Indian Epics Course Overview

The first time that I was exposed to intellectually understanding an epic was in high school. I had always taken advanced placement courses and part of the reason I took those classes was because they introduced the students to other cultures along with their accompanying literature and myths. I never really appreciated epic literature until college, however, when I learned the importance of the spread of this type of literature and the effects it has on creating and maintaining an identity for certain communities. Although I have never read any Indian epics (or maybe I have and just don’t remember them), I am familiar with some Arabic and Middle Eastern epics. The first one that comes to mind is the Shahnameh or the “Book of Kings”. This book was very crucial to creating an identity for Iranians. This epic is the national epic of Iran for a reason. It was what the Iranians considered a tie to their historical past because it connects the Iranians to the Persian Empire as well as the Zoroastrians that are associated with the Indo-Iranian population before the two groups gained their own identities.

I have taken quite a few classes on religion. I have studied Islam and the other Abrahamic religions in detail, however, the only knowledge I have of Hinduism or Buddhism comes from friends who have practiced the faiths. I am quite excited to absorb some knowledge of these religions and their spiritualism and add this knowledge to my understandings of other cultures. Even though I have never formerly studied Indian history or culture, I am familiar with some of the names I saw while looking through the readings, the main character being Shiva. Another deity that I have come to know through popular culture is Ganesha. I chose to include an image of Ganesha because, for me, that is one of the most noticeable and recognizable characters/deities out of these cultures.

(Image Information: Photo of Ganesha.
Source: The White Hindu)

Although I have not been to India, I have found some similarities between the material covered in this class and my past studies of the Middle East. In both cases, I see a huge appeal to keep these epics and myths alive. The major idea behind this is tradition and identity. In both cases, these epics are a way of keeping oral traditions and/or religious beliefs alive. Another aspect of this is that these stories create an identity. By having these epics that originated from so long ago, people have something to tie the origins of their culture to and, therefore, create a historical identity for themselves.