Reading Notes: Part A of Sister Nivedita's Ramayana

The source of every subsection of this reading is found here: Source

The very first thing that I notice about this version of the story is how quickly it moves. Sister Nivedita does not spend much time at all describing things. This reminds of a technical report, in that only actions and events are described. For example, Rama meets and marries Sita within the first four sections of the book.

In this version of the story, Rama is described as being quite wise. I don't believe that he was described as being so learned in the PDE Ramayana. Additionally, Sita is not described in the slightest. It was said that she was born from a trough as her father plowed a field. Beyond that, she is essentially not mentioned.

The process of naming Rama as the king is much more in-depth in this version of the story. In the previous reading, I don't believe that Rama was so far into the process of becoming king when Kaikeyi asked Dasharatha to exile Rama. This makes her scheming even worse than it seemed in the other version, as she effectively pulled the throne right out from under him! Kaikeyi needed a fair amount of convincing in this version of the story as well.

I also noticed that Vali was effectively left out of this rendition of the Ramayana. His death was not mentioned. Rather, it was stated that if Rama helped Sugriva overcome Vali then Sugriva would help Rama recover Sita. I hadn't understood this point- the fact that Rama killing Vali was effectively a trade- until now. Yet, my confusion still stands. Vali's death is stated in three words- "Rama overcame Vali." I had thought that a major point of contention within the Ramayana was the fact that Rama "dishonorably" killed Vali. I suppose that this controversy was completely avoided by leaving out Vali's death?

Ravana is kidnapping Sita!

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The most notable difference between the two versions of the Ramayana is the fact that Sampati, the vulture, states "Do ye repair thither and avenge the rape of Sita and the murder of my brother." Did Ravana force himself on Sita? I had previously assumed that he merely held her captive until she would submit to their marriage. This would explain why Rama did not want her back due to her lack of purity. It all makes sense now.

Finally, the same few metaphors are used repeatedly. "Like a plantain tree in the wind" appears quite commonly. I assume this is cultural/regional, as I know I have never seen a plantain in my life. Additionally, elephants are mentioned frequently.

Storybook Plan

I plan to do my storybook project on the topic of Vali, King of Monkeys.

Currently, my three sources are Wikipedia, Freebookapalooza, the PDE Ramayana we just read, and potentially the book that was recommended to me by Laura. If needed, I could also go to Bizzell and check out the comics that were mentioned early in the course.

There stories that I hope to include are about:
1. Vali fighting and defeating Ravana the demon king
2. Vali meeting and marrying Tara, creating a sense of jealousy in Sugriva
3. Vali's death by Rama's attack
4. Potentially the story of Vali becoming king of Kishkindha
5. Potentially the story of Vali and Sugriva's birth (this might be a stretch)

For my story telling styles, I think it would be really exciting to have at least one of those stories made in Twine where the reader can choose their own course of action from Vali's point of view. Otherwise, I plan to tell these stories from Vali's point of view. However, I am considering making the second story from the point of view of both brothers. Why? My understanding is that Vali was married to Tara and the Sugriva became jealous of his brother, but in the Ramayana, Sugriva stated that Vali stole his wife. Therefore, each brother has a different view point on the matter that could make for an interesting story. Given my plan of stories, I think that my project will be a series of stand alone stories that are only tied together by the fact that they all have the same main character.

It is my understanding that Vali is not a bad person. However, because of how he was portrayed in the Ramayana and the fact that Rama killed Vali, I feel that readers of the Ramayana would simply assume that Vali is a bad person. I mean, the good guy who has the powers of gods kills him, and someone so powerful and righteous wouldn't kill a good person, right? Wrong. I think Vali was a good person trying to live his life and that Sugriva deceived Rama into killing his brother for him. This is the point I want to get across in my project.

Comment Wall for Storybook Project

Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions- I want to improve my writing!

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This is the place to put any feed back for my storybook project about Vali, King of Monkeys!

You can find my story book here: My Story!

