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Can you change the title to 'Playing Rakshasha's Advocate: How to extend the serial', since we are talking the Ramayan here????
Now this is not too serious. I personally think the serial should end soon without further dragging and strange sсript changes. However that is my serious opinion.
I'm actually mixed about this. Since they've already screwed up the Ramayan, I'd like them to do it quite a bit more royally, so that nobody is left under any illusions that what we've been watching is the real thing
My mischievous side is thinking of something else. We all know how the Sagars love to drag stories that shouldn't be stretched too long (PRC was a prominent example of this and now Ramayan has been stretched out of shape with Jataka Tales and some regional variations.)
Also, the Rani Padmini serial that they are going to show will have 100+ episodes, including her fighting the Khilji army. WTF are they going to show for so long? As for the Ramayan, I have a suggestion - since Rama's vanvas lasted 14 years, why not make that the duration of the serial as well?
So, playing Devil's Advocate just for fun , here are some ideas and stories from other versions of the epic that Sagars could use to drag this serial on and on and on and on.....
That is right. Actually, before the Uttarkand started, there was a suggestion thread of how to authentically extend the story - by showing events in Ayodhya, Mathura and Valmiki's ashram all in parallel, showing the growth of all the kids, the various stories narrated in the Ramayan, like Raja Budh & Hila, and so on. But nobody imagined the swarna-kamal saga that we were all subjected to.
The most obvious way of dragging the story is the Ashwamedha Yagya. There are many different stories and variants about the horse wandering from one kingdom to another. There is enough material here for the Sagars to literally drag the story of the wandering horse for several months before the climactic encounter between Ram and his sons. With hundreds of different versions of the Ramayan out there the possibilities are limitless.
Yep, particularly the Padma Purana story of how Shatrughan and Pushkal went w/ the horse, how the horse was captured by so many rulers, how Pushkal got killed by Virbhadra and then revived, and so on. So one could have that predecessor, followed by the story of the intensive battle K-L had not only w/ their Kakashris, but also w/ Hanuman, Sugriv, Angad, Vibhishan (!), Jambavan, and so on.
Tattvasamgraha Ramayana: Ram is informed by the rishis that there is a 100 headed Ravan who lives "beyond the seven seas" along with an asura called Raktabindhu. This Ravana has a boon that he cannot be killed any man. Sita then says that she wants to kill him. Ram agrees and sends her with Hanuman and other vanaras in the Pushpak Viman. Hanuman takes on the forms of Narasimha, Haygreeva and Garuda while Sita transforms into an eight-armed goddess and ultimately kills the 100-headed Ravan.
Clearly there is enough potential here to spend more than a week's worth of episodes given the slow pacing that Sagars are experts at.
I'd suggest adding some masala to this one. There has to be a pretext for the 2 to go to war, aside from the rishis doing their usual begging. Here's one pretext for Ravan-100 to do so. He had come to terms w/ the death of Ravan-10 and his family, but after hearing about Sita's vanvas, he was infuriated!!! After all, had Rama, after winning Sita, kept her, it would have made sense, but if he was going to exile her, why not simply let Ravan-10 have her in the first place? So Ravan-100 decides to punish Rama for making the deaths of Kumbhakarna, Indrajit, et al go to waste - and let's throw this in - making a pativrata like Sulochana a widow. So he invades Ayodhya and wipes out its entire population, and RLB is unable to kill him, and what's more, he captures Urmila and Mandavi and is returning w/ them. Sita hears about this and is furious, and decides to go and rescue them, and in the battle, she kills Ravan-100 and rescues Urmila & Mandavi. Since all the people of Ayodhya are dead and no longer around to cast aspersions on Sita, Rama recalls her and K-L, and they are happily united. Rama then sends Bharat & family to conquer and rule Gandhara, and Lakshman & family to conquer and rule Karupathadesh. A few years later, Rama installs Kush & Luv in Ayodhya, and his bros do the same for their kids. They then take Pushpak airlines and fly back to Vaikuntha.
Ananda Ramayan: Again we have a 100-headed Ravan who lives in Mayapura who, along with Poundrak (son of Nikumbha) defeats Vibhishan and drives him out of Lanka. Vibhishan asks for Ram's help and he goes to Lanka to wage war. Unfortunately Ram is defeated in battle and Sita kills both Poundrak and the 100-headed Ravan.
