Indian Epics Overview

I'm really excited to study Indian Epics this semester because it is so different from other courses in my major (Computer Engineering), and because it's a topic I really don't know much about. I do recall reading some Indian stories in high school when we studied Hinduism as part of a religion unit in English class. But that is the extent of it.

Looking through the overview material provided, the story behind the Ramayana story seemed familiar, and I think I read a version of it in high school. Particularly, I remembered the character Ganesha, so below I have re-posted a photo of a Ganesha carving from the Indian Epics Resources site:

(Ganesha carving)

As far as epics go, I remember reading from a number of Western epics in my senior year English class in high school, including selections from Beowulf, The Iliad, and The Odyssey. I really enjoyed them, and I'd like to read them in their entirety someday. Now I really look forward to reading epics from another part of the world.