Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Week 2 Reading Diary A: Starting the Ramayana

Wow, this is going to be an exciting Indian Epic to read! There is so much going on here, it was a bit overwhelming at first. However, when I stopped trying to pronounce all the names out loud it became a bit more bearable. This episode so far starts out in Ayodhya where Dasharatha is king. He has no children but he performs a sacrifice that allows him to get ahold of a special rice which he feeds his wives. They eventually get pregnant and he ends up with numerous children!

My favorite character in this episode is Rama. For starters, he is the child of Dasharatha and Kausalya which I’d like to believe is his favorite wife. Rama accompanies Lakshmana where he kills the demon Thataka. Finally, when Dasharatha relalizes he’s ill, he names Rama as his successor. When Kooni persuades Kaiekyi to oppose this, Rama does not protest.


Rama seems like he is going to be a very important character based on the episode so far. His name caught my eye because he was the first child to be born. It then talks about his defeat of the demon Thataka. Although Dasharatha has many children, Rama is the most talked about. Not only did he defeat a demon, but he didn’t even protest when someone opposed him as being the successor. That takes true wisdom and patience. I am looking forward to seeing the character of Rama develop once Dasharatha passes. I also thought it was really awesome that they threw in the origin of the Ganges River into this episode!

I have included a photo of Rama who is the avatar of the God Vishnu.

(Photo of Rama found online)



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