Week 1

Week 1

by Deleted user -
Number of replies: 4

Things I found Interesting

1. I find it interesting that the Indian cultures value these traits of being a perfect person (pg 2). It would be hard for me to compare myself to Rama because I am not perfect. 

2. The Ramayana contains so many different aspects, like infatuation and betrayel (pg 2). I sounds like it contains everything that a great story would have. This makes sense to why it is so popular.

3. "While the gods are on his side.." (pg 3). A lot of these aspects remind me of Greek mythology. A heroic main character, gods assisting them, and mystical villians. 

Questions/Confusion

1. How many versions of Rama's Adventures are there? What's considered the best/worst?

2. "friendly animals who help him get his wife back" (pg 3). So many books and fairytales I know of have animals who can talk and help the main character. Why is that? Why don't they just incorporate other people?

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In reply to Deleted user

Re: Week 1

by Deleted user -
Yep, I was already hooked on the story of the Ramayana just from the synopsis, so it makes sense that it would still be incredibly popular today! Stories survive because they are well-liked during their time; people are not going to bother saving a text that is not compelling. It's also worth noting that most, if not all, religions follow the same format you mentioned in your third point! For example, in Christianity, Jesus would be deemed the "heroic main character," God (and the disciples) would assist him, and the mystical villain would be Satan, though the Romans could also be considered villainous from that standpoint! smile

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In reply to Deleted user

Re: Week 1

by Deleted user -
Hey, I love what you said about "While the gods are on his side..." I wrote some about that for my response as well. Regarding the "friendly animals" I personally think that it helps children to relate to the story. When I think of animals in a tale the first one that comes to mind is Aesop's "The Rabbit and the Turtle." This story would be something that would have grabbed my attention as a young child. In the translators notes it mentions how this served as a bedtime story for children.

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In reply to Deleted user

Re: Week 1

by Deleted user -
I agree on your third point, this seems to follow greek mythology closely. Weird, hard to pronounce, names. Demigod's that dont discover their purpose until a large milestone to which they are then greatly assisted by the gods. Not to mention the many wives and other S/o's. Seems like a tough story to keep up with

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In reply to Deleted user

Re: Week 1

by Deleted user -

Definitely have to agree with the Greek mythology aspect, there is a lot of similar characters at work the Ramayana actually reminds me a lot of the Trojan war because this happened after Helen ran away with Paris and the Ramayana happened after Ravana kidnapped Sita.

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