Week 5 Story: Hanuman Finds Sita
Hanuman Finds Sita
Hanuman stepped onto the shores of Lanka, he looked around and shrunk himself down from the mountainous proportions he had had to assume in order to cross the sea. Somehow, he had not been spotted by anyone while in this monstrous size. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was divine intervention- he didn't bother to examine the reasons for his good fortune. As he looked around, he noticed that there were guards along the edges of the wall encircling the compound that was Ravana’s kingdom. They were looking away at something inside the compound at the moment, and Hanuman decided to shrink down to a less conspicuous size- anyone who saw him would assume that he was just a small monkey if they gave him only a passing glance. If they looked closer they would notice that he was actually somewhere in between human and monkey, as he belonged to a race of monkey-like beings.
He scaled the wall, and began to search for Sita, keeping in mind the description he had received from Rama about her beauty.
“Ruby red nails, beauty beyond compare… what was the other thing…”
He mulled over and over her appearance,
“Rama said I would surely know when I saw her…”
He came across a woman with an impossibly small waist, red nail varnish, and from his perch on the wall, she seemed to be a great beauty. He crept along to get a better look at her,
“Is this the Sita I have heard so much about?”
He snuck closer, and realized this could in no way be Sita. Her waist had only appeared thin because of the bizarre posture she held, her red nails were chipped and her face- when up close- was incredibly aged. This could be Sita’s mother, but in no way was she the one he sought.
Hanuman picked through the gardens and patios and extravagant rooms- seeing a beautiful woman, inspecting her, realizing she couldn't be Sita, and repeating the process for many women. He sat down on one of the turrets, exhausted, and looked over to see that the guards along the walls were still all looking to one spot within the palace. He decided to take a break from this search, which was beginning to feel hopeless, and go steal a look at whatever was piquing this much interest in these men to cause them to neglect their posts.
He scurried along the rooftops and walls, and finally could see what the commotion was. He could hear muffled voices and see a group of women. There was one woman sitting beneath a tree, her face downturned, in tattered robes. There was a larger group of women stood around her- poking and prodding at her:
“Ravana can’t touch you, but we can”
“Yeah you had better watch out, your beloved Rama might come in at any moment, wouldn't it be a shame if you had an unsightly black eye?”
Hanuman’s ears perked up,
“Rama- they’ve just said something about Rama!”
He thought maybe this woman might know something about Sita, so he waited from his spot, far from where they could see him, lest someone suspect him of something, and waited for the brutish women who had been harrassing this smaller gentler woman to go away and find someone else to torment. Finally, they left her alone and Hanuman snuck up closer to this woman and the closer he got, the more of her appeared from beneath the tree and the more beautiful she appeared, despite her disheveled robes her figure shone and her beauty appeared to be greater than any he had ever seen. He was awestruck by her poise.
“I cannot believe I dared to think these other women could be Sita, it is an insult to her to think any other mortal could hold a candle to the beauty of this woman, there is no doubt this is for whom I have been searching.”
This post is based of of R. K. Narayan’s Ramayana, and I put my own spin on the story. I retold the story of Hanuman finding Sita in the gardens of Lanka, Ravana’s island. I wanted to keep mostly true to Narayan’s version, but how I remembered it and how I wanted to tell it- and to keep it an easy length to read.
Hi Ava,
ReplyDeleteI liked your retelling of Hanuman meeting Sita. I think in the original version that I am familiar with, Hanuman initially sees Ravana's wife, Mandodari, and thinks she is Sita. But then he realizes that Mandodari is decked in jewelry and indulging in the palace luxuries, so he concludes that it cannot be her. I think it would be more interesting if you went further to describe Hanuman's encounter with Sita and how Hanuman communicates to her that Rama is coming to rescue her. You could describe how Hanuman gives Sita Rama's ring to convince Sita that Hanuman is not an imposter. There is also that interesting bit about Hanuman asking Sita if he can just carry her out of Lanka, but Sita refuses, saying that only Rama can come and save her. But nonetheless, I still liked the simplicity of your story, and how you showed that Hanuman immediately knew he was looking at Sita because of her beauty. It emphasizes Sita's divinity, which shines through her regardless of her disheveled appearance. Great story!
Ava,
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you retold the story of Hanuman meeting Sita. I like how you kept the story similar to the original version and added how Hanuman finds Sita in the gardens of Lanka, which is Ravana's island. I think this version is a lot easier to read and I enjoy how easy you made it to read, not that the story was very hard to understand or read, but you just made it so much simpler and easier to understand. Good Job!