Reading Notes: Part A

Rama was forced to be a leader of the group on their great journey and he began to gain a following after he killed Thataka. He didn't want to kill her because she was a female but knew if he didn't that he was going to die. It seems a little crazy to me that someone would give away their daughter if they could just bend a mighty bow. I guess it was just a different and more simpler time then and that is also just the way the culture was. You could guess that Rama was easily going to bend the bow and this story seemed a lot like King Arthur how it was just meant to be that he was going to be the one that was able to do the impossible task. Rama obviously had the magic tough because he did this to multiple bows in this story. Rama got what he was wanted and he was able to marry Sita because of his great act of bending the bow. Jealously and revenge was also always around and you can see a lot of it in this story because of how people would plan to get after Rama. Rama goes from a golden chair to getting exiled. He also has to leave his wife which would be harder than anything else. It starts to make sense where karma comes from now in chapter 19. The karma is that Dasharatha was going to lose his son because of his past. It shows that bad actions will lead to bad consequences in the future. Dasharatha was grieving so hard that it actually killed him because he couldn't see the son, Rama, again. He loved his sons and didn't want to have to face the guilt he had put on himself throughout his life.

Kamban / R. K. Narayan, Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic  Guide A

(Rama and the broken bow)

Rama picture