Reading Options for Epics of India
Looking through the reading options for the course, the Mahahbarata really caught my eye as something I was extremely interested to dive into the readings. The theme of an inter-familial feud, with the divine influence on both sides of combatants, is a thrilling narrative that I find familiar, due to my interest in Teutonic mythology. It was mainly in this story I did my deepest research into reading options, due to my interest, as well as doing research into the sources themselves. While I did look over the Ramayana readings as well, the three selections shown here were my three picks for most intriguing.
First, the public domain edition of the Mahabharata drew my attention, mainly due to its use of more antiquated language, giving it a feel of originality. Furthermore, the fact that there are different authors of each work I feel will give me a better overall picture of this epic, due to seeing multiple perspectives of the authors, allowing me to see how each author treats this work. I love comparing and contrasting when I analyze literature in order to build my own viewpoint and interpretation, and I feel that reading this collection allows me to use my strengths in this class.
The second reading that caught my eye was the version of the Mahabharata from Sister Nivedita. Hearkening back to my interest in the mythology, this telling of the story focuses particularly on religious significance of the story, rather than treating it just as a story of men like several other sources.
Finally, the third reading to intrigue me was the collection of ideal Indian women by Sunity Devee. These stories of strong woman characters is going to be an interesting read, due to the main image, in my experience, of women in Indian mythos is that of motherly figures. Seeing what branching out occurs in female character development in this mythology is something I look forward to exploring.
Balabhadra fighting Jarashanda, from Wikimedia Commons
The second reading that caught my eye was the version of the Mahabharata from Sister Nivedita. Hearkening back to my interest in the mythology, this telling of the story focuses particularly on religious significance of the story, rather than treating it just as a story of men like several other sources.
Finally, the third reading to intrigue me was the collection of ideal Indian women by Sunity Devee. These stories of strong woman characters is going to be an interesting read, due to the main image, in my experience, of women in Indian mythos is that of motherly figures. Seeing what branching out occurs in female character development in this mythology is something I look forward to exploring.
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