In this episode, we’re back into the Ramayan. It’s been a few weeks since we last covered the Ramayan. It’ll be helpful if you were to hear previous Ramayan episodes. But, like most other episodes on this show, I’ll try and make this one standalone as well.
So here’s a summary of the story so far.
Ram, the Crown Prince of Ayodhya had to give up his title to his half-brother Bharat when his Bharat’s mom cashed in on a couple of promises from King Dasharath. As an insurance policy, she also exiled Ram from the Kingdom for 14 years. But Ram did not go alone. He was accompanied by his wife Sita and his brother Laxman.
Bharat wasn’t a willing party in this conspiracy. He was on vacation. And when he returned he found Dasharath was no more, and he himself instead of Ram was the next King. What’s more, when he found Ram in the forest, Ram flat out refused to return to Ayodhya with him.
He’d made a promise and he was going to keep it.
So, Ram, Laxman, and Sita stayed back. They had earned a bit of a reputation as crimefighters. Eliminating baddies here and there.
They ran into Shurpanka who tried to… ahem… go out with Ram. When Ram pointed out that he was married to Sita, Shurpankha even offered to solve the problem by eating Sita. Luckily, Laxman was able to prevent that but he did chop off her ears and nose in the process.
She went away but complained that there would be a sequel to this. Featuring her brothers and their armies. And so, here we are. We’ll continue the story at this point, but do check out the links in the show notes if you’d like to hear more Ramayan episodes.
Khara, the governor of the Dandaka forest was discussing administrative matters with his twin brother Dushana. They were just tallying the number of Rishis disturbed, but they lost count when there a commotion outside.
A distraught Surpankha stormed in.
“How dare you walk in here without an appointment?” Dushana addressed her, not recognizing his own sister.
Khara was a little bit more perceptive. “Why, it’s Surpanakha. Hi Shoorpee, have you had a makeover?”
“It suits you” chimed in Dushana. “It’s an improvement I think. Ears are pointless since we don’t need face masks and glasses haven’t been invented yet. And what’s the point of having a nose anyway? All one can do is to scratch it or to pick it…” And he would have gone except at this point Shurpankha threw a vase at him.
Nimbly, Dushana dodged the vase. Not for nothing was he a military commander.
“Shoorpee, what’s going on here?” asked Khara concerned.
She explained everything that happened to her. With several modifications.
“So there I was minding my own business on my evening run when I ran into a couple of ordinary, wanderers from Ayodhya, and an ugly-looking lady. All out of nowhere the two guys start making fun of me. I told them that my brothers Khar and Dushana are the big boys around here. And they’d better not mess with me, or with them. But the lady just laughed and called you some dirty names”
“What dirty names?” asked Khar and Dushana appalled. This was their territory. It wouldn’t do to have ordinary people show disrespect.
“I refuse to repeat it out of decency.” But in reality, she just couldn’t think of bad enough names. Just let Khar and Dushana imagine the worst. That would spur them into action.
Khar had heard enough. He commanded 14 of his toughest warriors to go crush these wanderers.
“And Sita. Crush her too” added Shoorpankha.
14 on 3 were decent odds thought Khara. Success was guaranteed. Unless these Ayodhya people turned out to be like Rambo maybe.
He’d heard of Ayodhya of course. He knew the princes there were pretty powerful, but from Shoorpie’s description, these guys were wanderers. They couldn’t be princes.
He tuned his radio to listen to the operation going down. Shorpanka and Dushana crowded around the radio.
The 14 warriors had divided themselves into two teams and were communicating instructions to each other.
“Team Alpha calling Team Bravo. We’re on the left flank. Target in sight. Confirm position. Over”
“Team Bravo received communication. Proceed with caution Team Alpha. The two guys are sitting around chatting. No weapons in sight. But the lady has knitting needles that look sharp! Over”
“Acknowledged. Team Bravo, get ready to launch a synchronized attack from the right. Alpha proceeding in 5..4…3…2…1” There was a rushing noise as if people were suddenly sprinting forward. And then screaming! And then nothing. Dead silence for a whole couple of minutes.
“They made quick work of the lot,” Dushana said. “Now to just wait for the confirmation”
But then a voice came over the radio that chilled them all to the bone.
“14 name tags in all. Here add them to your collection Laxman.” Ram said. “Also let’s take out the batteries from all those walkie-talkies. We can use them for something else.”
14 of their best warriors. Just destroyed without even much of a fight.
Grimly, Khara ordered his armies to prepare for the battle of their lives. And he began putting on his own battle armor. He was going to enter the battlefield himself. And so was Dushana.
Shoorpankha began sensing that maybe she should move on to plan B.
“I’m actually thinking of going back to Lanka ahead of you guys,” she said to her brothers. “I’d better go see to these injuries”
They nodded grimly and did not say anything.
Soon, Khara, Dushana, and 14 thousand soldiers marched towards the Dandaka forest. While Shoorpankha took the express route back to Lanka.
Let’s cut over to Panchavati meanwhile. Ram, Laxman, and Sita were talking.
“You can’t deny that it’s an incredible coincidence,” Laxman said. “What are the odds that four of the 14 soldiers had the same first name? “.
“I’m not denying it’s a coincidence” replied Ram. “I’m just saying it’s not all that incredible. All it takes is one person to do something heroic and then everyone wants to name their kids after him or her. I bet a few millennia from now there will be hundreds and thousands of ‘Rams’, ‘Laxmans’ and ‘Sitas’.”
