[Requests] [Mythology] The Ramayana
This is for surlykitty who requested a Ramayana FST. Personally, I think that the Mahabharata is the more interesting of the two epics, but let's see how this goes!
The Ramayana (The Travels of Rama) is the shorter of the two major Indian epic poems. This makes it a paltry 24,000 verses long, of course! It's a chronicle of the life and adventures of Lord Rama, Prince of Ayodhya. He was born a prince, but for some ridiculous reasons (mostly filial piety) he ends up spending 14 years of his life in the forest with his wife and brother. The major part of the epic involves the abduction of his wife Sita by the ten-headed demon king Ravana, who imprisons her on the island of Sri Lanka. Rama gathers an army of monkeys and bears and invades Lanka, rescues his wife, and returns back home to Ayodhya for a big party.
This story is extremely important in India even to this day; Rama is considered to be an avatar of God and an example of the ideal man and king. In 1988 or so, they made a 78-episode TV miniseries, and whenever an episode was airing, the streets were DEAD. Everyone was either at home or in front of a TV display. I have only the vaguest memories of watching it on TV; I remember that when Rama and Sita met, they conveyed LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT by about five minutes of alternating shots of their faces contorted in silly expressions.
If you want a more detailed summary of the storyline, try Wiki. I'm just hitting the major events as best as I can. There are seven chapters to the story, but most retellings only cover the first six, which basically ends with "and they all lived happily ever after!" The seventh and final chapter, which is sort of an epilogue, is quite a downer and people either don't know about it or furiously deny it. But I'll cover it anyways. Lyrics for most songs are in the song file itself if you use itunes. D:
Most of the songs are by Asian Underground artists.
01. Tin Machine - Amlapura
Once, a long long time ago, four sons were born to King Dasaratha in the north Indian city of Ayodhya. Most importantly, the eldest one was named Rama, and he was his father's favorite. In fact, his father would have probably wrapped him in cotton wool and protected him from the entire world if he hadn't been forced to send Rama and his brothers out to kill demons by some cranky sages in his kingdom. Well, it builds character!
02. Karsh Kale - Saajana (Darling)
On one of these various demon-killing field trips, Rama and his teacher visited the kingdom of Mithila, where King Janaka was holding a contest to give away his beautiful daughter Sita in marriage. To prove that you were a bad enough dude to marry the princess, you had to string an enormous iron bow that had belong to the god Siva. Now, Rama was only in his early teens at the time, but he bent the bow so hard in the process of stringing it that it actually broke. So he got to marry the beautiful and virtuous princess Sita, and then you got those nauseating five minutes of lovey-dovey looks that I remember from the TV serial.
03. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Shadow
However, King Dasaratha had three wives, and eventually one of them nagged him to death and got Rama exiled into the forest so her son Bharata could become king instead. Rama, being a dutiful son, did not complain. Sita insisted on following him, and so did his younger brother Lakshmana. Actually, the whole city was so devoted to him that he could have brought the whole city with him into the forest, but he told them to stop being silly and to serve Bharata. Bharata was sort of an innocent bystander in this family drama; he came home from vacation to find his father dead, his brother banished, and himself the new king. He yelled at his mom and tried to fix the mess but it was too late.
04. Panda Bear - Good Girl/Carrots
So Rama and his wife and brother set up camp in the forest and live for some years, killing random demons and living the simple life.
05. Asha Bhosle - Piya Tu Ab To Aaja
But one day a demoness named Surpanakha saw Rama and thought he was SUPER-HAWT and would make a good husband. She disguised herself as a beautiful woman and tried to hit on him, but the brothers teased her until she got mad. She then turned back into her demon form and tried to eat Sita so that Rama would be back on the market again. Killing women is not noble, but apparently disfiguring them is, because Lakshmana cuts off her nose and ears and sends her screaming back into the forests.
06. Talvin Singh - Vikram the Vampire
Unfortunately, Surpanakha's older brother was the handsome and diabolical ten-headed demon king Ravana, who ruled over the fabulous island kingdom of Lanka. When Surpanakha came to complain to her older brother about the mean humans who picked on her, she cunningly told him about how there was a fabulously beautiful princess in the forest who would make a GREAT addition to the royal harem. (She understood male psychology, heh heh.) Ravana's interest was piqued, so despite the advice of his counsellors who told him to stay away from married women, he ordered his minions to help him with a complicated plan to separate Sita from Rama and Lakshmana. He found her alone, approached her in the disguise of an old man, and then snatched her and flew back to Lanka with her.
