Week 1: Orientation

Orientation Activities - Instructor: laura-gibbs@ou.edu

Course Content Overview (and Quiz)

This overview has several pages, so make sure you take a look at each one:

The Quiz

Now that you are done with the introduction, you are ready for the quiz. Below you will find a list of all the questions that might be on the quiz. Each time you take the quiz, 10 of these questions will be selected at random. You can take the quiz up to five times until the deadline has passed, and the system will keep track of your average score.

Each question contains four statements, one of which is false. One of these statements is FALSE, and it is your job to identify the false statement. This is the format we will use for all of the reading quizzes in this class (you will have two reading quizzes like this each week), so I hope this introductory quiz will help you get used to the format.

Remember: there is only ONE false question in each group.

Which statement is false?
a. Both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata exist in many different versions.
b. The poet Kamban lived in the 5th century B.C.E.
c. The Ramayana is pronounced Ra-MA-ya-na.
d. The Pandavas and the Kauravas are cousins.

Which statement is false?
a. Sanskrit has exactly the same sounds as English.
b. In ancient India, the oral tradition was prized more highly than the written tradition.
c. The letter c represents the sound "ch" in Sanskrit.
d. Hindi is a language related to Sanskrit.

Which statement is false?
a. The five Pandava brothers are the heroes of the Mahabharata.
b. The Bhagavad-Gita is a book contained within the Ramayana.
c. You will read two different versions of the Ramayana in this class.
d. Sanskrit was the great literary language of ancient India.

Which statement is false?
a. R.K. Narayan is an Indian writer.
b. You will read two different versions of the Mahabharata in this class.
c. Vishnu is the protector and preserver of the universe.
d. The Mahabharata is exactly the same length as the Iliad and Odyssey combined.

Which statement is false?
a. Tamil is one of the languages of southern India.
b. The Krita Yuga is the best age.
c. Sita is abducted by Hanuman who carries her off to Lanka city
d. Rama goes into exile together with Sita and Lakshmana.

Which statement is false?
a. Characters like Rama, Hanuman, and Krishna are still worshipped today.
b. The poet Kamban wrote a version of the Ramayana in the Tamil language.
c. Rama finally confronts Ravana and defeats him in battle
d. We are living in the Kali Yuga, the best age in history.

Which statement is false?
a. Daśaratha is the main hero of the Mahabharata.
b. Buck's English adaptation of the Ramayana is based on Valmiki's Ramayana.
c. Krishna is an incarnation of the god Vishnu.
d. Kaikeyi compels Daśaratha to send Rama into exile.

Which statement is false?
a. Narayan's English adaptation of the Ramayana is based on a Tamil version.
b. Hanuman is Rama's devoted friend.
c. Rama is the father of Daśaratha.
d. In the Indian tradition, there is a sacred reality contained within the vocal utterance.

Which statement is false?
a. There are several different ways that Sanskrit names can be written in English.
b. Rakshasa is the Sanskrit word for monkey.
c. The word avatar means incarnation.
d. Daśaratha has three wives and four sons.

Which statement is false?
a. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are oral epics.
b. Many of the characters in the Ramayana are demons.
c. Rama is an incarnation of the god Ganeśa.
d. Lakshmana is devoted to his brother Rama.

Which statement is false?
a. Krishna is a character in the Mahabharata.
b. The Ramayana is about the adventures of Rama.
c. Rama is a human incarnation of the god Vishnu.
d. The Iliad and the Odyssey are ancient Sanskrit epics.

Which statement is false?
a. The "s" in Daśaratha is pronounced as "sh".
b. When Greek writing was invented, the Greek oral epic tradition died out.
c. Both the Ramayana and Mahabharata have "happily ever after" endings.
d. The Mahabharata culminates in the Battle of Kurukshetra.

Which statement is false?
a. Ayodhya is the capital city of Kosala.
b. Hanuman is an eagle.
c. Krsna is a variant spelling of the name Krishna.
d. William Buck is an American writer.

Which statement is false?
a. Valmiki's Ramayana probably dates to around the 6th century C.E.
b. The Mahabharata and Ramayana are part of a still living religious tradition.
c. The books by Buck and Narayan are adaptations, not translations.
d. The events of the Ramayana precede the events of the Mahabharata.

Which statement is false?
a. A mantra is an incarnation of Vishnu.
b. Kishkinda is the kingdom of the monkeys.
c. Bharata is the son of Queen Kaikeyi.
d. Ganeśa is the elephant-headed god.

Modern Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. The textual material made available at this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. No claims are made regarding the status of images used at this website; if you own the copyright privileges to any of these images and believe your copyright privileges have been violated, please contact the webmaster. Page last updated: October 16, 2007 12:22 PM