Week 5: Buck's Ramayana (pp. 110-218)Assignments - Reading Guide A - Reading Guide B - Ramayana Resources |
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Your Reading A for this week is Buck's Ramayana, pp. 110-161.
You might want to read over the previous
reading guide to remind yourself of what has happened so far.
p.
110. Bharata returns. Kausalya wakes
up, and discovers that King Daśaratha is
dead. Messengers are sent to Bharata,
who is away at the house of his grandfather. When Bharata and Śatrughna return
to Ayodhya, they
are amazed to find it changed. Kaikeyi explains
to Bharata that Daśaratha is dead and that Rama has
been disinherited and sent into exile. Bharata is appalled by what his mother
has done. The priest Vasishtha insists
that Bharata become king, as Daśaratha had ordered, in
obedience to Kaikeyi's request. Daśaratha is then cremated and his bones cast
into the Sarayu river.
p. 119. Bharata follows Rama into the forest. Bharata goes
with a huge entourage, including the queens, to find Rama in the forest. The
forest king Guha uses
divination to ascertain that Bharata's intentions are good. Guha directs them
to the hermitage of sage Bharadwaja.
The celestial architect Viśwakarman creates
a pleasing garden in Bharadwaja's hermitage.
Bharadwaja greets the three queens and blesses Kaikeyi. He then directs them
to go to Rama at Chitrakuta.
p. 129. Bharata finds Rama at Chitrakuta. Rama learns from Bharata that Daśaratha is dead, but he nevertheless refuses to return to Ayodhya until the term of his exile is over. Bharata reluctantly agrees to rule in Rama's absence. He takes Rama's sandals back with him to sit on the throne in Rama's place until Rama returns.
p. 134. Atri. Rama, Lakshmana and Sita visit the hermitage
of Atri. Atri tells them the story of
Mandakarni and the five Apsarases who live in the lake. Atri's wife Anasuya befriends Sita and gives her gifts.
p. 138. Agastya. In the fourteenth summer of their exile, Rama, Lakshmana and Sita come to Agastya's hermitage. Agastya is famous for having lowered the height of the Vindhya hills. He is also the sage who put a stop to the two demon brothers Vatapi and Ilwala. Agastya gives Rama a better bow than the one he had before, and warns him about the dangers of the Dandaka forest, which is south of the Vindhya hills. Ravana is master of Dandaka, and Khara commands the demon armies of the forest.
p.
143. The
Valakhilyas. As they enter the forest, the tiny
Valakhilyas describe
the terrible deeds of the demons. The
Valakhilyas ask Rama to go to war with the demons, but Sita tries to dissuade
Rama from doing this. Rama then tells Sita the story of the
Valakhilyas and how Indra scorned
them because they were so small.
p.
146. Vinata and Kadru. With the help of the
Valakhilyas, the wives of the sage Kaśyapa were
able to conceive children. Kadru produced
one thousand offspring who were nagas,
while Vinata had
only two children: Aruna,
who became the sun's charioteer, and Garuda,
who was the king of birds. Kadru challenged Vinata to a bet about the color of
the horse
Uchchaihśravas and
used a trick to win the bet. Because she lost the bet, Vinata became Kadru's
slave. Garuda wanted to ransom his mother, and Kadru demanded that Garuda supply
amrita for her
and her children to drink. Garuda managed to get the amrita from Indra's heaven
but he also helped Indra to be able to steal the amrita back after he successfully
ransomed his mother.
p.
155. The demon Viradha. As Rama tells this story to Sita,
the demon Viradha abducts
her. Rama and Lakshmana take off in pursuit and finally manage to kill the
demon. Viradha reveals himself to actually be a gandharva named Tumburu.
Tumburu had been cursed to live as a demon and was only freed when his demon
life was brought to an end by Rama. Tumburu flies up to heaven where he finds Chitraratha,
the gandharva king.
p.
156. Śurpanakha. Lakshmana builds a house for them to
live in at Panchavati.
There they are visited by Śurpanakha,
Ravana's sister, who proposes marriage to Rama. Rama rejects her offer, and
Śurpanakha attacks Sita. Lakshmana stops Śurpanakha and mutilates her. She runs
away to Khara, the rakshasa general, who is enraged by what has happened to
Ravana's sister. The demons launch an attack against Rama. Rama and Lakshmana
completely defeat the demon army. Śurpanakha goes to Ravana in Lanka and
tells him what has happened in the Dandaka forest. She tells Ravana that Sita
is more beautiful than any of his wives, and Ravana decides he must have Sita
for himself. In order to get help in capturing Sita, Ravana goes to visit his
uncle Maricha,
a demon who had survived an earlier battle with Rama years ago.
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