Ananda Ramayan: Vibhishan is driven out of Lanka (again!) by Mulakasura, Kumbhakarna's son after a 6 month long war. Ram takes Sugreev's soldiers and goes to Lanka where he fights Mulakasura for 7 days. At this point Brahma reveals that Mulakasura cannot be killed by a man due his boon. However he had been cursed by a rishi that he will be killed by Sita. Ram then tells Garuda to bring Sita to the battlefield where she transforms into Chandi, fights Mulakasura for 7 days and kills him.
There are also other smaller things that can be found in the Ananda Ramayan such as Ram bringing Sumantra back from the dead, Ram's promise to some apsaras, four brahmin women and 16,000 women that he will fulfill their wishes and marry them in his incarnation as Shri Krishna, etc . They've already taken some elements from this text so why not some more?
Ananda Ramayan is pretty much what's been shown here, aside from the Jataka stories, and leaving out Rama asking Lakshman for Sita's hand - literallyIf the Ramanand Sagar serial was predominantly based on Tulsidas, this serial seems to have been predominantly based on Swami Ananda. Since Tulsidas was based during Moghul times and Swami Ananda during the Golden Age, one could argue that the latter is more authentic.
Actually, Ananda Ramayan has a happy ending, in case the Sagars choose to show it - when Rama threatens Bhoomi Devi, instead of Brahma coming and giving him that flaky advise to ask K-L to sing the remainder of the Ramayan, Bhoomi Devi surrenders and returns Sita to him. I actually wouldn't have a problem w/ them showing this version at the end.
The only thing I don't like about the above 2 stories is Kumbhakarna's sons/grandson being involved and killed here. Also remember, there is Karkati-putra Bhimasura, who's actually capable of defeating Rama. But since his death happens at Shiva's hands and not Sita's, the best thing for him to do would be - you guessed it - wipe out Ayodhya's populace, and defeat Rama when he tries to avenge them.
Adbhuta Ramayan (Sanskrit version): And we go into even stranger territory. One day, Sita reveals to the assembled rishis that there is actually a senior and more powerful 1000 headed Ravan who lives on the island of Puskar. This Ravan was so powerful that he played with planets as if they were balls. Hearing this, Ram declares war on him and invades Puskar with his army. Unfortunately, this Ravan proved too powerful and killed all of Ram's soldiers and Ram himself faints due to exhaustion. Sita, who was with him, then decides to take things into her own hands. She transforms into Kali and starts fighting Ravan. Powerful matrikas emanate from her body and help her fight Ravan's army. Eventually she defeats him. Ram recites the thousand names of Sita and prays for her to go back into her normal form which she does.
There is a variation of this story: Ram boasted that he could easily defeat the 1000-headed Ravan just like he defeated the 10-headed Ravan. Sita was doubtful. Eventually Ram is defeated in battle and wept at his situation while Sita takes on the form of Kali to fight the 1000 headed Ravan. They fight for 10 years until Sita finally kills him, drinks his blood and cuts off his limbs and throws them around. She starts dancing with joy. The gods request Shiva to stop her and he throws himself at her feet. Then she stops and goes back to her form of Sita and rejoins Ram.
This one I don't like, since Sita is Lakshmi, and not Kali. But I'm just wondering - should we keep just Ravan-100, or have Ravan-1000 as well? The latter can choose to want to avenge Ravan-100's death, and be immune to both Rama & Sita. Maybe, this time, leave it to K-L, or Shatrughan & Bharat to kill him. Better still, have the Ayodhya 6 sons/nephews of Rama take on him and each destroy 125 heads of his, killing him After all, the nephews in particular seem to have such a dull life
I cannot recall the source for this but I did read this a long time ago: Ravan had a son, Saharasmuharavan who was a child when Ram killed his father. When he grew up, he obtained a boon from Brahma that only a truly chaste woman would be able to kill him. Then he attacked Vibhishan in Lanka and Sugreev in Kishkindha. Hearing this, Ram started preparations for war. Sahasramukharavan arrived in Kosala and started heading for Ayodhya to attack Ram himself. No one could stop him, not even Ram and his entire army. When the fact about Brahma's boon is revealed, Ayodhya's women are asked to go to the battlefield and fight this Ravan. As it turns out, not a single woman in Ayodhya was chaste enough to defeat the powerful enemy. Ram realized that only Sita could save them at this point. However, he was worried that Sita would not voluntarily come to his aid since he had banished her. So he instructed Hanuman to lie to Sita that he (Ram) was dying. Naturally Sita was extremely alarmed on hearing this and rushed to Ayodhya. Just outside the city, Sahasramukharavan refused to let her pass.Sita was outraged and she picked up a blade of glass, transformed it into a Shaktika missile using the power of her chastity and threw it at Ravan's heart. He died on the spot. Ram and rest of the people of Ayodhya came out, cheering for Sita who then realized that Hanuman had lied to her about Ram's health. She was angry and she cursed Hanuman that, just as his lie made her feel the pain of separation from Ram. he (Hanuman) would outlive them all and feel the true pain of separation from his Lord. After this she implored Mother Earth to take her into her abode.
