When I read the first chapter of Ramayana I was amazed at the detail used to describe the events and settings of the piece. I was also intrigued by how many different stories were incorporated into the chapter. I can really see why this is the basis of the Hindu faith because it explains the history of all of the different places and important people. I was amazed at the sheer number of characters introduced in the very first chapter!
I struggled with pronunciation in the first chapter because all of the names are extremely different from anything we have here in the states. It was also hard at first to keep track of how everyone was related and I kept getting the genders of characters confused because I thought most of the names sounded feminine. Story wise however I found the text pretty easy to follow and very fun to read.
To help me understand Ramayana I find it very helpful to keep a running character chart with little notes on what gender people are and how they relate to one another. I think if I didn't do this I would probably be extremely confused already. It's also helpful to have small notes on some of the Indian terms like 'yagna' and 'asuras' since I have never even heard those words before.
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