Dazzling lights, painfully loud-makes your ass cringe sounds.
That's how the Ravan effigy burns, well, sort of blasts in India during this part of the year . A very weird tradition must say and a very clear example of the victor defining history.
For the uninitiated, Ravan was a scholarly king who had won all the realms in the universe (whatever name you would want to call them, I leave it to you). Ram on the other hand was exiled by his family (under equally queer circumstances) to "van-vaas" or 14 years of forest living (so to say). Now after an attempt at flirting by Ravan's sister aimed at Ram, Lakshman (Ram's brother who god(will that be Ram?)-knows-why accompanies him to forest).........
Umm, got bored. Long story short, you already know the story.
What I had to say (before I got a migraine in the previous para while trying to make sense of Ramayana) is how can we celebrate the death of a learned scholar i.e. Ravan in such a fashion, when he did not outrage the modesty of the women he was said to have abducted. And two, would have been called a coward, had he not avenged his sister's insult.
I don't know whether or not it's right? I am a god fearing person and inspite of the fact that I believe Ramayan to be just a great eg. of lucid storytelling, I do bow down before idols of Ram - Sita - Lakshman (there's some sort of combo offer at work here) everytime before an exam. But everytime before the Ravan effigy falls to ground to the thunderous applause of thousands, I also wish that Ravan shouldn't be made out the villain he was not......
And as the 4 lone people who read this blog , figure calculated from the insights "blogger" throws in my face every day, might have realised this blog is about musings of a mind which is happy being jovial but happiest being in solitude (not to be confused with loneliness, solitude is chosen, loneliness thrust.)
For more confused and unbaked thoughts stay tuned.
That's how the Ravan effigy burns, well, sort of blasts in India during this part of the year . A very weird tradition must say and a very clear example of the victor defining history.
For the uninitiated, Ravan was a scholarly king who had won all the realms in the universe (whatever name you would want to call them, I leave it to you). Ram on the other hand was exiled by his family (under equally queer circumstances) to "van-vaas" or 14 years of forest living (so to say). Now after an attempt at flirting by Ravan's sister aimed at Ram, Lakshman (Ram's brother who god(will that be Ram?)-knows-why accompanies him to forest).........
Umm, got bored. Long story short, you already know the story.
What I had to say (before I got a migraine in the previous para while trying to make sense of Ramayana) is how can we celebrate the death of a learned scholar i.e. Ravan in such a fashion, when he did not outrage the modesty of the women he was said to have abducted. And two, would have been called a coward, had he not avenged his sister's insult.
I don't know whether or not it's right? I am a god fearing person and inspite of the fact that I believe Ramayan to be just a great eg. of lucid storytelling, I do bow down before idols of Ram - Sita - Lakshman (there's some sort of combo offer at work here) everytime before an exam. But everytime before the Ravan effigy falls to ground to the thunderous applause of thousands, I also wish that Ravan shouldn't be made out the villain he was not......
And as the 4 lone people who read this blog , figure calculated from the insights "blogger" throws in my face every day, might have realised this blog is about musings of a mind which is happy being jovial but happiest being in solitude (not to be confused with loneliness, solitude is chosen, loneliness thrust.)
For more confused and unbaked thoughts stay tuned.
Ramayana should not be seen potraying Ravana as a villain but a lesson to humanity at large, as to what fate a good man turned bad is expected to meet.Avenging attack on one's pride was and cannot be a legitimate reason to be construed as a villain .It was solely a person's retaliation(abduction of sita) to a wrong (by Ram) that outweighed the original provocation by huge margin,in context of unwritten code of avenge.Thus ,its not only the purpose or cause of your actions but the way you conduct these which is equally important, that may else devour the very premise of your action alongwith with you, but of course.
ReplyDeleteYes, what you say is entirely correct.
ReplyDeleteBut if for one moment if we take ramayan into the realm of history instead of focussing on it as a mythology; We would find that maybe all Ravan wanted to make Ram realise by abducting Sita was a lesson in humility. And then as two great warriors they went to war over it, which Ram won because of a traitor (Vibhishan).
It all depends if you see it as history or mythology.
that's the point I had wished to make.
thanx for pointing it out. :)