Reading Notes- Ramayana Part C

Done in Pune, India around the year 1800.

Sita's rakshasi guards.

The most prominent part that stuck out to me about Ramayana Part C was the idea of protection. From both sides, protection of whatever they thought was the priority was the highest matter in order. For Sita, Rama seemed, at least in my opinion, more worried about her being hurt or otherwise more than his loss of a wife. I think it is interesting that these kinds of stories have such a strong force of martyrdom. While there is a lot of history of Rama and how he got to the situations, most of the other characters that are searching all over the "world" are left quite vague in their own history and stories. I think the faith in Rama is rooted in the idea of protecting the most important priority. I certainly don't know all the angles of exactly why the entire population was on his side since many stories that are driven by passion instead of strategy are disregarded and require a special group that embraces martyrdom. And this can also be seen partly as Hanuman goes above and beyond to do just about anything for Rama. At the Ashoka Grove, where Sita is seen to be guarded by the rakshasis, the idea of protection rings true. (Just for a second, I think the culture is so strongly enforced that even the monsters are almost humanized with the painting with the sari and making it to where the guards' features are mostly just exaggerated human features.

Another thing I noticed was Sita's own idea of protection. While others focused on rescuing the physical body of Sita, her priority was different. She wanted to protect her faith and "purity", even when it was in exchange for not leaving. For example, Hanuman was ready to take her away on his back when he got past Sita's rakshasi guards. Instead of giving into the escape, she focused on the fact she is first the wife of Rama and then she is a trapped being.

I mostly used the story of The Ashoka Grove. The prose portion comes from Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913), and the verse portion comes from Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India.

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