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| From Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues |
The Golden Deer
What I like the most about this part of the story is how the magical creature who is seemingly the most gorgeous thing in the forest is the work of evil and misdeeds. These wise and divine natured people, Rama and Sita fall prey to the lure of the beauty and pay the consequence, which is so human. I like in the poem how she is beguiling her husband to go and get this thing for her. The quote I pasted here is funny to me because Rama tells Lakshmana his brother that he already kinda knows this is the wrong choice, but what else can you do but do what your wife tells you. Happy wife, happy life. It may be easier to chase demon deer into the forest on a fool's mission than to disobey your wife! Smart man. Must be why is a god, and a king.
Lakshmana spoke to Sita and said, “My heart is full of misgiving. Sages have told that rakshasas are wont to assume the forms of deer. Ofttimes have monarchs been waylaid in the forest by artful demons who came to lure them away.”
Source. 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)
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