Comparing/Contrasting Sunjata to Gilgamesh and Rama

After finishing the epic of Sunjata, there were several things that stood out to me that seemed to closely resemble both The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Ramayana. First, Sunjata (just like Gilgamesh and Rama) goes on an epic journey after being exiled from his home. As seen in the first two epics we looked at, it is clear that this journey is not so important except other than to show how great and mighty Sunjata is. Like in the Ramayana, Sunjata's father is king over his people, and through an unfair ruling in determining who will take the throne, Sunjata and Rama both are forced to wait to fulfill their duties as kings. While Sunjata appears to be slightly more in control and well-behaved than Gilgamesh, he falls short of Rama's near-pefect personality. We are often seeing him become angry at others, and his decision making is sometimes questionable (i.e. cutting strips off his own calf in order to feed his companion). After observing his behavior, I would say that Sunjata's character as an epic hero falls right in between Rama and Gilgamesh. Some major differences also stood out between Sunjata and Gilgamesh. First, while Gilgamesh starts out as ruler over his people, Sunjata is forced to complete several tests before he is made king. Also, unlike Gilgamesh, Sunjata is born a cripple and only gets stronger as time passes. As for Gilgamesh, he starts out strong and later becomes weakened when his companion, Enkidu, is killed. One last difference that stood out to me was how little the "gods" were involved with the plot compared to The Epic of Gilgamesh. While the story was filled with demons and superstitions, it seemed as if supreme deities played a very insignificant role in the story throughout.