Reading Update: Ramayana Edition

After the Bible-venture of 2016-2020, for 2021 I read something I had a fair bit more context on, namely the Ramayana. I read a more-literal less-abridged translation, which I wouldn’t recommend for someone who didn’t already know the story.

It had a lot of footnotes, which was useful given the epic’s fondness for epithets (a non-exhaustive list of the non-exclusive ways Rama is referred to: Raghava, Kakutstha’s descendant, lion among men, tiger among men) and that every god has a billion names. The introduction offered more context. I hadn’t known that while the Ramayana is set before the Mahabharata, there’s evidence suggesting the latter was composed first. Nor did I know that the first and last kandas were thought to be much later additions, which explains the crammed-in-worldbuilding energy of those sections.

Before we progress to the flippantly earnest/earnestly flippant reactions of an atheist who had some context, enjoy this god family tree. It might help.

My Prior Ramayana-related knowledge:

• An animated movie that covers the story from Rama’s marriage to Sita, to Sita’s rescue, that I watched multiple times as a kid
• Various comic books covering the above and Hindu mythology in general, read and reread as a kid
• An illustrated version aimed at teens that I indeed read as a teen, that went up to Sita getting swallowed by the earth

The story of the Ramayana is as follows: Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka, is a terror to people everywhere, but the gods are powerless to stop him since Ravana obtained a boon that makes it so only a human can kill him. Why the gods would give such a boon is unclear, but I digress. In classic rules-lawyering fashion, the god Vishnu reincarnates himself as the human Rama, the eldest prince of Ayodhya. Rama’s wife Sita is abducted by Ravana. Rama spins up an army to get her back, kills Ravana, gets Sita back, they live happily ever after. (Except jk, the last book happens and Sita is exiled by Rama because one washerman says taking back an abducted wife looks bad.)

Stuff I didn’t pay attention to/know as a kid

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Stuff I liked

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Other Comments

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