Week 2 Reading Diary A: Starting the Ramayana

I was immediately intrigued by the idea of Dasharatha's character. I think the idea of this great leader with whom he has no one to turn his crown over to is intriguing. From the beginning you can sense that there is going to be a very interesting story regarding his succession. The arrival or Rama and the other children immediately fuels the expectations. Obviously the reader should be rooting for Rama because he is the avatar of Vishnu but you can almost sense trouble within the situation. When it dives into chapter 3 with Dasharatha alone it seems that they are portraying him as the great leader with the most difficult of decisions in front of him. He must face the reality that his time has come to hand over the crown of the kingdom he has ruled for so many years. However, as soon as he has made this great decision to hand it over to his great and promising son, Rama, the plot twist rears it's head with perfect timing. It makes you wonder with the idea of the author here, did he consider just continuing on to make Dasharatha as this great ruler who handed the kingdom over to a perfect ruler in Rama? Or was the plan all along to create this debacle of vanishing Rama so that Bharata could take the crown?

Vishnu

Source: Wikipedia