One of the passages that most caught my attention was the story of Thataka, as told by Viswamithra when they were walking through the desert wasteland in which Thataka resided.
A passage from the book that I felt really describes her well is:
"She is a scorcher. She carries a trident with spikes; a cobra entwined on her arm is an armlet. The name of this fearsome creature is Thataka. Just as the presence of a little loba (meanness) dries up and disfigures a whole human personality, so does the presence of this monster turn into desert a region which was once so fertile. In her restlessness she constantly harasses the hermits at their prayers; she gobbles up anything that moves and sends it down her entrails".
-Narayan's Ramayana; Page 12
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| Rama killing Thakata Wikipedia |
"You will learn the answer if you listen to this story-of a woman fierce, ruthless, eating and digesting all living creatures, possessing the strength of a thousand mad elephants".
-Viswamithra, Narayan's Ramayana
Another story that I found to be very interesting is Ahalya's story.
Ahalya was created out of absolute beauty by Brahma and given to Gautama as a bride after he looked after her while she grew up. Indra was infatuated with Ahalya and her beauty. After a while he succumbed to his temptations and physically had her by taking the form of her husband after he had left for his morning ritual.
After sensing something wrong, Gautama returned only to find his wife in bed, physically intimate with an impostor. I think it's a really unusual way to punish Indra but in a weird way it was due. Indra was cursed to be covered in female genitalia while he looked onto his wife and made her a formless slab of stone, only to be returned to her original form once Rama walked past her in that state.
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| Alhalya bows to Rama Blogspot |
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