Week 3 Storytelling: Ravana and the Decapitated Head

Ravana was desperate. He was trying to find a way to make Sita his. He thought that if he got her away from Rama and she was with him, then she would fall madly in love with him. This plan failed. Sita stayed true to Rama all through the time with Ravana. Ravana brought her to his home and tried to flatter her with gifts and compliments, but this failed to work. Ravana was angry! He could not think of anything else to do to make Sita fall in love with him. He sent her out to the Ashoka Vana pleasure garden and guarded her with demons. Ravana could not stand to look at her beauty anymore. He was mesmerized by her beauty, but could not convince her to be his. He was not used to not being able to have anything and everything that he wanted.
Ravana came up with one last plan! He thought that maybe if Sita thought that Rama was dead, then she would want to be with him. "Maybe she is just a faithful wife," Ravana thought. "Maybe if Rama is dead, she will be mine." Ravana went to a sorcerer and got him to make a fake decapitated head of Rama. He took this head from the sorcerer and rushed to Sita in the garden.
Sita had been very depressed since she had been captured by Ravana. She missed Rama and longed to be with him. She believed that Rama would come to rescue her. As days passed, she was starting to lose hope. She cried constantly, even though she was in a beautiful garden. She did not like being guarded by demons. They scared her. She saw Ravana walk into the garden with a decapitated head. This scared her, but she wondered what he was up to.
He told her that Rama had been killed and showed her the decapitated head. At first, Sita was very sad. Then she thought that Ravana was trying to trick her. She knew that Rama would defeat Ravana in a battle. She believed in her husband. Ravana's trick did not work on her!
Ravana was angered that his final plan did not win over Sita. He realized that she would never be his, but he was not going to give her up! He left her in the garden guarded by the demons. He planned to keep her there forever. He no longer cared if he had Sita. He just did not want Rama to have her back.

Ravana and Sita

Author's Note: I chose this story because it seemed very brief in our reading. I thought that it would be interesting to add more detail and background to this story. I feel like the readers learning more about Ravana and Sita would be interesting for them. Sita and Rama have a great love and I wanted to show that Sita believed in Rama. She would not give up on him or lose hope in him. The good people always win and triumph over the bad people. Ravana thought it would be easy for Sita to be his, and he was wrong. He did not want to work to win her and that is what you must do for love. Sita knew that Ravana was deceiving and a liar. That is why she did not fall for him showing her the decapitated head of Rama. I feel that the image I chose fits well with this story. Sita is sitting in the grass next to a tree and Ravana is coming to her. I assume that he was going to her to try to deceive her and make her fall in love with him. She refuses to even look at him and will not fall for his tricks.

Bibliography: Narayan, R,K. (1972) The Ramayana.

Week 3 Reading Diary B: Ending the Ramayana

Hanuman finds Sita in the Ashoka Vana pleasure garden after first mistaking Ravana's wife for Sita. Sita was being guarded by demons. She was also very depressed and wanted to hang herself from a tree. Hanuman destroyed Ravana's capital.
Hanuman tells Ravana about Rama and suggests that he should surrender to Rama. Ravana refused to surrender. He thinks that nothing can harm him and he wants to keep Sita.
Rama needs the help of the sea god to get to Lanka. They must cross a lot of water. The sea god allows him to build a bridge. Many animals, including monkeys, help him build the bridge to Lanka.
Ravana tries to trick Sita and make her think that Rama is dead. He shows her a decapitated head that looks like it is Rama's.
A battle occurs between Ravana and Rama. Rama, of course, wins this battle and kills Ravana. Rama made there be a grand funeral for Ravana.
Rama wanted to test Sita for her to show her purity. She built a fire and jumped into it. She told Rama that she had not been touched by Ravana.

Sita's test of purity

The fourteen years of exile are finally over and Rama can return to his kingdom. Rama's coronation occurs and he can now be king.

