Week 4 Reading Diary: The Divine Archer Cont.

This post is my reading diary of The Divine Archer, written by F.J. Gould. I will be covering Part B.  

• Rama kills Vali, again it seems controversial. Rama is supposed to be a heroic character, not a man who is afraid of fighting an opponent.  
• Once again, Hanuman is the true hero of this story, in my opinion.  
• I know it is probably a plot device, but it seems odd that Hanuman is caught. He made it all the way to Ravana's most valued prisoner, but couldn't make it back out of the grove.  
• The fire caused by Hanuman in this story seems to be a bit more magical, in contrast to the darker tone the rest of this version takes. I find it hard to believe that only the grove in which Sita was hiding and Vibhishana's house are the only things that are not burned to ash. 
• If Rama can hit Ravana in the head with a surprise arrow, why doesn't he kill him and end the war. Some would say it would be cowardly and non heroic, but Rama proved earlier with the Vali incident that he would rather take the easy victory in what would otherwise be an unsure straight up fight. 
• I may be wrong, but in the Public Domain Edition of the Ramayana, I was under the impression that the war lasted for much longer than it did in this version. Maybe, it is because I am not reading this a pages from different authors broken up into chunks.  
• Rama really appears to care about his public image very much, he exiles Sita again in this version. Again, I can't decide which is his true character:  Cowardly or Brave. 



Sita goes into the Earth, courtesy of Spiritual Messenger

• Sita going into the Earth after she proved Rama wrong seems to be all Rama deserves to me.   

Thanks for reading guys.