Storybook Topics

1. Possible Topic: Rakshasas. I think that this topic would be a good one. There are many different rakshasas, and rakshasis, to chose from. The one that made me want to do this topic was Shurpanakha. She was in love with Rama and took revenge when he rejected and embarrassed her. I found her to be quite interesting so it would be nice to learn the stories of the other rakshasas.
Research so far: The first thing that I did was use Wikipedia to look up rakshasas. I was able to see a couple of the rakshasas that were in the Ramayana, such as Ravana, Vibhishana, and Kumbhakarna. It also named a couple that are in the Mahabharata such as Hidimba, Bakasura, and Kirmira. I also looked through a couple storybooks on the topic. The storybook that caught my attention was 1000 Ways To Die: Demon Edition. It is about the deaths of the demons in the stories.

Possible Topic: Women characters. I think that this would be a good topic because there are so many interesting women in these stories. The first ones I think of is Sita. She is such an interesting character and stands beside Rama in many of the stories. She also chose to go into exile with him even though she didn't have to.
Research so far: I did the Wikipedia search on some of the women characters. The main research I did though was looking for ideas in the storybooks about women. I liked how some of them focused on the evil women, like the Evil Women of the Ramayana. I also liked how some of solely focused on a particular woman, like Sita: A Song of Valor.

Possible Topic: Birth Stories There are so many characters that have such an interesting birth story. I think it would be cool to incorporate a couple different stories for the storybook. An example would be the sons of Dasharatha and Sita and I am interested in learning about more of them.
Research so far: I did a Wikipedia search and also looked at some storybooks on the subject. The Wikipedia sources are very helpful in learning about the different births and I love how the birth stories storybooks incorporated them into a cohesive story. The birth elements was most interesting to me. It showed the different characters that were born from the four elements: water, earth, wind, and fire. I don't think I would have thought of putting them together like that.

Possible Topic: Love Stories I think this would be good because you could show not only the good things about some of the couples but also the couples that are dysfunctional. The one that made me interested in this is Dasharatha and Kaikeyi. At first, they don't seem like they are too bad of a couple but then you are able to see just how manipulative Kaikeyi can be.
Research so far: My research so far has been in finding a few couples that would work. Obviously I would consider using Dashartha and Kaikeyi. I would probably use Rama and Sita. The others I would have to decide after we do some more readings. I also did a Wikipedia search that tells a summary of the different couples so this would be a good reference. I looked through some storybooks to see how other people have interpreted the stories. There were two storybooks that stood out to me as I looked through. They were How I Met Your Mother and also Sita and Rama Seek Marital Therapy.

Rama and Sita Enthroned. Source: Wikimedia Commons