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Reading Notes: Ramayana Part A
- This week's reading consisted of the stories of Ravana or Dashgriva.
- Ravana was born from a brahmin named Vishrava and his wife Kaikasi who was a shape-shifting creature. As he was born, he had ten heads as well as ten pairs of arms. His parents gave him the name Dashgriva (which means Ten-Necks). In addition, his siblings would later be born: two boys, Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana, and a girl named Shurpanakha.
- One of the smaller stories I enjoyed reading was the 8th one. It was titled "Shurpanakha and Mandodari". This story is about an incident between Ravana's wife, Mandodari, and his sister Shurpankha. Essentially, Ravana's sister forced his wife to serve meat for dinner even though Mandodari is a vegetarian. This fueled anger and so Shurpankha shouted to her husband Vidyutjiva to swallow Ravana, "Swallow Ravana! Swallow him NOW!" she said. As a means to escape, Ravana told his sister, "Your son will be my heir! I'll find you a new husband" if she helped him. In the end his sister carved open her husband to save her brother. The story was so chaotic in a good. way. Very interesting to read and stood out to me.
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