Week 5: Maricha's Choice (Storytelling)

I sat quietly on a rock in the middle of the forest. I meditated like this every day now…every day since I fought Rama all those years ago. 

One of the first heroic acts that Rama accomplished was fighting my family. He killed my mother and brother. I barely escaped with my life. After that encounter, I decided that a life of destroying the earth and tormenting of the sages was just not worth the cost. I now live alone in the forest. It was a much more peaceful life than most rakshasas had.

The morning was perfect for meditation. Sunlight filtered through the tree leaves. A stream near by trickled and splashed. I breathed slowly, taking in the tranquility of my surroundings.Birds sang around me and I was overcome by peace.

But the feeling was soon shattered when the birds all went silent and the chill of a shadow loomed above me.

I opened my eyes to discover what had changed my serene environment. A chariot had just landed nearby and my nephew was climbing out of it.

Ravana  walked towards the rock where I sat. I didn't move but watched as he slowly approached. “Uncle,” he said, as he looked over me, “are you doing alright?” I’m sure I looked strange to him, wearing all black deerskin and sitting calmly in the forest. He hadn't visited often since I chose my life of peace.

“Ravana, just tell me what you want,” I said, and began taking deep breaths. I could feel myself getting anxious under the king’s scrutiny.

“A girl,” he answered. “Sita. I think you've heard of her…” I didn’t answer. “She’s the wife of-”

“I know who she is married to! Don’t say his name around me!” I yelled. Then I shut my eyes and focused on calming my heart-rate again. However, Ravana grew impatient.

“Fine," he snapped. "You-know-who has slain armies of our people. He and his brother disfigured my sister. And I want Sita.”

“He let me live once,” I said. “He could have killed me but he let me run. And now I live a life of peace, Ravana. I can’t help you. What you want is foolish. If you keep going, it will be the end of all of us. You’ll lose everything for the sake of one girl who will never accept you.”

My nephew scoffed at me. “I won’t lose. You do realize who you’re talking to, right? I've defeated gods. One man won’t stand in the way of what I want. I’ll steal Sita away and he won’t even know what happened.”

“You sound like a fool. It won’t work. You will die along with everyone else who stands with you. And that won’t include me. I’m not stupid enough to go against him again. If that's all you came here to ask you should just leave me.”

I watched my nephew as a cruel smile spread across his face. “I was afraid you’d say that, Uncle Maricha. I tried to give you a chance and you just wouldn't take it. But you will help me.”

“No,” I said, growing more anxious by the minute. “I’m at peace, Ravana. Leave me be. If I helped you, I’d be dead within a day.”

“If you don’t, you’ll be dead sooner,” he said coldly. “You help me, or I kill you. You will have a chance to escape Rama again if you help but you will die for sure if you refuse. Which will you have? Shall I end you now?”

I watched my cruel, violent nephew analyze my every twitch while I considered his offer. Despite what he said, I knew either way I’d be dead before the sun set this evening. But I suppose I’d rather be killed by Rama, a good, heroic man, than my villainous nephew.

“Fine,” I said slowly, “tell me what to do.” Ravana smiled and I followed him into his chariot as he began talking about the beauty of a golden deer. 

Events at Panchavati Forest. Wikimedia

Author's Note: I chose this story because of I loved all of Maricha's background and life story. Maricha is probably my favorite rakshasa to learn about because of his change from evil and destructive to a calm and secluded lifestyle until Ravana forces him into service. Of all the villains Rama faces in his quests, I feel like Maricha is one of the most innocent even though he helps Ravana kidnap Sita. Of course, Rama doesn't know this because he is unaware of Ravana's threat to Maricha.

After Rama killed Maricha's mother, Tataka, and brother, Subahu, Maricha ran away and swore he would stop his violent tendencies and devote himself to peace and calmness. This part of the original story caught my attention because it seems like most characters in Maricha's situation vow for vengeance and become more evil. However, Maricha tries to make a better life for himself. For years Maricha succeeds until his nephew, Ravana, the King of the rakshasas, comes to Maricha with an ultimatum.

