Week 3 Story: Beginning of Ramayana

 

Rama and Sita Source: Wikipedia Commons

    There was once a Rakshasa names Ravana who pleaded with Brahma through penance. Brahma granted Ravana invincibility against Gods and Demons and this allowed Ravana to do whatever he pleased with the Gods. He oppressed the Gods with his invincibility and the Gods had to gather in order to resolve this problem. Gods concluded that the humans were the only way to be rid of Ravana once and for all. So the Gods went to Vishnu for an answer and Vishnu told them that he will divide into four humans and be born as sons of Dasharatha.

    Dasharatha was a human king who was king who allowed his kingdom to be mighty and powerful. He performed a horse sacrifice in order to have heirs, because he couldn't get sons naturally. The sons that he ended up bearing after the horse sacrifice were the four parts of Vishnu. Rama, the oldest of the brothers was the strongest and the most respected of the four. The other brothers were fiercely loyal to him and everyone held him in high regard.

    Rama and his second brother Lakshmana goes on an adventure when they grow up along with Vishvamitra. Vishvamitra specifically asked for the brothers from Dasharatha so that they could do battle with the rakshasas. In their travels, Rama meets his wife Sita and wins her using his valour. When they come back from their adventures, Dasharatha's third wife, the mother of Rama's third and fourth brothers tricks Dasharatha into exiling Rama in order to place her own son on the throne. Of course, to honor his father, Rama agrees without difficulty and goes into exile. Dasharatha dies shortly after from the pain of what he's done to Rama.

    Rama's third brother Bharata condemns her mother for her actions and goes to meet Rama. He insists that Rama returns to his rightful place. However, Rama insists on keeping his promise with his dead father. Bharata then puts a pair of golden sandals on Rama then takes the sandals back to the throne. He treats the sandals as if they were Rama and serves the kingdom in his place without taking the throne for himself. 

    Rama during his exile starts to battle against Rakshasas once more. The Rakshasas use trickery to try their best at winning against Rama. One of their trickeries end up getting Sita kidnapped. Rama and his brother Lakshmana now continues their adventure chasing after Sita.

Bibliography

Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

The Divine Archer by F. J. Gould (1911).

Valmiki's Ramayana, translated by Ralph T.H. Griffith (1870-1874)

Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita

Author's notes

So for this week's storybook I tried to make it as short and sweet as possible. There were so many details and anecdotes that even my reading notes were over 300 words each. Since I'm combining two of those for this one post, I was trying to make it like the Star Wars prelude where the screen just gives a short synopsis of what happened with the previous movie. I think I did alright when it comes to meeting my expectations of how short it should be. However, I'm not sure if this is the best way to do the storybook or not. I'm thinking of trying out doing a dialogue-focused storybook next time for more immersion.