Week 6 Storytelling: Ravana's reaction

On the third day of the war, Ravana’s servant woke him up early in the morning. Ravana angrily yelled at them, “ Why do you fools bother me so early in the morning? Do you not realize that we have just won the war and you should let me just enjoy this morning?”  The servants scared, replied, “But the sentries of the wall have some important news they want to talk to you about?” Ravana said,  “ What could they possibly want now? Okay, let them know to wait in the court while I get ready.” After saying that, he went to go get ready before he went to his court.

Ravana appeared in court and asked, “ Why do you disturb me so early in the morning?”

One of the sentries of the wall replied, “ We haven’t won the war yet.”

Ravana angrily said, “ What do you mean? Do you question my abilities?”

The sentry scared to reply said, “ No, sir. It is just that we saw Hanuman, who was wounded; bring the Medicine Hill to Rama at the commands of Jambavan, the King of the bear. This hill had some medicinal herbs that helped revive Rama, Lakshmana, and many more that were killed.”

Ravana thought about what had just happened and the told his servants bring him his son. The servants replied, “ We haven’t seen him since yesterday, when you sent him to kill Rama, and Lakshmana.” Ravana then looked at the sentries and said, “ Do you guys know anything about where he is?” The bravest sentry replied, “ His hiding place was revealed by Vibhishana and he was attacked and defeated by Lakshmana. He was heavily wounded and unfortunately, didn’t make it.”

Ravana thought to himself, “ How could my own brother do this? How could he help my enemies? What could he possibly want? Had he done this for my kingdom? No, he never wanted the money and the fortune. Did my son do something wrong? “ All of these thoughts went on inside of Ravana’s head. He was really confused. How could his brother help get his own nephew killed. What were the circumstances that Vibhishana had to betray his own family?

While all these thought went on inside his head, he ordered his servants to get his stuff ready for combat. It was his time to go into war and avenge his son’s death.

Ravana in Lanka. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography
Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way.

Author’s Note

I really liked this story because I didn’t think Vibhishana would actually help Rama’s troops at all, but he helps them because he knows who is right and who is wrong. In this part of the story he actually helps them in a way that got his nephew killed and so I thought it would be really hard on Vibhishana and Ravana and it would good to see what was going on in their heads.

Week 6: Reading Diary B

In this part of the Ramayana, Rama leaves Kishkanda to go to Lanka with his allies and troops. He faces a minor problem. Lanka is an island and doesn't have a bridge to get his troops to the other side. He gets angry and curses Samudra, the king of the Water, who tells him that a monkey named Nala has a boon that allows anything he throws in the water to float. So everyone comes together and helps them build a bridge.

Vibhishana, Ravana's brother, gets in a fight with Ravan and goes to help Rama. His only condition is that he won't get involved in the fight.

Rama crosses over to Lanka and gets situated with his troops. Ravana sends over many different spies to see what Rama is planning, but each time the spies get caught by Rama's peoples. Ravana even goes to Sita and gets his magicians to create an illusion of killing Rama.

The war finally begins. Ravana starts off by sending Prahasta to attack Rama. Rama's troops manage to defeat and kill Prahasta.  Ravana then sends Kumbhakarna to attack Rama. Rama's arrow manages to cut off Kumbhakarna's head off.

Now, he turns to his son Indrajit. Indrajit attacks Rama and his people from his invisible chariot and he kills Rama, Lakshmana, Sugriva, Nala, and Angada. He also wounded Hanuman, and Jambavan. Jambavan orders Hanuman to get the reviving herbs from the Medicine hill. He goes and gets the whole mountain and revives everyone that was hurt.

Ravana brings Sita to the battlefield and shows her Rama's dead body, but this is just an illusion to scare Sita. Indrajit then creates an illusion to kill Sita in front of Rama, but Vibhishana figures out it is just an illusion. Then, Indrajit and Lakshmana get in a fight and Lakshmana slays Indrajit.

Week 6: Reading Diary A

In this part, Hanuman is telling Jambavan, king of the bears, about Sita's abduction and as he is doing so nearby laid Sampati, Jatayu's brother. He learns about Jatayu's death and is sad, but informs Hanuman that Ravana had taken Sita to Lanka.

While Hanuman is on his way to Lanka, he gets tired and learns of a mountain that escaped from Indra, when he was clipping the wings of mountains. Hanuman seeks this mountain and uses it as a rest area. When he continues his journey, he comes across one of the rakshasi, who eats Hanuman whole. Hanuman terrified goes inside her body and rips her heart out and escapes through the ears.

Hanuman arrives in Lanka and takes the form of a cat and fights Lanka, who finally realizes this is the end of a curse. Then, he continues to look for Sita, but when he gets in trouble, his father, Vayu helps him come across the Ashoka grove. He sees Ravana trying to talk to her, but Sita just refuses to talk to him. Ravana tells his guards to go ahead a kill her, but a nice rakshasi had a dream of Rama and Lanka's destruction saves her.

When Hanuman gets a chance, he goes over to Sita and talks to her all about Rama and takes a message to give to Rama.When leaving, Hanuman due to his character, decided to create some mischief. So he pulls out the lawn and breaks a temple. He even kills Jambumali, and some royal guards. He finally gets captured by Indrajit, due to the boon given by Shiva.

When being captured, Ravana orders his brother, Vibhishana,  to cut off Hanumans head. He refuses and instead burns Hanuman's tail. Hanuman sets all of Lanka on fire and before leaving checks on Sita one more time, who gives him a pearl to take back to Rama. He then goes back to Kishkindha and reports his findings to Rama, who his enlightened to hear this.