Week 2 Reading Diary, continued: PDE Ramayana

As a reminder, I am reading the Public Domain Edition: Ramayana. My favorite moment during this reading was the battle between Ravana, the demon king, and Jatayu, the vulture or bird king from Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (1914). The description of the battle was very short and I think I could expand it into quite the epic scene. I really like that Jatayu comes to defend the honor of Sita, and swears to protect her for Rama, even at the cost of his own life. Jatayu is a very interesting character to me for the simple fact that he really had no cause to be involved in the abduction of Sita. The bird king nonetheless vows to help Sita because he believes in Rama's virtue and wants to help. I also really like the character of Ravana. When I was younger I liked a cartoon called Samuri Jack, and the main antagonist was a character by the name of Aku. Like Ravana, Aku is a demon king that is bent on destroying a virtuous being. Aku, has his origins partly tied to the Hindu god Vishnu, along with various other gods from different cultures, so there is a strong tie between him and Ravana from the Ramayana. I believe I could expand on this character and maybe intertwine the tales of Aku and Ravana to make them a completely new character. I was even thinking of making my storybook from the point of view of Ravana. This strategy would be a complete role reversal, making Ravana the hero and Rama the villain. Overall, I've come to realize through reading these stories that I am particularly interested in the battle scenes and I will most likely have my storybook's main focus be centered around the various battles in the Ramayana.  

Image Source: Ravana abducts Sita and a

battle with the bird king, Jatayu, ensues.