Reading Notes: Ramayana, Part D

Indra riding an elephant, Wikicommons

Ramayana Reading Notes:

• Sacrifices are made to the gods, and flesh is offered. This is much like the scenes that are from before when there is celebration except for the tone is much more somber and serious.
• The monkeys begin to siege the Rakshasa by crossing a bridge to the island of Lanka that was created through prayer.
• Rama is prepares for war, but Hanuman has already joined in the fighting along with other heroes that are monkeys and are seriously wounded. Rama being true to his character is saddened and suggests that it is OK if the monkeys return home.
• This creates a lull the fighting as both sides start to regroup.
• The forces rally and Rama leads another attack but they come across a disfigured female beast that causes some conflict between the group, as they do not want to kill her, because she is a female.This is an idea that is upheld throughout the story, despite some of the female characters being purely evil or symbolic of pure evil they are spared by the fact that they are female. However, in this case they do cut off all of her limbs so she is not completely spared.
• Ravana summons the oldest and most powerful demon, Indra. Indra is awoken before his time so he is angry. To appeases him they feed Indra people, wine, and lots of other food.
• The battle is long and lengthy but Rama eventually wins
• Rama's exile is over and he is crowned king once again
• The people are finally happy and the story begins to wrap up as the story starts to draw to a close. There is many celebrations.
• Lamshaka passes away, this along with the leaving of Sita is the tipping point for Rama, where he decides that it his time to go.
• Rama goes and turns back into Vishnu. The monkeys are saddened