Week 3 Story: The Twisted Brother

As Lakshmana watched Rama and Sita ride away, he knew that this couldn’t stand. Rama had convinced him earlier to give up his malintentions toward Kaikeyi and Dasaratha, but he only listened out of love and respect for his brother. Lakshmana roared, “14 years! …. 14 whole years! Rama’s place is on the throne, to lead the people of Ayodhya!” Of course family knows best so Lakshmana decided to do what he thought was best and take matters into his own hands.

If Rama did get anything through to Lakshmana, it was that violence was not the solution. So he headed off towards his father’s kopa gruha thinking about what Rama had said, “A word given is like an arrow it goes forward. You cannot recall it midway…”

“Bah! Maybe my father cannot take about his arrow, but how about I snatch it directly from the air!” Lakshmana muttered to himself. When he arrived at the kopa gruha, Lakshmana was adamant on convincing his stepmother, Kaikeyi, to reconsider he banishment and dethroning of Rama. By whatever means necessary, except for the area of violence which he could not let go of yet because of Rama.

Lakshmana burst into the room and said “Kaikeyi! I demand to discuss my brother’s banishment.” At this he noticed Dasaratha lying on the floor in too much sorrow to speak.

“What is there to discuss? Your father gave me his word for a boon many years ago and now I have requested it.” Kaikeyi calmly replied.

“You cannot send him away for 14 years! Just see reason, allow him to stay in Ayodhya. He doesn’t even need the throne.” Lakshmana pleaded.

“I loved Rama too and it pains me to see him forced into the forest, but it must be done.” Kaikeyi said, sadly.

“But he is already deep in the forest! No doubt surround by Rakshasas and asuras every step of the way.”

At hearing this Dasaratha fell into deeper pain, and after a few moments imagining Rama and Sita alone in the forest, he succumbed to his thoughts and died. When Lakshmana saw this, he threw peace and pacifism out the window and decided to instead, snap the arrow in half.

“All of this tragedy is because of YOU!” and with this, Lakshmana spun around, and in doing so, drew his blade. In the blink of an eye, Kaikeyi lay bleeding on the ground. Before her last breath, she whispered, “The gods… will not… look kindly on this.” With this, Yama punished Lakshmana with an unstoppable bloodlust.

Soon after, he forced his way to king of Ayodhya and ruled with an iron fist. This was until Rama had heard of Lakshmana’s wrongdoings and had to return to save his city and try to save his brother. He snuck into the city and found his way to the palace, there he confronted Lakshmana.

“Brother it is Rama. I have come to reason with you, to find your old self.” Lakshmana looked as those he had seen a ghost.

“Rama. I see you have come back for the throne. However I feel as though Yama’s influence and the throne suit me.” spoke Lakshmana, slyly.

“Please see reason Lakshmana. This is not who you are.”

“No Rama it is now, I only now realize how long I waited in your shadow. The throne is mine and if I must defend it from you, I will.”

Then Lakshmana slowly drew his sword and leapt towards Rama. It was one of the most well fought battles that have been told. The two brothers were almost equal in strength and skill with both of their power being far superior to the ordinary human. Rama’s discipline allowed for his victory, but it was not a rewarding victory for him. Mourning the loss of his brother, Rama performed the funeral ceremony, but knew he could not be king. This led him back into the forest and led him to face Ravana in the future. Of course he did not know of the latter purpose.

Lakshmana consoling Rama

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Bibliography:

The Ramayana by R. K. Narayan

Author’s Note: The first thing that is seen here is a plot change were in Narayan’s version of The Ramayana, Lakshmana goes with Rama and Sita into the forest for the fourteen years, however I have chosen Lakshmana to stay. I decided to also have him confront Kaikeyi and Dasaratha, which Rama had originally convinced him not to do. Dasaratha’s death was very similar to Narayan’s depiction but I decided to make this the breaking point for Lakshmana. Murdering Kaikeyi gave him a bloodlust which could only be stopped with Rama’s return from the forest. Using Yama to give Lakshmana this bloodlust seemed like a good choice because of Yama’s role as the god of death. I thought it was interesting how Lakshmana was always following behind Rama and never got the spotlight, so I decided that his rage would also manifest to him fighting his brother. Rama is still very compassionate and loves his brother so he is sad to see him go.