“But not Kaikeyis, not Manthara, not Khar, not Dushana, and certainly not Shoorpanakha or Ravana” replied Sita. “At least I hope so.”
“Sshhh,” said Ram, “no spoilers, please. People listening to this podcast may not know what happens to all those characters.”
He would have continued but just then he saw Laxman and stopped. Laxman had suddenly become alert.
“I hear it too,” said Ram.
They rushed out to see the column of dust rising on the horizon.
“Just like it did when Bharat was visiting with his army,” said Laxman,
“No this is different. That one was an army of 15 thousand and 500 elephants and a thousand horses. This is different. This column of dust feels like an army of 14000 soldiersand some chariots but no elephants. This is probably Khar and Dushana’s army.”
“14000 soldiers,” said Laxman. This is going to be a bother.
“Yup, this will take me a few hours to work through,” replied Ram.
“Why you? I can handle them” replied Laxman
“No. It’s my turn. You took care of the leaky roof. We’d agreed then the next chore is on me. Now take Sita and go to the cave over there. Just in case they try to attack the house.”
Lakshman and Sita rushed off towards the cave.
Rama meanwhile had summoned his magic arsenal of weapons that he had received from Vishwamitra back in Episode 16.
He began reading through the catalog looking for a suitable Astra, or projectile. He found one finally. And it was in the nick of time too. As 14000 rakshas descended on him, Ram took his bow and fired the Gandharva Astra. Instantly, 14000 anti-rakshas sprang from nowhere.
These anti-rakshasas challenged their regular rakshasas. And just as you may remember from physics, when matter and anti-matter collide they are annihilated. That’s exactly what happened and instantly 14000 rakshasas disappeared.
Khara and Dushana were shocked. This was insane. Their entire army had disappeared right before their eyes. It seemed that Khar and Dushana were the only survivors on the Rakshas side. And one other person. That was Akampana. Akampana was an uncle of Ravana who was in Khar’s army. He happened to have strayed away from the rest of the army, temporarily. Which was lucky for him. But it was to have a terrible effect, as we will see later.
Ram meanwhile took a glance at the catalog, the Gandharva Astra section. He noted the asterisk this time. “Only works on foot soldiers. Does not affect commanders. Also doesn’t affect adversaries at long distances”. Well, that explained it. Never mind, he could use other weapons on Khar and Dushana.
Khar and Dushana meanwhile were firing arrows at Ram which he casually flicked away with his own.
Dushana picked up a magic spear. It seemed to block everything. Rama kept firing arrow after arrow but the spear seemed to intercept everything.
Rama tried a change of tactic. Instead of aiming for the spear he aimed for Dushana’s hand. And that seemed to work. As Ram suspected, the magic of the spear was only effective if Dushana was holding it.
Once he had pinned Dushana’s hands with a stream of arrows, Ram had no trouble in finishing off the asura.
That enraged Khara who howled in anger when he saw his twin brother’s lifeless body.
He took out a club. A special magic club that was on fire. Both literally and figuratively. Khar flung it at Ram.
Ram dodged it. Barely. The club hit a tree behind Ram and incinerated it instantly.
What’s more. The club returned back to Khara’s hand magically. Kinda like Thor’s hammer, if you’ve seen the Marvel Avengers movies.
Ram tried an Agni Astra. Agni is the god of fire. Appropriately this weapon was fire-resistant.
Ram took careful aim just as Khara launched the club at Ram.
Ram’s Astra shot out just as the club was almost on Ram.
It worked. The Agni Astra shattered the club.
I guess Khara should have gotten a few extra ones as backup. Because now he was completely out of any magic options.
He used an ordinary bow and arrows and fired them rapidly at Ram.
Ram fired back.
Though they both wounded each other in the beginning, in the end, Khar was no match for Ram.
One of Ram’s arrows found its mark. And just like that suddenly the Dandaka forest was without a Governer.
Akampana was watching from a distance. He had managed to avoid becoming a victim of the Gandharva Astra, and after that, he had been far too scared to enter the battlefield.
Akampana sneaked off quickly before Ram could spot him. He was headed straight for Lanka. And he had an idea in his head. And what gave him the idea was the way Ram had had Sita escorted away from the scene from her protection.
Laxman and Sita returned meanwhile. “Not bad, bro,” said Laxman. “I was timing you. That was about 28 minutes long. So you averaged about 500 soldiers a minute. You might have set a new record!”
“It was all the Gandharva Astra,” said Ram with a bit of concern on his face
“Then why don’t you seem happy about it?” asked Sita
“I don’t have any more Gandharva Astras” replied Ram. “And I’m positive that for what is going to come next, those could be really handy”
“Never mind,” said Laxman. “I’m starved. Better get some food. Who wants to eat some Idli and Vadas? Rama – you took care of Khar and Dushana, so I’ll order lunch and we’re even, okay?”
A lot will happen in the next episode but to quote Ram, no spoilers.
Some notes on the show
14 is certainly a special number in the Ramayana. It keeps coming up as a challenge. 14 years of exile. 14 warriors in the first wave. 14000 in the second wave. But that’s just a coincidence.
Kaikeyi had exiled Ram for 14 years because according to law, a King who is absent from his Kingdom for 14 years would lose his claim to the throne.
Nine previous Ramayana episodes are linked in the notes.
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.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll do a folk tale from Karnataka. It’s a story of a couple of scholars who wander into a village where everyone seems to be acting illogically.