Week 5: Reading Diary B - Sita's Abduction

Reading Diary Pg. 162-218
The Ramayana by William Buck

The story of the Golden Deer, and Sita's abduction is one of my favorites throughout The Ramayana. I choose to retell this story for one of my posts in Narayan's version of the book, and I truly feel it can be interpreted in many different ways. William Buck's version is very similar to Narayan's. Maricha disguises as a beautiful golden deer, catching Sita's attention. At Sita's request, Rama chases after it, where it then turns into its true form. Maricha yells for help with Rama's voice, tricking Sita into thinking he is in need. She tells Lakshmana to go save him, and in the meantime Ravana comes up to Sita disguised as an old man, which she welcomes, and then he snatches her up and takes her away. Jatayu, the bird who has been their protector, comes to the scene to help save Sita, but Ravana takes his wing, causing him to die. This was a really emotional scene, as Jatayu was a heroic character. Sita runs to him, sobbing, and holds him as he dies, but Ravana snatches her back up. Jatayu is able to stay alive just long enough to inform Rama on what had happened.

• Ravana holds Sita captive in Lanka
• Indra informs Sita of why Ravana will not rape her
• Ravana decided he wanted to have many wives. He saw Rambha, who was in love with Nalakubara, son of Vaishravana, and raped her. When Nalakubara heard of this news, he cursed Ravana, saying if he had ever raped a woman again, his head would explode. Because of this curse, Ravana cannot rape Sita, rather he will persuade her to give it to him. Ravana is not used to be rejected, as he always convinced women to give it to him, except for Rambha. 
• Rama and Lakshmana are not able to get to Sita in time, so they head to the hermitage of Sage Matanga, where they find out he is dead. Savari is still living there though, and tells them that she saw Ravana take Sita away. She tells them of the monkey brothers, Vali and Sugriva, and about Sugriva's friend, Hanuman
• Hanuman brings Rama and Lakshmana to Sita's jewelry, giving them some sort of direction to where Sita might be
• Sugriva and Vali fight, and Rama is loyal to Sugriva, so he shoots Vali causing him to die. Sugriva becomes king and promises to begin a search for Sita once the rainy season is over, in return for helping him in his battle. 
• When the rainy season comes to an end, there is no sign of help from Sugriva, so Lakshmana personally goes to confront him. Sugriva sticks to his promise and send out masses of monkey in all directions in search of Sita.