Week 4 Story: Story Laboratory

This week I wanted to use Twine so that I can get comfortable with this technology before using it on an actual project assignment. I expect that I will want to use Twine because I can easily see the potential this technology possesses. I made my first Twine interaction focused on the NFL, as I thought that this was a straight forward and understandable way to utilize the abilities of Twine. Thus, I set Twine up recommend an NFL team to a fan hoping to find a team to root for. Simple questions then narrow the field before one of nine teams are recommended to the reader based on factors such as the team's current state, the team's historic success, and any notable players each team might have. I used the first question to sort all of the teams into three sets- two of these sets were entirely separate, but the third set could be reached by either answer to the first question. I liked how I could potentially set up the questions so that the same question could be reached by a number of different routes. I could also make questions loop back on one another.
I'm sure that if I use this to create a story in the future, I would make many fewer branching choices. Rather, I would probably treat the Twine link that takes the reader to a different page like the turn of a page in a real book. This would make the structure of the story much simpler and easier to follow. This could be especially useful to hide important details from the reader or build suspense by placing a single word on a page on the way to the climax of the story.

I am hoping that Twine allows simple links to work and that you like my first attempt using Twine!
file:///C:/Users/cbavl/Downloads/Testing%20this%20Goosebumps%20format.html

What team do you want to root for as part of America's greatest pastime?

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Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Section D

"Ravana and Lakshmana" by Donald D Mackenzie: Source

Lakshmana kills Indrajit, the son of Ravana. Ravana swears he will have his revenge. He enters the battle himself. Seeing Vibhishana fighting for Rama, Ravana throws a "great weapon" at the rakshasa. Lakshmana throws his own spear to destroy Ravana's weapon. Ravana turns his full rage at Lakshmana and throws a "great dart" that impales Lakshmana's heart, killing him. Yet, Hanuman does what he had done before- he gathers herbs from the mountain and revives Lakshmana!
Evidently revival from the dead is capable in the world of Indian Epics. So many of these individuals have such extreme and extravagant abilities. I need to ensure I capture that when I write my own stories.

"Battle of Rama and Ravana" by Sister Nivedita: Source

Ravana shoots arrows that become serpents in midair. Rama defends himself by shooting arrows that become birds that eat Ravana's snakes! The wounds Ravana who escacpes the battle. Rama is told to pray to the Sun. He does this and proceeds to shoot arrow after arrow into Ravana's many heads. As he shoots heads off of Ravana's body, Ravana grows heads back like a hydra and the battle continues.
Simply, this is awesome. This is the sort of drawn out battle that I wanted earlier in the epic. I suppose that they only save descriptions for the truly epic battles between individuals who are nearly invincible.

"Sita Tested" by Sister Nivedita: Source

Modern love simply does not compare to love in the Ramayana. Rama went on an epic quest during which he killed a demon king to take his wife back. Yet, when he wins Sita back, he is ashamed of her? Rama casts her aside because she is "stained!" He tells her she is worthy of any of his brothers but not him! In a modern setting, this concept would be absurd. Sita's response shocked me even more. She tries to pull a Romeo and Juliet sort of thing and kill herself so she doesn't have to live without Rama. There are layers of social commentary that could be pulled back in this portion of the Ramayana. This situation is not at all what I expected.


"Sita Departs" by Sister Nivedita: Source

Even after Sita tries to kill herself, and she is returned from the fire because of her purity, While this appeases Rama, it does not appease the people he rules. She goes into exile after SHE was taken prisoner by a demon? This just seems so wrong.
Eventually she returns, proves she has been virtuous and poor her entire life, and then sits on a throne that has emerged from the Earth. Sita then disappears into the Earth, and Rama is left heartbroken and lonely until he too leaves the Earth. He returns to Heaven where he and his brothers return to the form of Vishnu. What an odd ending.

Sita is swallowed by the Earth. That is the end of her story?

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Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Section C

"Vali's Death" by Romesh Dutt: Source

This is the story of how Rama kills Vali. In the research I had done in preparation for the project, I read that Tara is Vali's wife and that it was Sugriva's jealousy and his desire to have Tara as his own wife that drove Vali an Sugriva apart. In this rendition of the story, I feel that Vali is made out to be a terrible person who exiled his brother and stole his wife. However, from my understanding, it was Vali who first met Tara, fell in love with her, and married her. Thus, it is my understanding that this story is presented in this manner because Sugriva is modifying the truth, or he may actually believe that Vali stole his wife, in order to deceive Rama into helping him.

Rama setting a trap for Vali and killing him while he fights Sugriva seems cowardly. We have an all-powerful individual hiding in the shadows to attack another individual with astounding powers. Not only did I want a mindblowing showdown, but what actually occurred was extremely underwhelming. I will certainly need to return to this reading when working on the project.


