The Picturebook Ramayana

Thanks to Joanne's project this semester, I learned about this wonderful website: The Picturebook Ramayana, edited by H. Daniel Smith.

There are approximately 80 images, each one accompanied by a Sanskrit verse from Valmiki's Ramayana, a Romanization of the verse, and an English translation. For example, here is King Janaka discovering Sita:

[King Janaka recalled:] "And as I was tilling the ground, a girl-child came out from under the plow I gathered her up as I cleared that field, and I have named her 'Sita' after that furrow."

And the project includes the Uttara-kanda, with Rama's twin sons reciting the Ramayana to him:

Thereupon the sweet recitation commenced, divine to hear, like the sound of angels. Those who had assembled to listen found no surfeit in the richness of the song.

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.

Yesterday's Twitter: Teju Behan

From yesterday's Twitter, I learned about Teju Behan; you can read about her in the graphic below, and I also found this lovely interview: Interview with Teju Behan.

"I think that everyone can be creative; it's not something for just some people."

These images are from the interview article:

Yesterday's Twitter: A Lizard and the Prince of Hastinapura

From yesterday's Twitter, I learned about this wonderful story at the TalkingMyths project, one of their Mahabharata Folktales: A Lizard and the Prince of Hastinapura. If you ever wondered just why Bhishma suffered the strange fate of lying on that bed of arrows, this story provides some karmic context...

Yesterday's Twitter: Everybody wins in dharma.

From yesterday's Twitter, here is an item from Devdutt Pattanaik. And, yes, his book Jaya is one of the reading options for this class. Find out more here: Jaya. 

The words in the graphic are spoken by Astika to King Janamejaya about the war between Janamejaya's ancestors, the Pandavas, and the Kauravas:

Janamejaya was silent. He pondered over what Astika had said. Then he asked, with a little hesitation, ‘Did the Pandavas not fight the Kauravas for justice?’  

Astika replied, ‘No, my king. That war was about dharma. And dharma is not about justice; it is about empathy and wisdom. Dharma is not about defeating others, it is about conquering ourselves. Everybody wins in dharma.

Yesterday's Twitter: Wendy Doniger on contemporary India

From yesterday's Twitter, here is an interview with Wendy Doniger (a personal hero of mine), a scholar of Sanskrit and ancient Indian literature who has a new book coming out in the spring of 2018: Against Dharma: Dissent in the Ancient Indian Sciences of Sex and Politics. You can learn more about that book and how it fits into her long career of studying Indian cultures in this interview:

Contemporary India is an uneasy, volatile mix: Wendy Doniger

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:

Yesterday's Twitter: Ramayana Romance Advice

From yesterday's Twitter, here is an article with love advice from different versions of the Ramayana: Romantic Advice from Many Ramayanas.

Yesterday's Twitter: Persian Ramayanas

From yesterday's Twitter, I was glad to find this article about the Mughal Ramayana tradition: Persian Ramayanas.

The article provides a detailed listing about the different Persian versions of the Ramayana, some down from the Sanskrit version of Valmiki, and others done from the version by Tulsidas. The artwork is remarkable! One of my favorites is this depiction of the young Rama and Lakshmana attacking the she-demon Tataka:

Yesterday's Twitter: Hindu Gods in Japan

From the scroll.in Twitter feed, I learned about this article and video on Hindu gods in Japan: Why Buddhists in Japan have been praying to Hindu gods as well for many centuries. You can visit their webpage to see the video, and I've embedded a YouTube version below: