Reading Notes: The Ramayana Part A

Rama and Sita

Source

1: In the beginning, there were 2 major kingdoms, Koshala (Ruled by Dasharatha, Rama's dad) and Mithila (Ruled by Janaka, Sita's dad.) The capitol of Koshala was Ayodhya, a beautiful and prosperous city. The king was of the "Solar race" and lived in a palace guarded by strong warriors and lions. He had 8 councilors, and 2 priests. You'd think his life was perfect, but he was depressed because he had never had a son (even though he had 3 queens and tried with each of them.)
2: Fed up with not having a son, the Dasharatha decided to preform a horse sacrifice to the gods in hopes that he'd be blessed with a son. He set a horse out in the wild, accompanied by a brahmin. When it returned a year later, a ceremony took place where 21 other animals where to be sacrificed. After the horse was slewn by the chief queen, the king awarded great gifts to the brahmins. Soon, many gods, including Vishnu, came to the sacrifice to hangout. After some time they left, and promised the king that he would have 4 sons.
3: The gods all went back to heaven, and spoke about the demon king Ravana who lived in Lanka. Ravana was a really bad guy, and was invulnerable tot he gods. he even made the god of death his slave. The gods went to Vishnu (The head god) and asked for his help, as Ravana was too powerful. Vishnu told the gods to go to Earth in the guise of apes, and Vishnu would divide himself into 4 parts, and be the 4 sons born to Dasharatha. He told them to wait for him to go to battle with Ravana. Dasharatha's wives bore him 4 sons, and the people of his kingdom rejoiced. Of the 4 children, Rama  was special.
4: Vishvamitra, a champion of the gods came to Dasharatha and was greeted with "any gift he desired." The champion knew of Rama's fate to battle with Ravana, so he took Rama and his brother Lakshmana on a 10 day boys vacation where they learned about manhood and love and strife.
5:  Vishvamitra took the 2 boys to a jungle where they ran into Thataka (a Rakshasi, or, man eater) which prompted Rama to challenge her. Not wanting to kill a women, the 2 boys instead shot arrows that decapitated her. She turned invisible, but the rocks at her feet still moved. Vishvamitra told Rama to kill her based off of sound alone, and he did. The next morning, Vishvamitra chanted some magical words and magical weapons appeared for him. The weapons spoke to him and said "We are your servents" which Rama replied "Okay cool, I'll use you when I need you." The party made it to Vishvamitra's house where he lived with other sages. It just so happened that later in the week they were going to perform a sacrifice. Soon, a band of man eaters rushed the alter to defile it with blood. Rama thought of his new magical weapons and they appeared at his side. He used them and slaughtered all of the beasts.
6: Way back when, in the city of Ayodhya, King Sagara also had trouble having a child. 3 of his consorts went to the Himalayas and there they were greeted by a brahmin who told them that one of  Sagara's wives would have a son named Asamanja, and the other wive would bear 60,000 manly sons. Once the sons grew up, Sagara decided it was time for a horse sacrifice, but the horse (during its roaming period) was stolen by Indra disguised as a rakshasi. the 60,000 sons searched for the stolen horse, and found it next to the sage Kapila. The sons rushed the sage in a blind fury, and the sage responded by turning them all to ashes. Sagara becae worried as none of his many sons had returned home, so he sent Asamanja's son, Anshumat to look for them. He eventually found the ashes, and decided to bring the horse back to complete the sacrifice.  Soon, Sagara died and many kings after him all had the same goal to bring Ganga, the river goddess, down from heaven to wash away the ashses of the 60,000 men who had died and help them reach heaven. Eventually, Bhagiratha pleased Brahma and granted him his wish. Brahma told the king that he needed the help of the god Shiva, as the Earth would not be able to take the direct shock of the descent of Ganga. The king spent a year adoring the god, and it worked. Ganga came from heaven, but landed on Ganga's head and got lost in his hair for a year. Once reaching the ocean, Ganga entered the underworld where the ashes of the 60,000 men laid. He waters flowed over the ashes, and the 60,000 spirits ascended to heaven.
7: Rama comes up on a nice grassy area where he asks the sage who lives there "Who used to live here?" The sage tells Rama a story of how the sage Gautam and his wife Ahalya lived there long ago. Then one day, Indra falls in love with Ahalya and disguises himself as Gautam to seduce her. When the real Gautam found out, he was so upset that he cursed his wife to be invisible, and he went to the mountains.
