Week 2 Reading Diary B: Narayan Ramayana

One of the things I noticed particularly in this section of Narayan's Ramayana was how much of the characters' actions were driven by passion. Generally, everyone around Rama acts out of passion for him. The people he's meant to rule over follow him until he goes into true exile, Sita and Rama fell in love beginning with passion, and half of the reading today was driven by Soorpanaka's passionate love for Rama.

Rama Spurns the Demon Lover, from Wikipedia

I chose this particular image because most of the artistic renderings of Soorpanaka have Rama and Sita sitting beautifully off to the side, but she looks like a toad. Here, at least, she is also portrayed as a beauty who could be compared to Sita. It's interesting that Soorpanaka is dressed in red, which is traditionally interpreted as a 'passionate' color, while Sita is in more subdued, though royal, golds and greens.

Lakshmana acted pretty strongly as the voice of reason through this section--he was the only one to keep his head on when Mareecha lured Rama away, and tried to calm Sita while Mareecha was trying to lure Lakshmana away as well. One wonders what would happen if everyone listened to Lakshmana, but if everyone did, the epic would probably end up much less... Epic.

A last note--Jatayu swooping in at the end of the section, trying to save Sita, very strongly reminded me of when the Eagles show up to save the day in the Lord of the Rings. The difference here, of course, is that while the Eagles in Tolkein's universe escape essentially unscathed, Jatayu is not so lucky. I was glad to find that the section didn't end with a deus ex machina, and am excited to read what happens next!