Alex's Epics of India Blog

The jataka tale that I enjoyed the most from this collection, from the set which was assigned for part A, was "The Value of a Brother." There are a few reasons I liked this story in particular. First, however, a quick summary:  Three robbers plunder people living in a certain part of the forest near Kosala. The villagers then go to search them out, but find no one but three brothers ploughing a field. Frustrated, the villagers accuse the brothers of being the robbers (similar to some groundless accusations in the United States, as a community needs someone to hold responsible. I read Just Mercy in high school). The brothers are then unceremoniously arrested and imprisoned. A woman in the court of the king bewails their imprisonment, and the king allows her to demand one of them to be released to her after she tells him that they are her brother, husband, and son. The woman elects the brother, because he is the only irreplaceable one of the three. The king, impresse...

"So that's it, then?" "Yeah." "Let me get this clear, so that I can curse you properly before I die. You're dumping me after I was just proven pure by the gods, banishing me and our unborn twin children to the forest, and by all counts, leaving us to die. That's what you're doing." "It is the only logical course of action, Sita." "Alright, Spock. Logical how?" "You are the only one who has ever made be behave illogically, Sita. Chasing Maricha as the golden deer; leading an army agains Ravana when you could have returned safely with Hanuman; these are just two examples of how you make me behave against my perfect nature." "I don't make you behave any way. You're a big boy, Rama. And Hanuman should have waited up. He had too much fun razing the city, and he forgot to come back for me." "It was all for my glorification, Sita." "Tell that to the thousands of dead...

Notes as I watch: 1:00:28 -- Dang, Dave. That was a brutal breakup email. And wow, Rama. I know you're a king, but dumping your pregnant wife who was proven pure by a trial by fire because people are saying stuff about you? Make them respect you in a way that isn't banishing your wife and unborn child. This extension of the story, which wasn't in Narayan's Ramayana , is interesting. 1:06:31 -- Bedbugs? Yikes, Nina. And the animals in the second song after intermission are really sad, with all of them getting dumped. It's funny that Sita feels 'blue' considering that Rama is actually blue. Her sons singing the praises of Rama are sad and funny; I wasn't expecting the sudden musical number. But that they are being taught to extol the man who dumped them into the forest is sad. 1:10:56 -- I think the narrator's discussion of unhealthy reactions to bad breakups is another way to give the story some modern context, as a way to challenge what (probab...

Notes as I watch:  9:12 -- This animation style is hilarious, with the interpolation of realistic images onto the animation. The sexy nurse Kaikeyi got a giggle-snort out of me. Also, I love the narration. The narrators' unsureness with which they relate the story of Rama gives a pleasantly meta, relatable tone to the story as it is told. (I love metatexts! That's why I wrote the intrusion of myself as narrator into my last Storytelling assignment.) 14:35 -- I really enjoyed the Sinatra-esque song sequence. The song clashed tonally with the scene in a perfectly discordant way; despite their poverty and Rama's occupation killing demons, Sita sings happily about their love as they stand under a beautiful arch of blood spurting from demon corpses. I love absurdity! Satire! So good! (Sidenote: Where is Lakshmana?) 15:00 -- The contrasting animation styles of Nina and Dave with Rama and Sita give really good distance between their stories: the story of the modern couple an...