Comment Wall

Hello! Welcome to the comment wall for my storybook, The Women of the Indian Epics!

To access the storybook, click here!


Above is the image from my title page. The image is from Fred Miller and is titled, "Sita Drops Jewelry". It demonstrates Sita dropping her jewelry when she is captured by Ravana in order to leave a trail for Rama to come find her. I feel like this picture presents Sita as a strong female character and really embodies what I want my storybook to capture!

Comments

  1. Hi Piper! I loved the topic of your storybook and I love the look of it! I think the images go very well with what you are going to talk about. From the way you wrote your Introduction, I'm going to guess that you're doing an anthology of stories like me? I have to agree that the women in the stories don't seem to get quite as much voice as the men do. I love how you're going to talk about the different women of the Ramayana, especially Sita. I remember one part of the Ramayana after Ravana captures Sita and Sita gives Ravana a talking to. In the film Sita Sings the Blues it's even better. I hope some of that gets captured in your stories. My one suggestion to you so far is to double-check the spelling on some of the names of the women in your Introduction, I think Shurpanaka in particular might be misspelled. Other than that thought I think it looks fantastic and can't wait to read your stories!

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  2. Piper, I very much agree with you that the Ramayana was male centric. There were so many key ladies that didn’t get enough love and spotlight, it just wasn’t fair. My main issue reading the original was the treatment of Sita. I thought it was odd to have a hero focused on virtue treat his own wife that way, but I’m getting off topic. I think it’s great that you’re going to give the women a voice. I definitely think it will give a new light to the stories. I’m excited to see the format for your stories also. You have a great way to give these characters a voice that they didn’t have prior, so I can’t wait to see what you do with them! They’re all very unique women and this itself is a great idea! I look forward to seeing what you do with this. Great work!

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  3. Hi Piper! First of all, I love that on your Homepage with the "Sita Drops Jewelry" image the reader is already pre-introduced to "Women of The Ramayana" with Sita. By not only telling what scene the picture depicts, but also giving an analysis as to the strong characteristics that it shows Sita to have is a great appetizer to the main course which is your Storybook! Women of the Ramayana you include in your Introduction do indeed share these qualities of fearlessness, cleverness, and strength. You do have listed here a number of women, which I think will do well to give variety, I just want to warn you to not bite off more than you can chew! It will be a pretty big undertaking to retell so many stories, but I think it will be well worth it. I also want to mention that I noticed you've got some mothers, wives, and sisters- I wonder how you will approach telling the stories of these women with different titles and significance? I look forward to reading as you develop your Storybook further!

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  4. After reading your introduction I am very excited to continue to read your future stories on these female characters . I agree with everything you said about the strong female characters in these Indian Epics. Writing from their perspective will give another side to the story. Like you said that although they are important they are mainly there to enhance the male characters in the story. I am very familiar with Sita after reading the Ramayana but I am interested in reading about the other not so prominent characters. I like that you did a small introduction on each character that you plan on writing about as well. One suggestion would be to narrow down all the women you talk about in your intro to the few that you will add stories on. Overall I think you did a great job of hooking the reader in the beginning of the intro.

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  5. Piper,
    What a neat topic! I definitely agree of women seemed to be portrayed as inferior to me, although necessary for the story line and character development. I like that you listed out all the different examples and the significance of each. Are you planning to address everyone you listed throughout your storybook? One sentence I saw that could be confusing was "She is the daughter of King Janaka and Rama’s wife". It could be read as Rama's wife was her mother. That's just a small thought in the scheme of things though. I really hope you go through each of the women listed, because they all have different stories I would love to further examine. I wonder how you will manage to tie them all together. What if the women had a chat with each other, telling their stories?? I can't wait to read what you come up with.

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  6. Hi Piper!

    You have a great start to your storybook with thorough introduction to the theme. I concur that the tale of Ramayana was androcentric. I see that you have listed five key females that had vital roles in making Ramayana who he is noted as today. I appreciate that you are featuring the importance of these women in the form of diary entries. These women all have in their relation to Ramayana in common, however, I'm looking forward to reading the different twists each diary entries will have. I also really like the image choice on your introduction page. The depiction of five women goes well with the overall theme of your webpage.

