Friday, January 16, 2015

Week 1: Indian Epics Overview


I am very excited to start this class this semester! Since taking Myth-Folklore, I found an interest in reading stories that I didn't know was there before. I. do not know much about the two Epics we are going to be reading but I do know some things about them. I took a class last semester called History of Dance, and we had to learn about many different cultures and how they practice dance. During the last half of the semester we learned briefly about India and their culture, so there was mention about the two epics. Browsing through the Indian Epics Resouces sight, there are a few images that I recognize.  Ganesha and Bharata are two characters that I have leaned about before, but I have seen images and depictions of Ganesha everywhere from cartoons, and video games. 

I don't listen to Indian music, but I have learn some. Also the only other epic I have read before is Beowulf. I read parts of in the Myth class last semester and the whole thing in high school. I was browsing though the India Epics Storybooks and the resource website and I am interested in learning about Ravana, and Ganesha. I have heard about Ravana in a previous game that I played, but I didn't know he was evil. It would be great to learn is origin story, and also others regarding him. I'm also excited to read the two epics! Do they have parts about dance in them? I am wondering because I heard that a lot of Indian culture or "dance" culture is inspired from these two epics. I think I will read some stories in the Myth Un-Textbook called Jataka Tales that covers even more stories on India. 
Depiction of Ganesha Ganapati

This is an image of Ganesha in a computer game called Maplestory.  This is one of the many examples of from where I have seen him. 

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