In this episode, we’re going to continue the story of the Ramayana.
We’ve done about 8 episodes of the Ramayana so far. I have linked those in the show notes. If you haven’t heard them before, I do recommend you check them out. Here’s a recap anyway.
Ram was the oldest son of Dasharath, the King of Ayodhya. He was meant to succeed him. And everything was going according to plan, until Kaikeyi, one of Dasharath’s queens stepped in and changed all those plans. She wanted her own son Bharath to rule instead, so she cashed in on a couple of unconditional promises that Dasharath had given her. Ram was sent into exile for 14 years. Ram, his wife Sita, and brother Laxman left Ayodhya. And this happened while Bharat was out on holiday.
When Bharat returned and found his brother missing and their father Dasharath had passed away. Bharat soon found Ram, Laxman, and Sita near Chitrakoot. But he could not persuade Ram to return and rule instead. Reluctantly, Bharat returned to Ayodhya, still the ruler.
That’s where we pick up the story today.
When Bharath returned, he found Ayodhya a haunting reminder of his Dad and his brother, who had both left him the city. He made up his mind. He would *NOT* sit on the throne of Ayodhya. But guess what? He was going to place Ram’s shoes on the throne instead. It wasnt that he was saying those inanimate slippers would make a better King than himself. He just couldnt bear to sit on the throne himself.
He moved to Nandigram. He would rule from there, but only when it was necessary. Every administrative decision would first go to the throne in Ayodhya. If they were not pleased with the decision that Ram’s inanimate and silent shoes provided, they could appeal to Bharat in Nandigram. Then he would step in, almost as if Ram himself had delegated tasks to him.
When he’d placed Ram’s shoes on the throne of Ayodhya, he’d been careful to cover the throne in dust tape. So that when Ram returned 14 years later the throne wouldn’t look all dusty and dirty. As you can imagine the dust tape was red in color. This is not an explanation of the term “Red Tape”.
Let’s cut over to Chitrakoot. After Bharat left, their neighbor, a Rishi called Kulupati came by. And Kulupati seemed to be moving house!
Ram, Laxman and Sita were surprised. Just yesterday when Laxman had bumped into Kulupati while collecting the morning newspaper, there had been no indication that Kulupati had intended to leave. Kulupati had an explanation. The forest was under threat! Kara was threatening to destroy everyone and everything in the village.
They didn’t know who Kara was. And when told he was Ravana’s brother, it still did not ring any bells.
“Ravana, King of Lanka? The one who captured the planets? We had him on Episode 55 recently?”
“Still drawing a blank here” said Laxman.
Well didn’t matter. Kara was going to kill everything in the forest. Kulupati didn’t have any weapons like Ram and Laxman to defend himself. But he did have brains. So he was moving out.
Ram looked around at the hut. What had once before been paradise was now completely trampled. All the beautiful rose bushes, the azaleas, were trampled. The chalk lines for their kabbadi area were smudged. Quite unintentionally of course by the hundreds of elephants, and thousands of horses and soldiers who had accompanied Bharat, it’s hard to keep everything orderly. The damage was done though and would take time to repair.
Was this worth defending from Khara? Ravana’s brother?
Khara
This wasn’t the place he knew. When he’d arrived here everything had been alright with the world. He only had 14 years until he was reunited with his father. But now, this place, especially would always remind him of the shock of the news of his father’d death. Let’s move on. He said.
Sita agreed. It was just better to start with a fresh garden. And they could pick whatever place they wanted for their next hut. Only Laxman dissented. He’d just put in all the effort in constructing their house, he was going to have to start over. But he was outvoted
They finally reached the Dandaka forest. On the way they met another Rishi, and his wife. Atri and Anasuya. Anasuya liked Sita so much, she even gifted her some really pretty jewelry! That might seem insignificant now, but it’ll become important later. Like Chekov’s gun – the literary device where something small and insignificant plays an important role later on.
As they entered the forest, they came across a sight that would have scared ordinary humans.
In front of them stood a giant. He was an Asura. He stood there and grinned an ugly grin. Suddenly with shock Sita realized that the monstrously large spear he was holding had somethings on it. It was like a skewer from a barbecue. Except this one had 3 lions, 4 tigers, 2 leopards, an elephant and 4 deer. It’s strange that she was able to count all that despite the frightening sight.
Laxman meanwhile was cursing his fate. “We had a newly constructed house! Khara would have been easier than this guy”
Before either Ram or Laxman could stop him, the Asura reached out a hand and quickly grabbed Sita and walked off with her.
Ram cried out in frustration, cursing Kaikeyi. “Is this what she wanted? Wasn’t she happy that she was getting to be Queen Mother and Bharat was getting to rule?”
Laxman tapped him on the shoulder, “Ram! Hey, Ram! What has Kaikeyi got to do with this guy? And carrying off Sita? C’mon get yourself together man and let’s rescue Sita from her kidnapper”
“Wait a minute, timeout. Hold on!” Ram shouted at the Asura who was walking away.
