources

Indian Epics Images. This is a blog with hundreds of art images related to the Indian tradition. You can use the labels down the right-hand side of the blog to look at images of different characters from the epics. As the semester progresses, you will recognize more and more of the characters whose names you see there.

Indian Epics Videos. This is a playlist of 100 videos related to the Indian epics and to Indian storytelling traditions. Many of them come from the Epified YouTube channel, which is an incredibly valuable resources for this class. Browsing through these videos is a great way to explore the different kinds of topics that you can learn about in this class.

YouTube Music. In addition, I hope you might want to explore the world of Indian music, which is one of the world's great musical traditions. Some of my favorite performers are Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka Shankar, and also fusion artists like Prem Joshua and Manish Vyas, and (my personal favorite)... Maati Baani, a husband-and-wife teamed based in Mumbai. Check out their YouTube page for this video for the Gujarati lyrics and an English translation:

Maati Baani produced this video together with Vidya Vox, along with garba dancers filmed in Ahmedabad: enjoy!

Indian Epics Topics Brainstorm

1. Possible Topic: The god Shiva. I was really attracted to the different images of Shiva that I saw in the image gallery. It does not look like he is a main figure in the epics, but he does show up (I saw his name in the Reading Guides), and I know I would like to learn more. I noticed this reference to a story about Shiva and of course this story got my attention: Shiva tears off the head of his son. That sounds like an intense story that would make for a good project.
Research so far. Obviously, for this project I would be learning a lot about Shiva. The Wikipedia article had some information about Shiva and music and dancing, and I see that Ravana (who is important for the Ramayana!) is also connected to Shiva, especially because of music and dancing. I also read that he is "the destroying principle" which fits with what I had heard about Shiva before. The Wikipedia article about Shiva was really useful and had many great images, too, like this one:

(Shiva as Lord of the Dance)

2. Possible Topic: Animal Characters. I love animal stories, so I think this is a topic that I would really enjoy. On the topics list there were many different kinds of animals listed: eagle, cow, bull, horse, elephant — lots of animals. There are a lot of monkey characters in the Ramayana! I really liked this story: the squirrels help build a bridge to Lanka. I think it would be so cool to include a story in my project about squirrels, so maybe I would focus on the animals who were Rama's allies.
Research so far. Of the animals listed on the topic page, I was most interested in the squirrels and the elephants, and then at Wikipedia I read about a god with an elephant head: Ganesha. But he is not an actual elephant: I found out that he is the son of Shiva, the one who got his head torn off by his father, and then Shiva replaced it with an elephant head. Since Ganesha and Shiva are connected like this, that means I could tell the story of Ganesha and his elephant head as part of an animal Storybook, or in a Shiva Storybook.



3. Possible Topic: Rakshasas. Well, I have to say that this topic caught my attention because the artwork for the demons that I saw in the image gallery was pretty amazing. There are all different ways of depicting the demons: sometimes they look barely human, other times they are gigantic in size, and then of course I kept seeing Ravana images with his ten heads. Wow!
Research so far: The demons topic page said Ravana was one of the most important demon characters, so I looked him up at Wikipedia. It was a really long article; there are lots and LOTS of stories about him, so it would be easy to do a whole Storybook just about him. The pictures are very cool! Calling Ravana a "demon" seems fair enough (even if he does have some positive qualities and talents), so he could be one of those rakshasas who merits the name of "demon" with all the negative connotations that the word has. But then I read about his brother, and he seems like a good guy. I'm also not sure about asuras and raskshasas and all the words that might be translated "demon," so that will be something to research more.



4. Possible Topic: Birth Stories. This is probably the topic that intrigues me the most. People born from fish??? The list of characters on the births topic page did not mean anything to me, so I had to start by doing some research just to understand the topic. I read some birth stories in the Reading Guides and it looks like there are a lot of really weird and memorable birth stories to work with in the epics we are reading for class.
Research so far: I clicked on the links for some of the characters listed here to read about their births. I loved the story about Hanuman as a baby monkey thinking the sun was a mango that he could eat (there was great picture in Wikipedia illustrating that story). From reading we did in class so far, I already know about Sita being born out of the ground. Then I read about the king who was born blind because his mother closed her eyes when he was conceived. I think I have to do this project; all these birth stories are really weird and cool. There would be so many ways to tell them, too, from different points of view and so on.