I have mixed opinions re: the above story. On one hand, there is a delightful irony that the peeps of Ayodhya, who were so stringent about the chastity of their queen, didn't have it in their own womenfolk. On the down-side, I don't like the idea of Urmila or Mandavi being considered unchaste. Maybe tweak this somewhat so that these 2, along w/ Sita, fight Sahasramukharavan. Actually, have Sita kill Ravan-100, Urmila kill Sahasramukharavan, Mandavi kill Malakasura, and the kids take on Ravan-1000.
In the interests of dragging the serial, I think the Sagars can take all these stories of 100 and 1000 headed Ravans, mix them up, add their own masala and produce a tasty khichdi of many headed Ravans.
There is actually scope for extending the serial beyond Sita's descent into the Earth. According to two Assamese texts, the Patali Kanda by Dvija Panchanana and the Adbhuta Ramayana by Raghunatha Mahanta (not to be confused with a Sanskrit text also called Adbhuta Ramayana), after her descent Sita resides in Patala as Vratesvari Devi. She misses her sons terribly and eventually sends one or more nagas to abduct them and bring them to her. Naturally, Ram is worried about his children and Hanuman is sent to bring them back. He descends into Patala and engages in a number of adventures in his efforts to find them. I believe he even fights the nagas (I will have to check the books to confirm this). He also changes into several different forms. At one point he even transforms into a corpse to lure Sita out and convince her that he means no harm. Sita makes one final effort to defeat Hanuman by creating many doubles of herself. Hanuman fails to recognize the real Sita and threatens to burn himself. This causes Sita to finally relent and reveal herself. She returns her sons to Hanuman. In at least one of these versions Sita herself also returns to Ram.
A mischievious side of me suggests that this story be tweaked further. Think about it - why is it necessary for Sita's kids to rule Ayodhya (the same Sita whom they had insulted) - all they need is someone from Raghukul, and since Bharat is Yuvraj, let it be his responsibility to provide the heirs (maybe show Taksha or Pushkal being made ruler of Ayodhya). So my suggestion here is that Sita gets back her kids, and K-L beg that they stay eternally w/ mom, rather than dad. They make that point to Hanuman as well, and so Sita says that if Rama wants them, he'll have to come to them. Since we know that at the end of the story Rama goes to Vaikuntha after a dip in the Sarayu, what they can show here is that as a part of that process, after entering the Sarayu, Rama finds the entrance to the lok that Sita is in, and gets there, and is happy to be united w/ Sita. They then crown K-L as the ruler of the Nagas (throw in Kush's marriage to Kumudhati to muddy the waters even further) and then, w/ the other bros & wives, return to Vaikuntha.
There is a story about Ram's ring which can be found in many regional variations. The gist of the story is this: soon after Sita's descent into the Earth Ram drops his signet rin in a hole in the ground and asks Hanuman to fetch it. Hanuman descends into the Earth to look for the ring and eventually reaches Nag Lok where he found a vast assortment of rings, each one identical to Rama's signet ring. These were being guarded by Nagas who reveal to Hanuman that these rings all belong to Rama. Time is cyclical in nature and whenver the wheel of time comes around to the Treta Yuga there is an incarnation of Ram. And whenever the end of an incarnation of Ram approaches, he lets his ring fall into Nag Lok and Hanuman is sent after it. This folktale came about to acknoledge the staggering number of variants of the Ramayan. You can see the potential here for the Sagars to drag the serial. When the Nagas tell Hanuman about the rings, the Sagars can start showing us glimpses into the other iterations of the Ram incarnation using variants from other texts. This can be a mini-serial on its own.
Or show the ring w/ Sita, and she is very happy to have it, and says if Rama wants it back, he has to give her at least one of her sons. Rama refuses, and so Sita sends the ring via one of the Naga kidnappers, who leaves the ring w/ Rama, but kidnaps K-L. Then loop back to the previous story.
