For Part A of the Ramayana, I wrote about Ahalya, which you can read about here. As she appeared again towards the end of Part B I considered taking notes on her again, but I was much more interested about the tales centered around Hanuman.
In Tale 93, "When Hanuman Was Hungry", Hanuman's mother leaves him as a baby and he grows so hungry he flies up and tries to eat the sun, mistaking it for a mango. Indra becomes so angry over this that he throws a thunderbolt at Hanuman and breaks his jaw. In Tale 94, "The Devas Bless Hanuman", Hanuman's father Vayu is angry over Hanuman's injury that he stops the air from moving until Brahma arrives and heals his son.
While reading this story about infant Hanuman, I was reminded of the story in Greek mythology of Daedalus and his son, Icarus. In this myth, Daedalus makes wings for him and his son so they are able to escape the Labyrinth. Icarus, however, falls victim to his hubris and flies too close to the sun, and the wax holding his wings together melts and he falls from such a height that he drowns when he falls into the sea. The story is told on Wikipedia on a page over Icarus. I think it could be interesting to retell this Greek myth using the characters of Hanuman and Vayu.
While continuing the story of Hanuman, I thought it interesting that he was blessed by multiple devas and was given not only protection against any future thunderbolts but also radiance and invulnerability to sickness and weapons. While I don't know much about the story of Hanuman in the second half of the Ramayana, I think it might be interesting to write a story about how these gifts come in handy. Though, it is definitely privilege that Hanuman is given all of these gifts just because his powerful father was angered.
The end of Tale 94 was especially interesting to me as there was heavy foreshadowing, and I liked how that made me even more interested in Hanuman's story.
Bibliography: Part B, Page 10, Tales 93 and 94 of the Tiny Tales from the Ramayana by Laura Gibbs. Links: Tale 93 and Tale 94.
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