Week 3 Reading Diary A: After Sita's Abduction

Rama and Lakshmana searched for Sita after they found that she was missing.
Sugreeva's Story (p. 92)
Vali helped to save the people by churning nectar from the ocean. The gods gave him amazing strength to reward him. Sugreeva is Vali's next in authority. Mayavi (a demon) challenged Vali and then realized that they shouldn't have challenged Vali. Mayavi ran away and Vali chased after him. Vali told Sugreeva to stay and watch over everything. Vali hadn't returned after a long period of time. This worried Sugreeva, but Sugreeva was talked into staying instead of looking for Vali. They blocked the entrance so no one could get in because they feared that Mayavi would come back for Sugreeva. Vali finally beat Mayavi and came back, but saw the entrance blocked. Vali was angered with Sugreeva so Sugreeva ran from him. Sugreeva ran to mountains that Vali couldn't go to.

Sugreeva eventually challenged Vali. Rama shoots an arrow at Vali during their battle. Vali dies and Sugreeva becomes king.

Battle of Sugreeva and Vali

Sita has still not been found yet.

Possible Project Topics

1. Possible Topic: The Goddess Ganga/Ganges. I saw Ganga in the list of goddesses and I remembered the story from our reading this week. I also used that story for my storytelling post. It would be interesting to learn more about Ganga and the river.
Research so far: I looked over the Wikipedia article and it talks about how sacred this river is to the Hindu people. I think it's really cool that they believe the river is so sacred and powerful. They celebrate the descent of the river in late May/early June every year which would be interesting to learn more about.

2. Possible Topic: The Goddess Sarawati. I really like the idea of doing my project over a goddess or goddesses. Sarawati is the goddess of knowledge, arts, learning, and music. She is also part of a trinity, so maybe my project could be over the trinity.
Research so far: I looked through the Wikipedia article about this goddess and found out that there is a festival (Vasant Panchami) that is in her honor. This is also where I found out that she is part of a trinity (Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati). She has many temples dedicated to her.

The goddess Saraswati

3. Possible Topic: Kausalya. I picked Kausalya because she is Rama's mother. Rama is the hero of the story we have been reading, so I thought it would be interesting to learn more about his mother. Bharata's mother would be another interesting choice.

Research so far: The Wikipedia article about Kausalya doesn't have much information about her. It just says that she is the oldest wife of Dasaratha and talks about family relationships, but maybe more information could be found about her elsewhere. 

4. Possible Topic: Dharma. I looked at this topic because I didn't even know what it meant! I also looked at it because I have already looked at karma this semester, so I thought that dharma would be interesting, as well. I was just interested in seeing what it was. I learned that it is justice, but also truth. I feel like this could be a very interesting topic to do my project over. 

Research so far: In an article online, I saw that Hinduism's definition of dharma is the moral law of the world. It also involved spiritual discipline which I found very interesting. They believe that if the moral law is followed, then you can save yourself from suffering.

Week 2 Storytelling: Ganga Bedtime Story

Rama and Sita were putting their children to bed one night. The children ask them for a bedtime story and Rama and Sita gave in. The children squealed with delight.

"How about I tell you a story of our ancestors?" Rama asked. He started the story of his ancestors and Ganga.

Ganga flows through our land and everywhere she touches is holy. People can attain salvation from her. She wasn't always in our land, though. She had to be brought down from the sky.
Sakara, an ancestor of ours, ruled the earth a long time ago. He was very successful when he was ruling the earth, but he wanted to expand his kingdom. He planned to do this with a sacrifice that would make him supreme lord of the earth. It was called The Horse Sacrifice. A decorated horse was freed to roam the lands of many kingdoms. The kingdoms that let the horse roam through accepted the plans of Sakara. When people stop the horse this causes a war. When the horse finally returns back to the kingdom of Sakara, the sacrifice is done.
These plans make the gods very nervous, because they don't want a king to have that much power. They keep watch for plans like these and try to stop them. One of the gods, Indra, stole the horse and hid it underground. He guarded the horse with Sage Kapila. When the people found out about this, Sakara's sons started to dig underground for the horse. When the boys found the horse they were mean to Sage Kapila and took back the horse. Sage Kapila was angered with them and turned them to ash. Only one survived: a grandson. He apologized for their actions and returned to Sakara's kingdom to help complete the horse sacrifice.
The grandson's son, Bhagiratha, learned of his ancestor's fate many years later. It upset him that his ancestors did not get salvation, so he made it his goal to attain salvation for them. He prayed to Brahma who was the creator for thousands of years. Brahma advised him to ask for the help of Shiva to help Ganga descend to the earth. He prayed to Shiva for thousands of years and then Ganga for thousands of years. Finally, Shiva gave in and helped him to bring Ganga down to the earth. Bhagiratha attained salvation for his ancestors and also helped everyone on earth for the future.

