While traveling through the forest, Rama encounters Soorpanaka who falls in love with him. She proposes to him (which is interesting because I would imagine culturally the men would propose marriage first) and he rejects her. She blames Sita's beauty for him rejecting her, which is rather childish. She runs away to her brother Ravana, the demon king.
Ravana is rather interested in Sita because of her renowned beauty. He also has enslaved reigning gods to be his servants. Soorpanaka was obviously so obsessed with Rama that I think a story about her obsession as a visit to the doctor's office would be hilarious. I find it also weird that Ravana fell in love with Soorpanaka's description of Sita rather than the actual Sita. Seems like they are a pair of ridiculous siblings. There's a curse that was placed on Ravana where if he touched any woman without her consent, he would die instantly. It'd be cool to write about the history of how that curse came to be.
"Ravana fights Jatayu"
Source: Indian Epics Reading Guides
Jatayu was the bird who tried to rescue Sita but ended up being killed by Ravana. It seems from Narayan's version, Ravana tried to spare the bird, but ended up killing him anyway. So maybe Ravana wasn't such a terrible person, he was just misunderstood. It would be interesting to write about that too! Sita was smart enough to leave jewelry breadcrumbs for Rama when she was abducted. The timeline of the story was weird and I am unsure of how long Sita was abducted before Rama was finding all these animals/people to help him save her. Although Vali agrees that Rama didn't act wrongly by shooting a hidden arrow at Vali during the fight. I think he definitely cheated.
Bibliography:
"The Ramayana" by R. K. Narayan.
Narayan, R. K. The Ramayana. New Delhi: Vision, 1987. Print.
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