(Image Information: Rama and Sita with Gods
Fred Miller. Source: Flickr)
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I have spent a long time really thinking about how I would like to approach retelling one of the famous stories in the reading so far. My favorite scene is when Ravana's sister comes to Rama in efforts to take his hand in marriage, but finds out Sita is in the way.
While I know Rama is faithful to Sita, and loves her very much as depicted in the story, I would like to create a new story in which Rama is actually confused on who he would like to be with. He states that even he is amazed by the beauty with which Ravana's sister had.
With this story, I want to make it where Rama sets out criteria for the women he is choosing from. His reasoning behind this would be that since he had to meet certain criteria in order to ask for Sita's hand in marriage, she has to meet certain criteria in order to keep him with her forever.
In the story, Ravana's sister kept coming back for a few days in order to seek Rama's love but every time she failed. She finally had one of her brothers start a fight, and she ended up without a nose and breasts. She then visited Ravana about her predicament. Instead of this occurrence, I would tell a story where Rama sets out certain criteria and competition for the women to finish. The woman who was able to complete this challenge would be Rama's true love for the rest of eternity. On the other hand, the woman who did not meet the criteria and was not able to upheld the desires of Rama, would be "made ugly".
This would take a new twist on the story, and would also give a different entertaining aspect. From this story, I would still reveal that Ravana's sister is some type of monster as when she finds out she is not the one for Rama after the competitions, she would become very angry and show her true colors.
The competition for which Rama would come up with would have tasks that are "goddess-like" which means the wife he would want to be with by the end would be a woman meant to be a goddess. Sita is the incarnation of the Goddess Lakshmi, who is known for being the goddess of well-being, wealth, and fortune. Rama is unaware, being a human, that he is an incarnation of Vishnu. But, through this competition, the true wife for Rama is Sita. So, from this, I decided that the competition between the two women is to test who has more good fortune, well-being, and ability to provide wealth. This means the women that is able to sustain herself economically for the remainder of the day would be the best person for Rama.
I am excited to construct this story and write it up for next week's blog post!
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Bibliography: Narayan's Ramayana Reading Guide A
Narayan's Ramayana Reading Guide B
Hi Sonali,
ReplyDeleteI like the way in which you plan to change the story and sort of switch up the roles. It's a different approach for the woman to be the one having to "impress" the man to prove her worthiness, but I think you could make that really interesting! It's a cool idea you had, and I think you will be able to do a lot with it. I am excited to come back and see how it goes for you! Good job!