Reading Notes: Nine Ideal Women - Promila, Shakuntala

Overall, both of these stories were very enjoyable to read, and I liked that they had them from the woman's viewpoint and revolved around love stories.

Both stories had really, vivid, beautifully descriptive, flowery language with lots of dialogue worked in. The stories were also both fast paced.

Promila - wife of Indrajit

I really liked reading the story of Promila, because this story completely depicted the story of Indrajit's murder differently. In the previous Ramayana, details were not given about that, but either way, Indrajit was one of the villains of the story, so it almost wasn't a big deal that he was killed. This story frames that from Promila's and Indrajit's love and thus, his murder is infinitely sadder, especially considering the fact that he was unarmed and Promila decides to join her husband. That flowery, descriptive language was especially effective at communicating their love for each other and for imagining each scene that happened.

Shakuntala - born of a heavenly creature and a hermit, raised by shakuntas, Dushmanta's wife

I'm interested to read the Mahabharata next week and see how this story fits into that epic, and see the differences between how it's represented in this account and in the Mahabharata itself, since the story of Promila in this book and her story in the Ramayana were very differently represented.

The descriptions of beautiful people usually mention black, flowing hair and lovely, fair skin, which is consistent with Indian beauty standards.

I will also add that sometimes I feel like these stories have too many plot twists or added complications. Sometimes, I just want them to have a happy ending already.

Promila on her black horse [source]

Bibliography - Nine Ideal Woman (Chapter - Sita). Sunity Devee. Link.