Something to do with ego and wistful hope that in time the lovely Sita would yIeld to his affection. So the unwise abduction led to war when Ravana refused to release Sita. Which of course is evidence that Knowledge is not Wisdom. It is of course conceivable and I suppose reasonable to assume that while he played the musical instrument favoured by the Goddess of Wisdom, he may have been lacking in that quality. He is also a bit of a rock musician of his times, a virtuoso of the Rudra Veena which according to contemporary experts is both very difficult to play and is also the ordained instrument of Saraswathi the Goddess of Wisdom and Learning. Oddly, in the mythologies Ravana is a learned,cultured man and a staunch devotee of Shiva ,the God of destruction and therefore redemption. In this mythology ( now of course made real by time ) Ravana is a demon, and Rakshasas are portrayed as such, dark and fanged and brooding with menace. So Agamemnon and his army marched more to retrieve property and redress grievances rather than (as in the case of Rama )rescue the maiden and reclaim lost love. Except Helen was a bit of a willing and somewhat ( from all accounts ) a vacuous participant. And unable to contain himself he ended up abducting her and whisked her off to Lanka.Ĭlearly this has overtones of Helen of Troy and Paris.
With the wife of Rama, the virtuous and seemingly hapless Sita. It purportedly was a prosperous and happy Kingdom. In most parts of North India the mythology tells of the epic battle between Rama,the eponymous Good King and avatar of Vishnu the God of protection, and Ravana, a powerful being who was the King of Lanka, the land of the Rakshasha’s. ĭussehra is also called Vijayadashami in certain parts of IndiaĪnd here is where it gets interesting and what got me thinking. It signifies the defeat of Good vs Evil and of battles that were fought for nine days till on the tenth, evil succumbed.
The word is a combine of Das as in Ten and Hara as in Defeat I was wished Happy Dussehra by many of my Indian friends today.