By means of a series of retroactive flashbacks, short stories of Ram, Sita and Hanuman can be shown: Ram and Sita get into a humorous argument (nothing serious!) over which of them receives more devotion from Hanuman who avoids the issue by saying his devotion is to "Sita Ram". To test him, Sita asks him to fetch some water while Ram wants him to fan him. Hanuman expands his arms and completes both tasks simultaneously thus satisfying them both. There is a Kutch oral tale in which Hanuman shows up in Ram's court with a woman on his shoulder. He says that the woman is "Mother Fate" and he has arrested her and brought her to court to ask her why she wrote such injustice in Sita's fate. Her replies don't satisfy Hanuman and he starts beating her. Then she presents him with a conundrum: who wrote that she would be mistreated by Hanuman in this manner? This calms Hanuman and he apologised to the goddess. There are many such tales that can be included to keep on dragging the serial forever,
This one would be a hoot. After all, we were cussing Vidhi and his great vidhan, and now you have it that Vidhi turns out to be a 'she'. That would prevent guys like me from torturing her, so I guess it will be upto our female readership here to do it. But the same conundrum would remain - anybody who did choose to torment Vidhi would be doing it at the behest of Miss Vidhi? What a story!!!
Incidentally, my candidate to play this Vidhi-devi would be Sunanda - the lovely hostess who made Kush her slave and made him wash their clothes.
If I am not mistaken, this is from the Kathasaritsagara: some rishis at Valmiki's ashram being to doubt her since her husband had exiled her. Sita tells them that they may test her in any way they like to confirm her innocence. The rishis tell her about a lake where another woman, also wrongly driven out by her husband, had been helped by Mother Earth. They ask Sita to go that lake and see if something like that happens. Sita goes there and calls on Mother Earth to appear and carry her across the lake as a sign of her innocence. Mother Earth grants her prayers. The rishis are convinced that she is innocent and begin to blame Ram for her wrongful banishment. She stops them from saying anything bad about her husband.
I'd twist this one as well - make the rishis go to Ayodhya and doubt the chastity of those who cast aspersions on Sita. So obviously, knowing how Rama respects rishis, they decide to approach them and ask them how to convince them otherwise, and the rishis ask them to do a test in which if they are chaste, their husbands will become impotent, but they will become virgins again, and re-ready for marriage. This happens only to those women who didn't doubt Sita - those who did would be instantly widowed.
The story of Hanuman composing a Ramayan. There are many variants but the gist is this: Ram becomes very withdrawn after Sita's banishment and keeps to himself, always depressed. Hanuman finds Ayodhya too empty and depressing in such a situation and he begins spending a lot of time on a particular mountain where there are many crystalline stone slabs. Hanuman starts to inscribe Ram's story in Sanskrit on these slabs with his fingernails. Many years go by and Hanuman becomes oblivious to the pasage of time. Meanwhile, Valmiki has completed his own version of the epic and one day he is informed about Hanuman's version. Out of curiosity, he asks Hanuman to show it to him. Hanuman carries Valmiki to the top of the mountain and shows him the stone slabs spanning the cliffs with the Ramayan written all over them. Valmiki goes all over the mountain, reading the epic and getting overwhelmed with emotion. Finally he reaches the end and goes silent and a bit sad. Hanuman asks him why he is sad and whether there are any faults in his poetry. Valmiki says that Hanuman's Ramayan is glorious and unequaled. Then he adds that , once people hear this Ramayan they will never want to listen to his one. Hanuman is momentarily shocked and then he smiles. He says it is a small issue and Valmiki shouldn't be bothered by it. Then he puts all of the stone slabs on one his shoulders and carries Valmiki on the other. He flies over the ocean and drops the slabs into the water, offering them to Ram. Hanuman's Ramayan is lost forever. Valmiki is ashamed and feels guilty. He thinks that it would have been better if Hanuman had thrown him into the ocean instead of destroying such a wonderful piece of work. But Hanuman has no regrets and tells him that he just wrote the story to pass the time and there is nothing more to it. Valmiki blesses him and then tells him that, some day he will be born again and devote himself to Hanuman, teach others about him and retell the story that Hanuman had composed.
And gets reborn as Ananda Sagar
I'll add more later. Please don't take this the wrong way. It's just a fun way of looking at variations in the epic for general knowledge and a little bit of poking fun at the way Sagars tend to drag serials on and on.
Yep, it's a fantabulous idea. You can see what I alone could do w/ it - imagine what the whole lot of us could pull off from this
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Can you change the title to 'Playing Rakshasha's Advocate: How to extend the serial', since we are talking the Ramayan here????
