Storybook Plan: Sanskrit in the Indian Epics

LINK TO MY STORYBOOK HERE

Hello VagaBuddies!

Storybook from Shrek: Shrek Wiki

First of all I want to say I am excited to begin this storybook process! I am excited to learn a little bit about the Sanskrit language, and deepen my understanding of these Indian Epics in the process!
Organizationally, here is how I imagine my Storybook going. I will be focusing on a few words of Sanskrit in total, one or two for each story. I will provide the definition, a pronunciation guide and maybe even some other interesting uses or etymology of the word if it applies!
Next, I will connect each word to a mantra that focuses on that word. (ie - if the word is devotion then I will find a mantra about devotion). The mantra (or mantras) will then lead into a story from an Indian epic like the Ramayana or the Mahabharata.

For the first page, I want to cover the Ganga origin story from the Ramayana as the main story. I really admired Bhagiratha's devotion to his family, and the interplay between Shiva and Ganga as gods. For my Sanskrit words, I would choose either 'devotion' (for Bhagiratha) or 'goddess' (for Ganga). Both of those would have great mantras to choose from!
For the second page, I want to focus on the word 'purity' or 'faith' (or 'dharma' and compare Rama's dharma as a king vs. his dharma as a husband), because I want to talk about the story of Rama testing Sita's faithfulness at the end of the Ramayana. That scene in particular always interesting me, because Rama seems too harsh, so maybe the mantras I use will help explain Rama's actions.
For the third page, I want to do something with Hanuman, because he is literally the best. I would probably focus on something such as 'loyalty' or 'intelligence' or 'strength' since those are some of the most defining characteristics of Hanuman that come to mind for me.

Overall, I hope to convey a little bit of understanding and appreciation for Sanskrit through my Storybook. I aim to enrich an understanding of the Indian epics with an understanding of the language that it was originally composed in.

Language:
Alphabet: Omniglot
How many Ramayanas are there? : UC Press


Story References:

GANGA
Ganga Storam
- भगवति  Bhagavati: Goddess (Wikipedia)
- Devotion


-जय Jaya: Victory (Wikipedia)

Images:

Sanskrit in Sanskrit (Wikipedia Commons)


Top10Central


Ceas Yoga

Topic Research: Understanding Sanskrit and the Sounds of Sanskrit

Hello VagaBuddies,

At much encouragement, and with genuine curiosity, I have decided to do a storybook focusing on Sanskrit! (probably a death sentence but we will see!)
For this week's research, I decided to just focus on some of the sounds of Sanskrit and becoming familiar with how the language sounds. First, I started at Valmiki's Ramayana, which gave a wonderful page that allowed me to see the original Sanskrit, the romanticized Sanskrit, an English language, and English commentary about the passage, all at once! For about 15-20 minutes, I just tried to follow along the romanticized script! Even just that was pretty difficult!

A necessary phrase after trying to follow along Sanskrit : Illumine

After struggling through this a little bit, I decided to try to find linguistic descriptions of the sounds that Sanskrit uses that aren't in English, so I could try to familiarize myself with those sounds before I went back to trying to follow along. English already has a lot of vowels, so luckily I didn't have much to learn there, just a few consonant-vowel mergers such as ɽɪ (think of a classed rolled 'r' but only doing one tap instead of the full roll, and saying the vowel from 'sit' at the same time). For my own notes (or for other interested people), here are all the vowels of Sanskrit:

IPA Nagari IAST English approximation

ɐ अ, प         a         comma

aː आ, पा ā         bra

ɪ इ, पि         i         sit

iː ई, पी         ī         feet

ʊ उ, पु         u         look

uː ऊ, पू         ū         loot

ɽɪ ऋ, पृ         ṛ         as rri

ɽiː ॠ, पॄ         ṝ         as rrī

lɪ ऌ, पॢ         ḷ         as lli

liː ॡ, पॣ         ḹ         as llī

eː ए, पे         e         wait

ai ऐ, पै         ai         hi

oː ओ, पो o         old

au औ, पौ au         h'ow

◌̃ ँ         ◌̃/m̐ nasal vowel [ɐ̃], [ãː], [õː], etc.) *

*ok I have only like half an idea what this vowel is supposed sound like. 

