Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana, Part C


Figure 1: Vibhishana Wikipedia

As the Ramayana is mostly plot focused, I will focus my notes on that.

Rama finds allies in the monkey king Sugriva and the Monkey God Hanuman. Hanuman Finally Appears! Sugriva explains how his mistakened imprisoning of his brother resulted in a conflict that deposed him. Rama orchestrates a coup that reimposes Sugriva to the throne.

A bit of a side-note here, Rama's coup is distinctly dishonorable, and Vali's frustration is entirely understandable. If I had to write a different story, it would be the story from Vali's perspective. I don't understand how Rama was the good guy at all here.

With his new monkey allies, Rama begins to search more fruitfully for Sita. Encountering the brother of Jatayu, he learns that Sita is being held in Lanka. Hanuman recovers his godly powers and goes to infiltrate Lanka. He locates Sita and destroys much of Lanka. Hanuman returns to Rama and informs him of Lanka, and they prepare to march. Lanka also prepares to go to war, everyone except Ravana's younger brother, Vibhishana, demands blood, but Vibhishana tries to persuade Ravana to find a peaceful solution. Vibhishana is exiled for this, and so joins Rama.

As for which story I found most interesting, I definitely enjoyed Vibhishana the most. Although the story guide described him as virtuous, his actions could certainly characterize him as cunning and pragmatic. I think I would like to retell his conflict with his older brother wherein he is characterized as more amoral and self interested. I love seeing self interested, but intelligent characters interact with hotheaded villains. I would also flesh out how he persuades Rama to allow him to join his camp, as it seems strange for Rama to accept him. However, as a calculating, amoral logician, It would be interesting to see, as he would have even more difficulty joining Rama. I would also love to see the friction that he would have with the other characters like Hanuman.

Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition by Various Authors

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