Now this is not too serious. I personally think the serial should end soon without further dragging and strange sсript changes. However that is my serious opinion.
I'm actually mixed about this. Since they've already screwed up the Ramayan, I'd like them to do it quite a bit more royally, so that nobody is left under any illusions that what we've been watching is the real thing
My mischievous side is thinking of something else. We all know how the Sagars love to drag stories that shouldn't be stretched too long (PRC was a prominent example of this and now Ramayan has been stretched out of shape with Jataka Tales and some regional variations.)
Also, the Rani Padmini serial that they are going to show will have 100+ episodes, including her fighting the Khilji army. WTF are they going to show for so long? As for the Ramayan, I have a suggestion - since Rama's vanvas lasted 14 years, why not make that the duration of the serial as well?
So, playing Devil's Advocate just for fun , here are some ideas and stories from other versions of the epic that Sagars could use to drag this serial on and on and on and on.....
That is right. Actually, before the Uttarkand started, there was a suggestion thread of how to authentically extend the story - by showing events in Ayodhya, Mathura and Valmiki's ashram all in parallel, showing the growth of all the kids, the various stories narrated in the Ramayan, like Raja Budh & Hila, and so on. But nobody imagined the swarna-kamal saga that we were all subjected to.
The most obvious way of dragging the story is the Ashwamedha Yagya. There are many different stories and variants about the horse wandering from one kingdom to another. There is enough material here for the Sagars to literally drag the story of the wandering horse for several months before the climactic encounter between Ram and his sons. With hundreds of different versions of the Ramayan out there the possibilities are limitless.
Yep, particularly the Padma Purana story of how Shatrughan and Pushkal went w/ the horse, how the horse was captured by so many rulers, how Pushkal got killed by Virbhadra and then revived, and so on. So one could have that predecessor, followed by the story of the intensive battle K-L had not only w/ their Kakashris, but also w/ Hanuman, Sugriv, Angad, Vibhishan (!), Jambavan, and so on.
Tattvasamgraha Ramayana: Ram is informed by the rishis that there is a 100 headed Ravan who lives "beyond the seven seas" along with an asura called Raktabindhu. This Ravana has a boon that he cannot be killed any man. Sita then says that she wants to kill him. Ram agrees and sends her with Hanuman and other vanaras in the Pushpak Viman. Hanuman takes on the forms of Narasimha, Haygreeva and Garuda while Sita transforms into an eight-armed goddess and ultimately kills the 100-headed Ravan.
Clearly there is enough potential here to spend more than a week's worth of episodes given the slow pacing that Sagars are experts at.
I'd suggest adding some masala to this one. There has to be a pretext for the 2 to go to war, aside from the rishis doing their usual begging. Here's one pretext for Ravan-100 to do so. He had come to terms w/ the death of Ravan-10 and his family, but after hearing about Sita's vanvas, he was infuriated!!! After all, had Rama, after winning Sita, kept her, it would have made sense, but if he was going to exile her, why not simply let Ravan-10 have her in the first place? So Ravan-100 decides to punish Rama for making the deaths of Kumbhakarna, Indrajit, et al go to waste - and let's throw this in - making a pativrata like Sulochana a widow. So he invades Ayodhya and wipes out its entire population, and RLB is unable to kill him, and what's more, he captures Urmila and Mandavi and is returning w/ them. Sita hears about this and is furious, and decides to go and rescue them, and in the battle, she kills Ravan-100 and rescues Urmila & Mandavi. Since all the people of Ayodhya are dead and no longer around to cast aspersions on Sita, Rama recalls her and K-L, and they are happily united. Rama then sends Bharat & family to conquer and rule Gandhara, and Lakshman & family to conquer and rule Karupathadesh. A few years later, Rama installs Kush & Luv in Ayodhya, and his bros do the same for their kids. They then take Pushpak airlines and fly back to Vaikuntha.
Ananda Ramayan: Again we have a 100-headed Ravan who lives in Mayapura who, along with Poundrak (son of Nikumbha) defeats Vibhishan and drives him out of Lanka. Vibhishan asks for Ram's help and he goes to Lanka to wage war. Unfortunately Ram is defeated in battle and Sita kills both Poundrak and the 100-headed Ravan.
