Brainstorm Topics

Rakshasis:

Throughout the Ramayana, I found the female demons to be some of most interesting characters.  I was so interested in Thataka’s back-story that I wrote about it in my storytelling post.  Furthermore, I also found Soorpanaka’s unwavering affection for Rama to be odd but interesting.  I did do some research such as Wikipedia pages on the characters and I tried to search the Internet to see if female demons were viewed differently than male demons.  However, I could not anything about the views of female demons, but it is something that I would be interested to know.  I also looked through past storybook projects, and found “Misunderstood Women of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata” by Bethany Magley.  Within her story, she gives an accurate account of both rakshasis.

Kooni/Manthara and Kaikeyi:

First of all, I am very intrigued by Kaikeyi’s and Kooni’s relationship.  Even though Kaikeyi is a queen, she still allows Kooni to manipulate her.  Furthermore, within the Ramayana, there is one point in which Kausalya is described as having “several dwarfs and hunchbacks and other freaks” as her servants (Narayan 31).  I was wondering if there were specific reasons why people with physical deformities are the servants of the queens.  I tried to do some research about the issue, but only managed to find out details about each character—such as how Kooni never liked Rama due to a past event.   I had no luck in discovering the significance of deformities.  For this topic, I also read some past storybook projects—“Evil Women of the Ramayana”—which describes Kaikeyi’s and Kooni’s relationship. 

Mistreated Women of the Ramayana:

Throughout the Ramayana, I felt like many of the women—Sita, Tara, and Ahalya—were either mistreated or discredited because of their sex.  I was surprised while doing some research on Wikipedia that women in ancient India were actually treated quite equally to men, but their freedom declined due to the occurrence of various religions such as Islam and Christianity.  I know I will have to do more in depth research on this topic, but this contradictory find to my beliefs sparks my interest immensely.

Monkey Characters within the Ramayana:

One very important aspect of the text is the use of monkey characters such as Hanuman, Vali, Sugreeva, and Angada.  I know monkeys are one of the sacred animals within Indian culture.  However, monkeys are also described as fickle minded.  I am wondering if there is a connection to their fickle mindedness and Sugreeva’s lack of urgency in helping Rama.  I did research using Wikipedia and other Internet sources, but I was not able to find out why people dress like monkeys in Indian culture.  I know that it is a part of their culture to dress up like monkeys because I have seen it before and I believe they do it to enforce protection against evil, but I am not exactly sure.  After searching the Internet for a while, I could only find recent accounts of Parliament using men dressed up as monkeys to scare real monkeys away from government buildings.

A sculpture of Hanuman. Source: Wikipedia