Assignment

Part I is an in-class presentation using power point. You have to choose a slot during the final two weeks to make your presentation. The details of the presentation are given below.

Class Power Point Presentation:

Throughout the centuries, epic stories, themes, and persons were portrayed in visual and material forms across India and Southeast Asia. Such visual forms included paintings on paper and on stone-walls, sculpture on temple walls and palaces, and finally statues of different styles prominently placed in secular and sacred spaces. Into the modern period, such visual forms have been preserved in temples, museums, palaces, archives, museums, and private collections in India and the world. The finest of such visual forms are now available to view on the worldwide web.

Identify images of visual and material representations of classical epic narratives and create a power point presentation. Search the internet for high quality images of stories, persons, characters, events, and themes drawn from the classical texts you read this semester. Our texts include Mahabharata, Ramayana, Sakuntala and the Buddhist and Hindu stories.

Here are some guidelines to follow:

1. Your images must be from before 1850 A. D.

2. Your images should belong to the same art form (manuscript illustration, sculpture, wall painting, temple statues etc)

3. Your images should be accompanied by approximate place and date of production.

4. Describe the genre (painting, sculpture, statuary, etc) and style of the visual form. A genre can also be of a place or period.

5. Include a minimum of 5 images and no more than 10 images in your presentation.

6. Each slide may include two images at most.

7. Each power point slide must contain a title and descriptive information (name, theme, place, date, genre etc.)

8. Images chosen must be of a high quality (poor quality images do not project well). Museums have high quality images as to libraries.

9. If possible, provide information on where the visual form is being held or displayed.

10. Do not mix images, places, periods, genres in your presentation. To the extent possible, draw all of your images from a single source (place, period, style, genre, temple, etc) from the past. A given museum might have images from many different places and periods; therefore, be extra careful not to include images from disparate locations, periods, and genres.

Part II is a written essay due December 14. Please use standard 12-font, 1-inch margins, and double spacing. Do not quote from the texts. No block quotes. Please provide a title page with your name, course number and title of your paper.

Answer any one of the following three questions. Please use standard 12-font, 1-inch margins, and double spacing. Do not quote from the texts. No block quotes. Please provide a title page with your name, course number and title of your paper.

Question 1: Aesthetics (under 7 pages)

Provided below is a rudimentary dictionary definition of the word aesthetic. Using the definition of the term/concept, please discuss aesthetics in the classical texts (Mahabharata, Sakuntala, and the Book of Wilderness). This might include such things as sensations and emotions of the body, mind, nature, landscape and more.

AESTHETIC

adjective

1. relating to the philosophy of aesthetics; concerned with notions such as the beautiful and the ugly.
2. relating to the science of aesthetics; concerned with the study of the mind and emotions in relation to the sense of beauty.
3. having a sense of the beautiful; characterized by a love of beauty.
4. relating to, involving, or concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality.

noun

5. the philosophical theory or set of principles governing the idea of beauty at a given time and place:

the clean lines, bare surfaces, and sense of space that bespeak the machine-age aesthetic; the Cubist aesthetic.

6. Archaic. the study of the nature of sensation.

Question 2: Rakshasas in classical texts (under 7 pages)

How are the rakshasas represented in the epics Ramayana and/or Mahabharata? You may search the pdfs for descriptions of the rakshasas. You are required to provide examples drawn from the two texts provided. More importantly discuss themes and classifications; do not simply list the various examples.

Question 3: Nature in the classical texts (under 7 pages)

Provided below is a definition of nature taken from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Nature, forest, and wilderness has a strong presence in the Ramayana. Forest and wilderness is inhabited by many beings, from the sages and ascetics to the demons and beasts. Forests serve as a counterpoint to the kingdom and court. Please write an essay evaluating the role o forests and wilderness in the Book of Wilderness in the Ramayana.

Nature

noun

1. the material world, especially as surrounding humankind and existing independently of human activities.

2. the natural world as it exists without human beings or civilization:

3. the elements of the natural world, as mountains, trees, animals, or rivers.