In this episode, we’re back into the Ramayana. If you haven’t heard other Ramayana episodes before it’s a good idea to check out the links in the show notes. If not here’s a summary.
Ram was the Crown Prince of Ayodhya. But he had to give up his title to his brother Bharat. Because Bharat’s mom Kaikeyi forced King Dasharath to crown Bharat the next King and to send Ram away for 14 years. But Ram did not go into exile by himself. His wife Sita and his brother Laxman went with him.
Bharat happened to be on vacation, or he would have objected. He did not think anyone but Ram deserved to sit on the throne. He found Ram in the forest and tried to bring him back after Dasharath passed away. But Ram was having none of that. He’d made a promise and he meant to keep it.
So, Ram, Laxman, and Sita continued their exile, while Bharath returned to Ayodhya, adopting the title of Interim King. In the Dandaka forest, which was densely populated with baddies, Ram Laxman and Sita managed to lead a decent domestic life. All that changed when they encountered the mother of all baddies – Shurpanakha. And I mean that figuratively, not literally.
Shurpanakha thought the Ayodhya brothers were attractive and that gobbling up Sita was a fine way to impress the pair. Luckily, Laxman managed to prevent that. He had to chop off Shurpanakha’s ears and nose. Naturally, the local government plotted revenge. Because the local government was basically Shurpanakha’s brothers Khara and Dushana and their uncle Akampana. They didn’t get very far, Ram was able to quickly destroy their entire army.
Our story continues in Lanka, which was Shurpanakha’s home. She was joined by her uncle Akampana who had somehow managed to sneak off the battlefield and was the only survivor in Khara and Dushana’s army.
Normally at this time in Lanka Ravana, the ten-headed emperor of Lanka would be in the throne room, gloating about his military victories. But not today. He was in his private family room, listening to Akampana going on and on about how an upstart from Ayodhya had destroyed Khara and Dushana. To make matters worse, 7 of his 10 heads had toothaches and he couldn’t do anything about it. Maybe he shouldn’t have had those dentists executed after all after his last and very painful dental visit.
“Did you hear a single word I said?” asked Shurpanakha bluntly.
Truth be told he had not even noticed when Akampana had stopped talking and Shurpanakha had taken over.
“Something about your nose and ears,” said Ravan. A couple of his heads had indeed noticed the difference in her appearance.
“Lucky guess” grumbled Shurpanakha. “So what are you going to do about it?”
“Why should I do anything? You are perfectly capable of defending yourself. You never came to my rescue when I was bullied on the playground. Why should I do anything?”
“On the playground, bullies didn’t call me names” retorted Shurpanakha.
Ravana was interested now. “Why, what did Ram call me?”
“Oh nothing, he said that even though you have 10 heads your brain cell must be very lonely.”
Shurpanakha knew how to trigger Ravana. He hated being called names, and he hated bad jokes about his heads.
Head no. 7 advocated immediate action and 8 other heads nodded in agreement. The final head nodded as well, but accompanied by a loud snore.
Ravan looked at the others with a challenge in his 18 opened eyes. “What? So what if he wants to grab a little shut-eye? He was up all night yesterday watching Netflix.”
“Anyway back to the problem at hand.” said head no. 5. “I seem to recall this Ayodhya prince creating problems before this. I will go speak to Maricha”
“Maricha. Taraka’s son? He is alive?” asked Shurpanakha surprised. “I thought he drowned in the Southern Indian Ocean” back in Episode 16 – Six…teen flags.
“Narada only said he fell in the Ocean. Not that he was killed or anything” said Ravana. “A fishing vessel found him and brought him home. He’s been praying here since, in the garden. Come with me”
The three of them stepped outside and walked to a large tree where a rishi sat praying.
Shurpankha was shocked. She had been about to ask where Maricha was when she realized this Rishi was Maricha. The same Maricha had an almost Gabbar Singh-like reputation.
Maricha greeted them warmly and was even very polite. An uncharacteristic thing for someone in Ravana’s circle. If she hadn’t recognized him, she would have thought him an impostor.
Maricha heard Shurpanakha’s and Akampana’s story patiently. Shurpanakha did notice that Maricha actually shuddered whenever Ram’s name was mentioned.
Maricha paused and responded. “Yes, I can confirm that this is the same person who dunked me in the Ocean. But so what? Why does it even matter?”
