Week 2: Rama's Exile (Reading Diary B)

For the second section of Narayan's The Ramayana, I liked finally seeing more of Ravana, who seems to be the main villain in the story and in the world of Rama.

I really liked how Bharatha handled the news that his mother tricked and sort of killed his father by cheating Rama out of the kingship and making Bharatha king. I thought he handled it very well and I like the idea of Rama keeping the vow of his father for 14 years but knowing he is coming back to his home to be king afterwards. I was also very happy that Sita and Lakshmana went with Rama to his exile in the woods. 

I think my favorite part of this section was when Ravana was so in love with Sita, despite never having seen, that he kept changing the seasons, sun, moon, weather, and seas to try and make himself more comfortable as he went through his love sickness. I also thought it was interesting watching is sister Sooranaka work to try to hide her love for Rama from her brother while also still trying to win Rama over.

It's incredible how often people in this story threaten to kill themselves. Seriously, whether they are angry or sad or in love or scared, someone is always threatening to drink poison or jump into fires.

I think I remember a different version of the story of Sita's kidnapping by Ravana in the movie The Little Princess (The Liesel Matthews version. I'm not sure if the Shirley Temple version included a story or not.) The story was different from the one in Ramayana but it featured a deer that exiled Rama was trying to get for Sita and Ravana disguising himself as a beggar man to trick Sita before kidnapping her. I like hearing different versions of myths and stories so I thought it was cool comparing the two versions. I'm excited to see how the endings match up.

The Death of Maricha. Wikimedia