“What is it now?” asked the Asura.
“Why did we stop?” asked Sita from the clutches of the Asura “did you forget your lines?”
Ram replied “No, I could’ve sworn the kidnapping doesn’t happen until a future episode. He gestured to someone offscreen, who handed him the script in a red binder. He read through it, and said. “Oh! My bad. There are two Sita kidnappings. This is just the first. Sorry about that, let’s carry on”
The Asura moved away and Ram and Laxman pulled out their bows and shot arrows at the guy. And they simply bounced off the Asura!
The Asura stopped at that weak effort. He laughed at the brothers and said “Don’t you know? I’m Viradha!” and he waited for a reaction.
There wasn’t any. Laxman finally said “why does everyone assume that we ought to know everyone else by name?”
“Is that so?” asked Viradha “didn’t you get your who’s who guidebook to the residents at the Dandaka forest welcome center?”
When the brothers shook their heads, “aw shucks. Maybe they were closed. Here I have an extra copy. I’m on page 56”
Laxman quickly read the entry for Viradha. It said “Viradha is a powerful Asura. He walks around with a spear with 4 lions….wait a minute. You only have 3 lions on that spear. You’re an impostor aren’t you”
“No, no” said Viradha. I was feeling a bit hungry so I might have nibbled at one of the lions.”
“Okay fine” said Laxman and continued “he cannot be hurt by any weapon on Earth! Thanks to a wish and a curse he received from Brahma. Why am I not surprised!”
At this point, let me interject and remind you what my father, Brahma the creator does. He scatters about wishes like these to everyone who prays for him! He gives them immense powers. I’ve been meaning to talk to my dad about this hyper-generous attitude of his.
Anyway, back to the story. Viradha was now tired of the chitchat. He just wanted to make off with Sita who he’d been thinking would make a good appetiser.
But Ram was swift. Cleverly he aimed an arrow at the spear and broke it into pieces.
“Hey, you guys. That’s not nice! Do you know how much I paid for that spear? And do you know how long it took to hunt all those animals that were on it?”
But Ram and Laxman weren’t listening. They drew their swords and attacked the giant. Swiftly they each took a side. Ram said I’ll take his left arm, you take his right.
No said Laxman. I’m L for Laxman and L for left, and R for Ram and R for right, let’s swap positions.
That was strange, but they did, and had pretty soon sliced off both of the Asura’s arms.
“We should not have been able to do that” said Ram
Viradaha replied “yeah, but it doesn’t hurt at all”
He tried to kick at them, but without his arms he just did not have the right balance. He toppled over. And then he couldn’t get up. It was a pathetic sight.
“We should put him out of his misery” said Laxman.
“Yes,” said Ram. And I know exactly how to do that. Dig a pit Laxman.”
“C’mon why is it always me who has to do all the manual labor” asked Laxman
“Because it was my idea. Next time you have a brilliant idea, I’ll do the heavy lifting”
Well Laxman was quick. He dug a huge pit. It took a while, but finally they managed to toppled the Asura into it. Ram quickly jumped in with his sword and finished him off.
“Wait, why did that work?” asked Laxman. “He’s not supposed to be hurt by weapons”
“That’s what I figured out” said Ram. “Remember the guidebook? It said he couldn’t be hurt by any weapons on Earth. Well, when I killed him in the pit, we were under the Earth.”
“That’s a weak link. You were still on the Earth.” said Laxman. “I bet you got lucky that’s all. Next time you do the hard work, whether or not you I get the brilliant idea”.
Sita meanwhile shouted from the Asur’s hand that was still lying there. “Boys! Stop fighting and come get me out of here!”
They did, and then the three of them continued on. Their actions had suddenly made the forest a very safe place again.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
The Asura was actually a Gandharva Tumburu who had fallen for an Apsara. Kubera, the god of wealth took offence and cursed him to live this life here on Earth.
Ram, Sita and Laxman’s actions had freed him of the curse.
I’d told this story to Hari Prasad Shastri a few decades ago when I helped some of Valmiki’s writings. And now, 70 years ago I’m now refreshing it for younger audiences.
Well, this was the lesser-known of Sita’s kidnappings. And this one only lasted a few minutes. We’ll cover the other one of course, in a future episode.
The other Ramayana episodes are:
Episode 6 – Fish Highwayman
Episode 7 – Kingdom by Horse
Episode 15 – Rishi vs Rishi: Un-civil war!
Episode 16 – Six….teen Flags
Episode 24 – Promises made, hearts broken
Episode 25 – Up, Up and Away!
Episode 30 – Banished!
Episode 41 – Forest Life
And this other one that is related: Episode 55 – Saturnine
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll do a folk tale again. This one is about a girl who is constantly followed everywhere by a group of trees. And she’s friends with a magic snake!