After completing the readings, the ones that stuck with me most were "Bhagiratha and Ganga by John Campbell Oman" and "Rama Wins Sita by Donald A. Mackenzie". I think that I enjoyed the story of the goddess Ganga becoming a river because it made a definite correlation between the heavenly world and the earthly world. Not only was this connection made, the story mentioned the importance of communication with the Gods on a constant basis. It mentioned the line of men that continued to perform sacrifices in order to aid their ancestors that had passed on after coming into contact with Kapila. My favorite part of this story is when Ganga gets tangled in the hair of Shiva. For me, when I read that, I just had a strange image of a girl stuck in some guys hair.
The second story I mentioned above (and the Janka story before it) grabbed my attention because it reminded me of Act III of Wagner's "Die Walkure". In Wagner's opera, the god Wotan sends his favorite daughter, Brünnhilde, into an enchanted sleep by kissing her eyes. In addition, he casts a spell that creates a magical flame around her that will only allow the bravest man to enter and save her. However, now that I think about it, I guess this is how a lot of epic stories play out when they involve the daughter meeting her soul-mate and most worthy companion.
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| (Image Information: Photo of Rama and Sita. Source: Amor y Sabor) |
I enjoyed most of the PDE readings, however, the few written in poetic form were a little harder for me to stay with. I seemed to get a little lost (thank goodness there was an audio recording!)
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