Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana, Section C

The Ashoka Grove

(The prose portion comes from Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913), and the verse portion comes from Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India, condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt (1899))

• This was the only story I really connected with.
• For obvious reasons, I was drawn to the depiction of the rakshasi. 
• In this story however they are seen as protective and almost kind in the way they huddle around Sita. 
• I am really interested in how they are visually depicted in this one however. Instead of being huge disgusting monsters, they just seem to be ladies with animal-esque heads. 
• Their role as protectors is indicated by their description in the following lines: 
• "And she lived by rakshas guarded, as a faint and timid deer
  Severed from her herd and kindred when the prowling wolves are near"
• This is majorly different from the typical menacing, human-hating role they usually occupy. 

(Rakshasi)