Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Lustful Villains of the Ramayana

I have seen many Bollywood movies, hence I had some idea as to who Rama, Sita and Ravana are before I read The Ramayana for class. Rama and Sita are always portrayed as the ideal lovers, whereas Ravana - the name itself signifies something or someone evil. In fact, a lot of times in Bollywood movies the villain is compared to, or called Ravana.
The picture I had of Ravana in my mind was of a tyrant who abducts and rapes women. Though when Hanuman mentions that Sita was the only women Ravana had ever taken without her consent I started questioning the Hindu portrayal of Ravana. The fact that he does not over power Sita and rapes her when he easily can somehow made me appreciate him.
Looking deeper into the Hindu Religion I realized that for them to lust is a big sin. Connecting the dots, you can notice how in The Ramayana, every person who lusted for something or someone was portrayed as a bad person. Ravana’s sister who lusted for Rama got her nose cut off. Ravana who had everything in life one could want, yet lusted for Sita lost everything.
It was very confusing to me that Rama would go through such trouble to get Sita back, yet let her go based on suspicion that she might not be “pure” anymore. But then taking in consideration the society’s view towards lust and chastity it somewhat justifies Rama’s decision.

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