The two best known Indian epic poems are the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. There are others, of course - great Tamil epic poems such as Cilappatikaram - but, for better or for worse, these are the epics that occupy our collective psyche at the moment. When I was younger, the Mahabharata was easily my favorite. The story is vast and sprawling - this is probably the only story I know of with more characters than A Song of Ice and Fire - and I quickly developed a literary crush on Karna. But I learnt to appreciate the Ramayana more as the years went by. Rama is often referred to as Maryada Purushottaman, which, as I understand it, means that he is the ultimate person, adhering to dharma (again, loosely translated as the law, morality, proper behavior). But then there is the whole Agni Pareeksha business with Sita, where he asks her to publicly prove her chastity by walking through fire. And then her exile and her final exit. For a long time I wanted to believe that Rama had no real choice when it came to the Agni Pareeksha. He knew Sita was faithful to him, but his people needed to be convinced. I think the appeal of Rama is a little like the the appeal of Superman or Captain America. Perfect may seem boring, but we need Rama to be perfect because we need something perfect and pure and good in this world. Or at least I do. But now I think that the Agni Pareeksha wasn't right and it wasn't okay. Rama isn't perfect after all.
And Ravana, the demon king who kidnapped Sita, is not all evil either. He was an effective ruler and Lanka flourished during his reign. He was learned and pious. I have also been thinking about his designation as a Rakshasa. Who is it that decided that the South Indian mythical kings, Ravana and Mahabali, were a demon and an Asura? Rama is North Indian. Does this designation of 'good' and 'bad' have to do with differentiating between the Aryan invaders and the indigenous people of the Indian subcontinent? Is this the basis on which the caste system was built? The Ramayana is the story the victors tell, but there has been more interest of late in telling the story from Ravana's point of view. The comic book series Ravanayan is one such retelling. I am always interested in new versions of the epics, and the art looks pretty awesome too, so I'm planning on picking up the series when I'm in India next. But it is available electronically too. More info at the publisher's website.
