Reading Options

I never would've imagined how many different options there are for reading about the tales of the characters of the Indian Epics and their companions. While I'm not familiar with these stories and characters, upon first glance at the numerous options, it becomes obvious that they are timeless and lasting. They have inspired a countless amount of art in the form of the books, folktales, comic books, music, paintings, and more which shows their pervasiveness throughout the Indian culture.

Since this is all new to me, at first I was a little overwhelmed in looking at all there was to choose from. For the Ramayana, I am most drawn to the novel adaptation by R. K. Narayan. I think I would prefer this to the online collection because it is all going to be in the same author's style which may make this completely new topic a little more understandable than pulling from a lot of different sources. Of course, I'll be able to see how this goes before choosing my option in reading the Mahabharata. When looking through the different stories contained in the epics as well as other reading options available for the semester, I was able to find a few stories that caught my eye!

First, I was intrigued by the story of Sita in the Ramayana. This story talks about when Rama meets Sita, and they experience love at first sight, or love at first bangle jingle. I thought it was interesting how Rama instantly knew that he would love Sita forever and she returned the sentiment. The story ends with a bit of a mysterious air, begging you to continue discovering more of the story, as Rama and Sita end the day thinking of each other.

(A representation of Sita, from an Indian puppet theater; Image Source)

When looking through some of the comic book options, I was actually lured away to a Wikipedia page about Sugriva, the ruler of the monkey kingdom. When looking through the page, I thought his pact with Rama was interesting, in which Rama swears to kill Sugriva's brother (so Sugriva will become ruler), and Sugriva in turns promises to help find Sita, who had been captured by Ravana. I would like to read more about Rama and Sugriva's adventures together, as well as Sugriva's personal story as ruler of the monkey kingdom and what all that entails. 

(A depiction of Rama and Sugriva meeting; Image Source)

Another of the books that caught my eye was 99 Thoughts on Ganesha. While I didn't get to read the stories contained within this book, as I have not yet purchased it, I think it would be really neat to learn more about Ganesha. Ganesha is one of the few Indian deities I recognize by image due to his unique elephant head, and I think it would be interesting to learn more about him and his attributes. 

(Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity; Image Source)