Storytelling for Week 3: The Great Abduction

Once upon a time in a far away forest, there was a poor old man. This man had been living in rags and had not had a stable home, a woman, or even a friend in years. He became so discouraged with himself and his ability to accomplish anything that he turned into a vein hermit. This hermit went by the name of Ravana. Many, many years had passed and not much had changed in Ravana's life. He lived a life full of emptiness, sadness, and quite frankly had not a single loved one. One day, Ravana had reached an all time low. He had never been so lonely before, and longed a woman more than anything. He gave himself two options: to continue his life full of loneliness or to get up and change something. With great debate, he chose the second option. It may seem easy to others to make a change like this, but Ravana was so severely out of the loop, he had not talked to a single being in hundreds of years. Instead of easing into things and taking small steps toward finding a wife and a life full of love and happiness, Ravana dives into this task with full fury. He was going to do whatever it takes, and I mean whatever it takes, to find the perfect woman to spend the rest of his life with. He begins his journey with a search. He searches all throughout the woods, backwards and forwards, looking for any sign of a living woman. He has no luck. Ravana becomes extremely anxious and begins to go mad. His search becomes frantic and he begins to loose hope. Days, weeks, months go by with no sight of a woman. Ravana is hopeless and decides to give up on his search. As turns around and endlessly walks back toward the way he came, he spots something shining out of the corner of his eye. He turns toward the shining figure and he sees shiny blonde hair on the most beautiful he has ever seen or imagined in his lifetime. Her name is Sita. He becomes so flustered because he has not had contact with anyone, yet alone a woman, in years so he has no idea to react. He follows his first instinct, which is to catch her before he looses her. He approaches her in his ragged state, anxious beyond belief. She was startled at first, saying "Who goes there? Turn back now or I will have you sought after!". Ravana responds by saying, "I want no harm, I am just a poor old man, coming for something I need." This eases Sita, as she plans to just fetch him some food and a new pair of clothes and send him on his way. He comes closer and closer until he stands on the ground right in front of her and says, "I need you, I will take you with me now", clearly not knowing how to properly interact with another human being. This takes Sita off guard, "I am a married woman, you cannot have me. I demand you to leave!". Out of fury, Ravana shakes the ground below her feet causing her to fall and then lifts the ground as a whole. In her helpless state, Ravana grabs onto her arm and ties his arm to hers. She exclaims, "You cannot take me like this, I have a husband who will find me!", and without caring Ravana responds by saying, "You are the woman I need and the woman I want, for the rest of our immortal lives you will be bound by my side.", and heads deep into the forest with his newly found woman.

Ravana Capturing Sita. Wikipedia

Author's Note: This week, I decided to retell the story of Ravana abducting Sita.  I decided to tell this story, because I thought there were so many different twists and spins you could add to it, and I wanted to bring simplicity and background to the story. In the actual story, Ravana had a thought out plan to abduct Sita, by approaching her as an old hermit while she is unguarded and then taking her. In my story, I decided to come up with a back story for Ravana, as if he hadn't planned her abduction, and simply was actually an old hermit, whom she thought was approaching her. The abduction was meant to be similar to the actual abduction, but reasons for doing it and the way it ends were meant to be dramatically different.

Narayan, R.K. (1972) The Ramayana. 

Week 3: Reading Diary B - The Final Quest

Reading Diary pg. 131-171
The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan

Since this reading consists of many short chapters, I decided to format my notes by chapter, and introducing any new characters that stands out to me as I go.

Chapter 8 - Memento from Rama
This reading starts out with Hanuman arriving in Lanka in further search for Sita. He shrank himself so that he could not be seen while searching. He finds several streets with houses of women that belong to Ravana, who he used to be enchanted by but have since been neglected upon the arrival of Sita. Hanuman enters a mansion, where he finds a beautiful women, whom he may think is Sita. She seemed very happy, with attendants fanning her left and right. Hanuman thought, it can't be Sita, and later realized it must be Ravana's wife, Mandodari. He continues his search, when he spots Sita in the Ashoka Vana pleasure garden, where she is being heavily guarded by demons. Ravana comes up to her to convince her to be his main mistress, where she refuses and Ravana orders the demons to break her will. Hanuman cant help but have have respect for Sita for staying so loyal to Rama. She becomes desperate, wanting to kill her life, until Hanuman comes before her and explains everything. They exchange jewelry. Indrajit, Ravana's son, takes Hanuman to Ravana, where he tells him about Rama and demands him to surrender. In furry, Ravana wants to kill him, but Ravana's brother, Vibhishana, persuades him not to. He puts Hanuman's tail on fire, burning Lanka to the ground. It is later rebuilt by the architect of the gods, Maya.

