Reading Notes: Narayan's Ramayana, Part D

This week, for my make-up reading, I finished up Narayan’s take on the Ramayana. Again, I focused more on snippets for use in my reading notes than on the overall material itself.

The first line that caught my interest was when someone reminds Rama, “After all, you are on a mission to wipe out the asura class; and in spite of his noble speech, this person really is an asura.” The description conjures up a trickster figure or a silver-tongued villain with an ace up his sleeve and an easy grin, and I think it’d be fun to explore that character’s dynamic with the protagonist, probably through some sort of forced team-up.

I also loved the part where Ravana realizes things are getting dire and goes to wake up his secret weapon—his big brother, Kumbakarna, who’s “famous for his deep sleep.” After a ton of difficulty, they manage to wake K from what sounds like some kind of long, supernatural sleep; Ravana’s lieutenants have to reorient K to where he is and the situation at hand. Last semester, I optioned a story that involved waking someone from an enchanted sleep in order to use them in some crisis, and this lines up really well; it might be a great chance to revisit that idea and follow through on it this time.

Out of all the characters in the Ramayana, the one that interested me most was Indrajit, one of Ravana’s sons. Especially when K has just died and Ravana is upset, and Indrajit tells his dad, “What have you to fear when I am alive?” Narayan goes on to explain that Indrajit “had the power to remain invisible and fight, and accounted for much destruction in the invader’s camp. He also created a figure resembling Sita, carried her in his chariot, took her before Rama’s army and killed her within their sight.” I love the idea of this calmly loyal, self-assured son, a star in his father’s battlefield with a sharp mind for warfare mind tricks, and I’d love to transplant that into a different story. Probably through someone else’s POV, because that’s apparently how I roll.

I was also really interested in the following passage about Rama and his state of reincarnation, and I’m interested in exploring the idea of his humanity muddling and obstructing his underlying divinity: “The gods, who had watched this in suspense, were now profoundly relieved but also had an uneasy feeling that Rama had, perhaps, lost sight of his own identity. Again and again this seemed to happen. Rama displayed the tribulations and the limitations of the human frame and it was necessary from time to time to remind him of his divinity.”
Finally, a line from Brahma caught my eye, too. He explains that he, Shiva, and Vishnu make up a trinity, as the creator, destroyer, and protector, respectively—and that they “are subject to dissolution and rebirth.” I found that concept interesting, of a group of powerful people connected to each other in some deep way, who are constantly being unmade and remade again in different ways but similar patterns.

Bibliography: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic by R. K. Narayan.

Image Credit: "Ramayana Dance Performance at Prambanan Temple" by Maria Ismawi. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Week 3 Story Planning

I don't really like skipping out on the weekly story, but I've got a ton of assignments due this week and multiple story options I could go with, so it seems like a good chance to fall back on the story planning option.

The first option I’m tossing around comes from Sita’s first conversation with Ravana, when he’s disguised as an old hermit. She asks why someone nice like him would chose to live among the demons, “leaving cities where good men are to be found,” and it got me wondering the same thing. If I used this option, my protag will have done the same thing, and I’d like to find out what kind of character would do something like that. Probably someone who has more in common with the demons, or who has something to gain from it—someone who sells the demons some good or service they can’t get from their own kind. 

I also really, really love characters who are impulsive and blindly self-destructive at their core, and my next option gives me a chance to play around with that kind of main character. In the Ramayana, there’s a story about a young demon going around wrecking stuff, and a god finally appears to the demon and tries to bargain with him—what will it take to make him stop trashing the world? In response, the demon kid says, “I want to fight forever. Please grant me that wish.” The kernel of that character—I want to fight forever—suggests so much about him. I’ve got plenty of room for different plots to use with him, but I’d definitely use that as the spine/soul of the story, and see how it expands.

I also found it interesting when the death god Yama is impressed by the strength of a dying Vali. It gives him much more personality than the standard Grim Reaper, and it makes me want to do a story with my own take on Death personified, so that’s also an option.

Finally, I’ve kicked around the idea of basing my story on the bit where Ravana’s brother intercedes on behalf of Hanuman, insisting that they couldn’t kill him because, essentially, that’s shooting the messenger. I think it could be fun to do something about a character who’s part of a messenger agency and then runs into trouble when he learns something he shouldn’t. It’s probably actually a story better-suited to a longer format, but I’ll still see if there’s some snippet of it that could be shaved off and repurposed for something this length.





Bibliography: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic by R. K. Narayan.

Image: Notes in Notebook by Pexels. Source: Pixabay.

Reading Notes: Narayan's Ramayana, Section C

With my reading notes for the Ramayana so far, I’ve just been marking quotations or passages that nab my interest, rather than looking at the piece as a whole. So for the first section of notes this week, here’s what I’ve got:

When Sita asks the disguised Ravana why “a saintly one like you” has chosen to live among the demons, “leaving cities where good men are to be found,” I wondered what kind of character would do a thing like that. Probably someone who has more in common with the demons, or who has something to gain from it—someone who sells the demons some good or service or something. I’m not quite sure yet. But I’m intrigued, which is a start.

This line about Ravana didn’t really trigger much of a plot in my head, but it does inspire the feel of a character, which could be used to figure out the plot: “All this only amused Ravana, who laughed and bantered and uttered reckless pleasantries.”
I also really, really love characters with some blind, self-destructive issue at their core, which is possibly why I loved the following snippet so much. There’s this young demon going around wrecking stuff, so a god appears to him and says, “You are shaking our foundation. What is your wish?” In response, the youth says, “I want to fight forever. Please grant me that power.” And that kernel of the character—I want to fight forever—suggests so much about him, and is totally the kind of person I’m interested in.

I’ve also had a Death personified/Grim Reaper concept I’ve been sitting on for a bit, and this response of Yama, the god of death, to Yali, is the perfect opportunity to revisit the idea and revamp it for this: “...with such stubborn strength that even Yama, the god of death, stood back, nodding his head in admiration.”

When Yali was taking Rama to task, he made an interesting point: “[A]re virtues intended to be practiced only on weaker creatures? When strong men commit crimes, they become heroic deeds?” I’m always down for a good crime story, and this could give me the chance to play around with one to some real meat to it.

Also, at one point the army stumbles across an isolated underground city, inhabited by one lone woman. When they wake her, she reveals that she used to be a goddess, but “for some mistake committed had fallen from grace and had been condemned to dwell underground” for a certain amount of time. The army ends up fighting its way out of the underworld, and freeing the woman from her punishment at the same time. I’m interested in the concept of someone stripped of godhood and cast down to live among the mortals, and how that would work out for them and the mortals around them.

Finally, the last thing that caught my eye was Jatayu’s brother’s story about their childhood, when he spoke about them being the sons of the charioteer of the sun god. I’m vaguely interested in doing a story about a couple of kids born to a similar rank/situation, who are tired of living in the sun, in the light. I’m not quite sure yet what they’d do about that, but I could be curious to find out.

Bibliography: The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic by R. K. Narayan.

Image Credit: Lens Flare Behind Tree by Pexels. Source: Pixabay.