Week 3 Story: A Lonely Dirt Road
Rama battling the Demons: Wikimedia Commons
Lakshmana Diary Day 35
My first memory as
a child is Rama and I sitting with our father, King Dasharatha, and our other
two brothers at dinner. Even as a young child, I could tell that my father greatly
favored Rama over us three, but it did not bother me. I have always known that
my brother is special, and I figured that I should support him with whatever he
does. Even if it means sitting in his shadow. I first figured out that he is
different when he fought back demons who were killing off a local farmers
livestock. During the fight, he summoned animals from the forest and used the
land around him to win the battle: four demons to one Rama. But this is just
the beginning. Soon after, we were shopping at a local market when he saw a
beautiful woman. She moved gracefully throughout the market with a sizeable entourage
following signifying that she was important. Rama caught her eye, and after talking
for hours at the busy market, we went over to her palace. Rama was given a
series of seemingly impossible challenges by her father, and after the challenges
were completed successfully, they were married. It is not the completion of the
challenges that impresses even years later, but it is Rama’s ability to win
favor of people so easily even after meeting them for a brief time. Rama is fit
for King, but unfortunately, that’s not how it happened. King Dasharatha had chosen
Rama for king and discussing with his court the next steps that should take to appoint
Rama to King. However, King Dasharatha became deranged one morning during the
process. I still do not know what happened, but one day the King woke up and
demanded that Rama never become king. Not only that, but he demanded that Rama
be banished from this town never to be seen again. Maybe the king was possessed,
maybe the King became deranged, or maybe the king had a change of heart. What exactly
happened I may never know, but here we are, walking on a road to nowhere
towards a brand-new home.
Authors Note: I read the story Ramayana: Part A for the background of this story. The main plot of the story is a god is sent down in human for to King Dasharatha as a son. More specifically, four sons were sent down and one is a god. Throughout the story, Rama, the god, is sent out on multiple challenges to defeat demons. The first challenge is manipulated slightly because the demons are disrupting rituals in the original story. Also, Rama uses celestial weapons and not animals and the land. He also meets his wife in a stream and not in the market. However, there are a series of tests that he had to go through in order to marry her. In the original story, the King always wanted to appoint Rama to King, but a woman in the town forced King Dasharatha to banish Rama to woods for 14 years. Lakshmana and his wife still went with him though.
Bibliography:
Author: Various contributors
Title: Ramayana
Source: Public Domain
Trace, I liked the level of detail you put into describing the settings in this story. It helped paint a picture of where all of this was happening. Having Rama summon animals instead of utilizing weapons for his battles was also a cool idea. I am not certain if your story is read from the perspective of Lakshmana, but that is what I think is going on. I wonder if the king did become deranged, or if there may have been some other motives for his sudden hatred of Rama.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using a diary format to explore Lakshmana's perspective of his brother's epic life. When I was reading the Ramayana I also wondered how Lakshmana would feel deep down always following his brother around playing sidekick to the great Rama. I really like your last sentence. It highlights how Lakshmana followed his brother out of love and devotion to him even though it put his own future at risk.
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