Friday, January 20, 2017

Reading Options: Indian Epics



I have chosen to read the public domain version of the Ramayana. The idea of a whole anthology of stories coming together to form one cohesive, epic plot really intrigues me, and I am excited to have the opportunity to really dive into this collection of classical Indian myths and understand the culture better. I am also excited about the chance to read stories drawn from very old collections that capture their meanings in language that would have been closer to the language of the time. Stories like the Ramayana or the Iliad are classics, and I believe that they deserve to be enjoyed in their full literary glory as often as possible. That’s why I feel that choosing the public domain edition will work best for me. I really look forward to diving into this collection of stories and better understanding the myths, plot, and people of the Ramayana.

I did not realize before completing this assignment how much of Indian mythology was entwined into these epic poems. I guess for me that is kind of a different experience since most of the myths I am used to being exposed to are very much stand-alone kind of stories. Paul Bunyan had nothing to do with Little Red Riding Hood and so on. I also think it is fascinating to consider how much the Hindu religion is tied into these myths, and I wonder about the culture differences implicated in that observation. So far, in all of the myths I have observed, Hindu gods and goddesses play some role or another, and I have seen so many notes about how characters prayed to a specific deity among the Hindu pantheon for some blessing or another. I am excited to explore these cultural differences and come to better understand some of the beliefs surrounding the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

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