Reading Notes: Ramayana B

Lakshmana cannot be convinced to back down by Rama and goes to kill Kaikeyi/Dasaratha (not really sure who he was going to kill), bloodlust/greed occurs


He may also wait until Rama leaves and then take his revenge. This is because he respects Rama so much but knows that Rama would try to stop him.


Dasaratha's emotional and physical state could play a role in the aftermath of Lakshmana's rage.


Bharatha doesn't seem at all like his mother, very kind and is wondering what happened to the city. Even goes out to find Rama.


The word of the Gods is of the highest authority apparently.


Why does it seem like every single character wants to die/kill themselves when they hear either Rama was leaving or Dasaratha was dead?


Kamavalli seems extremely lustful towards Rama and I'm interested to see what her true intentions are. She is actually in love with Rama but needs to remove Sita. Power of both Rama and Lakshmana is shown in battles against Kara.


Again the compulsion of love drives Ravana mad until he is forced to kidnap Sita. Rama also shows this by not wanting to leave Sita but also wanting to please her.

Ravana taking Sita

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

The Ramayana by R. K Narayan

Reading Notes: Ramayana A

I'd like to think that after Thataka was killed, the landscape started to regrow to its former glory.


Possibly have Mahabali rise from the netherworld and attack Rama. This is due to him being briefly mentioned in a story by Viswamithra.


Lakshmana is an interesting character due to the focus being on Rama - plot twist: have him attack Rama, Viswamithra saves him.


Ganges creation story for the river and for the oceans. (Project idea)


Thinking I might change the plot or introduce new elements. I think the elephants in Mithila are interesting.


Rama has a large amount of wisdom, perhaps because he is Vishnu's avatar.


Some little plot aspects that I would want to change, like mentioned above.


Possible origin story to how Ravana became empowered by the Gods - later.


Use of Mars and Jupiter very interesting because of the connection to Roman mythology.


Have Bharama challenge Rama for the throne, well I wrote this before he was given the throne.

Ganges River

Flickr

Bibliography:

 

The Ramayana by R. K Narayan

Reading Notes: Hanuman Comic

Today I decided to get my first ever book from the library here and got Hanuman: The Epitome of Devotion and Courage from the comic book reserves. I would just like to let everyone know that I have no idea how to use the call numbers and am still not sure if I was following the Dewey Decimal system or Library of Congress. Anyways I looked around like a lost puppy for a while until I decided to just ask for help. Turns out had to ask for help because it was in the reserves, yay.

Anyways... onto my notes.

In the first few pages, it seems like the story escalates extremely quickly. We go from Sugreeva and Hanuman being alone to suddenly challenging Vali to a duel in like 6 panels. Ohhh and we just killed Vali in 2 panels, looks like Ravana and Sita are the main plotline. So I didn't know what a yojana was in terms of measurement but after a little research it appears that Hanuman was able to jump around 745 miles across a sea, so he must have great leg workouts.

Oooh that Hanuman is a clever monkey man, showed Surasa whos who., it seems like monkeys tricking animals or monsters is a theme Yeah I wouldn't marry Ravana either, those extra nine heads just don't look that appealing. Alright, it looks like Hanuman definitely should have gone back to Rama instead Indrajit captured him with one of his supernatural weapons. Not great. I think at some point enough oil is enough, Hanuman's tail is going to catch on fire. Okay, it's kinda weird how Hanuman was sad that the beautiful city was going to be destroyed when Rama came to fight Ravana. So instead .... Hanuman decides to burn down the city himself? Sure.

Hanuman is definitely strong and I am excited to see him fight Indrajit. Both Rama and Hanuman are formidible fighters as they took down all of Ravana's fighters easily. It looks like this might be an adaptation or graphic depiction of the Ramayana as Hanuman assisted Rama in rescuing Sita from Ravana. Even though I haven't read the Ramayana yet, it will be interesting to pair the characters from this story with those in the actual text. I liked the comic book because it let me see these characters and made it much easier to actually understand what was going on because I could recognize the same people from the images.