Ananda Ramayan: Vibhishan is driven out of Lanka (again!) by Mulakasura, Kumbhakarna's son after a 6 month long war. Ram takes Sugreev's soldiers and goes to Lanka where he fights Mulakasura for 7 days. At this point Brahma reveals that Mulakasura cannot be killed by a man due his boon. However he had been cursed by a rishi that he will be killed by Sita. Ram then tells Garuda to bring Sita to the battlefield where she transforms into Chandi, fights Mulakasura for 7 days and kills him.
There are also other smaller things that can be found in the Ananda Ramayan such as Ram bringing Sumantra back from the dead, Ram's promise to some apsaras, four brahmin women and 16,000 women that he will fulfill their wishes and marry them in his incarnation as Shri Krishna, etc . They've already taken some elements from this text so why not some more?
Ananda Ramayan is pretty much what's been shown here, aside from the Jataka stories, and leaving out Rama asking Lakshman for Sita's hand - literallyIf the Ramanand Sagar serial was predominantly based on Tulsidas, this serial seems to have been predominantly based on Swami Ananda. Since Tulsidas was based during Moghul times and Swami Ananda during the Golden Age, one could argue that the latter is more authentic.
Actually, Ananda Ramayan has a happy ending, in case the Sagars choose to show it - when Rama threatens Bhoomi Devi, instead of Brahma coming and giving him that flaky advise to ask K-L to sing the remainder of the Ramayan, Bhoomi Devi surrenders and returns Sita to him. I actually wouldn't have a problem w/ them showing this version at the end.
The only thing I don't like about the above 2 stories is Kumbhakarna's sons/grandson being involved and killed here. Also remember, there is Karkati-putra Bhimasura, who's actually capable of defeating Rama. But since his death happens at Shiva's hands and not Sita's, the best thing for him to do would be - you guessed it - wipe out Ayodhya's populace, and defeat Rama when he tries to avenge them.
Adbhuta Ramayan (Sanskrit version): And we go into even stranger territory. One day, Sita reveals to the assembled rishis that there is actually a senior and more powerful 1000 headed Ravan who lives on the island of Puskar. This Ravan was so powerful that he played with planets as if they were balls. Hearing this, Ram declares war on him and invades Puskar with his army. Unfortunately, this Ravan proved too powerful and killed all of Ram's soldiers and Ram himself faints due to exhaustion. Sita, who was with him, then decides to take things into her own hands. She transforms into Kali and starts fighting Ravan. Powerful matrikas emanate from her body and help her fight Ravan's army. Eventually she defeats him. Ram recites the thousand names of Sita and prays for her to go back into her normal form which she does.
There is a variation of this story: Ram boasted that he could easily defeat the 1000-headed Ravan just like he defeated the 10-headed Ravan. Sita was doubtful. Eventually Ram is defeated in battle and wept at his situation while Sita takes on the form of Kali to fight the 1000 headed Ravan. They fight for 10 years until Sita finally kills him, drinks his blood and cuts off his limbs and throws them around. She starts dancing with joy. The gods request Shiva to stop her and he throws himself at her feet. Then she stops and goes back to her form of Sita and rejoins Ram.
This one I don't like, since Sita is Lakshmi, and not Kali. But I'm just wondering - should we keep just Ravan-100, or have Ravan-1000 as well? The latter can choose to want to avenge Ravan-100's death, and be immune to both Rama & Sita. Maybe, this time, leave it to K-L, or Shatrughan & Bharat to kill him. Better still, have the Ayodhya 6 sons/nephews of Rama take on him and each destroy 125 heads of his, killing him After all, the nephews in particular seem to have such a dull life
I cannot recall the source for this but I did read this a long time ago: Ravan had a son, Saharasmuharavan who was a child when Ram killed his father. When he grew up, he obtained a boon from Brahma that only a truly chaste woman would be able to kill him. Then he attacked Vibhishan in Lanka and Sugreev in Kishkindha. Hearing this, Ram started preparations for war. Sahasramukharavan arrived in Kosala and started heading for Ayodhya to attack Ram himself. No one could stop him, not even Ram and his entire army. When the fact about Brahma's boon is revealed, Ayodhya's women are asked to go to the battlefield and fight this Ravan. As it turns out, not a single woman in Ayodhya was chaste enough to defeat the powerful enemy. Ram realized that only Sita could save them at this point. However, he was worried that Sita would not voluntarily come to his aid since he had banished her. So he instructed Hanuman to lie to Sita that he (Ram) was dying. Naturally Sita was extremely alarmed on hearing this and rushed to Ayodhya. Just outside the city, Sahasramukharavan refused to let her pass.Sita was outraged and she picked up a blade of glass, transformed it into a Shaktika missile using the power of her chastity and threw it at Ravan's heart. He died on the spot. Ram and rest of the people of Ayodhya came out, cheering for Sita who then realized that Hanuman had lied to her about Ram's health. She was angry and she cursed Hanuman that, just as his lie made her feel the pain of separation from Ram. he (Hanuman) would outlive them all and feel the true pain of separation from his Lord. After this she implored Mother Earth to take her into her abode.
