You Who Have Sprung from Heaven and Earth:
A Self-Directed Exploration of Hindu Mythology

RATIONALE:

• To introduce students to Hindu mythology.
  
• To develop students' creativity and imagination.
  
• To afford students practice in research procedures and techniques.
  
• To encourage students to grow as self-directed learners.
  

SOURCES:

• Descriptions of Vishnu and Shiva (Provided below)
  
• Art supplies: paper, an assortment of markers and colored pencils.
  
• A variety of books on Hindu mythology. One excellent source: The World's Great Religions, edited by Sam Wells and published by Time Books. Another: Larousse World Mythology, edited by Pierre Grimal and published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

STRATEGIES:

• Let students choose one of the descriptions of either Vishnu or Shiva provided below. Provide art materials and have students draw the god of their choosing.
• After drawings are completed, motivate and focus students' research by referring to their pictures. Have them generate questions they would like to have answered: Why is Vishnu usually blue? Why is the goddess Ganga in Shiva's hair?
• With questions in hand, students then gather all the information they can about their god. Discoveries are then presented to the class.
• After student presentations, explain the concept of Vaishnavites and Shaivites within the Hindu religion. Show pictures of Shiva and Vishnu sadhus.

Vishnu, the Sustainer

Vishnu is generally represented pictorially as a beautiful adolescent, blue in colour. In his four hands Vishnu holds his conch, the terrible discus, a mass of arms and a lotus-flower. He is dressed like a king, with a jewel-studded crown. On his chest is a tuft of curly hair, the Srivatsa, a particular object of devotion, and the jewel Kaustubha. His mount is the god-bird Garuda.

Shiva (Siva) the Destroyer

Hindu art portrays him in numerous, very different, ways. In his anthropomorphic aspect, he usually has four arms: the two upper hands hold a tambourine and a trident, the two others make gestures of giving and reassuring. In the center of his forehead is a third eye: it is sometimes also scored with three horizontal bands. The god is wrapped in a tiger skin, he wears a serpent as a necklace, another as a sacred cord, and others are wound round his arms. His hair is twisted and often dressed in the high chignon associated with the ascetic and ornamented with a crescent moon. Sometimes the fifth head of Brahma can be seen in the hair, or the goddess Ganga (the Ganges). He is mounted on Nandi, the bull.

EVALUATION:

As students have generated the information for this unit, they should also generate the questions to be included on the final test. Each group (of either Vaishnavites or Shaivites) should write ten questions pertaining to its presentation. These questions are administered to the class and corrected by students.

NOTES:

• Gather a variety of sources for students that represent all reading skill levels.
• Encourage students to investigate stories as well as more formal sources such as enclyclopedias.
• An opportunity for more practice with artisic expression can be provided by allowing students to draw additional manifestations of their god as they encounter them in their research and/or to illustrate stories they read that pertain to their god.
• Take care in using the word "mythology." I use it here because I also use it when refering to Christian stories such as Noah and the flood and Jonah and the whale.

• As I introduce the unit, I make some crucial points about religion and the study of it in the public schools:
  • Our purpose it to learn, not convert.
  • All religions are afforded equal respect in my classroom.
  • Religious practices vary widely within each religion.
  • Distinctions should be made between traditional practices and texts and modern manifestations of them. A comparison between the religious practices of our early forefathers (Puritans who believed that dancing and doing any work whatsoever on Sunday was immorral) and contemporary religious practices in our own community are helpful in explaining this point.
  • In discussing Vaishnavites and Shaivites, I point out that there is not the antagonism that historically has characterized the relationship between many Christian denomination, for example, Catholics and Protestants, Baptists, Quakers, and Mormons. This is a good opportunity to explain the concept of diversity and tolerance within the Hindu tradition.