The consonants of Sanskrit were a bit trickier. For the non-linguists, we describe consonants with three characteristics: where the sound is made with the tongue (the place of articulation), how the sound is made (manner of articulation), and whether you use your vocal cords or not (voicing). For example, the [p] in 'pit' would be described as a voiced (vocal cords are engaged) bilabial (made at your lips) stop (you one puff of air and then none more). One important note about Sanskrit is that it makes a distinction between aspirated consonants and un-aspirated consonants. In English, this would be like if the [p] sounds in 'pie' and 'ripe' were completely different letters. In 'pie' we also release a little bit of air when we make the [p] sound (called aspiration), but we don't when we make the [p] sound in 'ripe.' That tiny difference to us would be as clear as the difference between [b] and [p] to Sanskrit speakers, so it's something that I should watch for.

For next week's research topic, I want to delve further into what stories I could use. Right now, I still really enjoyed the Ganges Origin story that I talked about in my Ramayana Reading A Notes and the Story of this week, so I would like to use that story. Potentially focusing in-depth on a couple words to discover the full breadth of their meaning, or using a couple short mantras to describe broad trends in the stories! We will see next week!
Vaga-Buon Voyage

Topic Brainstorm for a Vaga-Project: TikTok, Sanskrit, Ancient Aliens, and Italy

Top Four Storybook Ideas:

•  If Ramayana Characters were on TikTok...

Tiktok is a new social media platform centered around short videos, often with a song or other audio playing over the video. It has a wide range of content from comedy shorts, dance trends, challenge videos, and sometimes just hot people staring into cameras (which somehow gets huge amounts of likes). If the characters of the Ramayana were on TikTok, what would their accounts look like? Would Hanuman create original funny skits? Would Ravana make "social experiment" prank videos as an excuse to do something mean to strangers? Would Sita have a makeup tutorial account? Would Rama film himself trying to learn the hot new dance? I think there is a lot of potential in this idea, and perhaps they all share their scripts with each other for feedback. Or maybe someone else is writing a review of all their best videos? 

This project would be similar to this Dating Profile storybook in that each character would have their own page in the storybook to develop their personality, their connection to the theme, and their connection to each other. 

Potential Lineup of the four main characters? : The Live Mirror

• Sanskrit and Indian Epics

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the two great Indian epic poems, and they were both written in Sanskrit. As one of the oldest still-spoken languages in the world (the most ancient form dates back to the second millennium BCE), Sanskrit is intimately tied to the history of India. Just as a study of ancient Romans like Caesar or Cicero is enhanced with a little bit of knowledge about Latin, I think that this class over the Indian epics would be enriched by a little understanding of Sanskrit. As a linguistics major, I love learning about other languages, and this would be the first language I study that doesn't use the Latin alphabet. What a challenge!

Links: Sanskrit Introduction | Sanskrit Revival

• Ancient Aliens

I don't really subscribe to conspiracy theories, but I find them so fascinating. Because these conspiracy stories often start with an unexplained phenomenon, such as myths of flying vehicles, I find these explanations interesting (think the Ancient Technology video from Youtube playlist of India-related videos). I think for this idea, I could try to place myself as a time traveler in these stories that have unexplained phenomena, and then I could "explain" all the phenomena as a modern-day scientist. I would love to find modern-day inventions and studies that relate to the fantastical topics that are described in these ancient texts!

Ancienct Aliens Meme, self-made : ImgFlip

• Italian Ramayana?

This is probably my least developed idea (hence why it is last), but I have a lot to work with. I rewrite several stories from the class, but it in modern-day Italy. Having spent a few months immersed in Italian culture as much as I could (and since I have several Italian friends), it might be interesting to put those characters and stories into an Italian context (leaning into some Italian stereotypes). Instead of traditional Indian food,  the characters could eat pasta ragu or lasagne. Instead of the Indian social hierarchy, there would be the Italian familial system where all family members live together until you are married after turning at least 30. I can even write in some dialogue, phrases, or short stories in Italian to keep it interesting! I guess maybe I am just looking for an excuse to practice my Italian in some way, but it's definitely an idea with some substance!

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Those are my top four ideas for a storybook project, and I can't wait to hear some feedback about it! If you're in my class, let me know which storybook you'd read! If you're not in my class, you're probably my mom so hi mom! Thanks for loading me up with groceries and doing my laundry last time I visited home!

Alright, Vaga-bye for now!