Week 2 Reading Overview

    Of the options available, I decided that I will read Tiny Tales from the Ramayana. Being the first semester to have this as an option, why wouldn’t I take advantage of that! I think it would be fun to explore the tales of Ramayana in a more condensed form. For me personally reading novel-like stories with dense plots or important background/context pertaining to the story causes me to lose focus in what I am reading and miss critical points in the story. Tiny Tales offers short, individual stories that still flow (both contextually and stylistically) to tell the epic of Ramayana. That was the main reason I chose Tiny Tales over the other two options, but it being more accessible than the other two, specifically free and downloadable, was also a factor in my decision. Plus, it has illustrations! I am visual person, so I am looking forward to the images.

    The first comic I read was “Mahiravana: A Magician Outwitted”. To be honest, the title is what caught my eye; I wanted to know how a clever magician could be outsmarted and by whom. I have read the story of Ramayana and Ravana before but was not familiar with the side characters of Ramayana epics and their own stories with Rama. So, I enjoyed reading about the conflict Ravana’s son had with Rama as a result of Mahiravana’s loyalty to his father. The next comic was “Krishna and Shishupala: He Was Forgiven a Hundred Times”. I appreciated the underlying message of forgiveness and honor despite the wrongdoings Krishna continuously received from Shishupala, but at the same time a prophecy was foretold and had to be fulfilled. Krishna never broke his promise but still fulfilled the prophecy. I don’t know if these tales are meant to have morals or not, but I learned something from this comic either way.

    The two videos I watched were “Hindu Creation Stories” and “Harry Potter Meets Hindu Mythology”. I found the story of creation particularly fascinating because every religion or culture has a its own creation story based on its beliefs and traditions, but there are still noticeable similarities between different creation stories. I couldn’t help but think back to my knowledge of the creation stories in Christianity and Lakota culture and find a common theme among them and Hinduism. And I am sure I could draw parallels for other creation stories as well. It is just so intriguing how different cultures that had never interacted before could have such overlapping stories. I feel like my reason for watching the second video is self-explanatory, but in case it is not: I am a big fan of the Harry Potter series. While I don’t know the background in creating Harry Potter, it does not seem like a stretch to assume that some plot points were inspired by religious elements. And there were some pretty specific connections between the series and Hindu mythology that seem too similar to be a coincidence. This video gave me a whole new appreciation for Hindu mythology because of its prominent influence on one of my favorite series. I would love to learn about more connections between popular modern fiction and Hindu mythology. 

Hanuman Carries Rama and Lakshmana

(British Museum)

The above image depicts Hanuman essentially caring for the two brothers. In the first comic I wrote, it was Hanuman who came to the brothers' rescue from Mahiravana, and this image depicts the brothers has children. I chose this image because it made me consider the relationship Hanuman has always had with Rama as a devoted companion of sorts; Hanuman has always been there, not solely during the Ramayana epics.