Week 4 Story: The Queen of Lanka
Baby Basket in Field, picture by Piqsels
Long ago, a beautiful baby girl was born to Ravana and his wife Mandodari. She was all the couple had ever hoped for.
One day, the couple was walking through a field with the baby and a woman appeared before them. She approached the couple.
"That child will bring an end to your family and cause you great pain. Please kill the child now and allow her to take another, less detrimental, form. The Gods have demanded it"
After she said this, she disappeared.
The couple could not bear to kill their baby girl. They decided to leave the girl in the field and let the Gods decide her destiny.
After the couple left, a man named Janaka found the baby in the field and decided to raise the girl as his own. He named the baby girl Sita.
Years later the baby grew into a girl, and then into a woman.
Sita was striking and had the largest and most loving heart. She did everything she could to bring joy to her family and her friends. Due to her beauty and kindness, she caught the attention of a prince named Rama.
The two fell in love and got married.
Rama was soon to be named king by his father Dasharatha, but one of Dasharatha's wifes asked Dasharatha to send Rama into exile. Dasharatha sent Rama into exile. Sita followed.
The two continued to love one another.
Word of the beautiful Sita's presence in the forest spread very quickly. Ravana heard of this beautiful young woman and sent groups of animals, creatures, and people to see who this woman was. They all returned to tell Ravana it was his daughter.
Ravana was filled with guilt. He decided he would go see Sita and hopefully bring her back to her family. Ravana knew Rama would not willingly leave his wife alone, so he sent one of his men disguised as a deer to lure him away.
When he arrived, Rama was gone. Sita refused to believe that Ravana was her father. Ravana asked Sita to come with him to see her mother and her family. Sita refused. When Ravana realized he was running out of time, and Rama was soon to return, he panicked. Ravana grabbed his daughter and he took her back home against her will.
When Sita arrived, she saw her mother and her family. After looking at all of them, and hearing their stories, she realized Ravana was true to his word.
She stayed with Ravana and Mandodari for a couple of years, but longed for Rama. She sent many messages to him, but he never seemed to receive or return them. Sita did not give up hope, but feared Rama would never come.
After several years, Rama did come. He brought an army and stormed through the kingdom.
Before Sita could explain who Ravana was, Rama killed Ravana and his family. Sita was devastated, but still grateful to see her love.
Again, before Sita could talk, Rama talked to Sita.
"Our marriage is no more, your purity was tainted. I only came to free you, because that is my duty. I refuse to bring you back home with me"
Sita realized Rama was all she had left and did everything to prove herself. Rama took her back home, but he still did not trust Sita.
A few years later, Rama's trust in Sita fully vanished. He told Sita to go and he sent her into exile.
Upon exile, Sita returned home. Sita became queen of Ravana's kingdom, Lanka. She never married again and Ravana's blood line was lost forever.
Author's Note:
This story is inspired from the video Sita Sings the Blues. In the video, Ravana is not Sita's father, but the video did get me thinking of Ravana's character. Ravana was not a bad guy, the only bad thing he did was kidnap Sita. So I thought it would be fun to switch up Ravana's intentions and show another possible side of the story. I was also inspired by a Wikipedia article of different versions of the Ramayana (link here).
Overall, I changed Ravana. I wanted to keep Sita as a loyal and loving woman. I also wanted to keep the storyline pretty similar. My intentions were to show a plausible and different point of view, but keep the meat of the story. What if Ravana did what he did because he missed his daughter? What if Rama was the bad guy? There are so many ways to take this story.
I did a third person narrative with some dialogue. I also tried to make this long story relatively short, so I had to leave some details out. While I wish I could have added more detail, I also did not want to make the story any longer. If you can think of ways to possibly add more detail without lengthening the story let me know in the comments! Thank you for reading!
Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues (2008), part A, by Nina Paley. Link here
Camille,
ReplyDeleteI love what you have done with this story and the way that you recreated the character of Ravana. Your story flows so smoothly and is far easier to understand than the original one. I think that your twist to this story really made it interesting and enjoyable to read! I also appreciated and was inspired, so-to-speak, whenever I read your Author’s note! You provided so much detail about your thought process for creating this story and what ultimately led you to writing it the way that you did.
