Indian Epic UnTextbook

The Reunion of Sita and Rama--- The Iliad of the East: The Ramayana, By Fredrika Richardson

Chapter XIX: Pages 301-310

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t54f1rt80;view=1up;seq=320

I chose this particular book to review because I’ve read a bit of the Iliad so I thought it would be fun to read the Eastern version. As I was reading, I felt that it was written like an ancient Indian epic should be written. It was quite formal and had very deep, emotional depth to it. I felt like I was able to connect with the characters on a better level. I really enjoyed how it was written. I don’t think there was much I disliked about it. It was a bit more difficult to read but I really enjoyed it!! I like how the chapter started out with Sita in the cold cave that she was trapped in. After the emotional roller coaster of proving her purity to Rama, he finally gave in and held her. Great story! They will always be my favorite Ramayana couple.

Famous Last Words For Week 7

Wow, what a crazy week it has been thus far with the weather, huh? Well, last week my boyfriend surprised me and told me that we were going to Vegas for the weekend that I should get to packing. So, this past weekend I was walking through elaborate hotels and watching amazing shows. When we went to go print out our boarding passes Sunday night, we were informed that our flight into Dallas was cancelled because of the ice/snow storm. This was at 11pm Sunday night. Well…. Reversing a little bit. We checked out of our hotel Sunday morning at 10am and had the hotel hold our luggage for us until our flight that night. SO…. After walking up and down the strip for 13 hours we then found out we weren’t going home that night. Due to excessive ice we were unable to get a flight home until Tuesday… Into Dallas… and then had to drive up to Oklahoma after that. I didn’t get home until pretty late last night so I have been playing catch-up on all of my school work at the library since 8am! Let me tell you I am exhausted. Luckily most of my friends are doing a lot of homework and studying today also so I’ve had some company here at the lovely Bizzell. Anyways, despite the ending of the trip I had so much fun! Las Vegas is a beautiful city. I’ve heard it referred to as “Sin City” but I never felt like it was too terrible. Then again, maybe that’s because I didn’t enter any establishment that would make me feel that way :). The first day we were there it was sunny and beautiful! We were able to go to the top of the Stratosphere and ride the roller coaster! The great thing about being stuck in Vegas is that we were able to walk all the way south to the “Welcome to Las Vegas Nevada” sign! I love traveling and taking pictures in front of icons. If you haven’t been before I would suggest going!!!

Personal photo taken last weekend (Feb 2015).

Week 7 Storytelling

Today I found out that I am pregnant! Can you believe that? There will finally be a prince of Ayodhya and it may be taken away from me. It has taken us quite a bit longer than usual to become pregnant. Rama and I knew we wanted to start a family when we got married, but after the abduction we thought it may be best to wait a few years. It has been about 10,000 years since the abduction, but the first 5,000 I was still undergoing some pretty heavy post-traumatic stress disorder. It was really hard for me to sleep at night even though there were guards on both sides of the bed. During the daytime, Rama found it difficult to leave my side because he was so scared of losing me again. The past 5,000 years or so, however, have been a bit different. I have regained a bit of my independence and am no longer afraid to be alone. I had forgotten how important it is to have alone time to grow as an individual! Rama began to grow impatient with me because we were not spending as much time together. When I finally became pregnant there were rumors being spread among the people. Despite the fact that I’ve never been alone with a man other than Rama, people brought up Ravana. This really got under Rama’s skin and now he is trying to abandon me. I told him I wanted to go to the Ganges river to pray, however, I know he’s just going to discard me. This is my way of leaving him.

Photo of Sita with dove found online. 

Author's Note: I chose to tell this story from Sita's point of view. I was very disappointed in the way that Rama wanted to abandon her in Buck's version of the Ramayana so I chose to twist it a bit. I decided to make it to where Sita knew what was going on and used going to the Ganges River as her excuse to get away from a husband that didn't trust her. 

