The Hindu Pantheon - A Webquest*

Religion: Hinduism

Purpose: to reinforce familiarity with major Hindu deities

Cognitive Skills: knowledge

Learning Styles: active, sensing, visual, global

Intelligences: visual-spatial

Use: at home 

For: individuals

Estimated time: an hour or more

Materials needed: Web access, color printer, paper or poster board (for mounting pictures), scissors, glue.

Alternative: Rather than use the Web, or as a supplement to it, students may find images in Hindu magazines or brochures they may pick up at a museum or local Hindu temple or Indian gift shop.

Note: Since this is such an extensive and time consuming activity, teachers may want to give students course credit (a grade) for the products they create.

The Activity:

Summary of activity: Students are to use the Internet to locate images of various Hindu deities discussed in class lecture and reading; and collect, compile, and identify these images, organizing them according to their relationships to one another.

End product may be a series of posters, a scrapbook collection, or a single, large poster. Product may also be electronic: a PowerPoint presentation or series of Web pages produced by the student.

1. Locate images of deities discussed in class lecture/reading (suggestions listed below)

• Visit various online "galleries" of Hindu deity images. Here are some you can try:

• Lakshmi International

• Kashmir: Hindu Deities

• The Hindu Galley

• Hindu Gods and Goddesses from the Sanatan Society

• Hindu deities to color (links to PDF files to download)

• Or you may use a Web search engine to locate specific images. Try these:

• www.google.com

• www.yahoo.com

• www.altavista.com

Hint: enter the name of the deity you are looking for. Some search engines (e.g., those noted above) will locate images for the key words you enter. When the results come up, look to see if there is a tab or link labeled "images." If you click on this tab you will see thumbnail images related to your key word rather than Web page links. You can then scan through these images until you find a picture you like (note that not all the images that come up will relate to the Hindu deity you are looking for).

You can also locate websites on Hindu deities simply by entering "hindu deities" into your preferred search engine.

• You may also cut images out of print media (booklets, etc.) that contain such images (booklets you might get at a museum or Hindu temple), though you might still need to use the Internet to supplement those you don't find in print resources.

Deities to locate (note that there are variant spellings for some of these deities):

2. As you locate each image, copy and paste it into your word processor or graphics application. Hint: to copy images, right click on desired image and select "copy"

Make one big poster:

• Adjust size and location of images on page to show the relationship and proper association amongst and between the deities (review your lecture notes or text if needed). To fit all the deities onto one piece of paper, you will likely want to limit the size of each to no larger than a credit card.

• Label each deity by name

• Alternatively: after adjusting the size of each image, you may print (preferably in color) and paste them onto a piece of construction, craft paper, or poster board in their proper positions with labels. If you are unable to print in color, you might want to hand color the images.

Make a series of posters or collection of scrapbook pages:

• Select several images for each deity, using one poster for each one or for those most closely related to each other.

• Label the posters/deities accordingly.

• Also: include a brief description of the deities and/or a brief story related to them (these can often be found at the same Websites you get your images from or at many other Hindu websites).

Create a PowerPoint presentation or series of Web pages:

• Follow above guidelines for making posters but make them in electronic format with each PowerPoint slide or web page as if it were another poster in the series.

Make a series of "trading cards":

• Like the posters, above, although smaller. Each card featuring a deity image and name on one side and information about that deity ("vital statistics") on the reverse. (these cards can be used as flashcards for study/review sessions)

However you do this, feel free to be as artistic and creative as you care to.

Here's a sample of what one student did (PowerPoint)

Web resources: see #1, above

Alternative possibilities: An art class can do this with images of famous paintings or statues. A music class can do this with images of instruments or notes. A science class can do this with kinds of animals. A world cultures class can do this with images of flags from different countries, silhouette outlines of countries, and identify important facts about the countries (e.g., population, size, capital, imports/exports, etc.). Similarly, this can be done for US states (state flags, birds, trees, silhouette outlines, state capitals). A history class can be asked to identify US presidents and some facts about their lives, etc...

* although this is not typical of what is usually envisioned as a "webquest" (i.e., a group, role playing activity addressing a complex issue), since this activity does involves students searching (on a quest) for information and images on the Web, I have chosen to call it a "Webquest"