“It does,” said Ravana. “If different people have been hurting my associates, it’s indicative of a trend. And it’s rather tricky to handle. But if it’s just one guy, the solution is simpler. He should be severely punished. And everyone in the world should realize that it’s me punishing him.”
“How are you going to do that?” asked Maricha
“Take away his most dear possession” interjected Akampana. “His wife Sita”
Shurpanakha called out immediately “That’s a terribly misogynistic comment to make. But I do agree that if he’s parted from Sita. It’ll be good for him, good for you, good for me”
“Hold on!” said Maricha “do you know what you’re saying. That’s terrible advice. Don’t attempt to abduct another person’s wife! It completely violates the emperor code of conduct”
But Ravana didn’t care. His mind was made up. He had 9 wives and his 10th head was clamoring for him to take on one more companion. By hook and by crook.
Maricha had naturally inherited some powers from his mom – Taraka who was an absolute terror with powers of illusion and shapeshifting. Moreover, Maricha was obligated to help Ravana. Ravana had effectively saved his life and Maricha owed him.
Having been reminded of this almost daily, Maricha grumbled and gave in.
He opened his briefcase and pulled out a pamphlet and explained “this is all that I can do. At the Silver tier, I can change into a fly. I can buzz around Ram’s ears and annoy him. I’m especially good at ensuring that he won’t sleep a wink all night
At the Gold tier, I can change into a golden deer with a pretty coat.
At the platinum tier, I can turn into a whale and soak him completely if he’s near a water body.”
“Why didn’t you just turn yourself into a whale when Ram shot you into the Ocean?” asked Shurpanakha.
Maricha was stunned “I didn’t think of that,” he said.
Ravana laughed “Too late for that now. You owe me this. I pick the Gold tier. There’s no large enough body of water near Ram”
“You don’t want the gold tier. Try the Silver one.” said Maricha “Trust me, no one is immune to the annoying buzzing sound I can make! Besides, Ram will almost certainly hunt me down. So I won’t recommend that one”
But Ravan was adamant. He explained his plan, which Maricha reluctantly accepted.
Ravana decided they needed to move fast. They boarded Ravana’s Pushpak Vimana, which was probably the earliest example of human flight, powered by geese.
Within hours they were near the place where Rama, Laxman, and Sita lived.
As agreed Maricha changed into a lovely golden deer. He stepped out of the Pushpak Vimana and wandered close to the place where Ram, Laxman, and Sita sat about a fire pit outside their home. The trio was planning their next dinner. “I’d like Venison for a change,” said Laxman. “All that fighting has made me hungry”
“Laxman, you weren’t even in the fight” reminded Sita
“Yeah, but I had to watch it didn’t I? You ever been to a baseball game without ordering a hot dog, or to the movies without ordering popcorn?”
Sita rolled her eyes and ignored her brother-in-law.
Maricha thought this was good and bad. Laxman wanted Venison, which meant Ravana’s plan was ready to move into the next stage. But this was the trickiest part for Maricha.
He was wondering how to get their attention but not in a way that he would be swiftly captured.
He suddenly got lucky, in two ways. First, another deer crept up to him and asked in deer talk – “Hi dear, but you’re in my spot. This is my grazing spot”.
Maricha’s first question was – “wait by the word dear did you mean an affectionate or friendly form of address or a reference to the species we both belong to?”
“Its upto you to interpret that. I was merely being polite, now move or I have to call the cops”
Maricha wondered “Cops as in the police? Or copse with the extra e which refers to a small group of trees? Aw never mind. Deer is an incredibly language”. He decided on a different tactic on this newcomer. “Yeah, you say this is your spot. But I don’t see your name written on it”. The two began to squabble and that finally got Sita’s attention.
The second way Maricha got really lucky was that Sita insisted on the golden deer being caught alive. Ram must capture it and bring it back.
Ram didn’t mind. “I’ll do it,” he said, standing up and starting to grab his bow and arrow.
“Don’t take your bow and arrow, you don’t want to hurt it!” cautioned Sita.
“It’s not going to make a difference whether I leave the bow and arrow back, is it? I have an entire arsenal I can summon at will. Or have you forgotten Episode 16?” asked Ram.
When there was no answer, he continued “Laxman, you stay here with Sita. I’ve never known a golden deer like this before and this might very well be a trap. Whatever happens, don’t leave her.”
