Reading Notes: Ramayana Part C

Moving on to read more into the Ramayana I was really excited to see what was going to happen! It

Rama about to cast an arrow into Vali 

was filled with excitement in the beginning of this section and then toward the end, to me, it seemed like a lot of waiting. Like "Superman v Batman" critics would say, it was slow. This could be because the story is preparing and getting ready for events in the future which is fine and is something that must be incorporated into all great epics. I liked how in this part Rama was assembling his army if you will. He was no longer going at things alone or with his brother but instead was creating ties with many people. That is in part why my favorite story or stories in this section was the prelude up to and the fight between Vali and Sugriva. It was interesting to get a look at an animal kingdom that would soon come to fight beside Rama. I enjoyed the format of the story for the fight. It was different then just simply paragraph form and made the right have great detail. I did find it very interesting, like I'm sure most everyone else, how low it seemed of Rama to kill Vali in the middle of battle. Almost like Rama was tired of the wait and was ready to end it himself. There are many ideas of why he did this and I can get into all of them but for me as a reader I could see him doing it to one protect his ally and his friend but also maybe as a warning to Vali. Showing his power and might right in front of him. Kind of like saying, "see you couldn't defeat this monkey but I did with ease so you better do as I wish". Just my take on it but this story could be done a million different ways of course like all the others of this section.

Bibliography 
Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India, condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt (1899)