Topic Brainstorm

1.  Weapons of the Gods

Being in the army, I have a certain practical fascination with weapons, and that does not exclude magical, mystical weapons from folklore. Each weapon has a story, just like each person, starting with its creation and life and occasionally ending with its “death.” The only previous knowledge I have is from reading other students’ stories that involve weapons (like Sita’s bow) but I would like to learn about any more. The stories could be told from the weapons’ point of view (personification is always fun) or from the viewpoint of the owner, or even a casual bystander. This source looks like it would be helpful.

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  2. Rama and Sita

Everyone loves a good love story, and I was initially fascinated by that of Rama and Sita, as it was one of the first works I read from this class during Orientation Week. Once again that is all the previous knowledge I have, but I keep seeing that there are different and conflicting versions of the same story which would be interesting to read, compare, and maybe even contrast. Like any other love story there is a multitude of ways this story could be flipped and retold, such as a gender swap, a plot twist, or cancelling the happy ending to explore an alternative. It could also be placed within a popular book or TV show setting to make it more interesting to a contemporary audience. There is plenty of information to be found but this source  is a good start.

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3. Kamadeva, God of Love

Like I heavily implied above: I really like love. And with Valentine’s Day approaching, it provides a pretty natural segue into the topic of Kamadeva. This topic definitely has a finger in many of the other topics and stories, as humans have highly valued love in every culture for all time. I scrolled through several of the past works in this topic and was really intrigued by the stories that introduced Kamadeva as a love and relationship therapist, or compared him with other love gods from different cultures. These are a couple great ideas for reformatting the story, and I’m sure there are many others to mix up the narrative. A possible source is here which also references a written book by William Buck.

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4. Elephants

I really like elephants! I’ve known that they are a very prominent image of Indian culture, but wasn’t really sure why before a little research for this class. Apparently they are very effective in war (which my army background appreciates) and often represent wisdom, deity, and royal power. They are especially relevant because of the elephant-headed god Ganesha (who could use some more research.) This story could be told about different specific elephants through history, or possibly just the effects of different time periods on the connotations of elephants throughout ancient Indian lore. The narratives could also come directly from the elephants, from a nameless narrator, or maybe a king or god who oversaw the events. A starting source is this which also heavily sites William Buck’s The Ramayana.

Ancient Elephant Portrait (By Bichitr, link)