Epified: Foods for Gods

Epified: Foods for Gods

Here are some links you can use to follow up on what you learn from this Epified video:

Amrita

Soma

Sanjivani

Halahala

Butter (Krishna was the "Butter Thief," Makhan Chor)

Manish Vyas: The Santoor

I really enjoyed this lovely video by Manish Vyas about the santoor; you can read more about this traditional instrument at Wikipedia: santoor.

Video: Devdutt Pattanaik — India is Not Chaotic

In addition to the books and videos by Devdutt Pattanaik that are available as reading/watching options for this class, you might also enjoy this video! It is a TEDxYouth talk which you can see at YouTube:

Epified: Sacred Trees

Epified: Sacred Trees

Here are some links you can use to follow up on what you learn from this Epified video:

The Wish-Fulfilling Kalapataru Tree

The World Tree: Yggdrasil

The Ashoka Grove, where Ravana held Sita prisoner

The Shami Tree, where the Pandavas hid their weapons

Bodhi Tree, where the Buddha achieved enlightenment

About Sanskrit... in 60 seconds

This is one of those 60-second videos from Epified: this time it gives you some quick facts about Sanskrit.

Video: Story of Rama through Indian Art

At Twitter, I saw an amazing illustration for the Ramayana (see the bottom of this post), which led me to this page: The Story of Rama: Indian Miniatures from the National Museum, New Delhi... and that brought me to this YouTube video. It is about 30 minutes long, which means it would work great for an extra credit "reading" option to do. After you finish reading the Ramayana, you can see how the presentation in this video resonates with the impression you had of the epic:

The Story of Rama

a talk by Dr Chaitanya Sambrani

Australian National University, Canberra

And here's the illustration that got me started: Ravana and his court full of rakshasas.

Jatayu Sculpture

There is a gigantic ... GIGANTIC ... statue of Jatayu on the spot where he supposedly fell to earth and took his last breath. You can read more at Wikipedia: Chadayamangalam.

Here is a promotional video about the project: A Nature Park in Kerala Houses a Giant Statue of Jatayu.

And here's another video: The World’s Largest Bird Sculpture - Jatayu Nature Park.

And in this photo from 2013 you can see the sculpture under construction:

Kavita Kane: Lanka's Princess

Here is a video talk by the Indian novelist Kavita Kane, speaking at the Bangalore Literary Festival last month: Lanka's Princess, Vamp or Winner? Kane writes novels from the point of view of the women characters in the Indian epics; you can learn more at this article: Why Feminism in Indian mythology matters today.

Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story

Noor Inayat Khan is the author of a wonderful collection of jataka tales that you can read for this class (Twenty Jataka Tales), and she led a remarkable life, now documented in this film: Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story. Find out more at PBS.

Here is a monument to Noor Inayat Khan; find out more at this BBC article.

Rock On, Hanuman

Here's a fun take on the story of Hanuman from M.C. Yogi, with some back-up kirtan from Krishna Das!

Rock On, Hanuman!

Yesterday's Twitter: Nirali Kartik - Raag Bhairavi

I follow Maati Baani at Twitter, and that's how I learned about this new YouTube video from Maati Baani's Nirali Kartik. This performance is part of a concert entitled "Krishna and I," and as she says in the YouTube notes: This concert celebrates Krishna in all his beauty! The lyrics are by Surdas, who you can read about at Wikipedia.

Nirali Kartik - Raag Bhairavi

Yesterday's Twitter: Decoding Hinduism - Caste

From yesterday's Twitter via Scroll.India, here is the first in a new series from Devdutt Pattanaik about caste in India; you can also find the video at the Scroll website.

Ramayana Introductory Videos

For this assignment, you will watch a few short videos, all of which provide some good background and introductory material to lead you into reading the Ramayana next week:


Crash Course Mythology: Ramayana. This is one of the videos in the Crash Course mythology series:

Ramayana and Diwali. If you have not heard of the Ramayana, you may have heard of the Indian festival called Diwali. This video for children tells Rama's story in connection with Diwali, which is one way that children first learn Rama's story:

Ramayana Epic: Live. This video emphasizes the spread of the Rama story throughout South Asia.

Ramayana: The Timeless Tale

This is a wonderful video that gives an overview of the Ramayana, with a special emphasis on the way the story of the Ramayana is known throughout South Asia, not just in India. One of the speakers in this video, Robert Goldman, was my teacher at Berkeley! He and his wife have spent decades working on the definitive scholarly translation of the Ramayana into English; you can find out more here: Robert and Sally Goldman's Ramayana.

Ramayana: The Timeless Tale

More at the Asian Art Museum: Rama Epic Through Video.

Yesterday's Twitter: TED talk by Chitra Divarkaruni

From yesterday's Twitter, I learned about this TED talk by Chitra Divarkaruni! You can also follow her at Twitter, and you can read her beautiful novel about the Mahabharata's Queen Draupadi later in the semester if you want: Palace of Illusions. She is working on a new novel about Sita right now!

Follow @cdivakaruni

Here here is the video: Accidental Storyteller.

And I also found this great graphic in her Twitter stream:

Robert and Sally Goldman: The Ramayana

Robert Goldman and his wife, Sally Sutherland Goldman, are in the South Asian Studies department at UC Berkeley, and they have been working for forty years (!) on a critical edition of Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayana, which they have just recently completed! Here are some videos about their work:

Robert Goldman sings from the Ramayana

Famous Ramayana epic now in modern English

What a Long, Strange Trip

Hindu Creation Stories

Here's an animation from BBC4: Hindu Creation Stories.

Mahabharata Meets Game of Thrones

Something fun and very thought-provoking from Epified:

Mahabharata Meets Game of Thrones