Week 5 Reading Diary B: Rama and the Monkeys

Week 5 Reading Diary B: Rama and the Monkeys

This reading began with the kidnapping of Sita, and Rama's desperate search for her. Ravana was madly in love with Sita and made some very poor decisions. He was nearly killed by Jatayu while taking Sita back to Lanka, and his carelessness allowed Sita to leave a trail of evidence to aid Rama's search. He quickly found himself in the company of Savari who told him of the monkeys Sugriva and Hanuman.
Hanuman is by far one of my favorite characters in the Ramayana, and I was very glad that Buck included an in depth story about Hanuman and his origin (as well as the origin of all monkeys for that matter!). I was curious why Hanuman stuck with Sugriva in exile and how he has such great power considering he was a seemingly normal monkey, but that is not the case at all! Savari tells how Hanuman is actually the son of Vayu, the wind, and a beautiful monkey woman. He was born to be a friend that stuck by Sugriva no matter what, and has a pretty humorous story from when he was born. He actually tried to eat the sun because he thought it was fruit! As a result of the events that unfolded he was granted immortality by Brahma. It was wonderful to be given such a deep background behind Hanuman.

Baby Hanuman attempting to eat the sun!

I also enjoyed reading about the kingdom of Kishkindhya, and how the king of the monkeys also ruled over the bears! Vali caused a strained relationship with the bear due to his arrogance, and Sugriva was outcast due to Vali's quick temper. When Vali was killed by Rama and Sugriva became king he restored the relationship between the monkeys and bears and promised Rama help after the rainy season. At the end of the rainy season Sugriva was slow to respond to Rama due to drunkenness, but eventually the leaders of the animals got together and began planning to search for Sita. It was fun imagining the massive leaders of the bears, the elegant Sugriva and powerful Hanuman all seated around a table along with Rama and Lakshmana as they strategized about how to find Sita. Overall I enjoyed the many details that were added in this section of Buck's Ramayana as compared to Narayan's. There was much more imagery, and even added characters that I enjoyed reading about.

The leaders of monkey's and bears planning the search