Week 4: Reading Diary A

Before I started reading this book, I was a little worried that I would have trouble paying attention as I read the same story for the second time in a row. Fortunately, this was not at all the case! Buck's recreation of The Ramayana almost feels like a completely different epic with so much more detail and provides vivid imagery of almost every character and setting. The relationships between characters are also much more explicitly defined. Here are a few of my thoughts, separated based on the chapter in which they occurred:

Born As A Man

• How is this story going to start out by telling us that Rama ultimately banished Sita from his kingdom?! After all that he went through to get her back, I never would have expected him to leave her. I wonder what she could have done to make the kingdom's residents speak ill of her.
• We are informed that Valmiki has created The Ramayana as one of the earliest forms of poetry, and that Rama's life has been revealed to him in great detail such that all of his words are true.
• This book refers to Vishnu as Narayana, who agrees to descend from heaven in the form of a man in order to slay Ravana.

The Thorn In The World's Side

• Here, we learn that the first of the rakshasas convinced Viswajarman, Heaven's Architect, to create the city of Lanka as their kingdom.
• We also hear the tale of how Ravana came to earn his immortality. Apparently, Ravana was once very devoted to serving the gods. When it came time for him to sacrifice his last head to the gods, he was begged not to and offered a gift in exchange for his loyalty. It seemed strange to me that the gift that came immediately to mind was immortality and protection from the gods, who just saved him. Nonetheless, Brahma granted his wish without hesitation and the belligerent demon that we know him to be was born...
• It really amazed me how little thought the gods appeared to put into the gifts that they gave the rakshasa. Did it not occur to them that Ravana and Meghnaad were able to capture Indra without any special powers, so invisibility and that special chariot will only make it easier if they ever try to attack again?

Taste This Water

• One thing that stood out to me in this chapter was Buck's depiction of how Indra deceived Ahalya. In the previous story, Ahalya did not realize that it was not her husband until it was too late. However, in this story Ahalya knowingly betrayed Gautama. The ending of her punishment was definitely happier in this story. I like how Gautama knew when Rama would pass by and returned for her.