07. Cornershop - We're in Your Corner
When the two brothers discover that Sita has been kidnapped, Rama becomes incredibly emo and useless and wanders about talking to trees, asking them if they've seen his wife. The trail leads south, and eventually they reach the monkey kingdom of Kishkindha, where the monkey-people live. Rama manages to secure the help of the king of the monkeys (well, by killing the former king Bali and putting Bali's younger brother on the throne so that the monkey king OWED HIM), and the monkey-people and bear-people organized an enormous search party to find Sita. (Of note, the "monkeys" and "bears" of this story were probably forest-dwelling tribal people.)
08. Nitin Sawhney - The Search
The monkey king's trusted minister, an exceptionally smart and talented monkey named Hanuman, was in the party that reached the southernmost tip of India. They had a tip that Sita was being kept in the island of Sri Lanka, but how were they going to cross the ocean and check? Well, Hanuman took an enormous form and hopped across the ocean like it was a puddle.
09. Hindi Moogy - I Dream of Hema Malini
In a heavily-guarded garden in the center of Lanka, Hanuman finds Sita, who has basically threatened to kill herself if Ravana touches her. In return, Ravana threatened her that if she doesn't become his wife, he'll just eat her. Hanuman introduces himself and offers to carry her back, but she refuses: 1) Hanuman is male and she refuses to willingly touch another man other than her husband, and 2) Rama has to redeem his honor by killing Ravana. Hanuman says "okay, whatever" and sets the city of Lanka on fire to piss off Ravana before he goes home.
10. Indian Ropeman - Do Not Deviate From Your Present Course
Rama and his army of monkey and bears takes on Ravana and his army of demons. It's an epic battle, and really quite interesting to read; they fight with magic and there's all sorts of strange beasts and demons involved, but I'm not getting into it here. Eventually Rama kills Ravana and there was much rejoicing, yay.
11. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Sweet Pain (Joi remix)
Sita is overjoyed that her husband has come to rescue her. However, Rama seems unenthused to see her after so many years. He says that he's redeemed his honor by rescuing her, but god knows what she's been up to with the demon king, and so he doesn't want to take her back. Shocked and hurt, Sita orders Lakshmana to build a funeral pyre for her; if she's been faithful to her husband, the fire won't harm her, and if she hasn't, well, she doesn't want to live any more after hearing this from her husband. However, as soon as she jumps into the flames the god of fire lifts her out of the fire and declares that she hasn't even THOUGHT about being unfaithful to Rama. Rama, quite relieved, says that he didn't think so but he had to make a big public display for everyone ELSE to believe it.
12. Hassan Hakmoun et al. - Indus Railway
Their 14 years of exile are up, so Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana fly from Lanka back to Ayodhya in a magical flying chariot, and Rama is finally crowned king.
UTTARA KANDA, THE EPILOGUE
13. Joi - Triatma
Rama is king. It is a Golden Age; children respect their elders, the lion lay down with the lamb (or the tiger with the cow, if you will), there is no sickness or unhappiness in the kingdom.
14. Depeche Mode - Policy of Truth
HOWEVAR, Rama hears that the citizens are still questioning what happened with Sita. (He had been wandering the city incognito and heard a washer throwing his wayward wife out of the house, saying that he's not an idiot like their king who accepts his wife back after she's cheated on him.) Rama is supposedly the idea king; his citizens' trust in him is the most important thing to maintain. He cannot be seen as a hypocrite by his people. Soooooo his genius idea is to banish his heavily-pregnant wife into the forest forever.
15. Peter Gabriel - We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)
Of course, he gets his brother Lakshmana to do his dirty work for him. Lakshmana thinks this is horrible, just as he thought putting Sita through the trial of fire back in Lanka, but he does what he's told! He takes Sita out for a nice drive in the forest, and then tells her that she has to stay there, apologizing profusely. Sita, who is 9 months pregnant, goes and stays with the holy man Valmiki (who is the author of the Ramayana). She gives birth to twin boys, Lava and Kusha, who grow up in the forest community. Years pass.
