One substory I found interesting in this section of Ramayana is the story of Maricha, the rakshasa son of the rakshasi, Tataka. When Maricha's mother is killed by Rama, he tries to take revenge against Rama, but he is instead thrown by Rama miles away into an ocean. Maricha is scared of Rama after this incident, and he tries to steer clear of him as much as possible.
After Surpanakha flees to Ravana to tell him about the humiliation she faced in the hands of Rama and Lakshmana, Ravana is enraged, and he formulates a plan to trick Rama so that he can kidnap the beautiful Sita and make her his wife. Ravana goes to Maricha and tells him of his plan - Maricha will disguise himself as a beautiful golden deer to catch the eyes of Sita, after which Rama will chase after him. When Rama finally shoots Maricha, he will scream for help in his best imitation of Rama, drawing Lakshmana toward Rama and leaving Sita unguarded for Ravana to capture.
I thought it was fascinating that Maricha showed reluctance to this plan from the beginning, but ultimately had no choice but to follow through with it. Ravana threatened Maricha to comply or else meet his death. Maricha knew that he would die either way, so I wonder why he chose to help Ravana instead of being killed and not have to face Rama again, whom he was deathly afraid of. I wonder if maybe Maricha thought it was better to die in the hands of the virtuous Rama than the evil Ravana, so he chose to comply with Ravana's plan. I would love to retell this section from the perspective of Maricha and explore his thought process as he agreed to Ravana's plan.
Characters: Maricha, Rama, Ravana, Tataka, Surpanakha, Sita, Lakshmana
Plot:
- Rama and Lakshmana travel with Viswamitra to the forest
- While Viswamitra and the other sages are conducting the rituals, Rama and Lakshmana protect them from demons
- Tataka, Maricha's mother, attacks the pooja, and Rama kills her
- Maricha attacks Rama to take revenge, and Rama sends Maricha far away to the ocean
- After this event, Maricha is terrified of Rama's power
- Several years later, Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita are living in the forest
- Surpanakha is humiliated by Rama and Lakshmana, runs to complain of them to Ravana
- Ravana forms a plan to trick Rama and Lakshmana and kidnap Sita
- Ravana asks Maricha to participate, forces him to comply or be killed
- Maricha is terrified of Rama, and knows he will die either way, but chooses to follow Ravana's plan anyway
- Maricha disguises himself as a beautiful golden deer; he catches the eye of Sita
- Sita asks Rama to get the deer, Rama chases after the deer, leaving Lakshmana to guard Sita
- Rama shoots the deer, and Maricha, while dying, cries for help in his best imitation of Rama
- Sita forces Lakshmana to go after Rama, leaving her unprotected; Ravana captures her
- Maricha dies, possibly grateful his death was by the hands of Rama and not of Ravana
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