SOURCE: Dodson, Charles B. “Using Homer to Teach The Ramayana.” Teaching English in the Two Year College 28, no. 1 (September 2000): 68-73.

In the following essay, Dodson explores similarities and differences between the Ramayana and the Iliad and Odyssey.

Using more familiar works as benchmarks can effectively expand students' understanding and enjoyment of unfamiliar nonwestern literary works. For example, by the time I get to Valmiki's Indian epic, the Ramayana, in a sophomore world literature survey, the class has already read, among other things, a large chunk of the Iliad and all of the Odyssey. I can then ask students to read the Ramayana with the Homeric epics in mind and to look for both general and specific likenesses and differences in cultural assumptions, content, and style. My hope is that in this way they will come to recognize and appreciate the delights of a work that is sometimes strikingly...