Monday, August 7, 2017

Project Idea: Music

India is home to many beautiful musical traditions, including songs and dances that are directly inspired by the epics and its characters. You could create a wonderful project by weaving together YouTube videos with dance and music while you tell the stories to accompany them.

Research Tip: As you read the epics, see how music and dancing are part of the plot. In the Ramayana, for example, the villain Ravana is also an accomplished musician who is often depicted with a veeena. In the Mahabharata, the hero Arjuna will live a year in disguised as a dancing teacher. Krishna is famous for his flute and for leading the gopis in the cosmic Rasa Lila dance; the god Shiva is known as Nata-Raja, Lord of the Dance. Keep an eye open for references to music as you are reading, and you will find them!

Even better: you will find an endless supply of Indian music videos to explore at YouTube, with devotional songs to all the goddesses and gods that you will meet in the epics.

Here is a recording of the famous Hanuman Chalisa for example:



And for a modern mash-up, here's MC Yogi with Krishna Das:

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