The author says; Ravana's cheif characteristic is his unholy passion for women. But he is much else besides. Learned in vedas, handsome with the handsomeness of strength, who with great austerities has acquired immense strength and invincibility......Even the supreme trinity desisted from interfering with him, for austerities must always have their full effect till their strengths are exhausted, and his austerities were not ordinary.
He says that VR also depicts him as a hero proud and fierce and full of authority that comes from supreme power. Every one obeys Ravana's slightest word. Only Shurpanaka has the temerity to criticise him after she was maimed by Lakshmana. 'Wilt thou absorbed in pleasure, still pursue unchecked thy selfish will; nor turn thy heedless eyes to see the coming fate that threatens thee?'
However she is more respectful to her brother in KR. While all Lanka was thus immersed in grief as she walked along, she reached the audience hall of Ravana and fell at his feet as a cloud settling at the foot of a hill. Darkness fell over the universe as a pall. Adishesha was terrified.., mountains of the earth shook. The Sun was beside himself with fear and the devas concealed themselves in fear.
With smoke rushing through his mouths even as he bit his lips...with his teeth giving out the sheen of lighting when he ground them in anger, he thundered out, 'whose deed is this?' ...Shurpanaka narrates the story and extols Sita's beauty and after rousing Ravana's passion for this unseen beauty reveals her motive and tells him: 'Possesses her, immerse thy soul in love, while all the world will sing in joy thy marriage song, a guerdon now I claim, put forth thy valor and, defeating Ram, wed me to him, for, him I as life .... and adds ..'Tis such a fair that I did try to bring for thee, when Lakshman the brother of Ram attacked and wounded me.
Kamban then describes the pangs of the rakshasa filled his lustful thoughts...Shurpanaka looking at his condition suggests: 'Thou art the undisputed master of the universe. Why art thou then hesitating to act? Go to the place where she is, and capture her for thyself!'
Kamban's Ravana as he looks at Sita thinks that his twenty eyes are not enough and wishes he had thousand unblinking eyes. His passion for Sita is not the vulgar lust of a depraved heart, but the tender and delicate desire of a heart that desires reciprocal affection. He wants to win Sita's heart and win her willing love. He does not desire to force her hand. ..And so the words that he address to Sita are full of a rare delicacy..No death, no defeat-- death of even his nearest and dearest--will induce him to part with her or give up the hope of making her own.
Clash of cultures. Aryan settlement of the sub-cntinent?
R
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