Week 2 Reading Overview

My Ramayana for Week 3: I am choosing to read Narayan's Ramayana (reading guide here for my reference) because I prefer to read it in book form. Also, I prefer more readable literature. Otherwise I'll be re-reading sentences for hours and still not know what they say.

Comic books:

1. Savitri - I love stories about women who are defiant and refuse to let other people decide their future, so naturally I felt attracted to this comic book. I'm also interested in the end of the summary, where it says she has to face the God of Death. I'd really like to know what that will entail. 
2. Andhaka - According to the Amazon summary, this comic book is about Andhaka, whose story "traces the journey through fire that a soul must make before attaining liberation." If I understand it correctly, this is a transformation story of a man/being who learns how to be good. I absolutely love a transformation story (like Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, or what Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter could have been), so this would be right up my alley. 
3. Aruni and Uttanka - The Amazon summary says this one is about a student/disciple who is trained more arduously by his teacher than the others because he has greater ability. I love this idea of a singled-out student/disciple who is obviously going to do great things but will have to face harsher challenges first, even if he/she doesn't understand why.

Videos:

1. Rama and the Ramayana: Crash Course World Mythology #27 - I'm very drawn to anything that will simplify unfamiliar topics, so obviously I was drawn to the Crash Course video for Rama. I know absolutely nothing about Indian epics (or Indian culture, for that matter), so I'm feeling kind of lost already. But I watched a few minutes of this video and it's definitely a good foundation for understanding the general subject matter of this course. 
2. Sacred Trees - Epified - I really love this idea of giving trees and nature so much meaning. The video talks about different types of sacred trees and what they are known for. For example, one tree helps to grant wishes. I am a huge fan of magical objects and stuff like this so it would be really fun to read more about these trees!

(Savitri and Satyavan from the Indian Epics Image blog)

I chose the above image based on the first comic book I mentioned. It's an image of Savitri, Satyavan, and (I'm assuming) the God of Death. I don't know much about the story but hopefully if I read it this semester then I'll learn more!