Bibliography:

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

Week 7 Reading Diary B: End of Buck's Ramayana

The final battle took place where Ravana eventually died. Rama finds Sita and discovers her innocence. Part A for this week ended with Rama’s coronation where Hanuman and many monkeys came to watch.  Part B starts off with the journey to Ayodhya where Rama shows Sita the place that him and Hanuman first met. I found this to be very sweet because it shows how much Rama values Hanuman as a friend as well. I love seeing friendships that have reciprocity. Rama finally returns to Ayodhya where Bharata puts his shoes on him that he had promised to save for him so long ago. Many years later, Sita wants to go visit that Ganges river because she is pregnant. Apparently there had been many bad things said about her and it got under Rama’s skin. The people were talking about how they think he was stupid for taking her back even after she had been with Ravana. Despite the fact that it was proven she was loyal to him, he decided to have her abandoned at the Ganges river. I am truly shocked that he did this because it seems so out of his character. I thought it was a bit of a downer on how Buck ended his version of Rama and Sita. The end of Buck’s story talked about Hanuman ripping open his flesh that bore Rama’s name. This finally explained to me why so many pictures of Hanuman have Rama and Sita embedded on his chest. One can only dream to have such a strong, loyal friend as Hanuman. 

Photo of Hanuman found online

Week 6 Storytelling: Hanuman Goes to Lanka

Soon after I was granted eternal life I found some jewelry laying on the ground. I had never seen anything like it before. Once I heard that Rama’s wife was missing I thought the jewelry could be hers so I brought it to him immediately. He was so grateful and I could see the pain in his eyes because he missed Sita. I was instantly  in awe with him. There are very few people on this earth that get to experience true love and he needed help finding his one true love. I knew that he was going to become my best friend. I chose to forever become loyal to him. He informed me that he was sending out a search party for Sita while he held down the fort so I offered to help; little did I know I would soon lead the party.

As we prepared for our departure the night before, I had to introduce myself to everyone. Some were kind, others were weirded out that a monkey was joining. Overall, I felt good about making the decision and slept well for the next day.

The next morning we headed for Sita. We ran into a man named Sampati and he told us that he had seen Sita with Rama overhead flying to Lanka. We decided to take a vote on who was to go across the sea, since there was no bridge for all of us to go. I guess the troops like me more than I’d thought because they all voted for me! I want to make Rama proud and show him my loyalty.

As I crossed the sea, I had a chance to rest on the mountain Mainaka. She was very nice and told me stories as she served me lunch. After that, I had to face the sea demon that was protecting the island. She was vicious but I was able to penetrate her aorta and kill her. Nothing will get in the way of me finding Sita!!!

I finally arrived at the island and realized I needed to disguise myself because no one there has ever seen a flying monkey before. I changed into the shape of a cat because I saw one walk by. It was very different viewing the world from that close to the ground. I’m not sure that I would enjoy being a cat for all of eternity. Eventually Lanka found out that it was me and she was convinced that I was fulfilling the curse of Ravana. I found Sita and made sure she knew I was working for Rama. She gave me something to show Rama when I returned with the news.

Photo of Hanuman found online.

Author's Note: I chose to write from Hanuman's point of view because he is such a loyal friend and follower of Rama. I thought it would be interesting to hear why he loves Rama so much and what he endures on his journey through land and sea to find Sita. 

Bibliography:

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

Week 6 Reading Diary B: War in Lanka

This episode is all about the war between Ravana and Rama. It begins with Rama building a bridge to cross over the sea to Lanka. The Water King assures him this can be done. Vibhishana makes Ravana mad and so he ends up becoming allies with Rama. Once again, Ravana tries to perform magic tricks on Sita. He had his magicians create an illusion that looked like Rama had been killed. Sita was distraught but someone unaware of the trap came in and announced Rama’s arrival to Lanka so the trick failed.  Sita realized that Rama was still alive and there to rescue her from Ravana. Rama sends a messenger to speak with Ravana but he is outraged and only wants war (typical for his personality).  

Ravana sends demons to attack at night but they are killed. He next sends his giant brother who is eventually killed by Rama. He then asks his son for help. It continuously amazes me how selfish Ravana is in how he will send all of his loved ones out to battle for him but he won’t do it himself. Rama sends someone to get medicine from the Himalaya mountains and this is how Sita knew that Rama was still alive with the help of Hanuman of course. This episode ends with Ravana finally realizing that all the people he sent to battle have been killed. He knows now that he must go battle Rama himself.

Photo of Ravana's younger brother who was defeated by Rama. Photo found online. 

