Overview of Indian Epics Course

I have chosen to read the public domain edition of the Ramayana because of its ease of access and its extensive links, notes and illustrations that accompany it. The Ramayana by Narayan would be more difficult for me to read because it is only offered at Bizzel Library. Also, since I learn very well with visual aid, the lack of pictures in Narayan's version would possibly not allow for as engaging of an experience that I think the PDE version will.

I have never been in a class that focuses primarily on epics, but I do recall going over the Homer's epic, The Odyssey in high school and I really enjoy the Game of Thrones series. The only other experience I have had with Indian/South Asian culture was my deployment to Afghanistan. I did not have much contact with the locals in Afghanistan so I cannot really draw any connections to this course just yet. As I was browsing for images on the Indian Epics site, I remembered some of the names of gods and goddesses, but the thing that I felt made me really think of Indian culture was a four armed goddess. With some searching I came to find that the four armed goddess was Lakshmi who is the goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity and the wife of Lord Vishnu. I think that this is the image that I associate most with Indian culture because it is so distinctive (i.e. four arms). I have provided an image of Lakshmi below.

Lakshmi 

Web Source: Wikimedia Commons