Reading B Notes: Ramayana

Rama's Exile
Lakshmana and Sita want to accompany Rama into exile and the king's charioteer supplies them with transportation. They manage to escape and once they finally get to the forest, King Dasharatha dies.

Bharata
When Bharata returns to town, he finds out that his mother planned to make him king instead of Rama. He is outraged and finds Rama and tries to convince him to come back. Rama refuses, so Bharata takes his shoes back and places them on the throne.

Forest Life
As Rama, Lakshmana and Sita move deeper into the forest, they visit sages. One of the sage's wives gives her jewelry to Sita. They also meet the bird Jatayu, a friend of Dasharatha, who offers the group protection.

Ravana's Sister
Ravana, the rakshasa, has a sister named Shurpanakha. She is in love with Rama and tries to seduce him and get rid of Sita. Lakshmana stops her and mutilates her, but doesn't kill her. She then goes to Ravana's step-brother, Kara, who commands an army of demons to attack the group. Rama defeats them and Shurpanakha flees back to Ravana.

Ravana in Lanka
In Ravana's domain in Lanka, he has turned gods and gurus into servants to sweep and such. Ravana is furious when he sees what Lakshmana did to his sister. He also falls in love with Sita after hearing his sister describe her.

Ravana and Maricha
Ravana's uncle, Maricha's, mother was killed by Rama. Ravana wants Maricha to help him abduct Sita. Maricha is reluctant but helps Ravana by turning into a golden deer than captivates Sita. She wants Rama to capture the deer, but when Rama goes to capture it, Maricha disguises his voice as Rama and causes Sita to make Lakshamana go save him. This leaves Sita by herself.

Jatayu, Dasharatha's friend (Redbubble)

Ramayana by Narayan

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