Laxman agreed and hung back with Sita.
Ram meanwhile had tried multiple times to carefully approach the deer, but the deer was always just a few steps ahead.
“This is going to be one long day” thought Rama as he looked back at the hut barely visible now through all the bushes.
The deer kept walking away slowly. Not fast enough to make Ram give up and go, but just fast enough to escape his grasp.
Back at home, Laxman and Sita were still debating about dinner plans when there was an interruption. “Laxman, Sita, help me!” a voice said, clearly from the direction Ram had gone in. Laxman and Sita looked at each other. Sita panicked first. “It’s Ram, something’s happened to him!”
Laxman was calm. “He’ll be fine. That didn’t even sound like Ram. It’s some kind of a trick, I’ll bet”
Sita was annoyed. “Laxman! Go find Ram” the panic rising in her voice now.
“I’m afraid I can’t Sita. I promised Ram I’d look after you” replied Laxman.
But Sita wouldn’t listen.
Laxman then made a decision that turned out to be pretty bad. He gave in.
As everyone who has watched a horror movie knows, it’s a really bad idea for people to split up when they hear mysterious voices in the wilderness.
I’m especially not sure why it didn’t occur to Laxman and Sita for both of them to go together looking for Ram. But the bottom line is that they didn’t.
Laxman had an elegant solution though. Kind of like an impervious charm around their home. He drew a line in the ground.
“It’s called a Laxman Rekha” he explained to Sita. “No one can cross it except the three of us”.
“I don’t care about the line. Just go find Rama quickly” Sita said, clearly uninterested in the Laxman Rekha – which was actually a rather clever invention.
Laxman set off in the direction of the voice. He observed some deer tracks followed closely by human footprints. Clearly he was on the right track. It took him a while but he saw Ram.
Ram was not hurt in any way. But he was not happy to see Laxman.
“Laxman, what are you doing here?” exclaimed Ram
“Looking for you. We heard you cry out for help.” replied Laxman.
“That wasn’t me. That was Maricha” said Ram.
“And who exactly is this Maricha guy?” asked Laxman.
“We met him and his family in Episode 16” said Ram. “He must have survived somehow. Though I’m pretty sure I did aim for the remotest part of the Southern Indian Ocean. Anyway, I finally was so far away, I gave up on the idea of catching the deer alive. Only when I shot him, he changed back into his human form. With his dying breath he screamed for you and Sita to save him. I was wondering how he knew you and Sita and why he should ask to be rescued by you or her. But now as I’m processing this in my mind, I’m beginning to fear the worst!”
The two of them picked up speed and raced to the home. When they got there, the damage was already done. Sita was nowhere to be seen. All that lay near their home were broken pots. And an earring that had fallen off it was lying outside the Laxman Rekha.
Sita was gone. Abducted.
We’ll leave it here and pick up the story of what happened next in a future episode.
Some Notes on the Show
There are 10 previous Ramayana episodes and they are linked in the notes. Check them out.
Valmiki’s origin story is in Episode 6 – Fish Highwayman
The Ramayana kicks off in Episode 7 – Kingdom by Horse. Episode 15 – Rishi vs Rishi: Un-civil war! and Episode 16 – Six….teen Flags are about Rama and Laxman’s encounter with Vishwamitra
A flashback to Dasharath’s past is in Episode 24 – Promises made, hearts broken
Ram, Laxman, and Sita begin their exile in Episode 30 – Banished! and continue it in Episode 41 – Forest Life and Episode 64 – The First Kidnapping of Sita
They encounter Shoorpanakha in Episode 78 – Ramayana – An Indecent Proposal
We have also covered three episodes that aren’t part of the main storyline but feature some central Ramayana characters:
Hanuman’s origin story is in Episode 25 – Up, Up, and Away!
Episode 55 – Saturnine is about an encounter between Shani and Ravana.
Episode 81 – Ramayana – Wolverine Claws is the origin story of Ravana and Shoorpanakha.
And Episode 92 – Ramayana – Shanta is the story of Ram and Laxman’s sister – Shanta.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
Up next week is a folk tale from Assam! It’s about women turning into animals by evil stepmoms, golden and silver trees, magical fruits, singing birds, and gory dinners with somewhat satisfactory results.