At the start of Buck’s Ramayana, I am reminded of how overwhelmed I was
at the beginning of Narayan’s Ramayana. There are so many different characters and
so many different backgrounds that I feel it is nearly impossible to fully keep
up with the story. However, because I now have somewhat of a background on SOME
of the characters I was able to keep up (barely). In here we read about the
birth of Ravana. He is a destructive person from the beginning which isn’t
surprising at all. In here it also talks about his curse by Nandi, Shiva’s
bull. We learned from the first version of the Ramayana that he was cursed and that
it was said in his curse that he would be killed by a monkey so it was interesting
to learn about that curse in retrospect! There was also a large battle that
took place between Ravana and the god of death and it supposedly took place one
year before the birth of Rama. I was glad to get a timeline of how Rama and
Ravana come into play. This also included the wedding of Rama and Sita which I was
happy to read about because Rama is my favorite character! This also clarifies that Rama and Sita are married throughout the whole abduction by Ravana. As ridiculous as it may seem, I was unaware that they were married throughout the whole epic (embarrassing, I know).
Photo of Rama and Sita's marriage found online
Courtney, I completely agree with you about being overwhelmed! When I sat down and opened the book, I imagined it would be nearly the same as the first Ramayana. However, I was sadly mistaken! It's been a difficult process to sort through all of the new details in Buck's version of the story. I find it interesting that Rama is your favorite character. I don't like him too much, but I also don't think I have found a particular liking for any of the characters! I hope your semester is going well!
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