Reading Notes: Nine Ideal Woman - Sita
Bibliography - Nine Ideal Woman (Chapter - Sita). Sunity Devee. Link.
This week, my version of the Ramayana that I chose was to read "Nine Ideal Women" by Sunita Devee, and I read the chapter about Sita.
I really enjoyed reading this version! First off, since I had read the PDE version of the Ramayana previously that was written by various authors, I loved the fact that this story was all written by the same author. It flowed so much better, and it introduced details and background in the Ramayana that I had not known before - for example: the background of Sita's birth, the fact that Bharata's mother had actually been Dasharatha's favorite wife, and the story of how Sita and Rama met in more detail.
I also loved the fact that this story was more framed in terms of the love story of Rama and Sita. I really enjoyed the way that the author spoke and described their love. When I had read the first version of the Ramayana, I had been really confused as to why Rama had exiled Sita after he was king, since he had supposedly loved her so much enough to wage a war against Ravana. This version explained that so much better, and I thought this ending was so much more fitting (Sita gets swallowed up by the earth and Rama is left without her but with his twin sons). I think my favorite passage in relation to their love was a short description of when they first met and I like it enough to insert the quotation now -
"Prince Rama's dark eyes met the soft eyes of the tallest girl; in that encounter, two heart beat quickly in one accord; the sealed casket of love had been opened. Silently but assuredly, Sita gave all to Rama and he gave all to Sita." (pg 128)
It was very much a "love-at-first-site" encounter, and it was described so beautifully. I also liked that this version seemed to humanize Rama and Sita much better than the previous version which had regarded them more in the sense of them being incarnations of the gods instead of in the sense of them being incarnated as HUMAN versions of the gods.
Reading this version also made me remember that Rama had three other brothers; the other story mentions Lakshman and Bharata and briefly mentions the fourth one [whose name I can't remember because he was so insignificant]. It makes me want to write my story this week over the other neglected brother and write a story in his viewpoint regarding the whole situation, since he loved Bharata as Lakshman loved Rama.
I was also confused as to why several characters had slightly different names - Rama was known as Ramchandra, Ayodhya was known as Ajodhya and other characters were only recognizable by their actions, not their names.
The Beautiful Sita [source]
This week, my version of the Ramayana that I chose was to read "Nine Ideal Women" by Sunita Devee, and I read the chapter about Sita.
I really enjoyed reading this version! First off, since I had read the PDE version of the Ramayana previously that was written by various authors, I loved the fact that this story was all written by the same author. It flowed so much better, and it introduced details and background in the Ramayana that I had not known before - for example: the background of Sita's birth, the fact that Bharata's mother had actually been Dasharatha's favorite wife, and the story of how Sita and Rama met in more detail.
I also loved the fact that this story was more framed in terms of the love story of Rama and Sita. I really enjoyed the way that the author spoke and described their love. When I had read the first version of the Ramayana, I had been really confused as to why Rama had exiled Sita after he was king, since he had supposedly loved her so much enough to wage a war against Ravana. This version explained that so much better, and I thought this ending was so much more fitting (Sita gets swallowed up by the earth and Rama is left without her but with his twin sons). I think my favorite passage in relation to their love was a short description of when they first met and I like it enough to insert the quotation now -
"Prince Rama's dark eyes met the soft eyes of the tallest girl; in that encounter, two heart beat quickly in one accord; the sealed casket of love had been opened. Silently but assuredly, Sita gave all to Rama and he gave all to Sita." (pg 128)
It was very much a "love-at-first-site" encounter, and it was described so beautifully. I also liked that this version seemed to humanize Rama and Sita much better than the previous version which had regarded them more in the sense of them being incarnations of the gods instead of in the sense of them being incarnated as HUMAN versions of the gods.
Reading this version also made me remember that Rama had three other brothers; the other story mentions Lakshman and Bharata and briefly mentions the fourth one [whose name I can't remember because he was so insignificant]. It makes me want to write my story this week over the other neglected brother and write a story in his viewpoint regarding the whole situation, since he loved Bharata as Lakshman loved Rama.
I was also confused as to why several characters had slightly different names - Rama was known as Ramchandra, Ayodhya was known as Ajodhya and other characters were only recognizable by their actions, not their names.
Oh, I am so glad you chose this option: I think I wrote you about the story of Shakuntala, right? Sunity Devee does a version of Shakuntala's story too! Anyway, about the names: the names I use and that most Americans use are the old Sanskrit names... but the Rama story is famous all over India, and there are literally dozens of languages spoken in India (you can even see Ayodhya pronounced "Oudh" for example). Plus, to make it even more complicated, many of the characters have multiple names: even Ravana is sometimes called Dashagriva (Ten-Necked), and so on. Janaki is one of Sita's names (daughter of Janaka). If you are ever not sure about a name, just send me an email and ask; Wikipedia is also good about listing the different names/nicknames for the characters. :-)
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