Week 6 Reading Diary A: Hanuman in Lanka

The first episode for this week starts off with Hanuman coming to find Sita. The monkeys decide that he is the one to go to Lanka. This journey is much more detailed in Buck’s version of the Ramayana. Hanuman rests on a mountain while journeying to Lanka. He also gets swallowed by a demon, but he escaped from her by crushing her heart. When Hanuman arrived to Lanka he is approached by lanka herself. Lanka realizes this is Ravana’s curse coming to him finally. Hanuman discovered that Ravana was still trying to seduce Sita; luckily she was still loyal to Rama!

Hanuman finally finds Sita in the ashoka grove where he tells her about his alliance with Rama. She gave Hanuman a gift to give to Rama when he returned. Before Hanuman leaves Lanka, he goes a little crazy and destroys gardens and such. Ravana captured Hanuman where he ordered to set his tail on fire. Once he did, Hanuman escaped and flew away where he set Lanka on fire! He finally returns to Rama where he informs him of Sita’s safety. At the end of this episode they party a bit.

This is a photo of Hanuman crossing the sea to get to Lanka. He first had to pass through the Demon that was protecting the island. Photo found online.

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Week 5 Reading Diary B: Abduction of Sita

In the beginning of part B for Week 5, Sita is abducted by Ravana.  I did not understand why he had not forced himself on her before, but I now understand that it is because of his curse. This makes a lot more sense now because Ravana definitely seems like the kind of character that would force himself upon a woman no matter what. So now I understand why Ravana has been trying to woo Sita into liking him—so she will give in and he can bed her.

Here we see the forces setting up with Hanuman and Sugriva to go find Sita. This is where all of the build up happens because it is exciting to know that there is an army of men and Hanuman that are about to set out to find Rama’s love. Rama gave Hanuman Sita’s ring so that when he found her, she will know that it is someone she can trust. In here, we see symbolism with the ring that Rama gives to Hanuman because a ring is a symbol for eternity. I did not catch that in Narayan’s Ramayana.  The episode ends with them finding Swayamprabha in the underground world.  Although they end up staying there for a month, they are now more determined than ever to go find Sita. Again, I am continuously amazed at the loyalty shown by Hanuman.

I chose to post a photo that showed Hanuman with Rama and the earth in the background. Also, his chest shows Rama and Sita, because his heart and loyalty remains with them. I love that he is on what looks like clouds or heaven. 

Photo of Hanuman found online

Week 5 Reading Diary A: Rama in the Forest

Today’s episode is setting the stage for Sita’s kidnapping. In here, I learned that Kaikeyi was one of Dasharatha’s wives, specifically Bharata’s mother. I was unaware of that when reading the Ramayana from last week. Bharata goes to convince Rama to come back, but of course he is reluctant to return to Ayodhya. Again it is mentioned in Buck's version that Bharata set Rama's shoes on his throne while he was gone. This version of the Ramayana gives  bit more detail of the life of Rama in the forest. It talks about the fourteenth summer so I am wondering how long his exile is supposed to last. I also like that his version of the Ramayana gives more detail into why Ravana kidnapped Sita. It tells the same story but I think the details are much easier to understand.  The readings from part A this week were not very long! Beginning with part B will be the beginning of the abduction of Sita.

Photo found online of Bharata asking Rama for his footwear

Week 4 Storytelling: Ravana and Shiva

Upon the birth of Ravana, Brahma granted him many powers, most of which could not be defeated by anyone including gods and others with supernatural powers. Ravana was an extremely temperamental child from the beginning. He was adopted so we do not know the genetic predisposition from his parents about temperament.

Ravana was married to Mandodari and together they birthed a son named Meghanada. It can pretty much be assumed that he was just as temperamental as his father that was hated by everyone around him. Everywhere that Ravana went, things were destroyed: people, animals, buildings, sanctuaries. 

One day, Ravana was in a particularly bad mood. He lashed out on everyone around him, including his son and wife. People fled as he burned buildings to the ground and caused major earthquakes. One of the people in the town, Freud, decided to further study Ravana’s personality. Freud went to a University in a far off land where he studied Psychology, particularly cognitive psychology. Thus, it is pretty understanding why he was curious to get inside Ravana’s (messed up) mind.

After getting a rich background in Ravana’s family history and studying his personality traits and habits, Freud came up with a psychological conclusion for Ravana’s temperment. Freud officially diagnosed Ravana with Borderline Personality Disorder which is marked by impulisivity and fears of abandonment. This explained why Ravana always made Mandodari stay near him, out of fear of her leaving him. Even that wasn’t enough since he abducted Sita, Rama’s wife. The root of his abandonment was clearly from being adopted at a young age, although his parents often times tried to deny their adoption. At the age of 7, Ravana found the official adoption papers in his parent’s room and that is when his extreme mood swings began.

