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REL131’s Blog
Students have been researching, reading, re-reading, and re-researching topics related to Ram, the Ramayana, and the broader field of religion. This blog serves as their final assignment: taking in-depth research on specific topics and making them accessible to a public audience. Please visit our About page for more details.ALL POSTS
Tag Archives: Ramayana
The Uses and Meanings of Color in the Ramayana
The use of imagery in any great epic is not accidental. Especially in such a visual and tangible culture as that of India, the use of any color was carefully chosen for the sensation it would induce in the reader … Continue reading
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Tagged aesthetic, art, color, color meaning, Epics, Hindu epics, Hinduism, India, Linda Biafore, Rama, Ramayana, rasa, REL131, student research, UVM, visuality
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Using Sita to Identify Ideal Behaviors in Women
The original portrayal of Sita in the Ramayana is from a very different era of time, yet the role of Sita has been able to move across these differences to still connect with people. Sita’s applicability to women is not … Continue reading
A Bow Strung ‘Round the World
Epics serve as a cultural foundation for those cultures that have embraced this tradition. Their continued modernized retellings and archetypal characters promote a homogenized culture. In the Hindu epic The Ramayana, Rama himself is often understood to be the archetypal … Continue reading
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Tagged Amar Chitra Katha, Epics, Identity construction, Ramayana, student research
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Hanuman: The “Every-Man” of Contemporary Hinduism
In recent decades there has been a widespread proliferation of Hanuman— the monkey deity— worship and iconography throughout India. While he is perhaps most famous for his role as a loyal Rama-devotee in the epic Ramayana, Hanuman is also the … Continue reading
Colorism Within Ramayana Traditions
Although colorism within Ramayana traditions was not a unit our class covered extensively, a few articles and some class discussions mentioned issues of colorism in the epic. Below, I will speak to colorism within the Ramayana as well as some of … Continue reading
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Tagged Amar Chitra Katha, colorism, Gender, India, Ramayana, Skin Lighteners
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The Role of Skin Tone in the Ramayana and Indian Culture
The Ramayana is a widely acknowledged holy text in India with many new interpretations, adaptations, and depictions arising throughout the years, including children’s books, comic books, films, and television programs, each of which have audiences spanning from thousands to millions … Continue reading
Images of Sita Empower Contemporary Sitas
by Maeve Herrick The treatment and portrayal of Sita throughout the Ramayana is troubling. Sita is devoted to Rama, but at the end of the epic, Rama mistreats Sita by doubting her chastity and exiling her (Buck 390-394). The end of the Ramayana is … Continue reading
REL131: Ram, Ramayana, and a Blog
by Ilyse R. Morgenstein Fuerst Our class on the Ramayana focused on intensive reading (1,200+ pages) and genealogies, which is to say, how the Ramayana is read, translated, retranslated, and applied in popular practice, political movements, and in local vernaculars. As the professor for REL131, I’m proud of … Continue reading