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  7. Hello,
    I like the home page! I find it interesting and wondered which woman of the Ramayana you would do your stories about. The picture on the home page is also very interesting. When I read the introduction I liked what you were trying to do in giving the women of the Ramayana a voice. I didn’t realize it myself but the women in Ramayana really helped make it what it was. You highlighted many of the deeds that they did to make the story what it was. I think highlighting and pointing out the key stories that these women had influence in that shaped the Ramayana into what it is, is a good idea. I personally glazed over a few of these recognizing the women but them being overshadowed by the men such as Rama and Ravana. The only one I really remembered well that played a huge part was Sita. It is nice to see that the others were quite important as well.

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  8. Hi again Piper! I decided to come back to your storybook for this week and read the first story. Your first story turned out really well! I love that you told a story from Kooni's point of view. While reading my version of the Ramayana, I didn't like her very much. Your story made me feel some empathy for the character. I enjoyed getting to hear this part of the Ramayana from her point of view and get an insight into her thoughts. Have you thought about breaking up the story into a couple of paragraphs? It's up to you, but I think it could make it a little easier to read instead of reading a big block of text. Other than that, the story was well written and I can tell you've put much thought into this project and your stories. Great work! I look forward to reading the other stories when they're published.

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  9. Hi Piper! I think the concept for your storybook is really great! The women of the Ramayana really are the driving force behind the narrative, yet they do not get the attention they deserve. By putting their stories and histories in the spotlight, you are creating a part of the epic which was unfortunately neglected. I think that your focus on Kooni, Kayikei, and Sita is really interesting. These are probably the three most important women to the plot of the Ramayana, but they might not be the first three you think of. I know that by the time I had finished reading the Ramayana, I forgot about Kooni's manipulation. Giving a rationale to her deceit and rounding out her motivation makes her a much more relatable and understandable character. I rally like that you gave her an inner voice! You did a great job telling her story with anecdotes and reasonable reasons for her to hate Rama.

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  10. Hey there Piper! I am so happy to see that you have decided to take this class.. Many AOII's don't know that I am actually a Religious Studies major along side my Pre-Med route, I am now in the Myth and Folklore class, but Indian Epics is one of my favorite classes at OU for sure! I was excited to see that you decided to write about the women of the Ramayana because I too believe that there is a lack of insight from the female point of view that needs to be explored. I love the bright colors that you chose along side your images for your sight, as they really tie into your topic overall. The stories that you explained in your introduction sound extremely fascinating, and I really look forward to reading more of them now that I had the chance to read about Kooni. I am especially happy that you were able to check out "Sita Sings the Blues," as it is one of my favorite things in the entire world. I chose to write my entire project over Sita when I was in Indian Epics, and so I really look forward to seeing how you present her when the time comes. Great job Piper!

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  11. Hi Piper, I must say your introduction does a great job of preparing your reader for your coming stories! It's a clever idea to link each character's story in the Introduction and I hope that you continue adding as they come out. When I first read the Ramayana, I hated Kooni. Well, I hated both her and Kaikeyi for doing this to Rama, but she started it. However, your story for her shows that she wasn't coming from a place of malice, but of genuine concern. The Ramayana glosses over the fact that Rama used to tease her relentlessly, which givers her ideas credibility. One thing I wonder is if she does not like Dasharatha solely because he preferred Rama, or if there was another reason. As well, why was Rama so kind to everyone but her? Teasing doesn't seem like something Rama would do. Either way, I'm excited to see how you continue to develop the "hidden" side of the Ramayana with these tales!

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  12. Hi Piper! Wow! I really love all the colors on your home page. The banner picture is awesome as well.. Your page is sso well laid out and easy to navigate. Having all of the links to your stories on your home page is a really smart way to lay everything out. Your introduction was super informative and helped me to understand the background of each of the women in your stories. Your first story is really well written and fun to read. I like how we can see Kooni's thoughts that will eventually lead her to convince Kaikeyi to use her boons for Rama's exile and Bharata to be crowned king. Kausalya's story was the perfect follow up to Kooni's story, It gave you the other perspective of the characters. I wish there was a little dialogue between Kooni and Kausalya. It would be fun to see Kausalya's suspicions confirmed.