Chapter 9 - Ravana in Council
This chapter begins with Ravana admiring the new architecture of his city. He was so enchanted that he almost forgot he was attacked by a monkey, who then burned down his city. This chapter takes place in a council meeting setting, where Ravana and his people express their thoughts on what happened and what the next step should be. Mahodara, a giant to giants, wants to defeat all of the monkeys. Ravana's son, Indrajit, wants to kill Rama. Vibhishana speaks of the dangers of humans and reminds Ravana that he is not protected against humans and that he should release Sita. Ravana demands him to leave or be killed.

Chapter 10 - Across the Ocean
Vibhishana seeks out Rama in order to make peace. At first, they question him and especially Sugreeva and Jambavan are suspicious of him. They think if he is that quick to turn against his brother Ravana, then he is not loyal and cannot be trusted. Rama demands they take him in by saying, "One who speaks for himself must be accepted at his face value. One who seeks asylum must be protected"(p. 143). He was an asset to help plan out how to attack Lanka. Rama's first challenge was to get all of his armies across the ocean to get to Lanka. He prayed and fasted for 7 days and demanded the sea gods to help his armies cross, or else he will evaporate all of the ocean's water. The sea gods allowed a bridge to be built, and with the efforts of all of the troops, they were able to march across the ocean and arrive in Lanka.

Chapter 11 - The Siege of Lanka
Ravana's troops were dropping one by one. No one who went out had returned. Ravana tried many things to keep Rama from attacking. He sent his people out disguised as monkeys, he tried to fool Sita into thinking Rama had been decapitated, and tried to corrupt Rama's supporters, such as Sugreeva. Rama demanded his troops to attack Lanka. Sita is tricked into thinking Rama and Lakshmana are dead, but later finds out they were just injected with poison to make them faint. Garudu, a bird who is the vehicle of Vishnu, is able to reverse the power of the poison. Rama is later brought to Ravana for confrontation, where he sees how badly shattered Ravana is and allows him to return tomorrow with fresh weapons to fight.

Chapter 12 - Rama and Ravana in Battle
Rama and Ravana embark into an intense battle, where many armies on both sides have been destroyed. Ravana becomes so weak that he faints, but Rama refuses to kill him while he is in that state. When he rises again, Rama gets him in the heart and kills him. He orders for a funeral to be arranged as he exclaimed, "Honour him and cherish his memory so that his spirit may go to heaven, where he has his place. And now I will leave you to attend to his funeral arrangements, befitting his grandeur."(p.160) This really shows Rama's true character. He is a loving person, and wants the best for all, and for everyone to be remembered for their good, not their bad.

Chapter 13 - Interlude 
This chapter begins with Rama sending Hanuman to get Sita. Sita was overjoyed to finally be freed of Ravana. She is going to see Rama for the first time, while they are surrounded by a large crowd, which makes Sita feel a bit uncomfortable and awkward, but of course accepted it. Sita senese a barrier between her and Rama, and it rather confused. Rama then claims that his task is done and that he has freed her. He claims they could not longer live together again, since she had resided alone in a stranger's house. Sita broke down as she hears this, and Lakshmana demands that a fire be lit, and Sita jumps into it demanded that she had been untouched by Ravana. Rama was now satisfied, since he had established his wife's loyalty in front of the public. He welcomed her back into his arms, and they were together again at last!

Chapter 14 - The Coronation
14 years have gone by, and thus Rama's exile is over. He will now return to Ayodhya, where Bharata will be awaiting him. If Rama does not return, he is prepared to kill himself. Rama, Sita, and many others make their way back home to Ayodhya, where a happy reunion was awaiting them!

