Week 9

For those of you who took a break in Week 5, you can choose to do a one-week Ramayana this week this week instead of the Mahabharata option.
Note: If you did not finish the Mahabharata yet, then do that now, using this week's reading assignments to finish that reading.

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During this week, you will experience the Mahabharata again, this time in a one-week version. This is both so that you can review the plot and main characters, becoming more familiar with the story, and it is also so that you can see how the Mahabharata has been told in very different ways by very different storytellers in different times and places for their different audiences.

I've got the options tagged at Diigo, so you can use these links to zoom in on the options that interest you: all the Week 9 options.
Here is some more specific information about the various options:

Online Film: If you would like a fast-paced and fun way to review the opening sections of the Mahabharata, you can watch the Epified animated videos: Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution. There are actually three weeks' worth of videos there; you can do Parts A-B this week, and if you like it, then you can carry on with the video later on during the free reading weeks (Weeks 12-15).

Online: The Mahabharata by C. A. Kincaid. This is a lively and exciting retelling of the Mahabharata with a focus on the Pandavas as epic heroes. It comes from Kincaid's book The Indian Heroes, and there is a detailed reading guide section by section.

Online: The Five Tall Sons of Pandu by Richard Wilson. Like Kincaid, Wilson's focus is on the Pandava heroes, and he includes no reference to the gods at all, no supernatural weapons, no cosmic drama: it is just a story of epic adventure. There is a detailed reading guide section by section for this reading also.

Online: The Mahabharata by Sister Nivedita. Some of you may have read Sister Nivedita's version of the Ramayana back in Week 4; this is her retelling of the Mahabharata, and unlike Kincaid and Wilson, her special interest is the Indian religious context. There is also a detailed guide for this option.

Online: Ideal Indian Women by Sunity Devee. Some of you may have read Devee's stories of Sita and Promila back in Week 4; this week, you can read more of her stories about women from the epics: the lovely story of Savitri and her husband Satyavan, the fairy tale of Damayanti and Nala, the story of Shiva's beloved Sati, along with the story of Uttara, wife of Abhimanyu.

Bizzell: Mahabharata graphic novels. These graphic novels are available for check-out at the Bizzell Reserve desk, and you'd probably want to plan on doing both Reading Diary posts at the same time during the 3-hour check-out period to make sure you are able to finish the reading for the week. For one week's reading, you would choose one graphic novel to read and finish: Ekalavya and Dronacharya, Abhimanyu and the Chakravyuha, or The Vengeance of Ashwatthama.


Bizzell Comic Books: Mahabharata Comic Books. For a week of reading, you would choose two comic books: one comic book for Reading Diary A and another comic book for Reading Diary B. Some have detailed reading guides, while others just have a brief summary; click the link for the random comic books that appear below to learn more:


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