Reading Notes: The Ramayana Part B

The demon king Ravana

Source

1: In the morning, Bharata was fetched to go to the palace where he was informed of Dasharatha's passing. He cried and asked about Rama, to which his mom Kaikeyi explained what she had done. Bharata was not about it, and swore to go into the jungle and return with the rightful king, Rama.
2: Bharata prepared the funeral for the late king, and after the funeral was done, the city spent 10 days in mourning
3: Bharata and Rama met in the jungle and cried over their dead father. Bharata tells Rama the he should be king, but Rama denied. Dasharatha's advisers tell Rama to be king, but Rama denies again, saying "Dad exiled me for 14 years, and I will fulfill his wish."
4: Bharata gives Rama some golden sandals and then takes them back saying "I'll put these at the throne for you when you come back. And if you aren't back in 14 years, I'll kill myself." The sandals are the sign of royal authority
5: Rama and company found a small area inhabited by a sage and his wife. Sita tells the folks about her life, as well as the issue with Rama and his dead dad.
6: The party, wandering the forest, finds a Rahshasa and it takes Sita saying "I am blessed so that no weapon can slay me." Rama and Lakshmana disregard this and shoot a bunch of arrows at the beast. No surprise it doesn't work so they try using their swords. The beast picks up the boys and takes them deep into the forest. Once in the forest, the boys broke the beast's arms and began to assault it with their bodies instead of weapons. Since they still couldn't kill the beast, they decided to bury the beast. The beast explains that his blessing came with a post script that when he was killed by the true hero, then he could finally die and go to heaven.
7: Rama meets the sage Agastya and is given a bunch of weapons, but Rama refuses to stay and he goes deeper into the forest.
8: Rama meets another rakshasa and this time it's Shurpanakha, Ravana's sister. She is in love with Rama, and disguises herself as a beautiful young women. She asks Rama if its cool if she kills his brother and lover, but Rama says "I love Sita and won't leave her, but try with my brother he might be down."
9: The monster tries to kill Sita because she is jealous, but the 2 brothers cut off her nose and ears. She retreats to one of her brothers, Khara, and she tells him what happened and to bring Sita back so she can kill her herself. Khara calls 14 rakshasas and tells them to capture the party. They all immediately die, and Khara calls his brother Dushana and tells him to rally 14,000 rakshasas and weapons and a chariot so he can kill Rama.
10: The demon army marches into battle, and Rama told his brother to take Sita to a cave and protect her while he fights the army. Rama shoots a bunch of flaming arrows and kills many beasts, and then uses his celestial weapon to kill Dushana, then shot Khara and the battle was over.
11: Shurpanakha falls to the floor of Ravana's palace and Ravana demands to know who has hurt his sister. She tells him how demons are now being slain left and right because of Rama and company. Ravana demands to know all about Rama, and Shurpanakha tells him all about the party members. She tells Ravana that Sita is the weak spot, as that is what the brothers are fighting for, her protection. Ravana laughed and said "There will be weeping soon"
12: Ravana travels to his brother, another  rakshasa named Maricha, for advice and is told "Do not meddle with Rama." Ravana was not having it, and threatened to kill Maricha, so he agreed to help Ravana. Maricha disguised himself a s a golden deer to attract Sita.
13: Sita finds the deer and tells Rama to kill it for her. Rama goes to hunt the deer and leaves Lakshmana to guard Sita. Lakshmana tells Sita that he is worried because rakshasa's typically disguise themselves as deer to lure victims away.
14: Rama shoots the deer, and Maricha yells out in Rama's voice "Help me Sita and Lakshmana!" and then dies. Sita tells Lakshmana to investigate, but he says he must guard her and it's probably a trick cause nobody can kill Rama. Sita yells at him, and Lakshmana yells back. Finally, feeling bad, he agrees to investigate and Sita says she'll kill herself if Rama is dead.
15: Ravana, disguised as a sage, approached Sita after Lakshmana left to investigate. Ravana asks Sita to be his queen because he is so in awe of her beauty, she tells him "Do you know who I am married to?" And he replies by saying "Yes, but I am much better" and he proceeds to kidnap her.
16: As they were on their way, Sita prayed to Jatayu, the king of birds. The vulture told Ravana to leave, as Rama would surely avenge this wrongdoing with death, but Ravana decided to fight the vulture. Though losing the fight, the vulture destroyed Ravana's chariot. As the duo made their getaway, Sita left some of her jewels and golden veil as a token for Rama.
17: Ravana tried to sweet talk Sita many times, but she continued to refuse. Ravana tells his guards to take her to the beautiful grove and give her delicious foods in order to win her over. Sita still wept for Rama.
18: Rama was overcome with grief, but eventually stumbled upon the dying Jatayu and the vulture told Rama where Ravana went and then died in his arms
19: Rama and Lakshmana stumbled upon a demon, who they quickly struck down. The demon asked for a proper burial and in return he would offer them info on Sita. The demon told the boys where to find Ravana and that they needed the help of the ape chief Sugriva.
20: The brothers stumble upon a hermitage where a women tells them that she had been waiting for Rama for a long time. She states that everyone else died, and she was all that was left and she was to wait for the "True hero." Everything was stuck in a time loop, nothing ever changed. She asked the boys to give her a proper burial.

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