Reading Notes: Ramayana B

This week, I continue my reading of the Ramayana with part B. While it is a continuance of part A, I did notice a few things that made it slightly different. Namely, there is a lot of focus on dialogue, and what is conveyed within dialogue vs. narration. Previously, I had noted that the narration seemed to quickly gloss over large details sometimes vs. the narration going into longer, drawn out statements like in the wedding. In the story Rama and Bharata and Shurpanakha and Rama, there is a great effort made into lengthy monologues about a certain virtue such as honesty and integrity vs. a character such as Rama. These are interesting to the reader because of the care put into stringy out such a long description.

The other interesting story is Viradha, where a monster attacks Rama and his group. The most interesting thing about this story is that while they try to kill him with arrows and blows, for some odd reason, they decided to let him capture them, and put them on his shoulder, then cut off his arms. This is confusing overall, but this only makes the monster tired, so for some odd reason, it turns out that burying him in a pit will totally suffice. Despite Rama and his group trying to kill this monster for the entire story, the monster decides that after being put into a pit that he has been bested. It’s odd that a monster that has immunity to arrows can’t jump/climb out of a pit, but even weirder, he is admitted into heaven.

Then there is Shurpanakha and Rama, where I come to question the logic of the Indian deities further, as the lady tries to seduce Rama by turning into a beautiful woman and telling Rama that she is better than Sita. This is mostly confusing because if she is the sister of a God, why would she not just turn into another Sita, why would she not kill Sita first, or why would she not turn herself into qualities that Rama would find attractive? Then, after being rejected, she decides to attack Rama and be coercive, which seems like a good plan A.

While the story’s plot and details seem cogent overall, there is logical inconsistencies in the Ramayana that seem as though they exist for some kind of symbolism or larger theme. It will be interesting to continue reading, then to return to these observations and see if they still make sense.

The Demon, Marichi: Source, Wikipedia

Bibliography: Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition compiled from M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder.