Studying myth in India-1

It is a year since i enrolled myself into a course in comparative mythology with the mumbai university. The course is conducted by the sanskrit department at the university of mumbai. I have had a great time reading and studying myth and having dithered over it for a long time, i am glad that i finally did the course and more importantly completed it and even sat for the exams!! Twenty years after my last exam which, by the way was disastrous, i never thought i would go through with it.

To spin back a bit in time, i have been a student of economics and never really thought that i would study further after the terrible time i had doing my masters. I cant seem to remember any other time in my life where a subject seemed so totally out of whack with my abilities!!

But then I fell in love with stories and writing and mythology careened into my existence. I was well into my adult life by then -- mother of two daughters and juggling furiously between managing home and part time jobs and reading up the various mythologies of the world. My first reaction which, i think is that of every person who is interested in myth, was that of joy, surprise and then amazement at the similarities in language and imagery used by disparate cultures from all over the world.

The more i read, the more i was drawn into the layers and layers of meaning held by a single myth. I wanted to know more, read more, discuss more. Thus began my hunt for a space that would allow me to do that. And that is when it hit me that in a country that is universally considered to be a grandmaster of the mythic dimension, there are no avenues open for a student of the subject. A one-year diploma conducted by Sanskrit department conducted over weekends is the only place where myths are studied. The course is great and is taught by people who are genuinely interested in the subject. Its content is varied and designed to provide an impetus for further research in the subject. However, if like me, you do want to research the subject further, then welcome to the abyss. You can study it as part of religious philosophy under a guru or a godman; you can study it as a byproduct of psychology or sociology but, there is no pure study of myth possible.

Strange, isn't it, for a country that prides itself on its mythological tradition!