The Epic of Rama: The Ramayana and its place in Indian Cultural History

Catalog description

Valmiki’s Sanskrit epic Ramayana occupies a pivotal role in India’s religious and literary history. Its central hero, the divine prince Rama, came to be seen both as model for political virtue and an ideal object of religious devotion, while the poem itself became the archetypal model for later poets. In this course we will read extensively from Valmiki’s epic, as well as several later literary and dramatic adaptations, and conidier broadly the role of the Ramayana in the shaping of Indian culture. We will also view samples of film, television and comic-book versions. (ASIAN-RL)