8: Rama and his brother asked Vishvamitra if they could go into the kingdom of Mithila, and they roamed the town for awhile. They were treated as lords, as they were looked like they were royalty. They spent some time looking around, before finding the kings garden. They asked if they could pick some flowers, and were given the Okay. The boys picked their flowers, and that's when Rama saw Sita, the princess. It was love at first site, even thought they didn't say a word to each other. Later, the boys left and the lovers continued to think about each other.
9: Janaka greets Vishvamitra and asks who the boys are, to which Vishvamitra responds by telling him that they are Dasharatha's sons and they killed man eaters with Shiva's bow. The king asks to see the bow, and his men bring it to him. The king explains that the bow is so popular and feared, that whoever can bend the bow can marry his daughter Sita.
10: Rama asks to try and bends the bow so hard that it snapped and the earth shook. Everyone was stunned, and Janaka told Rama that he can marry Sita and he sends his messengers to retrieve king Dasharatha.
11: A tall, bull-like man wielding a bow and ax in its hands appeared and asked who broke the bow. Lakshmana told him the old bow was broken by Rama. Enraged, the beast gets ready to fight Lakshmana, but Rama steps in and diffuses the situation. The hermit asks for proof that Rama snapped the bow and tells Rama to draw his bow (The bow of Vishnu.) The magical bow straightened itself when Rama touched it, and the hermit celebrated Rama as the true hero.
12: Now it was time for the wedding. Rama married Sita, Lankshmana married Sita's sister Urmila, and their other 2 brothers Bharata and Shatrughna marry Sita's sisters Mandavi and Shrutakirti respectively.
13: Dasharatha decided his time as king was coming to a close, so he gets his cabinet together and tells them that Rama will be his heir, and the cabinet is all about it, so they start getting ready for his installation.
14: Manthara, a servant to one of the queens, Kaikeyi, was not happy that Rama was to be the next king. The servant tells one of the queens to use one of her IOU's that she received from the king after healing him from battle long ago.
15: The queen tells the king that if he doesn't exile Rama for 14 years and make her son, Bharata, the heir she'll kill herself. At first, the king thought he was dreaming, then he got angry and asked her to request a different favor. The queen wouldn't back down from her suicide ultimatum. The king finally told her "Alright, but I will forever reject you and the son we had together."
16: Rama is fetched by the kings men, and when Rama walks into the Kings chambers, he sees that the king is with Kaikeyi and he was crying. The king couldn't speak, so Kaikeyi tells Rama about her IOU's and how she used them. She tells Rama to leave, and he does without question. Everyone in the kingdom wept, but Rama was unmoved and left.
17: Rama tells Sita the news, and she tells him that shes coming with him. Lakshmana also tells him that he's coming too. The townsfolk found out about the betrayal and exile, and thought the royal family was now run by demons and there was talk about leaving and going with Rama. In the palace, Rama and company said their goodbyes, and refused the supplies that were going to be given to him ( Kaikeyi also protested against the supplies) and asked for basics instead. The brothers had their royal clothes taken away, but Sita was able to keep hers as the exile only applied to Rama.
18: The gang left town and headed to the jungle. They stopped by some other kingdoms, but never stayed long. The brothers promised to protect Sita and each other, and made Sita walk in the middle so they could protect her from front and back.
19: One night Dasharatha went hunting to blow off some steam. He heard something in the bushes and accidentally shot a man. The man forgave the king, but still died. Dasharatha told the parents of the man (as was his dying wish) and the man told Dasharatha to just kill him too as he had nothing else to live for. The parents built a funeral pyre and stepped into it and died together.
20: King Dasharatha, consumed with grief awakes in his sleep and says "Honey, I am dying of sadness" and then dies.

Bibliography:
Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition
http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/ramayana-online-public-domain-edition.html