Hi Camille,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your twist on Sita's story. I thought it was very creative that you completely switched the role of Ravana and made him and Sita have an intimate history. I liked the role of the prophecy at the beginning of the story. Thinking about your story as whole after I had finished, it was really cool that the prophecy turned out to be true--Sita's being taken back to Lanka led to the devastation of Ravana's kingdom. In a way, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. I wonder what would have played out if Sita would have stayed with Ravana throughout her life? What is Jakata's role in Sita's life after he found her? I was wondering if he was perhaps a citizen of Ayodhya, and that is how Rama found Sita. I think it would be really interesting to add more detail about the woman who made the prophecy. Was she a goddess? I also liked the mysterious nature of her however, so it would be cool to add just a little more details to make the reader ponder what her role in this story truly is.
Howdy Camille,
ReplyDeleteThat was a very original reading of that storyline. I really enjoyed your reframing of the character of Ravana; we’re so conditioned to read into him purely as the villain, so it was intriguing to have him rebranded as a character just meaning to do his best by his daughter. It is a particularly interesting turn from the norm of the course to have this turn out well, as Sita comes to see things her father’s way and begins to enjoy her time in Lanka it seems, despite still wishing to be with Rama. What was your motivation for having Sita’s exile orient around time spent in physical form rather than leading to her transcendence? I thought that was an interesting turn, with Sita ultimately becoming the Queen of Lanka rather than being something of a hermit until she returns to her god form. I’d be curious to hear more about Rama’s perspective at the end of your story, since it seems he’s shot himself in the foot.
Hi Camille,
ReplyDeleteI LOVED your twist where Ravana was actually her father! It makes so much sense that I'm getting attached to it as a conspiracy theory, especially because as you said, he was not actually kidnapping her to be malicious and this provides a really good motive. I wonder why you tweaked the ending to have her ruling Lanka instead of disappearing into the earth like most of the stories go? As a little concurrency note, you wrote Sita returning "home" to Lanka, but really because she did not know that Ravana (King of Lanka) was her father, she wouldn't really know the area enough to call it home, and it would be very questionable if the subjects would accept her as their queen, especially since she spent a few years with Rama after the death of Ravana, either leaving them ruler-less or having someone else take over the throne. An excellent story overall though!
Hi Camille! (I am going to pretend that I am Rama in this comment doing "Let's Pretend" trying to defend his actions.) I rescue Sita and brought her back to my kingdom. It was not an easy decision form me to banish her and send her into exile. I was torn about the choice I had to make. I have been both loved and hated for the decision I made about Sita's exile by others. However, people do not realize that I have been treated in both ways. Some people think that I had a complete 180 degree turn in my love for Sita. Personally, I wish these people can see my deliberation and realize how hurt I was sending away the only person I have loved. Sita was my entire life, and then she was ripped away from me. Don't you see that I was so hurt too? I am not a bad person. You have to please understand that I did what I thought was best for the general people of my kingdom even if it hurt me.
ReplyDeleteHi Camille!
ReplyDeleteI really have a connection within your story when Ravana and his wife Mandodari leave their baby girl alone in the field to be dealt with how to gods see fit. Soon after when Janaka picked her up and took her home my heart strings were pulled! I wonder what would have happened if the old women came back for the baby after the parents left her alone in the field? Maybe she would have taken the girl and changed the storyline completely! I think that would be an interesting think to write about. One thing I am missing within your story a descriptive words that truly immerse you within the story. I would also love if you were to take a small part of this giant story and write able that single part of it more. I think it would give your more space to be creative within your writing instead of trying to fit in all the details. Overall I think you did a great job on this one and I loved your creativity.
Hey Camille,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you reinterpreted this story. I will say I think you provided an appropriate amount of detail about Rama. I also watched Sita Sings the Blues, and it altered how I viewed Ravana. I was reading your story with Narayan’s version in mind, and I thought it was going to turn into some incest thing if Ravana really was Sita’s dad. I’m glad you changed it up to where he just wanted to meet his daughter.