I have mixed opinions re: the above story. On one hand, there is a delightful irony that the peeps of Ayodhya, who were so stringent about the chastity of their queen, didn't have it in their own womenfolk. On the down-side, I don't like the idea of Urmila or Mandavi being considered unchaste. Maybe tweak this somewhat so that these 2, along w/ Sita, fight Sahasramukharavan. Actually, have Sita kill Ravan-100, Urmila kill Sahasramukharavan, Mandavi kill Malakasura, and the kids take on Ravan-1000.
In the interests of dragging the serial, I think the Sagars can take all these stories of 100 and 1000 headed Ravans, mix them up, add their own masala and produce a tasty khichdi of many headed Ravans.
There is actually scope for extending the serial beyond Sita's descent into the Earth. According to two Assamese texts, the Patali Kanda by Dvija Panchanana and the Adbhuta Ramayana by Raghunatha Mahanta (not to be confused with a Sanskrit text also called Adbhuta Ramayana), after her descent Sita resides in Patala as Vratesvari Devi. She misses her sons terribly and eventually sends one or more nagas to abduct them and bring them to her. Naturally, Ram is worried about his children and Hanuman is sent to bring them back. He descends into Patala and engages in a number of adventures in his efforts to find them. I believe he even fights the nagas (I will have to check the books to confirm this). He also changes into several different forms. At one point he even transforms into a corpse to lure Sita out and convince her that he means no harm. Sita makes one final effort to defeat Hanuman by creating many doubles of herself. Hanuman fails to recognize the real Sita and threatens to burn himself. This causes Sita to finally relent and reveal herself. She returns her sons to Hanuman. In at least one of these versions Sita herself also returns to Ram.
A mischievious side of me suggests that this story be tweaked further. Think about it - why is it necessary for Sita's kids to rule Ayodhya (the same Sita whom they had insulted) - all they need is someone from Raghukul, and since Bharat is Yuvraj, let it be his responsibility to provide the heirs (maybe show Taksha or Pushkal being made ruler of Ayodhya). So my suggestion here is that Sita gets back her kids, and K-L beg that they stay eternally w/ mom, rather than dad. They make that point to Hanuman as well, and so Sita says that if Rama wants them, he'll have to come to them. Since we know that at the end of the story Rama goes to Vaikuntha after a dip in the Sarayu, what they can show here is that as a part of that process, after entering the Sarayu, Rama finds the entrance to the lok that Sita is in, and gets there, and is happy to be united w/ Sita. They then crown K-L as the ruler of the Nagas (throw in Kush's marriage to Kumudhati to muddy the waters even further) and then, w/ the other bros & wives, return to Vaikuntha.
There is a story about Ram's ring which can be found in many regional variations. The gist of the story is this: soon after Sita's descent into the Earth Ram drops his signet rin in a hole in the ground and asks Hanuman to fetch it. Hanuman descends into the Earth to look for the ring and eventually reaches Nag Lok where he found a vast assortment of rings, each one identical to Rama's signet ring. These were being guarded by Nagas who reveal to Hanuman that these rings all belong to Rama. Time is cyclical in nature and whenver the wheel of time comes around to the Treta Yuga there is an incarnation of Ram. And whenever the end of an incarnation of Ram approaches, he lets his ring fall into Nag Lok and Hanuman is sent after it. This folktale came about to acknoledge the staggering number of variants of the Ramayan. You can see the potential here for the Sagars to drag the serial. When the Nagas tell Hanuman about the rings, the Sagars can start showing us glimpses into the other iterations of the Ram incarnation using variants from other texts. This can be a mini-serial on its own.
Or show the ring w/ Sita, and she is very happy to have it, and says if Rama wants it back, he has to give her at least one of her sons. Rama refuses, and so Sita sends the ring via one of the Naga kidnappers, who leaves the ring w/ Rama, but kidnaps K-L. Then loop back to the previous story.