16. Bent - Comin' Back
After many years, Rama eventually learns that he has twin sons and figures that enough time has passed and he can ask Sita to come back to the city and be his wife again. And then:
17. Coil - Triple Sun
Many years later, as Rama is getting old, he's also forced to banish his brother Lakshmana for a ridiculous reason. Lakshmana willingly leaves the city, and then commits suicide.
Rama gathers together anyone who wishes to follow him, and he walks into the Sarayu River until it closes over his head. He rises from the waters in the form of the god Vishnu and disappears into the heavens.
[[ ZIP OF ALL SONGS (110 MB) ]] (sorry, almost forgot about this!)
LINKS:
Here is a nice, fairly condensed, fairly easy-to-read version of the epic.
Sita Sings The Blues is a giggle; it's an animated version of the Ramayana, told from Sita's point of view, using old jazz tunes.
Arrow of the Blue Skinned God is a fascinating book that retells the Ramayana briefly as well as documents its relevance in modern India. It was written by a reporter, and it's a great read if you're at all interested in Indian mythology.
The Ramayana (The Travels of Rama) is the shorter of the two major Indian epic poems. This makes it a paltry 24,000 verses long, of course! It's a chronicle of the life and adventures of Lord Rama, Prince of Ayodhya. He was born a prince, but for some ridiculous reasons (mostly filial piety) he ends up spending 14 years of his life in the forest with his wife and brother. The major part of the epic involves the abduction of his wife Sita by the ten-headed demon king Ravana, who imprisons her on the island of Sri Lanka. Rama gathers an army of monkeys and bears and invades Lanka, rescues his wife, and returns back home to Ayodhya for a big party.
This story is extremely important in India even to this day; Rama is considered to be an avatar of God and an example of the ideal man and king. In 1988 or so, they made a 78-episode TV miniseries, and whenever an episode was airing, the streets were DEAD. Everyone was either at home or in front of a TV display. I have only the vaguest memories of watching it on TV; I remember that when Rama and Sita met, they conveyed LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT by about five minutes of alternating shots of their faces contorted in silly expressions.
If you want a more detailed summary of the storyline, try Wiki. I'm just hitting the major events as best as I can. There are seven chapters to the story, but most retellings only cover the first six, which basically ends with "and they all lived happily ever after!" The seventh and final chapter, which is sort of an epilogue, is quite a downer and people either don't know about it or furiously deny it. But I'll cover it anyways. Lyrics for most songs are in the song file itself if you use itunes. D:
Most of the songs are by Asian Underground artists.
01. Tin Machine - Amlapura
Once, a long long time ago, four sons were born to King Dasaratha in the north Indian city of Ayodhya. Most importantly, the eldest one was named Rama, and he was his father's favorite. In fact, his father would have probably wrapped him in cotton wool and protected him from the entire world if he hadn't been forced to send Rama and his brothers out to kill demons by some cranky sages in his kingdom. Well, it builds character!
02. Karsh Kale - Saajana (Darling)
On one of these various demon-killing field trips, Rama and his teacher visited the kingdom of Mithila, where King Janaka was holding a contest to give away his beautiful daughter Sita in marriage. To prove that you were a bad enough dude to marry the princess, you had to string an enormous iron bow that had belong to the god Siva. Now, Rama was only in his early teens at the time, but he bent the bow so hard in the process of stringing it that it actually broke. So he got to marry the beautiful and virtuous princess Sita, and then you got those nauseating five minutes of lovey-dovey looks that I remember from the TV serial.
03. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Shadow
However, King Dasaratha had three wives, and eventually one of them nagged him to death and got Rama exiled into the forest so her son Bharata could become king instead. Rama, being a dutiful son, did not complain. Sita insisted on following him, and so did his younger brother Lakshmana. Actually, the whole city was so devoted to him that he could have brought the whole city with him into the forest, but he told them to stop being silly and to serve Bharata. Bharata was sort of an innocent bystander in this family drama; he came home from vacation to find his father dead, his brother banished, and himself the new king. He yelled at his mom and tried to fix the mess but it was too late.
04. Panda Bear - Good Girl/Carrots
So Rama and his wife and brother set up camp in the forest and live for some years, killing random demons and living the simple life.