(Hanuman mistakes sun for mango)

Reading Diary Week 2: Narayan's Ramayana, Part A

READING DIARY: WEEK 2 - A

When I finished the reading, I wrote down the names of the characters I remembered most. Then, I went back through and looked at the passages I had highlighted while I was reading to write up these descriptions of the characters I remembered the most:

1. Dasharatha. The way it starts with Dasaratha not having children sounds like a fairy tale, and the way he gets his sons with the help of the gods and the special rice is like fairytale magic. I really liked his sense of foreboding that disaster was coming when he announced his plan to make Rama king; he clearly did not suspect that he would be the cause of the disaster, and that it would all go back to that hunting accident. He certainly did not mean to kill that boy, but accident or not, that event changed the future forever!

2. Rama. Of course I had to choose Rama. I like the idea that when Vishvamitra comes to ask for help in defeating demons, he doesn't want or need an army. Just Rama is enough! He doesn't want to kill Thataka, but Vishvamitra commands it, and Rama obeys. He destroys Thataka, but he also liberates Ahalya with his supernatural power to undo the old curse Gautama put on his wife. And, of course, he falls completely in love with Sita, not even knowing who she is.

3. Sita. The idea that she and Rama are both divine consorts but strangers to one another in this lifetime is so cool! The description of her lovesickness at the sight of Rama is fabulous, and the "test" of the bow gives it all a fairytale quality again. It is so dramatic that she goes to meet her husband after Rama snaps the bow, not even knowing if it is the man she is in love with or not.

4. Vishvamitra. He is certainly not very likable (none of these sages seem very likable!), but he says my favorite line of what we read: "Even after the participants have vanished, every inch of earth still retains the impress of all that has gone before. We attain a full understanding only when we are aware of the divine and other associations of every piece of ground we tread on. Otherwise it would be like the passage of a blind man through illuminated halls and gardens. That is the reason why I have explained to you the story of every place we have passed through." Wow.

5. Thataka. I am fascinated by this character who started out as an asura princess and became a monstrous demon. She was beautiful once and had a family, but because her husband and sons were kind of crazy, the sage Agastya killed her husband and cursed Thataka and their sons, turning them into demons... and any land where she lives is cursed too, intense! But still, I felt kind of bad for her when Rama killed her.

6. Bhagiratha. He comes across as an incredibly pious and obedient character; he reminds me a lot of Rama. I was really impressed by the way he was able to use austerities (eating nothing but dried leaves that fell from the trees, then living on just the air and the light of the sun, and finally nothing at all!) in order to persuade the gods to do what he wanted, bringing Ganga to earth to save the souls of his ancestors.

7. Ahalya. The story of Ahalya was so sad! It says she realized - but only when they were already in bed - that this was not really her husband but "she could do nothing about it." Intense! It makes me wonder what more she thought at that time, and what thoughts she had during all those years she was imprisoned in the stone! The description of her transformation into the stone is so dramatic!

8. Kaikeyi. Kaikeyi's personal weakness stands in contrast to all the other characters; she is the only character who seems really fickle and frivolous, someone who can be easily manipulated to act in a way that is cruel and against her own best interests. It is not that she is cruel (it's pretty clear that she is not!), but she is so weak that she can easily be bent to the cruel designs of Kooni. I am surprised by all the different female characters here in the first section of reading; it was not something I expected.

My favorite image in this reading section was Rama and Lakshmana battling the giant demon sons of Thataka:

Image Management

Adding/Finalizing an Image post in the Indian Epics Resources blog.

1. Edit post title to make it as descriptive as possible. Image: xxx
2. Check to see if there are any detail views of the image worth adding.
3. Check to make sure that the image source goes to Wikimedia Commons, not the Wikipedia page.
4. Add additional information to the image description, including Wikipedia links where applicable. Make sure description includes key words to aid in searching.
5. Check labels:
Images
Images: Ramayana
Images: Mahabharata
Images: (name of character)
6. Pinterest: make sure to pin the image and add label imagepinned.
7. Add post1level label.
8. Change to today's date.
9. DiigoImages label... and then make sure there is a Diigo entry for the Wikimedia page, with the post title as the entry title and the blog post address in the note field.
10. Then... change post1level to post1leveltw after tweeting.

Just Harvesting Images.

1. Make sure linking to Wikimedia Commons or Flickr specific image page, etc.
2. Add tags: India IE IEimages notblogged
3. Make note in harvest diary below about progress:


May 3: did a good job with Shabari, Dasharatha, Kausalya, Vishvamitra.