Ramayana exhibition by students in Emory University
“Tell the Whole Story from Beginning to End:” The Ramayana in Indian Painting— exhibition has been launched at Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University (Carlos Museum), which will continue till May 20.
Claimed to be first-of-its kind art exhibit which was curated, organized and researched exclusively by Emory students; uniting artwork and classwork; in the class “The Art of an Hindu Epic”; which was taught by professors Ellen Gough and Marko Geslani from Emory’s Department of Religion.
The paintings in this exhibition are reportedly dated between the 17th and 19th centuries, including “The Coronation of Rama” (1840). Students included Darby Caso, Parth Goyal, Kristin Kimberlain, Saayli Kokitkar, Marshall Kupka-Moore, Elizabeth Muse, Thomas Shen, Tarun Swaminathan; most of whom had little background in art history; reports suggest.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, commended Emory University for highlighting Hindu heritage through Ramayana exhibition.
Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged major universities of the world; including Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, Cambridge, Princeton, UC Berkeley, Yale, Columbia, Toronto, Tokyo, Melbourne, etc.; to frequently offer Hinduism focused classes and exhibitions, thus sharing rich philosophy-concepts-symbols-traditions-art of this oldest religion with the rest of the world. If they needed any assistance, he or other Hindu scholars would gladly help, Zed added.
Carlos Museum, founded in 1919, “collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets art and artifacts from antiquity to the present”. Its collections include some 17,000 artifacts. Bonnie Speed is the Director.
Internationally recognized Emory University in Atlanta (Georgia), one of the world’s leading research universities, was founded by Methodists (university maintains a formal affiliation with the United Methodist Church) in 1836. It serves about 15,252 students with about $5.4 billion annual operating budget, and has been ranked among top in most beautiful campuses and happiest colleges. Dr. Claire E. Sterk is the President, while Robert C. Goddard III is its Trustees Chair.
Hinduism, third largest religion of the world, has about 1.1 billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. There are about three million Hindus in USA. Ramayana, a narrative poem of about 25,000 slokas beginning in BCE period is divided into seven kandas.
