To appreciate my chosen topic of fascinating settings in Indian epic stories, let me first explain the evolution of my interest in geography and cartography.  While I was growing up in southern Oklahoma, my family and I traveled frequently on long car trips on vacation.  My father always prepared for these junkets to the last detail, which included bringing plenty of AAA travel guides with us.  So, with plenty of idle time in the car and before the infancy of the Gameboy, I fell in love with the maps which led us through our adventures.  My dad always asked me be his designated navigator which made me feel really important, like I was filling a vital role on our journey.  Interestingly, I especially liked to study the guides of places where we were not going - it was really fun to imagine how those places looked and which route we would take if we were to go there.  This earlier fascination has never wavered and is the genesis of my home office being covered, wall-to-wall, with maps from around the world!  I still especially like looking at the spots on the maps that I have not yet visited.

Therefore, when I began reading the Ramayana, and having never been to India, my mind began imagining the locations about which we are reading - were they as big, beautiful, and ornate as they are described in Narayan's version?  Were any of them real places or were they mythical?  If they existed, do they resemble anything today like they are described in the book? 

 
Additionally, I have always been interested in large, very urban cities.  When we were introduced to Rama’s exile into the forest, however, I was filled with curiosity about what a bizarre experience living amongst the trees in such a rural environment would be.  It reminds me of a favorite childhood book of mine – My Side of the Mountain – about a young boy named Sam who leaves home and learns to survive in the Catskill mountains of New York all by himself.  When Sita is peering outside at the deer in the forest hut that her brother in-law Lakshmana built, I wondered how sturdy of a place that must be and if her family's challenges were similar to Sam's experiences living in a hollowed-out tree.

Through adulthood, I have been fortunate to travel frequently and no matter my destination, I always find something new, unique, and intriguing there.  Sometimes it is architecture, other times people and their culture, and still it can be the way the "system" of the place operates - for example, public transportation and the level of modern conveniences.  I still cannot sleep well the night before a trip to somewhere new - I get very excited!  I have always considered this to be a by-product of growing up a green, wide-eyed Okie; therefore, I will describe my chosen places and settings in my storybook from the extreme naïve hillbilly’s point of view.  So sit back and enjoy as this hick pulls out his maps and leads us all on a clumsy tour of a few selected locations in Ramayana's and Mahabharata's India!

On our Okie’s junket, we will visit:

The Monkey Kingdom of Kishkindhya: Holy smokes, can yew think up a more crazy place than where a buncha little apes are runnin’ and rulin' all over the dad-gum place?  I gotta think it sure smells funny, just like when me and the wife went over to that miniature animal city up der in Tulsa!  I think they call it a zoo but I don't think that word's really American cuz I don't know a single word that starts with Z, 'cept maybe when you gotta copy sumthin' so you Zee-rox it.

Ayodhya: Man, that place is even bigger than Enid or Lawton!  It’s got really purdy buildings just like the pictures of the skyscrapers we sometimes see on those re-runs of Dallas on the teevee!  Plus, this town has had about a cuzillion names in its history, but they say the word "Ayodhya" means "don't be warrin' against it" in Sanskrit.  Dang, I sure wish dem Hatfields' real name was the Ayodhyas cuz then maybe the McCoys wouldn't'a ben warrin' against dem so much!