Week 3: Reading Diary A - Buckle Up For the Ride!

Reading Diary pg. 89-130

The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan

This reading starts off with Sita being abducted by Ravana. Jatayu, the bird and their protector, tries to fight off Ravana, but dies and uses his last breaths to tell Rama what happened to Sita. Rama and Lackshmana head to Kishkinda in desperate search of Sita.

Chapter 6, The Vali, is known as the most controversial chapter in the Ramayana. This chapter takes place in the mountainous forest regions of Kishkinda, a kingdom ruled by extremely intelligent monkeys. Sugreeva is ruler of the monkey clan, and Hanuman was his helper. 

One statement by Narayan that stood out to me right away as I started this reading was, "In the Ramayana, the participants are not only human beings but many others from God's creation, intelligent, cultured, and with their own achievements of spirit as well as physique" (p. 98). I thought this was really cool, because as we have seen already in the previous readings, Jatayu was an eagle, and I really became attached to him as a character. I may be writing about the animal characters for my storybook, so I had done a little research about them this past weekend, and found it so interesting. 

Sugreeva's Story 

Vali, the brother of Sugreeva, possesses unlimited strength because he was the only one who was able to turn the churner until nectar was obtained from the ocean. "He was rewarded with immeasurable strength. He held more energy than the five elements in nature and at one stride could cross the seven oceans and reach the mountain Charuvala, beyond all the seas" (p. 100). The demon, Mayavi, with odious features, challenged Vali. As soon as Vali rose to fight, Mayavi backed down, knowing that he had acted before thinking, and fled into a subterranean passage. Vali chased after him into the passage where he then disappeared. Right before he dissapeared he told Sugreeva to "Stay here and watch until I return" (p. 100), but there was no sign of him for many many months. Sugreeva was instructed to block the passage by his advisors so Mayavi could not re-emerge. Eventually, Vali destroyed Mayavi and returned from the passage, and was enraged to find out that Sugreeva had blocked the passage, thinking his own brother was trying to lock him in there. Once he found Sugreeva, he attacked him in vein, and Sugreeva fled to Mount Mantanga to hide from Vali. He also takes Sugreeva's wife making her his own, leaving Sugreeva without a home and without a wife. 

Rama was touched by this story, and felt pity for Sugreeva. Hanuman believes that Rama can help to defeat Vali. Rama agrees by saying, "I will help you. Tell me what you want." (p. 101). Sugreeva also agrees to help Rama find Sita. 

Dundubi's Story

The bones on top of the mountain are the bones of the monster, Dundubi, who was a powerful demon in the shape of a buffalo. He wanted to engage in war with Vishnu, who directed him to Shiva, where he expressed the wish to have the power to fight forever. Shiva then directed Dundubi to Indra, the chief of all gods, who then told him to go meet Vali, the only one who can fufill his wish. Vali attacked Dundubi as he descended from the mountain, and their fight continued for a full year. Vali takes Dundubi's horn off, killing him with it and whirling him into the air. His body flew to the spot where Sage Matanga was performing sacred rituals, who then went after Vali for ruining his prayer ground. 

• Sugreeva calls Vali to a fight, feeling confident with the help of Rama. They go into battle, and Rama strikes him with an arrow that later kills him. Sugreeva becomes the king. 
• He later helps Rama with his search for Sita by sending out search parties. 
• Hanuman and Andgada go south in search for Sita, but have no luck. They eventually run into the ocean, where they meet Sampathi, Jatayu's brother. 
• Sampathi was burned and charred by the sun god, and restored by the sound of Rama's name. Sampathi had seen Ravana take Sita to Lanka. 
• The bear, Jambavan points them in the right direction to Lanka, which is across the ocean. 

I really enjoyed this reading, because I loved the involvement with animal characters towards the end. I think it is really cool to see all the different characters in this book and how they interact with each other. There was constant action and surprises in this reading, making it really fun to read. My favorite part of this book so far is all of the character development and the stories explaining each character's past.