Week 4: A Bedtime Story Continued

Ravana's Death: Wikimedia Commons

Okay, do you remember where we left off? Sita has been taken away by the evil Ravana.

Rama was heartbroken and wept for many days. He searched and searched for Sita.

"Is my beautiful Sita here?" he asked the mountains.

"I am sorry, but no" wept the mountains. 

"Is my love hiding in your shallows?" he asked the river.

"No, my dear Rama" wept the river, causing flooding of the nearby lands.

Rama and Lakshmana then came upon the kingdom Kiskinda, which was ruled by a monkey race that were extraordinarily intelligent and had godly parentage. One of the most intelligent of these monkey's was Hanuman, the companion and helper of Sugreeva, the chief of Kiskinda. Hanuman sees Rama enter the kingdom and is so curious to know who he was, he decides to go talk to him! Hanuman changes his form to appear as a scholar instead of monkey to perhaps trick Rama.

"Hello, my name is Hanuman and I am a scholar who has lost his way. And who are you?"

"So strange to meet a scholar here is these woods. My name is Rama and this is my brother, Lakshmana. We are just passing through this kingdom in search of my lost wife."

Hanuman is so touched by Rama's story that he decides to return to his monkey state. 

Hanuman tells Rama of Sugreeva and how his brother, Vali, has immeasurable strength. Everyone and all of nature feared Vali, as no one could defeat him. One day, Vali disappeared into the underworld to kill a demon and did not appear for many many months. Sugreeva was ruler during this time in fear that Vali had died. When Vali returned, he was so angry he swore to kill Sugreeva if he ever saw him again.

Rama was heartened by this story and swore to help Sugreeva.  Sugreeva swears to help Rama find Sita if he helps him.

Thus, our heroes, as well as our new friend Sugreeva, set out to the top of a mountain where Sugreeva's voice could be heard by the entire world.

"Come fight me brother. I am tired of hiding!" yelled Sugreeva.

"I will hide in the trees while your brother comes to fight you. Wear these flowers so that I can tell which brother is which" Rama tells Sugreeva. He then goes and hides in the trees with Lakshmana.

Now, Vali had heard his brother and was storming his way over to the mountain.

"There you are, cowardly brother" said Vali menacingly. 

Vali and Sugreeva fought very hard and Sugreeva was beginning to become battered. Rama then shot an arrow that landed directly into Vali's heart. Vali fell to his knees and cried out, "Who did this to me?"

Rama emerges and tells Vali of Sugreeva's innocence in taking charge while Vali was in the underworld. Vali then died and his soul went to the heavens and Sugreeva was crowned.

Sugreeva then sent his armies out to the world to find Sita. They finally found her in Lanka which was surrounded by a vast sea. Hanuman grew to an enormous size and stepped across the sea so that he could find her and tell her of Rama's plans. Once he found her and calmed her, he grew enormous again and destroyed many parts of Lanka.

During this, one of Ravana's brother, Vibishana, disagreed with Ravana and his plans to kill Rama. Thus, he left Lanka and went to help Rama. He told him of Ravana's plans and armies while the monkey armies sent by Sugreeva build a giant mud bridge to Lanka. The armies then marched into Lanka and the war began.

Ravana was furious by these attacks and had sorcerer create a decapitated head that looked like Rama's head to trick Sita into becoming his. Sita was shaken at first, but remained unaffected by the spectacle. Ravana's son Indrajit used poisonous darts to trick Sita into thinking Rama and Lakshmana were dead; however, Garuda, the mighty eagle, caused these darts to scatter. This allowed Rama and his brother to get back on their feet. Here, Ravana and Rama had their first fight. 

"You will never defeat me!" declared Ravana.

Rama, however, remained calm and fought with clarity. He defeated Ravana, shattering his crowns, but allowed him to return to the battle tomorrow when he was restored.

Ravana was ashamed that he had last and sent his servants to wake his giant brother, Kumbakarna. He was as tall as a mountain and bellowed into the wind.

"I will kill you Rama!" boomed Kumbakarna.

Kumbakarna caused havoc when entering the battle killing thousands of monkey warriors. Rama, however, killed him easily by severing his head with an arrow. During this, Lakshamana also ended up killing Indrajit, Ravana's son. 

Ravana then prepared for a final battle with Rama.

"I will not be defeated by a mere human. If I am to be defeated, then let me die! I cannot bear the shame of losing." 

The gods decided to help Rama and sent him Indra's chariot. Rama and Ravana fought for a long time and utilized many supernatural weapons. Eventually, Rama's weapon Brahmasthra struck Ravana's heart and killed him.

Now Rama had found his long lost wife and defeated the most evil of villains. Our hero returned to his kingdom and was happily crowned king. He and his wife lived happily ever after.

Author's Note

This story is based on the second half of the book version of The Ramayana. I kept the base of the story the same and just added a few fun details. All of the dialogue was added by me, as children love to have dialogue with different voices!

Bibliography: Narayan, R K, and Kampar. The Ramayana. New York, Penguin Books, 1972.