Overview:Why Indian Epics?

Why am I interested in Indian Epics? Since coming to OU, I feel like I've developed a very strong literature background: I've taken a number of French and Spanish literature classes as part of my major and my minor, and I've also been in a few of the more literary-oriented Honors classes. I feel like, at least in terms of European and African literature, I've been exposed to a lot of different movements, authors, and styles. It's pretty safe to say that I feel very comfortable in a literature course, and it's a side of academia that I really enjoy. So that's clearly one reason I'm excited to take this course. I'm already somewhat familiar with the stories we're going to be reading, and as I said in my introductory post, I know a decent amount about the cultures and groups of India, but I'm hoping this class will really help me build on that.

A Ramila actor dressed as Ravana, source: wikipedia

It's very hard for me to articulate why exactly I'm so interested in India. I know on one hand, it's pure intellectual  linguistic curiosity: languages of India are very unique and understudied, so they do have a sort of mystique about them, and as a post-colonial area, language politics are intense and often symbolic of the tides of power among different groups. But it's more than just me thinking it would be easy to crank out a dissertation about Indian languages. Indian cultures can be at once vibrant and somber, frenetic and yet subdued. Over the last couple of years, I've had to do a lot of "un-learning" of things I thought I knew, and while I'm still gaining new insights into India every day, I really hope that I can help other people see how India is a hugely dynamic and nuanced place, and its peoples and cultures are just as varied as those found anywhere else.