Week 3 Reading Notes: Ramayana Part B (EC/LATE)


"Having performed the watery rites, the wives of the monarch as well as the counsellors and priests, in company with Bharata, entering the city with tears in their eyes, spent ten days in mourning lying down on the ground."

This is an interesting mourning method.

Jabali the voice of reason, the brutally honest. He said "O Rama, why dim thine understanding with empty maxims?" Rama gets mad but I like Jabli's style. I think this kind of character is important to balance out the dramatic, hero-type.

Agastya, jar womb? Ew..

Ravana the wicked "Who is this Rama?" he asked, with intense slowness of utterance, and his low, deep voice was like the mutterings which precede the tempest." I like this description. He's a sweet-talker too. "O woman of golden beauty, O shy one in full bloom, robed in silk and adorned with flowers, art thou Shri, or Gauri, or the goddess of love, or a nymph of the forest? Red as coral are thy lips; thy teeth shine like to jasmine; love dwelleth in thine eyes so soft and lustrous. Slender art thou and tall, with shapely limbs, and a bosom like to ripe fruit. Wherefore, O fair one, with long shining tresses, dost thou linger here in the lonesome jungle? More seemly it were if thou didst adorn a stately palace. Choose thee a royal suitor; be the bride of a king. What god is thy sire, O beautiful one?”

Shurpanakha, Sister of Ravana, Totally has a huge crush on Sita... "The loveliness of this Sita... heavens! The execrable loveliness of this Sita! When I think of it — of the little pouting mouth, and smooth dimpled cheeks, and soft appealing eyes — by the Thirteen Gods!"


Bibliography: Ramanya online edition, Valkimi. Additional sources used:M.DuttR.DuttGouldGriffithHodgsonMackenzieNiveditaOmanRichardson, and Ryder.

(Image Information: Dasaratha and Vishvamitra, Blogspot)


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