Reading Notes: Narayan's Ramayana, Section C

(Desktopnexus)

- At one point in the Ramayana, Hanuman and his troop of monkeys end up lost and trapped in a dark cave. They eventually find a beautiful city that's almost entirely empty, except for one woman. Not much information is given about the woman, only that she had been a goddess, and due to a mistake, had been condemned to live in this underground city, alone.
- Who was she? What did she do that precipitated her exile to this empty, underground city? Did she build the city? If not, who did? Just enough information is given to raise interest, but not enough to tell a story. This would be an interesting story to tell, or to create a variation of.
- There are many ways that this story could be told. It could be recounted within the cultural/time framework of the Ramayana, using Indian myths to try and piece together an idea of who this woman might be. However, I think it would be interesting to tell it as a more contemporary story, without an obvious cultural ID.
- I think that I would approach this story as a fantasy. A woman with some magical powers accidentally kills the person that she is bound to protect. In shame, she runs away and ends up in an underground abandoned city, with no idea how to escape. As she explores the city, she discovers information about the builders and former residence. She tries to piece together information about these previously unknown people, and what happened to them.
- It would even be possible to include an allusion to Hanuman and the monkeys, by including a group of sentient monkeys living in the caves. They could be descended from the pets of the original cave builders/residents.


Bibliography: Ramayana by Narayan. Web Source.