Week 6: Reading Diary

Nala

• Monkey whose special skill is to make rocks buoyant. This is particularly useful as Rama's troops need to cross the ocean into Lanka. Not really sure why Nata wasn't helping out whenever they were asking who could jump across the gap to Lanka earlier in the book.
• Credited as builder of the Rama Setu, or the bridge that allowed Rama's forces to enter modern-day Sri Lanka
• Varuna tells Rama that Nala is a divine architect of the gods, and Nala even fights in the great battle between Rama and Ravana
• Nala (and sometimes Nila) managed to get this rock buoyancy power due to mischeif in their youth. Once upon a time, the ornery Nala would often throw divine talismans or images into the water for fun. Because of this bad habit, the sages put a curse on them that disallowed anything thrown into water by the monkey from drowning. This led to the great career as a water architect
• Wounded in the battle by the arrows of the Great Indrajit
• In some versions, Nala constructs the living quarters for Rama's army while marching on Lanka

Vibhishana

• Clearly the wisest Rakshasa in all of Lanka, as he persitently asks to return Sita to Rama.
• This marks a place where the tide could have taken a major turn. I could imagine trying to weave a tale where Ravana listens to his loyal (brother?) Vibhishana and chooses to give back Sita to Rama. It's like trying to turn the story back into a happily ever after ending.
• A completely different story would be the inner conversation going on between members o the camp other than Rama whenever Vibhishana attempts to come aboard their camp.

Angada

• Son of Vali and Tara, nephew of Sugriva. Tara was also once the wife of Sugriva before Vali banished Sugriva and later killed by Rama. I think this should maker things awkward as his own nephew was birthed by his own ex-wife? That sounds like some melancholy sitcom right there.
• Catches a spy bird but is not allowed to kill Suka
• One of the "peaceful" messengers of Rama's. Says basically everything that Ravana's party has tried to convince Ravana of already, but it is all to no avail.
• I think it's interesting to note that most of Rama's threats that were delivered through Angada all were very direct. Most of them boiled down to, "you will die if I don't get my Sita back". This is significantly different than some of Ravana's threats where he says "One of these days..." and trails off. It's this that makes me think that the Rakshasas are not only built to destroy and kill. That being said, I think the Rakshasas are also more interested in pain and torture than the average human. Such a conundrum.