For my story, I kept the beginning and the end the same. I added some information about Maricha's peaceful lifestyle. I also didn't keep any of the dialogue between Ravana and Maricha the same, particularly because they talk for a while. I tried kept the overall feel and message that each character portrayed true to the original. The biggest change was putting the story into Maricha's point of view. 

I thought this made for an good but tragic story because after all his work to change his life, this scene undoes everything he's worked for and effectively signs his death warrant no matter what he chooses. 

Bibliography: Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way. 

Week 5: Sita's Abduction (Reading Diary B)

This section of Buck's Ramayana was very similar to Narayan's, most likely because this is the section that Narayan went into the most detail during.

My favorite part of this reading was Ravana's encounter with Maricha. I thought that Maricha's character was interesting in Narayan's version, and in Buck's we seemed to go into much more detail with Ravana and Maricha's conversation about Sita and Rama. I like how after Maricha survives the fight with Rama, unlike the other rakshasas, he takes a step back and realizes that he should just walk away from the fighting and live. If other demons had done that, Rama would have had a much easier job and their world would have been pretty peaceful. In this section, Maricha is one of the only people telling Ravana the truth honestly trying to help him. He even tells him that Surpanaka isn't someone who should be trusted and that Ravana would lose everything if he went on this stupid mission.

When Maricha finally agrees to help, after Ravana threatened to kill him, I thought his line "It is better to be killed by the better person" was very interesting. With that statement, it shows that, while Maricha is helping Ravana, he thinks Rama is person who should (and will) win in the end. I understand why he does this, he doesn't want Ravana to kill him, but it would have been interesting if Maricha had warned Rama before he was killed.

Rama stalks the Demon Maricha. Wikimedia

Another section that Buck expanded on was the story that Indra tells Sita about Ravana's curse and how it came to be.  I thought that this story added to the overall narrative, by explaining Ravana's actions towards Sita.

Week 5: Exile before Sita's Abduction (Reading Diary A)

One of the first things in this weeks reading that caught my attention was when Bharawaja blessed the three queens, including Kaikeyi. In Narayan's Ramayana everyone (except for Rama) hated Kaikeyi for a while. People tried to curse her and Bharata was so refused to be near her in the beginning. But in Buck's version, everyone is much quicker to forgive, as seen by Bharawaja blessing her, and then Bharata comforting her. In this version, she also seems to realize at this point that she was wrong to do what she did. I also found it interesting that after blessing Kaikeyi, Bharawaja said that it would be for the best in the end and that Rama would help many people during his exile. I thought that this was a nice touch to Buck's story to give everyone involved more hope than in Narayan's version.

I also like that in Buck's retelling of Ramayana there are more details about people that Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana met during their travels. I thought that the gifts given to Sita by Apsarases were interesting. Through Narayan's tellings and some of Buck's, it seemed that Sita was already the most beautiful woman on Earth, yet Apsarases gave her enchanted jewelry and ornaments which would make her the most beautiful, and stay beautiful forever. While I could see giving Sita gifts to allow her to keep her beauty forever, which is what this seemed to be, it still took me by surprise based on Sita's previous descriptions in Ramayana.

Rama visits Atri. Wikimedia

One thing that I particularly liked about this last section of Buck's Ramayana was that it had the time frame. Throughout Narayan's story, I was trying to keep up with how long Rama had been exiled but it was difficult to follow. I was so happy when I read that at the end of this section, Buck said that Rama had now been exiled 13 years. In Narayan's story, in my mind, Sita was abducted much earlier than that and Rama spent years looking for her, since he seemed to do a lot. But at least in Buck's version, I liked knowing how close they were to the end of the exile. 

The last thing that I wanted to talk about from this section is the differences in Surpanakha's confrontations with Rama and Lakshmana. Until she attacked Sita,  it was interesting because the exchange seemed quite civil and polite. I mean according to Buck, an ugly demon came up to the three, tried to convince first Rama to marry her, then Lakshmana afterwards. Both of them politely declined, saying they were already married. Lakshmana even blessed her and wished her luck with finding a husband. This is very different from Narayan's version where Surpanakha was trying to trick Rama and both he and Lakshmana tried to cast her out before she attacked Sita. I liked Buck's version much more and thought that it was kind of entertaining how they interacted before Surpanakha attacked Sita.