Book cover showing Hanuman with his tail on fire

Indian Epics: Amar Chitra Katha

Illustration by Ram Waeerkar

Wikipedia Trails: From Hanuman to Triple Deity

Hanuman: I saw something on the Twitter feed that mentioned Hanuman and then remembered reading a little bit about him when doing the project topics post. In the Weapons of the Gods topic, Hanuman wielded a gada mace and I used that mace as the image in the post. The fact that he was a monkey warrior but also the son of a god and spirit lead me to look more into him.

Shiva: I had heard the name Shiva in many different contexts but never knew where the name originally came from. Interestingly, Shiva is also, somehow, a parent to Hanuman so it seems like he has multiple parents. For some reason I always thought that Shiva was a positive figure but, "The Destroyer" or "Supreme Destroyer of Evil" don't sound very positive.

Trimurti: When reading about the rakshasas, I went to Indrajit's page as he is a prominent rakshasa in the Ramayana and saw that he had the three weapons of the Trimurti. When I saw that Shiva was a member of the Trimurti along with Brahma and Vishnu, I wanted to read a little more about it and why those weapons were so powerful.

Depiction of Trimurti

Wikimedia Commons

Triple Deity: Because the Trimurti is a group of three deities it made me think about other groups of three like the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades in Greek mythology and the Holy Trinity in Christianity. I wondered if this might be a common theme in regarding deities and saw the page in the "See Also" section of the Trimurti page. So I read through this page and saw that triads are definitely a common theme.

Typing Game Tech Tip

Back in my middle school days, I played a few MMOs (massively multiplayer online game) where communication was important to be able to work with your group. However, I had my fingers locked on the WASD keys because those were the movement keys. So I got better at knowing where the keys were but never learned the proper way to type with all my fingers on the keyboard. There seems to be a like a max speed you can hit when you are pecking at the keys.

So I took a keyboarding class in high school my freshman year because I knew that I would need to actually learn how to type. All the papers and assignments started to be typed and my pecking wasn't going to cut it. Now that I'm in college and this class, I'm really happy that I learned how to type or my assignments would take ages.

The Ninja Cat and Zombie Dinosaurs was a cool game where I got to kill all sorts of zombie dinosaurs and it would improve typing. But for some reason, it glitched and lagged a lot for me so I ended up dying really early because I couldn't hit three letters that I had hit a minute ago. I also tried Type for Your Life which I liked. Basically you were constantly being chased by the bottom of the screen and needed to jump to platforms to get away. Completing the word at your platform let you jump and the speed of the screen increased after every jump.  I remember playing Nitro Type Race where you compete against other people in finishing a paragraph.

Typing a blur

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Famous Last Words: A Hectic First Week

Boy I thought syllabus week was supposed to be a relaxing, simple week. Go to class for the first time, see your buddies, and maybe start a lecture or too. Not for me this time! On just the second day of the week I think I dropped two classes and then picked up two different ones. That one day was enough stress and planning for the next few weeks. No more please! This all stems from me hopefully getting to go to Arezzo in the summer and take some microbiology classes there. But being enrolled in one of those classes for this semester definitely threw a wrench into things so finding a way to move things around was a pain. Let's cross our fingers for it to all work out and with Italy on the horizon!

But this class has gone splendidly. I got my first week of assignments done early and now am working on a little extra credit :) which means I also got the second week done too. The readings weren't too bad because I understood all the stories and they were interesting and a little bit funny. My writing from the stories may not have been great but I am looking forward to seeing how I could make it easier to write and write better. My other classes haven't really started up yet with the exception of those Chapter 1 lectures, "what is (insert subject matter here)/how do we study it?" This next week will start off pretty nice because of MLK day, so maybe I can get ahead a little bit more in our class.

Me, as arrows traveling from place to place, fixing my schedule

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