Week 3: Reading Diary A

The demon Ravana has set a very intelligent trap in order to capture Sita. He knows that Rama and Sita love each other very much, and used this to his advantage. A demon capable of enslaving gods in his service seems like he would be capable of making Sita love him once she has been captured. Ravana knows that Sita will be drawn to the golden deer that Maricha takes the form of. Because of this, Rama will surely want to capture the golden deer for his wife. In turn, Sita will be unable to resist the decoy call of Maricha using Rama's voice. I thought Sita would run after Rama's voice, although sending Lakshmana to help makes more sense, as he would be able to face any danger that caused Rama to call for help. Ravana seems like a very smart and devious demon, his peers charged into battle against Rama and met their demise.

I think Rama feels sorry for Sugriva because he thinks they are both in the same situation. Both of them were forced into exile, both their brothers are kings, and both of their wives were stolen. I cannot blame Sugriva and his advisors for deciding to seal the cave that Vali chased Mayavi into. Even though Vali doesn't seem like an inherently evil character, I think he overreacts to Sugriva sealing the cave.

I found the interaction between Rama and Vali to be very interesting. Vali made some very good points as to why what he did was justified. Too often in the world, people try to force others to abide by their code of morals and ethics. Vali explained to Rama that as monkeys, their society does not function according to the same rules as human society. Although this is a great argument, Rama trumps it by saying that Vali did something that violated a moral code present in both monkey and human society. Eventually Vali accepts Rama's reasoning, and decides that he has deserves this fate.


Sampathi was the brother of Jatayu, who is now dead after falling in battle to Ravana. Sampathi's wings were burned after he flew too high and angered the sun god. This reminds me of Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology. Once again, these two different cultures have produced mythology with such very similar stories. Although I suppose Sampathi ends up doing a lot better than Icarus.