Vishwamitra Analysis

In this chapter we get to know story about Parashurama and his axe, how a king Kaushika becomes sage Vishwamitra, Dashratha sons as Vasishtha and Vishwamitra, Ram lifting Shiva’s bow with ease and getting married to Sita. This chapter ends with four brothers -Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughna, marrying the four sisters Sita, Urmila, Mandavi and Shrutakirti.
Dashratha accidently killed Shravan who was on his way to pilgrimage with his blind parents. They cursed him that he will also cry for his sons in the same way they are crying. To this curse Dashratha rushed to Ayodhya and planned for Ram’s coronation but Kaikeyi reminded him of his promise of boons so she asked for Ram exile for 14 years and to make Bharat the king. Ram was joined by Lakshman and Sita to the exile. In this section of the book we get to see a father’s fear of getting separated from

I did know anything apart from knowing Valmiki Ramayana but after reading this book I got know many things like Ram never questioned, but accepted it as a part of life, nor I knew that Sita was a girl with young mind full of questions and moreover that Lakshman never slept in the entire exile period but in his place his wife Urmila slept, like these they were many characters and each character had aspects. The book kept me engaged from the very first page, and I got to know many more facts related to our mythology. At the end of each section of the story there is a vignette. In that vignette, not only author gives his thought but also tells us which version he has referred to. I liked the way author has mentioned “Within infinite myths lies an eternal truth/who sees it all? /Varuna has but thousand eyes/ Indra, a hundred/ you and I, only two.” [Sita, 2013, xvi]. It means that author has apologized if he mistakes or misses any point while retelling of Ramayana, wind has thousand eyes, Indra has hundred eyes and humans have two eyes it may be wrong