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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Vana

Rāma (Rāmopākhyāna)

Classical

Deep in the forest, the Pandavas hear the whole Ramayana in one sitting. The sage Markandeya tells it, and the reason he tells it comes through in his first words: even Rama, for all his power, suffered terribly in the forest, so Yudhishthira should not despair. Yudhishthira asks the practical questions. Whose son was Rama? How strong? Who was Ravana, and why did they fight?

Markandeya begins with Aja and his son Dasaratha. Dasaratha has four sons: Rama by Kausalya, Bharata by Kaikeyi, and Lakshmana and Shatrughna by Sumitra. Janaka of Videha has a daughter, Sita, whom the divine craftsman Tvashtri made to become Rama's wife. Then he turns to Ravana's ancestry. Visrava, a son of Pulastya, had a son Vaisravana, or Kubera, who got Lanka and the flying chariot Pushpaka from Brahma. Visrava was angry at Kubera, and three Rakshasa women sent to serve Visrava bore him sons: Ravana and Kumbhakarna, Vibhishana, and the twins Khara and Surpanakha. Jealous of Kubera's wealth they did penance. Ravana stood on one leg for a thousand years and offered his own heads to the fire, which restored them. Brahma gave Ravana safety from nearly everything except humans, Kumbhakarna long sleep, and Vibhishana, for his righteousness, immortality. Ravana drove Kubera out of Lanka, took the chariot and became lord of the Rakshasas.

Dasaratha, feeling old, decided to crown Rama as regent. Kaikeyi's maid Manthara persuaded her that this ruined Bharata, and Kaikeyi reminded the king of an old promise: Bharata to be crowned, and Rama to live fourteen years as an ascetic in the Dandaka forest. Bound by his word, Dasaratha agreed. Rama left with Lakshmana and Sita, and Dasaratha died of grief. Bharata denounced his mother and went after Rama with the royal women and Brahmins, but Rama would not return, so Bharata ruled from Nandigrama with Rama's sandals as a symbol of the throne. In the forest, after a clash with Surpanakha, Rama defeated Khara, Dushana and their forces. Surpanakha, disfigured, went to her brother in Lanka, and Ravana, furious, crossed the ocean to Gokarna to see the Rakshasa Maricha.

Ravana carried Sita off, and the vulture king Jatayu, an old friend of Dasaratha, fought him and lost his wings. Sita dropped ornaments at hermitages and rivers and threw a piece of her cloth down to five monkeys on a mountain. Rama came back to find the dying Jatayu, who pointed south. A headless Rakshasa seized Lakshmana; the brothers cut off its arms, and a Gandharva named Viswavasu, who had been cursed into that shape, rose from it and told them Sita was in Lanka and that Sugriva, the monkey king, would help.

Months later, as Rama waited on a hill, he sent Lakshmana to remind Sugriva of his debt. Sugriva already had search parties out. Three came back empty. The southern party under Hanuman and Angada returned after two months, tearing into the Madhuvana orchard, and Sugriva and Rama both read it as a sign of success. Hanuman told how they had met Prabhavati in a cave, how Sampati, Jatayu's brother, told them where Sita was, and how he had leapt the ocean, found Sita and given her Rama's message. She gave him a jewel as a token. He let himself be captured and burned Lanka. Then came the siege. Ravana fortified the city with seven moats. Angada walked into the council hall to demand Sita's release, was seized, broke free and leapt back over the walls. The monkeys broke the ramparts, and one night Ravana's invisible Rakshasas crept into the camp until Vibhishana exposed them.

The section I read on Ravana's death is the aftermath: Rama gave Lanka to Vibhishana, then told Sita she was free to go, since he could not take her back after her time in Ravana's house. Sita called on the elements to leave her if she had sinned, and Vayu, Agni and Varuna testified for her. Brahma, Indra and Dasaratha appeared, and Dasaratha told Rama to take her back and announced that the fourteen years were done. They flew home in the Pushpaka, Bharata returned the kingdom at Nandigrama, and Vasishtha and Vamadeva crowned Rama. He later gave Pushpaka back to Kubera and performed ten horse sacrifices.

Then Markandeya turns the whole story back to Yudhishthira: Rama won Sita back with monkeys and bears, and Draupadi, taken by Jayadratha, was won back by Yudhishthira's own brothers. The king was comforted.

Told by Mārkaṇḍeya → Yudhiṣṭhira

Who: Yudhiṣṭhira

Bound to

Rāma twin

Where this comes from

See it on the tree · All stories

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