Monday, January 27, 2020

Reading Notes Part A: King Dasharatha

King Dasharatha was another interesting read for me.  To be honest, I have no idea how to pronounce any of these people’s names and I am very unfamiliar with Indian culture.  That being said, I thought this story was very well told.  I really enjoyed how it got straight to the point and told me who King Dasharatha was.  When I took the Mythology and Folklore class last year it seemed that if we w2ere going to be introduced to a new character the story really dragged out telling us about who the new person we were reading about was.  I like this story better because it is way more simplistic in the fact that it gives us the character right away and we get to learn about him with no bs. Also, how the author described the kingdom that Dasharatha rules over uses very elegant words.  I did have to re-read the story just so I could better pronounce the names and try to understand what was being said. I have not really ever read a story that gives such beautiful description as the story does.  I felt like I could visualize everything in my head and was in awe of the splendor and beauty.  It always seems that stories and myths never focus on the small details but rather the larger picture.  This story does the opposite and it really drew me into the narrative.


The one thing that I did not like was that all the names sounded kind of like a rhyme scheme, which really threw me off.  I found myself rhyming the names together and when I was doing that I had no idea where I was in the story.  I think that if they were to tone down all the names and different people it would be an easier story to follow. Overall, I really enjoyed the story and cannot wait to read more.


King Dasharatha. (1930)
Bazaar art. Source: Wikicommons

Bibliography: Gibbs, Laura. King Dasharatha. King Dasharatha.

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