1. Possible Topic: The god Shiva. I have always heard of the god Shiva but I do not really know very much about him or what he stands for. I know he is still worshipped in India today, and I would like to learn more about that. I looked at the list of stories about Shiva and of course this story got my attention: Shiva tears off the head of his son. That sounds like an intense story that I would like to learn more about.

Research so far. Obviously, for this project I would be learning a lot about Shiva. I looked in the Encyclopedia at the course website where I learned that he is "the lord of songs: and "the lord of sacrifices." Sacrifices is something I would expect, but I am intrigued by "the lord of songs" - what does that mean? Is there a story about Shiva being a singer? It also says he is "the destroying principle" which fits with what I had heard about Shiva before. There were a lot of really cool images of Shiva in the Encyclopedia at the course website which really got my attention!

2. Possible Topic: Animal Characters. I love animal stories, so I think this is a topic that I would really enjoy. On the topics list there were many different kinds of animals listed: eagle, cow, bull, horse, elephant - but I did not recognize any of the names of these animal characters. There are a lot of monkey characters in the Ramayana! I really liked this one: the squirrels help build a bridge to Lanka. I think it would be so cool to include a story in my project about squirrels.

Research so far. Of the animals listed on the topic page, this one got my attention, so I looked up Ganesha in the Encyclopedia - and I found out that he is the son of Shiva, the one who got his head torn off by his father and then Shiva replaced it with an elephant head. Since Ganesha and Shiva are connected like this, that means I could tell the story of Ganesha and his elephant head as part of an animal Storybook, or in a Shiva Storybook.

3. Possible Topic: Demons. Well, I have to say that this topic caught my attention, mostly just because I was surprised to find it here. I read Dante's Inferno for a class, and we studied demons in literature and art in Europe during the Middle Ages. I cannot really understand why these rakshasas are called demons exactly. I would like to learn more about just it means to be a rakshasa.

Research so far: The topic page said Ravana was one of the most important demon characters, so I clicked on the link to learn more about him. The pictures are awesome! He has TEN HEADS. The Encyclopedia said he was "doomed to die through a woman" - that sounds like a serious story! It also says that he was a "ravisher" of other men's wives. Although the love life of a demon is not exactly what I thought about in connection with this topic (Dante's demons did not have love lives), I would be interested to learn more about all this. I can tell that Ravana will be a major character in the Ramayana.

4. Possible Topic: Birth Stories. This is probably the topic that intrigues me the most. People born from fish??? The list of characters did not mean anything to me, so I had to start by doing some research just to understand the topic.

Research so far: I clicked on the link for "The birth of the first monkey Riksharaja" - and all the webpage said was " The first monkey. He changes sex." - changes sex? That is interesting. Then I used the search box at the website and it says that on p. 184 of Buck's Ramayana we will read about how "the first monkey was created, Riksharaja, who lived both as a male monkey and as a female. In female form, Riksharaja gave birth to two monkeys, Vali whose father was Indra and Sugriva whose father was Surya, the sun god". If I decide to choose this topic, I will read this part of Buck's Ramayana to get all the details of that story. I still do not understand what it means that this monkey lived both as male and as female. It is intriguing.

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