1 Sita: I am interested in
Sita because she seems to be an important figure in the Ramayana, at least. I
was hoping she develops into a stronger character, but it doesn’t seem like
that really happens. This kind of disappoints me; I would have liked to see a
more impressive female lead. I only know of Sita what we have learned from our
reading, and that she is an incarnation of Vishnu’s heavenly lover.
Research: I did some reading over Sita
on Mythfolklore.net. It seems like Sita continues
to play a supportive role to her husband, Rama. She doesn’t appear to ever move
beyond this role, though that isn’t particularly surprising given the time
period these characters were written in. I also searched on Wikipedia
and found a more detailed ending to Sita’s story. I was interested because
although Rama never took her back in spite of her dedication to him, she
attained a happy ending by being returned to her original realm. Sita was an incarnation
of Vedavati, and was the heavenly soulmate of Vishnu—who was incarnated as Rama
on Earth. In a sense, I guess you could say the two ended up together after
all.
2
Karma: I have always been
interested in karma. I studied it whenever I took a course on Buddhism, and it
seems that Hinduism has very similar viewpoints. I like the idea of people
being held responsible for their actions—both in the same life and the next, if
there is a next life. I would like to see how karma plays out through the
course of an individual’s lifespan, or lifespans.
v Research: The Wikipedia
confirmed by beief that Hindu beliefs regarding Karma were similar to Buddhist
views. I think I would like to focus on a particular epic, or character, and
discuss how karma affected that story or character in particular. Vedavati
would be a good example of this, because she incarnated as Sita in order to get
back at Ravana and therefore fulfilling the karmic cycle, at least for the
moment.
3
Vishnu: I am interested in
Vishnu because I think knowing about him would be more applicable from a
Religious Studies perspective because of what a major role he plays throughout
Hinduism in his various forms. I also settled on him because he is the one I
have a statue of, and I think that’s cool! Haha. I don’t know much about him,
other than that Rama is one of his incarnations. I would like to know more
about his other incarnations.
Research: I am a little overwhelmed. There is a female incarnation
of Vishnu called Mohini. Mohini seems pretty interesting, from what I found on Wikipedia.
She is known for enchanting men, and it seems we will be reading about her
later in the semester in the Mahabharata. I am also interested in Vaishnavism,
a branch of Hinduism devoted to Vishnu. I would like to study this; I think it
would interest me because it would give me more definitive answers about at
least that sect f Hinduism. Definitive answers can be very hard to find in
Hinduism at large! I have found so far that Vaishnavism believes in Vishnu as
the supreme god; follow a process of initiation; and focuses on the literal
meaning of scriptures.
4.
Ravana: I decided it might
be interesting to look at Ravana, as he is the enemy of our current heroine,
Sita. He really disliked Rama, too, as the husband of Sita. I haven’t fully
decided how I feel about Ravana. I know he is supposed to be the evil
character, but I also know stories tend to be very one-sided. I would like to
make up my mind for myself! I know nothing about Ravana, other than what I have
gathered in our reading.
Research: According to Wikipedia,
Rama is also his enemy because Rama cut of Ravana’s sister’s nose! I found it
interesting that two of Ravana’s siblings tried to convince him to return Sita
to Rama. I also read about Sita’s sneaky trick to keep Ravana from attempting
to string the bow and win the right to marry her. This made me like Sita a bit
more!
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