The Night of the Sacrifice:
I went to my priest, Vasishtha, about my wives and their inability to give me an heir.
"It is so disappointing that I have no successor to my throne. I have three wives! Why can't just one of my wives give me a son?" I exclaimed in agony.
Vasishtha had an idea for a sacrifice. At nightfall, we went out into the night and started a fire. Vasishtha and Sumantra were chanting in unison. A big black giant appeared out of the fire with a gleaming, golden bowl. The bowl was filled with rice. The giant handed this bowl to me and told me to feed it to my wives. This would give me sons!
I rushed home to my beautiful wives. I had told them previously of the sacrifice, and they were ready for it to be done. I gave half of the rice to my first wife, Kausalya. She ate her portion, then I gave Sumitra half of the remaining rice. I gave Kaikeyi half of what Sumitra had left. I thought that Sumitra needed more rice, though. So, I took some of what I gave to Kaikeyi and gave it back to Sumitra. I could not wait for my sons to be born!
The Births:
After nine long months of waiting, my first wife Kausalya went into labor. She gave birth to my first born son, Rama. This pleased me greatly. Soon after, Kaikeyi gave birth to Bharata. Even later in the day, Sumitra gave birth to Lakshmana and Satrughna.
I now have four sons! Sumitra even bore me twin boys! I now have an heir to my throne and my kingdom will continue to be reigned by my own blood!
Kausalya's Diary:
The Sacrifice:
I was so pleased when Dasaratha found a way for us to give him his heirs! He came home the night of the sacrifice so excited that we would finally be able to be pregnant. He gave us the rice from the sacrifice, and I got the biggest portion. This is because I am his first wife. I will be the one to give him the heir to the throne. My son will be our new king! The rice tasted so sweet, and was so good. I am ready to experience being pregnant. I want to give our kingdom their next king!
Author's Note:
I chose to explore the thoughts of Dasaratha and his first wife, Kausalya, through the process of the rice sacrifice and the birth of the sons. The story doesn't go into much detail about their feelings in that time, so I thought it would be interesting to see what they could have been thinking.
Bibliography:
Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.
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ReplyDeleteI liked how you broke up Dasaratha’s and Kausalya’s feelings and thoughts into two separate diaries. Having a son to be Dasaratha’s successor was vital in keeping the Kingdom in the same blood line so it’s cool being able to imagine his thoughts. Kausalya’s diary was interesting because she is the first wife and soon to be mother of the heir to the Kingdom. Great story!
ReplyDeleteVery nice! I myself really love to expand on these kinds of moments and explore what the characters might be thinking at this time so it was really exciting to read your story. I liked how you showed the thought process of both Dasaratha and his wife Kausalya, but I feel it would be much more interesting if you also did the other wives as well, or just the wives in general. All in all, though, great story and like Parth mentioned, it was really cool how you split up the diary into the thoughts of both the king and his wife.
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