Explorations in Religious Identity (RE 300 WR)

Rewatching the Crash Course video on the Ramayana after having studied the tradition for weeks is a different experience than when we watched it at the beginning of the semester. Overall, I think the video does a good job of highlighting key points in the story. Inherently, Crash Course videos gloss over much information as 13 minutes is not nearly enough time to describe a vast tradition. There are a few things that the video could do better. While I understand that Valmiki’s Ramayana is the most commonly read version of the Ramayana, the video could do a better job of explaining how vast the Ramayana tradition is. The video would also benefit from further examing the character and viewpoint of Sita. I’m unsure why this video is placed under the subheading of “mythology.” This may be because it does not go into the importance of the Ramayana in the Hindu tradition and instead looks at the story from a literary standpoint, examining archetypes.