Reading Notes: Ramayana Part A

     After reading part one of the Ramayana, I found I enjoyed it. The story begins with Dasharatha, a King who wanted sons. So he performed rites for many years and was finally blessed with four sons.The eldest is Rama, and the first part of the Ramayana focuses mostly on his adventures. Rama is an avatar of Vishnu, and he meets Vishvamitra, who requests Rama to accompany him on a dangerous mission.

     They come across the terrible Thataka, and Rama, operating by sound alone since she turned invisible, killed her with his bow. Upon her death, Rama is granted powerful celestial weapons. Visvamitra led Rama and his brother Lakshmana (who had been accompanying him) to his hermitage. There Rama and his brother were attacked by Maricha, the son of Thataka. Rama used his powerful weapons to defeat him, thought Maticha escaped with his life. Afterwards everyone rejoiced and Visvamitra told Rama a few stories. One was about Ganga, which became the Ganges river. 

     Eventually, Rama meets the Princess Sita, and they instantly fall in love. I love their relationship, and I think that may be what I focus on for my story. Rama wins a challenge in order to claim the right to marry her, by drawing and breaking the bow of Shiva and they have a beautiful wedding.

The Wedding of the Four Couples

     Dasharatha claims Rama as his heir apparent. Manthara was not pleased with this, because she had offended Rama and he had smote her. So Manthara came up with a plan. She went to Kaikeyi and manipulated her into being angry that Rama and not Kaikeyi's son would be heir to the throne. Manthara convinced Kaikeyi that if she went to Dasharatha and claimed the boons that were promised to her, she could get her son named as heir and Rama would go into exile. Kaikeyi did this, and while it caused Dasharatha great sorrow to honor her requests, he did so. Rama, to his credit, took the news of his exile very well and went calmly. Rama's wife, Sita, and his brother, Lakshmana, accompanied him into exile though they were not required to. 

     This section of the Ramayana comes to its end with Dasharatha's death. As he dies, we get a new twist into the story. Years ago, Dasharatha accidentally killed a young hermit in the woods, who had gone to draw water for his parents. Dasharatha, honoring the boy's last request, went to the hermit's parents and told them of the boy's death. He then led the parents to the boy's body, where the father grieved and built a funeral pyre. Before the parents died from jumping into the flames, the father cursed Dasharatha, saying that he too would know the grief of losing a child. And so Dasharatha dies, knowing his karma has come to him. 

Bibliography. "The Ramayana" by Sister Nivedita, F.J. Gould, Evelyn Paul, and Donald A. Makenzie,  .Web Source.