Freud decided that the only way to get Ravana to calm down was to have a curse put on him. Ravana made Shiva so mad that she imprisoned him and even her bull, Nandi put a curse on him. In this curse, Nandi said that Ravana would be burned by a giant monkey. “A monkey?” Ravana scuffed, “Monkeys don’t even exist you fool!” Little did he know what was in store from the Hanuman in the upcoming episode.

One of the powers that Ravana received from Brahma was being psychic. Ravana knew of Shiva’s ex wife, Penelope. Penelope had passed away many years ago from a rare disease that the doctors could not cure. Ravana sung a song about her and Shiva was so touched that he let Ravana leave. From there, Ravana was on a mission to find Sita and abduct her…….

TO BE CONTINUED……..

Photo of Ravana found online 

Author’s Note: Ravana has been my least favorite character thus far in the Ramayana. Because one of my degrees in psychology, I decided to lay out a psychological stage as to why he acts the way he does. Normally I would write in the first person point of view, however, I decided that I didn’t want to come across as an absolute maniac. I intentionally included the name Freud in reference to Sigmund Freud, quite arguably the most famous psychologist known (although, ironically, if you talk to any psychology professor they all dislike his theories and know it is all rubbish that has been disproven). In my mind, giving Ravana some sort of psychiatric disorder or diagnoses makes him seem a little less terrible as a character. I put to be continued because I think I will continue the story to see how he thinks throughout his abduction with Sita. In the next story, however, I would like to write in a first person point of view now that I have laid out the fact that he has abandonment issues from his adoption as an infant. Because I had put so much psychology into this story, I decided to make Ravana be psychic also and that’s how he got away from Shiva.

Week 4 Reading Diary B: Buck’s Ramayana

The start of diary B readings for Buck’s Ramayana starts off where Narayan’s Ramayana begins. I like having some background information on Ravana. This part of the reading was much shorter than that of part A, the opening address. The exile of Rama in Buck’s epic seems a bit downplayed in comparison to Narayan’s. I was a bit underwhelmed with how he was forced to leave Ayodhya because of Kaikeyi, however, it does mention again that Rama tells his father not to be angry with her. Once again, we are able to see how great of a character Rama is. This epic gives more detail of Rama and his arrival in the forest. 

The reading part B ends with the death of Dasharatha which was of course sad to read again. I felt that this was moving a lot faster with much less detail than Narayan’s epic. I feel that if I read this epic before the other one I may not feel quite as strong of a connection to the characters. I am hoping that in the Week 5 readings we will get into more depth with the characters. I look forward to reading about the Hanuman again and the exile of Sita! 

Photo of Dasharatha found online 

Week 4 Reading Diary A: Buck’s Opening Address

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

Famous Last Words for Week 3

So this week we finished the first version of the Ramayana that we are covering. I felt like I really learned a lot about the character of Hanuman this week!  I really am starting to enjoy reading my classmates Storybooks because it gives me insight to see how others perceive the characters. My favorite story was in the Storybook of Brandon and he wrote from Hanuman’s perspective throughout his journey to rescue Sita. I felt that I perceived the personality of Hanuman very similar to what Brandon did. He is a very loyal friend and servant of Rama. I also went a bit overboard this week with my Pinterest with Hanuman. As it turns out, many Pinners out there have a board specially designated for Hanuman so he must be a very influential character in Indian mythology.

I am really looking forward to read the Ramayana again next week from a different author. I am hoping it will give me new insight on the characters in this epic. I am also starting to get a hang on my website. I still have a lot to learn and I want to make it much prettier but I believe I have picked the theme I am going to stick with for my project!

At the beginning of this week, the weather was extremely beautiful so I went roller blading on campus. I usually go with a couple of friends that like to run but since I have pre-arthritic knees I am unable to run. Thus, I roller blade! We went all over the south oval and we stopped to get a drink inside so I chose to post a picture of me inside Kaufman Hall (I didn't roller blade all over the building like I made it look). I love being outside especially since I feel like my life is consumed with studying. It really helps calm my nerves. 

Personal photo of me skating on campus