05. Asha Bhosle - Piya Tu Ab To Aaja
But one day a demoness named Surpanakha saw Rama and thought he was SUPER-HAWT and would make a good husband. She disguised herself as a beautiful woman and tried to hit on him, but the brothers teased her until she got mad. She then turned back into her demon form and tried to eat Sita so that Rama would be back on the market again. Killing women is not noble, but apparently disfiguring them is, because Lakshmana cuts off her nose and ears and sends her screaming back into the forests.
06. Talvin Singh - Vikram the Vampire
Unfortunately, Surpanakha's older brother was the handsome and diabolical ten-headed demon king Ravana, who ruled over the fabulous island kingdom of Lanka. When Surpanakha came to complain to her older brother about the mean humans who picked on her, she cunningly told him about how there was a fabulously beautiful princess in the forest who would make a GREAT addition to the royal harem. (She understood male psychology, heh heh.) Ravana's interest was piqued, so despite the advice of his counsellors who told him to stay away from married women, he ordered his minions to help him with a complicated plan to separate Sita from Rama and Lakshmana. He found her alone, approached her in the disguise of an old man, and then snatched her and flew back to Lanka with her.
07. Cornershop - We're in Your Corner
When the two brothers discover that Sita has been kidnapped, Rama becomes incredibly emo and useless and wanders about talking to trees, asking them if they've seen his wife. The trail leads south, and eventually they reach the monkey kingdom of Kishkindha, where the monkey-people live. Rama manages to secure the help of the king of the monkeys (well, by killing the former king Bali and putting Bali's younger brother on the throne so that the monkey king OWED HIM), and the monkey-people and bear-people organized an enormous search party to find Sita. (Of note, the "monkeys" and "bears" of this story were probably forest-dwelling tribal people.)
08. Nitin Sawhney - The Search
The monkey king's trusted minister, an exceptionally smart and talented monkey named Hanuman, was in the party that reached the southernmost tip of India. They had a tip that Sita was being kept in the island of Sri Lanka, but how were they going to cross the ocean and check? Well, Hanuman took an enormous form and hopped across the ocean like it was a puddle.
09. Hindi Moogy - I Dream of Hema Malini
In a heavily-guarded garden in the center of Lanka, Hanuman finds Sita, who has basically threatened to kill herself if Ravana touches her. In return, Ravana threatened her that if she doesn't become his wife, he'll just eat her. Hanuman introduces himself and offers to carry her back, but she refuses: 1) Hanuman is male and she refuses to willingly touch another man other than her husband, and 2) Rama has to redeem his honor by killing Ravana. Hanuman says "okay, whatever" and sets the city of Lanka on fire to piss off Ravana before he goes home.
10. Indian Ropeman - Do Not Deviate From Your Present Course
Rama and his army of monkey and bears takes on Ravana and his army of demons. It's an epic battle, and really quite interesting to read; they fight with magic and there's all sorts of strange beasts and demons involved, but I'm not getting into it here. Eventually Rama kills Ravana and there was much rejoicing, yay.
11. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Sweet Pain (Joi remix)
Sita is overjoyed that her husband has come to rescue her. However, Rama seems unenthused to see her after so many years. He says that he's redeemed his honor by rescuing her, but god knows what she's been up to with the demon king, and so he doesn't want to take her back. Shocked and hurt, Sita orders Lakshmana to build a funeral pyre for her; if she's been faithful to her husband, the fire won't harm her, and if she hasn't, well, she doesn't want to live any more after hearing this from her husband. However, as soon as she jumps into the flames the god of fire lifts her out of the fire and declares that she hasn't even THOUGHT about being unfaithful to Rama. Rama, quite relieved, says that he didn't think so but he had to make a big public display for everyone ELSE to believe it.
12. Hassan Hakmoun et al. - Indus Railway
Their 14 years of exile are up, so Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana fly from Lanka back to Ayodhya in a magical flying chariot, and Rama is finally crowned king.
UTTARA KANDA, THE EPILOGUE
13. Joi - Triatma
Rama is king. It is a Golden Age; children respect their elders, the lion lay down with the lamb (or the tiger with the cow, if you will), there is no sickness or unhappiness in the kingdom.
