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guojing's review
3.0
I eagerly look forward to volume three, but Ayodhya was almost entirely a single drawn out episode with no real excitement. As soon as the action seems about to start, it ends.
This volume seems to have been intended to inculcate righteous behavior in readers (or, more likely, listeners). Their system of ethics is quite interesting, different from our own, but could just as easily have been told in 100 pages.
It tells the story of Rama's banishment. In order not to make a liar of his father, who promised a boon to one of his wives many years earlier, he removes himself from the capital city of Ayodhya because Kaikeyi wants her natural son, Bharata, Rama's younger brother, to sit on the throne. Rama leaves even as he sees that his father has been distraught to the brink of death (and ends up dying after he leaves) at the thought of the loss of his son.
Taking Sita, his wife, and his brother, Lakshmana, they set off for Chitrakuta to become ascetics, with bark-cloth clothes and matted hair, to eat the roots and vegetables of the forest.
Bharata only discovers what has happened when a messenger comes to bring him back to Ayodhya from his maternal grandfather's kingdom. Upon his arrival, he learns the truth. Enraged, he wants to kill his mother, but holds back for fear of Rama's judgment. Instead, he hurries to Chitrakuta to beg Rama's return.
Of course, Rama refuses. He has promised his father to stay for 14 years, and 14 years he'll stay. He tells Bharata to return and take what is rightfully his.
Extremely repetitious, I understand why some people might want to read an abridged edition after these 325 pages (every other page is in romanized Sanskrit), which would probably be a much more pleasant read in 75 to 125 pages. But it served a purpose in terms of the emotional bond that's created over these many pages, so I would recommend anyone with time to push through it and keep on track with the unabridged version.
After all, the action, so common in the first volume, seems just about ready to resume, as Rama goes off to face the rakshasas who are threatening the other ascetics in the ashram.
This volume seems to have been intended to inculcate righteous behavior in readers (or, more likely, listeners). Their system of ethics is quite interesting, different from our own, but could just as easily have been told in 100 pages.
It tells the story of Rama's banishment. In order not to make a liar of his father, who promised a boon to one of his wives many years earlier, he removes himself from the capital city of Ayodhya because Kaikeyi wants her natural son, Bharata, Rama's younger brother, to sit on the throne. Rama leaves even as he sees that his father has been distraught to the brink of death (and ends up dying after he leaves) at the thought of the loss of his son.
Taking Sita, his wife, and his brother, Lakshmana, they set off for Chitrakuta to become ascetics, with bark-cloth clothes and matted hair, to eat the roots and vegetables of the forest.
Bharata only discovers what has happened when a messenger comes to bring him back to Ayodhya from his maternal grandfather's kingdom. Upon his arrival, he learns the truth. Enraged, he wants to kill his mother, but holds back for fear of Rama's judgment. Instead, he hurries to Chitrakuta to beg Rama's return.
Of course, Rama refuses. He has promised his father to stay for 14 years, and 14 years he'll stay. He tells Bharata to return and take what is rightfully his.
Extremely repetitious, I understand why some people might want to read an abridged edition after these 325 pages (every other page is in romanized Sanskrit), which would probably be a much more pleasant read in 75 to 125 pages. But it served a purpose in terms of the emotional bond that's created over these many pages, so I would recommend anyone with time to push through it and keep on track with the unabridged version.
After all, the action, so common in the first volume, seems just about ready to resume, as Rama goes off to face the rakshasas who are threatening the other ascetics in the ashram.
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