Week 7 Storytelling: Mandodari's Love

Dear Diary,

Every moment that my love has been away from me has left me feeling as if I cannot breathe. I know not whether he will return to me when this war comes to an end. But Ravana is the king of all Lanka, and I must believe that he will prosper.

Like the others, I told him that this war was senseless and that he should return the beautiful maiden to her husband. I have heard much about this Rama from the way that the servants gossip like bored women. I know that he is not one that should be messed with. Ravana did not listen to me.

But Ravana is my life, my light. I do not know how I would live without him should he fall against such an admittedly admirable foe. Even if the sight of that woman he had brought in brought me jealousy. The servants muttered that she was more fair than I, and my love spent so much of his valuable time doting over her. And with all of the time that he spent doting on her, trying to make her love him as he loves her, I was there.

Yet, my love pines for her more than he does for me. I have never been put second to any of Ravana’s other wives, so why should I be for this woman? So yes, I do admit jealousy. Who could blame me? My love for Ravana can never falter, and I will love him twice as hard so that I can give him the love that she will not.

Would it be ill for a part of me to wish that this Rama won the war so that he could take back this woman? Yes, it would. How dare I think such things? The end of this war means the end of the life of the one who shall lose, and the gossiping servants believe that even my immortal Ravana could fall to the hands of this foe.

So I will push the ill thoughts from my mind and focus on the joy that will overcome me when I see my beloved again. Perhaps this Sita will continue to refuse him, and in anger he will cast her aside. It will be then that he will see me, and remember the fairness that I drew him in with in the first place. For I love him more than this woman ever could, and he should be able to remember that when he comes home from war.

Ah, I believe that I have heard the west gate open. That must be my Ravana returning to me. I must go greet him.

Until we meet again, my diary,

Mandodari

Image Information: Mandodari Approaches Ravana; Web Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author's Note:

 In The Ramayana Ravana has many wives. However, his favorite is Mandodari. She is very beautiful and fair, and is rivaled in looks by Sita. She loves Ravana fiercely; even though he has many faults about him she can see past them. Mandodari is one of the many individuals who urges Ravana to give Sita back to Rama, because she knows that what he has done is wrong, and that Rama can make him pay for his sins. She is crushed when she sees Ravana come back from the war dead and runs to his body in tears.

I thought that the character of Mandodari was an interesting one. I liked that she loved Ravana as much as she did even though he was nearly evil. I wanted to tell the story of her emotions as she waited for Ravana to return from war. I feel that she should have believed that he would come back for her, but at the same time she had to have know that he would lose. I wanted to tell the story through a diary entry so that I could really capture her thoughts.

Bibliography:

• Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way. 
• Image from Wikimedia Commons