Once upon a time there was a Koshala Kingdom ruled by king Dashratha. King Dashratha sacrificed horse to get a boon from god to be father of four son’s. His elder son Rama was born with blessings; avatar of god Vishnu. Rama grew up with high quality education form highly renowned gurudevs. Rama was very powerful and had all the knowledges about weapons. Rama encountered Rakshyasa Thataka in his teenage and defeated her. On his way to obtain higher education he falls in love with Sita and ends up marrying her. Sita becomes a perfect wife who loves Rama till the end of her life. Rama and Sita decided to give away all the royal possessions and live in jungle for fourteen year. Rama’s brothers try to convince Rama to stay in the kingdom but Rama denies and goes away anyway. Lakshmana, one of the Rama’s brother tags along with Rama to the jungle. Bharata, one of the Rama’s brother agrees not to follow Rama only if he was allowed to worship Rama till Rama returned back to the kingdom.
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| Rama and Khara | Source | : | Rama strikes down Khara with an arrow. |
In the jungle resided many Rakshyasa. One of the Rakshyasa named Khara fights Rama and gets defeated in no time. Rama strikes the other Rakshyasa named Shurpankha with his bow and kills him in airborne. The king of Rakshyasa named ravana hears about Rama’s victory over all the Rakshyasa and plans to kidnap Sita. He recruits a Rakshyasa named Maricha; who disguises as a golden deer. Sita falls in love with the golden deer and tells rama to bring her the deer. When Rama leaves to hunt the deer Ravana kidnaps Sita and takes her to Lanka; Ravana’s kingdom of gold.
Rama goes to Lanka to get Sita. On his way to Lanka, he fights hundreds of Rakshyasaa and kills them. Rama defeats all the Rakshyasa with one shot from his bow. On his way to Lanka Rama finds many friends who wants Ravana dead. They promise to help Rama defeat Ravana, Rama accepts the friendship knowing he wouldn’t need anyone’s help to defeat Ravana. All the animals in the jungle came to help Rama. All the birds in the sky, animals on land and water wanted Rama to defeat Ravana and rescue them from Ravana’s mistreatment. Rama accepts all the friendship and moves towards lanka to get Sita. At the mean time Ravana tries to seduce Sita and make her marry him before Rama comes to get her. Rama gets there right on time and saves Sita. Looking at the whole group of animals and people Rama brought to find against him, he realizes how hated he is by the society. He realizes that he better than that and asks for forgiveness and promises to be a good man. Rama, being a very kind hearted, he decides to forgive Ravana and hires him as a helper in his kingdom. Good wins against evil and everyone lives happily ever after.
Author’s note:
The story telling style I used is BEDTIME. The heroic story of
Rama would be a perfect bedtime story for kids to sleep with. I have only
included the heroic act of Rama in this story to make it a perfect bed time
story filled with positive vibes. The original story ends with Rama killing
Ravana and saving the kingdom but I have given it a little twist. Some parts of the story is influences from ramayana battle with khara.
Bibliography:
Influenced by :Title of the book: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913) Ramayana
Shristi,
ReplyDeleteI like how your children's storybook simplified the traditional story of Rama, and kept only the most important plot details. It made the whole story much easier to digest, especially if you were to actually read this story to young kids. But, you also didn't lose any of the main points of the story, and preserved the message. I look forward to reading more of your work.
Andrew
I can see the bedtime story element very clearly in your story. You really simplified the events, but you did it in a way that a child could be entertained and also learn good values such as pursuing higher education and forgiveness. I could definitely imagine myself telling a child this story if I ever had the opportunity. This was a very clever take on such a dramatic and long original story.
ReplyDeleteHi again!
ReplyDeleteBedtime stories are one of my favorite forms of storytelling to read. It makes everything have an innocent, childlike filter over it. You did a wonderful job keeping the main themes of the original story in your story. I like how you made it something that children could learn from. You also did a wonderful job making a complex story simple. Great job! I look forward to reading many more of your stories this semester!
Hey Shristi!
ReplyDeleteWow- I just wanted to stop by and say that I really enjoyed your bedtime story. I really enjoy reading bedtime story versions of the Ramayana because they are so innocent and fun to read. You did a fantastic job of shortening the Ramayana into the perfect little story. You kept the storyline easy to follow, which would be perfect for any child to read. You set up the story perfectly by describing Rama's childhood. I was hoping to see a little bit more detail about Sita and her kidnapping. Overall, great job writing and I can't wait to read more of your work!