Week 6 Reading Diary B: Hubris, Betrayal, Deception

In this fuller version of the battle between Ravana's and Rama's armies (as opposed to Narayan), it seemed there was a deeper narrative of the downfall of evil and the triumph of good. That is to say, as I was reading this section I noticed certain themes, qualities of Ravana, his army, and his tactics that seemed to be painting a moralistic picture, demonstrating why and in what ways Ravana was a force of evil, contrasting that to Rama's purity.

The first quality I noticed was hubris. This came up a bit in Narayan, but I noticed it more in the more detailed story in Buck. Ravana is given many chances to "walk away", so to speak, and is advised to do so by many of his own closest relatives and followers. Yet, he ignores their advice and presses on. This, despite the fact that clearly Sita will not give in to him, and he can't just rape her due to his curse, so the initial purpose of kidnapping her is moot. His ego - his need to prove himself, not be defeated, and never back down - is now what drives him to wage war against Rama.

This leads me to the second point - betrayal. When Vibhishana (wisely) counsels Ravana to surrender Sita to Rama, Ravana's egomania prevents him from hearing reason, and Ravana turns violent, accusing Vibhishana of betrayal. So, Vibhishana does then betray Ravana, fleeing from the violent force of evil and taking refuge with Rama. Despite having every reason to suspect Vibhishana, Rama does not and offers him sanctuary. Vibhishana proves invaluable, helping to revive Rama and the others when they are slain in battle. Another rakshasa, Trijata, plays a vital role in helping Sita remain faithful that Rama is alive and will triumph. These characters are portrayed as making noble and "right" decisions. This repeated theme of the few truly good individuals in Lanka betraying their loyalty to their ruler just serves to reinforce the corruption of Ravana. Ravana, and thus Lanka, is so corrupted by evil, to do right one must ultimately break from the side of evil.

Lastly, throughout the Ramayana there is a theme of using illusions and trickery. Sometimes forces of good use trickery (as I talked about in an earlier reading diary). In this main battle, though, it seems all the dirty tricks and illusions are used by Ravana's army. Again and again, Ravana uses deception to try to gain an advantage in the fight - he sends spies disguised as monkeys, pretends to kill Rama, then pretends to kill Sita - and the only time Ravana came close to triumph was when Indrajit rode out, invisible, and kills most of the major players in Rama's army (luckily, Hanuman picks up a mountain and they're all better. Pretty strong stuff). All of these tactics show "bad form", and seem to denote that the unrighteous, Ravana, must resort to dirty tricks, illusions, and sly deception in order to gain an advantage - he cannot win on strength and merit alone. In the end, even his dirty tricks cannot defeat Rama, the force of good, and when the two engage in head-on combat (though we haven't gotten there yet), good triumphs.