14. Depeche Mode - Policy of Truth
HOWEVAR, Rama hears that the citizens are still questioning what happened with Sita. (He had been wandering the city incognito and heard a washer throwing his wayward wife out of the house, saying that he's not an idiot like their king who accepts his wife back after she's cheated on him.) Rama is supposedly the idea king; his citizens' trust in him is the most important thing to maintain. He cannot be seen as a hypocrite by his people. Soooooo his genius idea is to banish his heavily-pregnant wife into the forest forever.
15. Peter Gabriel - We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)
Of course, he gets his brother Lakshmana to do his dirty work for him. Lakshmana thinks this is horrible, just as he thought putting Sita through the trial of fire back in Lanka, but he does what he's told! He takes Sita out for a nice drive in the forest, and then tells her that she has to stay there, apologizing profusely. Sita, who is 9 months pregnant, goes and stays with the holy man Valmiki (who is the author of the Ramayana). She gives birth to twin boys, Lava and Kusha, who grow up in the forest community. Years pass.
16. Bent - Comin' Back
After many years, Rama eventually learns that he has twin sons and figures that enough time has passed and he can ask Sita to come back to the city and be his wife again. And then:
- A ring of interested spectators had formed round them but Sita and Ram stood alone within the circle, gazing at each other as if they could not bear to look apart. For twelve long years they had been starved of this pleasure. Time stopped and they beheld heaven in their eyes, and their whole life passed like a dream in front of their interlocked gaze and still they could not bear to look away.
At last Sita broke the silence and whispered, "My Lord, do I have your permission to make a public avowal of my purity"?
Ram nodded. Wearing the ochre robes of the ascetics, yet looking as beautiful as a bride, Sita, the daughter of the earth, stepped into the centre of the circle and with folded palms she bowed before her mother earth and said, "O Madhavi! Goddess of the earth, beloved mother! If you know that I have never loved any man but Ram and never thought of any man, other than my husband, even for a moment, then please open your arms wide and accept your daughter, for I can no longer bear to live in this vale of tears. Grief alone has been my lot in life and now I long for the comfort of your arms. O mother! Take me to your bosom, as you brought me once, out of your womb, to the field of my father, Janaka".
Hardly had she finished speaking when the earth split open with a shudder and out of the chasm there arose a beautiful, flower-throne on which was seated the goddess of the earth in all her bounty covered with flowers and carrying the nine types of grains in sheaves, in her hands.
She opened her arms wide and Sita ran into them and was made to sit beside her on the throne of flowers. In front of the astonished gaze of the spellbound audience, the earth gaped open once more and the throne carrying Sita and her mother slowly descended into the bowels of the earth as the gods rained flowers from above. As the gap closed over their heads, the earth shuddered and the wind moaned and the crowd came out of their mesmerised state and a great sigh broke from every mouth.
As she disappeared from sight, Ram woke up from the grip of terror which was holding him and started to weep uncontrollably. He ran to the spot where she had disappeared and called to her piteously.
17. Coil - Triple Sun
Many years later, as Rama is getting old, he's also forced to banish his brother Lakshmana for a ridiculous reason. Lakshmana willingly leaves the city, and then commits suicide.
- Back in Ayodhya, Ram knew that Lakshman would never be able to live without him and he himself no longer cared to carry on a life which had ceased to have any meaning for him. Firm in his vows of dharmic discipline, he had been forced to part, one by one, from all those whom he held most dear. He had always known that life was only a dream, a dream in which he had been called upon to play a part. He had come to the end of his lines. The curtain was going up for the final scene and he had already been given his cue to depart.
Rama gathers together anyone who wishes to follow him, and he walks into the Sarayu River until it closes over his head. He rises from the waters in the form of the god Vishnu and disappears into the heavens.
[[ ZIP OF ALL SONGS (110 MB) ]] (sorry, almost forgot about this!)
LINKS:
Here is a nice, fairly condensed, fairly easy-to-read version of the epic.
Sita Sings The Blues is a giggle; it's an animated version of the Ramayana, told from Sita's point of view, using old jazz tunes.
Arrow of the Blue Skinned God is a fascinating book that retells the Ramayana briefly as well as documents its relevance in modern India. It was written by a reporter, and it's a great read if you're at all interested in Indian mythology.