Sita added, "I think a lesson you can all learn from this story is to never give up on what you believe in and what you want. If you work hard enough and believe, then you can achieve it."

The two parents kissed their children goodnight and left them to sleep peacefully.

Author's Note: For this story, I decided to make it a bedtime story based off of Ganga's Story from our reading this week. I got the idea from storytelling prompts that we were given. I decided that Rama and Sita should be the ones to tell the story since they are a huge part of our reading. I changed the story into my own words and took out a few little details. For example, the challenges Bhagiratha went through with Ganga and Shiva.

Bibliography:
"Ganga's Story" by Narayan, R.K. (1972) The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

Image of a river

Week 2 Reading Diary B: After Rama's Exile

Lakshmana and Sita wanted to go with Rama, and Rama couldn't convince them not to. The people were all very upset about Rama's exile. The people followed Rama, but he and the others got away from them. The king died when he heard the news of Rama and the others leaving.
Bharatha returned home to find the King dead and his brother exiled. He questioned his mother about why Rama was exiled. His mother explained what she did and he was angry with her. Bharatha went into the forest to try to convince Rama to come back and be king. Rama refused and said that his father wanted him to be in exile for 14 years. Rama learned of his father's death, but still refused. It was decided that Bharatha would rule for 14 years and then Rama would return and be king.

Chapter 4: Encounters in Exile
Rama meets a beautiful woman in the forest. He finds out that she is the sister of Ravana, but she says she is not a demon like her family. She tries to get rid of Sita because she is in love with Rama, but fails. Lakshmana stops her and tortures her by cutting off some of her body parts (ears, nose, breasts).

Chapter 5: The Grand Tormentor
Ravana is angry when he finds out that his sister is mutilated. Ravana falls madly in love with Sita from Soorpanaka's description of her. Soorpanaka hoped that Ravana would get Sita, so she could have Rama to herself. She figured Rama would have to fall in love with her without Sita around. Ravana comes up with a plan to get Sita. Ravana makes his uncle Maricha help him. Maricha comes to Sita disguised as a golden deer and Sita wants Rama to capture it. Rama chases the deer and when he finally shoots it, Maricha speaks in Rama's voice calling for help. Sita hears it and makes Lakshmana go find Rama which leaves her alone. Ravana goes to her as soon as Lakshmana leaves and he takes her away.

Rama and the golden deer

Week 2 Reading Diary A: Beginning the Ramayana

Prologue:
King Dasharatha has no children. He wants children so he will have a successor when he passes away. A sacrifice is performed and, from that sacrifice, a special rice is obtained. This rice is given to King Dasharatha's wives to make them become pregnant. Four sons are born: Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana, and Shatrughna.
Chapter 1: Rama's Initiation
Viswamithra once was a king, but is now a sage. He asked Dasharatha if he could take Rama with him to conquer the evil creatures that are at Sidhasrama (a sacred ground). The King said no at first, but gave in eventually. He let his other son, Lakshmana, go with Rama.
Viswamithra told Rama and Lakshmana a few stories and then he prepared to perform sacrifices. The demons tried to distract them during this time. Rama and his brother tried to fight off the demons and keep the sacrifice going. It worked and the sacrifice was completed.
Ganga's Story (p. 16)
Ganga is the river that flows through the land. She had to be tamed and controlled before she could be on the earth. King Sakara (one of their ancestors) wanted to expand his kingdom by performing the Horse Sacrifice. Indra (a god) stole the horse and hid it underground. Sakara's son's found the horse and Kapila burned them to death. Bhagiratha wanted salvation for his ancestors, so he prayed for many years. Shiva helped him bring down Ganga so his ancestors could obtain salvation.
Chapter 2: The Wedding
Rama and Sita fell in love at first sight. Rama passes the test he must undergo to win Sita's hand and they are married.
Chapter 3: Two Promises Revived
The king discovers that he is aging and decides he needs to pass his kingdom on to Rama. The coronation is planned for the next day. The King owed Kaikeyi 2 promises. She used these now to exile Rama for 14 years and make Bharata (her son) the king's successor. Rama went into exile without complaint.

Dasaratha upset over Rama's exile