Epics of India Fall 2020

    Author's Note: This week I wanted to re-tell the battle between Rama and Ravana because of how epic the Sister Nivedita version made it seem. I decided to make all the characters lions because a battle this great had to be between equally as awesome animals, and to me almost nothing are cooler than lions.  Bibliography:  Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Ramayana by Sister Nivedita. 1914.      Both the lions leered at each other with unmasked hatred. Rama with his glorious golden mane shining in the sun. Ravana's dark mane seemed to absorb all the light around him, casting a terrifying aura around his gigantic body. Both Rama's and Ravana's pack surrounded them watching intently, seeing who would make the first move and who would be the victor and win the beautiful Sita.      Suddenly, Ravana let out a loud roar that echoed throughout the plain. Soon, his pack took up the call and it sounded like thunder itself was against Rama. How...

Rama and Ravana Bibliography:  Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Ramayana by Sister Nivedita. 1914. For this reading note I wanted to focus on the chapter that described Rama and Ravana's battle, the slaying of Ravana, and how Mandodari mourned for him. I liked this version of the battle more as there was more detail that set the fight up better. Here Ravana was described like a hydra, this painted a gruesome picture in my mind of the fight. I also think this version portrayed how powerful Ravana was better. No matter what Rama did, no matter what weapons he used nothing could defeat Ravana until the Bhrama weapon which ultimately led to the defeat of Ravana. After the defeat of Ravana, his wife Mandodari laments over his actions and how this all could have been avoided if only Sita was given back. This scene is quite powerful as it becomes obvious that Ravana was actually loved by his kin.

Rama, Sita, and Lakshmi Bibliography: Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Ramayana by Sister Nivedita. 1914. Sister Nivedita's version of the Ramayana is much different than the public domain version of the Ramayana that we read last week. This version includes more detail and dialogue, but is also condensed as it only includes the necessary information and details. However, one thing that I liked about the PDE Ramayana were the small summaries at the beginning which would help give you an idea of what was going on. In this version there are no breaks between the stories and it all blends seamlessly. I found this version harder to read as the vernacular was a bit harder to understand than the PDE version but since I knew the gist of each story it was not too hard to understand. Overall, I really liked this version of the Ramayana everything flowed together really well.