By means of a series of retroactive flashbacks, short stories of Ram, Sita and Hanuman can be shown: Ram and Sita get into a humorous argument (nothing serious!) over which of them receives more devotion from Hanuman who avoids the issue by saying his devotion is to "Sita Ram". To test him, Sita asks him to fetch some water while Ram wants him to fan him. Hanuman expands his arms and completes both tasks simultaneously thus satisfying them both. There is a Kutch oral tale in which Hanuman shows up in Ram's court with a woman on his shoulder. He says that the woman is "Mother Fate" and he has arrested her and brought her to court to ask her why she wrote such injustice in Sita's fate. Her replies don't satisfy Hanuman and he starts beating her. Then she presents him with a conundrum: who wrote that she would be mistreated by Hanuman in this manner? This calms Hanuman and he apologised to the goddess. There are many such tales that can be included to keep on dragging the serial forever,
This one would be a hoot. After all, we were cussing Vidhi and his great vidhan, and now you have it that Vidhi turns out to be a 'she'. That would prevent guys like me from torturing her, so I guess it will be upto our female readership here to do it. But the same conundrum would remain - anybody who did choose to torment Vidhi would be doing it at the behest of Miss Vidhi? What a story!!!
Incidentally, my candidate to play this Vidhi-devi would be Sunanda - the lovely hostess who made Kush her slave and made him wash their clothes.
If I am not mistaken, this is from the Kathasaritsagara: some rishis at Valmiki's ashram being to doubt her since her husband had exiled her. Sita tells them that they may test her in any way they like to confirm her innocence. The rishis tell her about a lake where another woman, also wrongly driven out by her husband, had been helped by Mother Earth. They ask Sita to go that lake and see if something like that happens. Sita goes there and calls on Mother Earth to appear and carry her across the lake as a sign of her innocence. Mother Earth grants her prayers. The rishis are convinced that she is innocent and begin to blame Ram for her wrongful banishment. She stops them from saying anything bad about her husband.
I'd twist this one as well - make the rishis go to Ayodhya and doubt the chastity of those who cast aspersions on Sita. So obviously, knowing how Rama respects rishis, they decide to approach them and ask them how to convince them otherwise, and the rishis ask them to do a test in which if they are chaste, their husbands will become impotent, but they will become virgins again, and re-ready for marriage. This happens only to those women who didn't doubt Sita - those who did would be instantly widowed.
The story of Hanuman composing a Ramayan. There are many variants but the gist is this: Ram becomes very withdrawn after Sita's banishment and keeps to himself, always depressed. Hanuman finds Ayodhya too empty and depressing in such a situation and he begins spending a lot of time on a particular mountain where there are many crystalline stone slabs. Hanuman starts to inscribe Ram's story in Sanskrit on these slabs with his fingernails. Many years go by and Hanuman becomes oblivious to the pasage of time. Meanwhile, Valmiki has completed his own version of the epic and one day he is informed about Hanuman's version. Out of curiosity, he asks Hanuman to show it to him. Hanuman carries Valmiki to the top of the mountain and shows him the stone slabs spanning the cliffs with the Ramayan written all over them. Valmiki goes all over the mountain, reading the epic and getting overwhelmed with emotion. Finally he reaches the end and goes silent and a bit sad. Hanuman asks him why he is sad and whether there are any faults in his poetry. Valmiki says that Hanuman's Ramayan is glorious and unequaled. Then he adds that , once people hear this Ramayan they will never want to listen to his one. Hanuman is momentarily shocked and then he smiles. He says it is a small issue and Valmiki shouldn't be bothered by it. Then he puts all of the stone slabs on one his shoulders and carries Valmiki on the other. He flies over the ocean and drops the slabs into the water, offering them to Ram. Hanuman's Ramayan is lost forever. Valmiki is ashamed and feels guilty. He thinks that it would have been better if Hanuman had thrown him into the ocean instead of destroying such a wonderful piece of work. But Hanuman has no regrets and tells him that he just wrote the story to pass the time and there is nothing more to it. Valmiki blesses him and then tells him that, some day he will be born again and devote himself to Hanuman, teach others about him and retell the story that Hanuman had composed.
And gets reborn as Ananda Sagar
I'll add more later. Please don't take this the wrong way. It's just a fun way of looking at variations in the epic for general knowledge and a little bit of poking fun at the way Sagars tend to drag serials on and on.
Yep, it's a fantabulous idea. You can see what I alone could do w/ it - imagine what the whole lot of us could pull off from this
@темы: Рамаяна