Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Reading A Notes: Ramayana

I will be summarizing each story in a sentence or two

King Dasharatha
Maharajah Dasharatha is a king over a glorious land with his 3 queens. Although he is powerful, he is sad because none of the queens had bore him a son.

Dasharatha's Sons
Dasharatha performs a horse sacrifice to obtain a son, accompanied by Kaushayla, his chief queen. The gods promise the king 4 sons.

Avatar
Up in heaven, Vishnu has to defeat Ravana, but Ravana can't be beaten by a god, only a human or monkey. Vishnu agrees to come to Earth as a human. Meanwhile, Dasharatha has 4 sons and Vishnu is one, under the name "Rama".

Rama (Dharma Wiki)


Vishvamitra
Vishvamitra, a great sage, comes to ask the King for a favor. He wants Rama and his brother to come help him fight evil rakshasas. The King is hesitant but the sage assures him of their victory, he lets them go.

Thataka
Rama does battle with Thataka, a female rakshasa. Vishvamitra orders him to slay her and he does, gaining magical weapons as a reward that enables him to defeat Maricha, son of Thataka.

Ganga
A story that Vishvamitra tells to Rama about the goddess Ganga, aka the river Ganges. The story is about how she came from heaven to Sagar Island.

Ahalya
Gautama was married to Ahalya. Indra was in love with Ahalya and made himself appear as Gautama and seduce her. Ahalya falls for it and Gautama finds out and curses both of them, causing Ahalya to become invisible. Only Vishnu coming to Earth as Rama can end her curse.

Sita
Rama and his brother go on an outing in the city. There they walk around and see all kinds of girls, but one stands out: Sita. Rama falls in love with her at first sight.

King Janaka
King Janaka presents a bow to the brothers and says that whoever can is strong enough to bend the bow can marry his daughter. His daughter is Sita

Rama Wins Sita
Rama takes the bow and doesn't just bend it, he brakes it in half with tremendous force that knocks everyone over. He wins Sita.

Parashurama
Another avatar of Vishnu comes and meets the brothers. He's mad that the bow has been broken. He almost attacks Rama's brother before Rama steps in between and proves himself to be worthy by drawing the bow of Vishnu.

Rama and Sita's Wedding
Rama and Sita get married and all three of Rama's brothers find wives from King Janaka's family as well.

Coronation
Dasharatha plans to name Rama his successor instead of Rama's brothers. But the king owes Kaikeyi two favors and one of the royal servants persuades her to oppose Rama's coronation. Since the king owes her two favors, he can't oppose her and Rama is exiled for fourteen years while his brother, Kaikeyi's son, is named successor. The king realizes that this is because of a curse due to him killing a boy in a forest many years ago.


Ramayana by Narayan



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