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Story Web

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About This MicroSim

The Story Web places thirty works and writers of South Asian literature on a timeline, in five era columns from before 1 CE to today. Each dot is colored by language group: Sanskrit and Pali; Tamil and Kannada; Bangla; Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and related languages; Nepali and Pashto; English; and Persian, Arabic and Javanese (for tellings that traveled beyond South Asia).

Lines link works that retell, translate, answer or share stories with each other: the Valmiki Ramayana to its Tamil, Bangla, Awadhi, Nepali and Javanese tellings; the Jatakas to the Panchatantra and the Panchatantra to Kalila wa Dimna; Kabir to Tagore and Tagore to Nazrul; Waris Shah to Amrita Pritam's Partition poem; and more. Click or tap any dot to read its card: language, date, place, a one-line summary, and the reason for each of its links. Dates for early works are scholars' estimates.

How to Use

  1. Start with the Valmiki Ramayana, which is already selected. Read its card and follow the orange lines to the five later tellings.
  2. Click each linked dot. Note its language, its century and where it was composed.
  3. Click the Panchatantra and follow its link out of South Asia to Kalila wa Dimna.
  4. Use the language menu to show only one language (for example Persian, Bangla or English). Works in other languages fade.
  5. Untick Show all links to see only the links of the selected dot.
  6. Find the two dots with no links (Kalidasa, Akbar and Birbal) and propose a link of your own.

Learning Objective

Students will be able to trace how a story or literary form traveled across languages, faiths and borders by following links between works on a timeline.

Bloom level: Analyze (trace, compare).

Iframe Embed Code

<iframe src="https://aaryavvatts-lab.github.io/south-asian-culture-textbook/sims/ch14-story-web/main.html" height="852px" width="100%" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Grade level: 9 to 12 (world literature, world history, ethnic studies, or a South Asian student club meeting)

Duration: 20 to 25 minutes

Activity:

  1. (3 min) Ask students to name any South Asian story they know. List them on the board.
  2. (7 min) Pairs follow the Ramayana's links and fill in a table: telling, language, century, place.
  3. (5 min) Pairs follow the Panchatantra to Kalila wa Dimna and discuss how a Sanskrit fable book reached Europe.
  4. (5 min) Each pair uses the language filter to pick one language and writes two sentences about which eras it appears in and why.
  5. (5 min) Share: each pair proposes one new link for Kalidasa or Akbar and Birbal, with a reason.

Assessment questions:

  1. Name three languages, besides Sanskrit, in which the Ramayana was retold, and the century of each.
  2. Trace the route of the Panchatantra from India to the Arab world. Which two steps does the web show?
  3. Which link in the web crosses the border created in 1947? What does it tell you?
  4. Why do the English dots appear only in the last two eras?
  5. Pick one link and explain whether it shows retelling, translation or a writer answering an earlier writer.

Chapter 14: Stories and Literature