Extra Credit Reading Notes: Ramayana (Part B)

This post is just for the sake of recording my thoughts on the Ramayana (Part B) since I had to postpone this reading this week, so this summary is somewhat late. I wanted to be prepared for Part C in the coming week, so to stay on track I wanted to evaluate the episodes for their stylistic, thematic, and plot choices.

With this week’s reading, I am starting to get a better sense of who the characters are. My identification skills as far as the secondary characters names and designations (demon, deity, God, etc.) are concerned is improving as well. The plot is starting to pick up and some conflict with the virtuous exiles with the cunning rakshasas has stirred up some controversy that I suppose is going to carry over into Part C. This theme of “good overcoming evil” and bad things happening to good people is one that I thought tiptoed into the territory of a moral message. I was also surprised to see that supernatural elements were so strong in Part B. At the end with the elderly woman, Shabari, it was suggested that clairvoyants predicted Rama’s meeting with her, fulfilling her “destiny.” This concept of predetermination really frames the events in a new light if it is to be supposed that the misfortunes upon Rama and his family serve some greater purpose or inescapable fate.

In the PDE Ramayana, there were a lot of episodes that featured both a prose and poetry rendering of the story which was a great as I could potentially follow these examples if I were to emulate either technique. I’m still searching for favorite lines and quotes that I feel use particularly eloquent verse or any passages that create particularly vivid visuals. The PDE Ramayana I have found lacks depth as far as description goes since it it’s more informative than expressive. This is another reason why I would consider switching to the more novel-like Narayan version since I think reading imaginative, illustrative work better inspires than does a more flat, action-focused narrative. That said, there were episodes of the PDE version that I think turned up the visuals a notch. The scenes about the Maharaja’s funeral had more substantial descriptive language that appealed to the various senses: mentions of resinous incenses, singers chanting samas, shining cloth of gold and silver. A scene in episode 28 also has an impressive line that likens jewels falling off of the frame Ravana’s throne to tears of pain. This is one instance of metaphorical wording that stood out to me so far. It’s lines like these which catch my critical eye since I am trying to figure out what makes certain passages more successful than others.

Bibliography:

Author: Various
Title: Ramayana
Source: Public Domain Edition, Web

(Image Source: Flickr)

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