"Hanuman's Leap" by Sister Nivedita: Source

I love that in Indian legend people are capable of absurd feats of strength like moving a mountain. In this case, we see Hanuman is capable of leaping across the ocean while killing a rakshasi that leaps from the water to devour him. I will surely need to portray such traits in the same manner in my own stories.


"Hanuman and Sita" by Donald A. Mackenzie: Source

Hanuman finds a way to speak secretly to Sita while she is kept as Ravana's prisoner. Hanuman offers to carry Sita away to freedom, but she refuses to touch any man other than Rama. Instead, Sita gives Hanuman a jewel as a token and says she has only two months to live.
Is it improper to touch another man's wife at all in Indian culture? This is effectively the only reason I can think of for Sita refusing to leave. She would rather live in the clutches of a demon than have another man touch her? This seems absurd.


"The Burning of Lanka" by Sister Nivedita: Source

Hanuman was caught by Ravana's army. Rather than kill him outright, they attempt to humiliate him; they set his tail on fire. Sita prays, and her prayers are answered in the form on Hanuman's icy tail. He is not harmed by the fire! This causes Hanuman to break his bonds and burn the city of Lanka with his flaming tail. He then puts out the fire by dipping his tail in the ocean. He then leaps back across the ocean to tell Rama and the other monkeys that Sita is alive and well.
I want to have some sort of comparable story. This situation seems hilarious. The attempted mockery by the bad guys backfired and led to their own destruction. Classic.

The imagery of Hanuman burning a city by leaping from building to building is astounding,

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Topic Research: Vali, King of Monkeys

From Wikipedia (Source) :
Vali is also known as Bali or Baali. He is the king of Kishkindha in the Ramayana. He is the son of Indra, husband of Taara, and son of Vriksharaja. His has a younger brother named Sugriva. Vali also has a son named Angada.

Vali was blessed by Brahma with a ability to obtain half the strength of his opponent (this power is vampiric and can steal that strength from his opponent). This ability has allowed Vali to defeat great warriors like Ravana because he already had the strength of 70,000 elephants; this ability made him even more powerful. Evidently, this ability is only so helpful, as the all-powerful Rama and Hanuman have been able to battle Vali.

In Hare Krishna (I may need to figure out exactly what this is?), it is believed that Vali was reincarnated as Jara, the hunter who killed Krishna. Krishna is the the god of compassion, love, and tenderness. (Maybe Vali isn't such a great guy...)

The details surrounding Vali's birth are unclear from this source. Evidently Riksharaja was taking a bath and his body took on a female form. Indra and Surya were walking by. Then, Riksharaja  gave birth to Vali (Indra's son) and Sugriva (Surya's son).

Vali is married to Tara, a female spirit of the clouds and waters. They met while Vali was helping his father Indra churn the ocean. Tara was born from the churning waters.

Vali also defeated Ravana. Ravana first defeated Vali's brother, Sugriva. He then taunted Vali. Vali took on the challenge and defeated Ravana in battle. He carried Ravana under his armpit for years. Ravana was finally set free when he agreed to be friends with Vali.

Vali eventually is killed (I attempted to avoid spoilers for the Ramayana). Yet, it seems that Sugriva convinces Rama to kill the innocent Vali so that Sugriva can take his throne?

Vali, King of Monkeys is a monkey himself!

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From Amazon (Source):

Vali and Sugriva grew up as poor slaves before they eventually came to each be the king of Kishkindha, a city without discrimination. They are vanaras (monkey men). Vali and Sugriva worked together to construct their own country in the midst of a war. Jealous, Sugriva turned on Vali when Vali married Tara. (This is only the description of the book. I'll need to read the book for a bunch of presumably useful information).

From Freebookapalooza (Source):

This is another potential source for stories of Vali, as this whole book is about monkeys! I'm hoping it contains more information than just that presented in the Ramayana.

Thoughts:

Story 1: Vali defeats Ravana

Story 2: Vali meets and marries Tara

Story 3: Rama kills Vali

I think Vali will be an exciting topic for my project. My only fear is that I won't have enough material to write about. The information given here is almost everything I could find on Vali. I suppose I could also look for information about Jara, as it is believed that Vali was reincarnated as Jara. I could also go to the Bizz to find the comic I wrote about when first considering the project; that comic includes Vali. I'm now very interested in reading the rest of the Ramayana!