Guidelines/Sample Questions for Classroom Use

With regard to the SCoPE specifications, questions that instructors may which to consider when planning lessons include, but are of course not limited to:

• What is an oral narrative? How might the Ramayana, a key story insofar as Hinduism is considered, function in community building, in the same way as the stories and other oral narratives with which the students may be familiar?
  
• Why are Rama and Sita ideals? Why are they "good" characters?
  
• Looking at the different “text” versions of the Ramayana linked to below, what are some of the more striking differences? Moreover, what are some of the important differences between the Indian versions of the text and the Indonesian Ramayana? What do differences between the texts tell us about their audiences?
  In the same way, how do students’ own narratives change in function of the people with whom they speak?
  
• Using the indexed version of Dutt’s verse translation of the Ramayana, how do students interpret words that they may not know such as “Rishi”? How does the context of the unidentified word elucidate its meaning; how might this practice of reading words contextually be applied in the other readings that the students conduct?

• One interpretation of Homer’s Odyssey is that, more than a homecoming, it is a story about identity: the story of Ulysses’ voyage is that of the resumption of a specific identity and role in society. In what ways might Rama’s journey be read in similar terms? What are the different roles that Rama plays – some which he loses and other which he acquires through his journey?
  
• One of the reasons that the Ramayana remains culturally important is that it is read in terms of its moral overtones. As much as it is a story rife with action, it also establishes archetypes and models in many of the same ways as fables, parables and even other religious texts. How might the connections between the text and its larger cultural and historical significance educate us about Hindu culture and more importantly, how might this process of linking texts, culture and history be practiced in terms of other narratives?

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