Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition
from M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder.Notes for Part A
#10 and #11
Rama breaks the bow of Shiva, and draws the bow of Vishnu in these parts. The interesting thing to me is how a show of strength is needed to gain Sita's hand in marriage. I think it's interesting that the king is basically posing a strength challenge to make sure his future son in law is strong enough to protect his beloved daughter. Even more intriguing to me is how Parashurama just appears suddenly to apprehend Rama and Lakshmana. In each part of the Ramayana it seems like time isn't important, with things and people just appearing at the right moment. Parashurama just shows up immediately on cue and has a new challenge for Rama - to draw the bow of Vishnu. Rama is Vishnu's avatar, so this is an easy task and this is how he confirms Sita's hand in marriage
#15
I think this part of the Ramayana has been defined by King Dasharatha making promises he doesn't want to keep before hearing what people want him to do. This is no more apparent in his yielding to Queen Kaikeyi in banishing Rama to exile and replacing him with one of his brothers. This is entirely avoidable, but the king is a man of his word so he is forced into a dilemma. I think my favorite part of the king is how he is true to his word to a fault. He is very honorable, unlike the Queen, who is a villain. I think it would have been interesting to hear about Bharata's ambitions to the throne - it seems like the only people who care about him being the crown prince are his mother and his old nurse. I wonder if he will turn into a villain like his mother, or if he will be a friend to his brother later.
I enjoyed part A of the Ramayana and I think the PDE is a good edition for me because I can see multiple ways of storytelling. Here is my favorite picture from part A:
Rama breaks the bow of Shiva, Source: PDE Ramayana
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