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  13. Hello Piper!
    I really enjoy your easy to read intorduction and it really guides you through your site very well.. I enjoyed your informative and creative intoduction because it gives me a great basis if I had no prior knowledge of these woman in the storylines. I like how you mentuon that very few woman in indian epics have a voice to share thei opinions. I think an instance I noticed this in was when Kunti was given the abilty to desire a child with whatever God she chose, but she encountered an issue with this when she fell preganant with Karna. I actually enjoy that story because it seems like the only time I encountered where a womans emotions were shown.. I think you have a great topic with your storybook. I enjoy how you take advantage of your storybook by making them first person- like a diary. It shows their true unfiltered emotions and really helps you understand the character more.
    Great job!

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  14. Hey Piper!
    I first want to say that I really enjoyed getting to browse through your storybook this week, I first noticed your home page and thought it was very neatly designed. I have not seen a home page like this yet but I really thought it was helpful. It gave the overall idea of your project and also allowed me to see your other storybook stories. From the home page, I went to your introduction post and was very pleased on how informative it was. I was fully able to grasp what your overall theme of the storybook was going to be. I was not familiar with the women in your stories but after reading your introduction I was able to gain knowledge on each of them. I think it was neat how you were able to give storylines to characters but in your own perspectives, and give each of the women their own opinions. Overall, great job with your project, I look forward to reading more from you!

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  15. Hi Piper. I love that you went so in with this project that you bought a domain name! That's dedication! I also think looking at the Ramayana from the point of view of the women is a fantastic idea! Starting with Kooni's Story, you have turned an angry, bitter character into someone who is sympathetic and possibly even justified. Your Author's Note does a great job explaining you reasoning behind the story, especially the quoted passage. Following Kooni's Story with Kausalya's Story was a great move. you did a really good job presenting the different points of view of the same events. I also really liked how you portrayed Kausalya to have some guilt in this situation. Again, your Author's Note does an excellent job laying out your thoughts behind this story. Moving to Sita's Story, it's very interesting hoe markedly different she is from the women in the two previous stories. You have given all three their own distinct personalities, but Sita is just so drastically different from the others. And once again, your Author's Note does a great job laying out what you were thinking about when putting this story together. Great job!

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  16. Hi Piper!
    I really like that you took the stories of the Ramayana and told them from the female’s perspective. That is one that that I noticed too, most of the stories have woman as key characters, yet they have no voice.
    For your introduction, I really like that you outline each story and why it’s so important that the female’s be a part of the story and how pivotal they are. Like with Kausalya, how you said she brought Rama into the world and without Rama, there would be no Ramayana. You give a good, brief preview of what the reader is going to encounter on your page. I like how your introduction is set up.
    For your second tale, Kooni’s story, I like how in the introduction she is asking questions to herself. I like this type of writing because it gives insight into what the character is really thinking. I also really like how you go into detail as to why Kooni hates Rama so much. How he teased her and made her very insecure about being a hunchback. This gives validity to her hatred and it’s easy to understand why she would not want him as king.
    I think you did a great job explaining in your author’s note why you chose Kooni’s story to retell and how you felt empathy for her situation. Great job on your page!

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  17. Hey Piper!

    The last time I commented in regards to your project, I only reviewed the homepage and the introduction.. Now that you have all uploaded all of your stories, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories in the female perspective of Ramayana. Because you wrote the stories from a first person narrative, it almost seems like the stories are that of a journal entry style, which is even more relatable for the readers. I also appreciate the images you incorporated for your project. I especially like how you detailed the caption of every image. Images really help elevate the understanding of stories, and I think the illustrations you chose were very spot on. Your author's note really helped further the understanding of every story, which allows readers to relate to the theme. I feel like you already have a pretty finalized project and there is not a suggestion I can really give. You have done a great job in terms of theme, style, and prose.

    From my understanding, you have one more story in the perspective of Kaikeyi. I look forward to reading the last story and reviewing your finalized storybook!

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