Ramayana – War Plans – {Ep.190} – Stories From India – Podcast

In this episode, we’re back into the Ramayana. Hanuman has just returned from Lanka, leaving it a mess. We’ll see Lankans picking up the pieces, while Rama, Laxman, and the Vanars plan to rescue Sita.

Introduction

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you exciting and fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Recap

Usually, I recap the story for you in my own words. But this time, I’m going to do things differently. Conveniently, I went back in time and got a Lankan newspaper. I think this one gives a good summary. The article contains a bit more than what we need, but out of respect for the journalist who took all the pains to write it, I will read it in its entirety. 

The article was in the Lankan Herald and it was titled “Lanka in Flames: Hanuman’s Rampage Highlights Government’s Failure”. It went like this.

The city is still in shock after yesterday’s events, which saw the Vanar Hanuman burn down large portions of the city. Some sources have claimed this to be an inevitable consequence of the Government’s policy of meddling in foreign affairs. Others are pointing fingers at the Lankan administration, blaming the Government for the destruction.

It may be worth recapping the story as the saga of the Princess of Ayodhya has taken many dramatic turns over the last several weeks. Readers may recall that Prince Ram, Prince Laxman and Princess Sita were banished from their hometown as a result of a domestic squabble. It was initially reported that Sita was rescued from the horrors of the Dandaka forest. The poor princess had to suffer those horrors for 13 years before the timely intervention of our Government rescued her. Recent events have cast those actions in a completely different light. New evidence has emerged that the event was an abduction, and not a rescue. Further, sources say that the abduction was in retaliation for crimes against our Princess Shoorpanakha. 

A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that it was wrong for foreigners to be abducted and to become a ward of the state. Why must hard-working Lankans pay for the upkeep of foreigners? This government official strongly advocated for only abducting local women.

Another high-ranking official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that it was the government’s lack of preparedness and failure to adequately defend the city from outside threats which allowed Hanuman to wreak havoc unchecked. 

It is not only officials within the government who view its latest actions with a critical eye. Residents are also frustrated with the government’s slow response to the biggest crisis in our history and the inadequate measures taken to evacuate citizens and provide relief.

Adding insult to injury, several high-ranking officials in the administration were seen by our own correspondent fleeing the city during the attack, leaving the citizens to fend for themselves. This has led to widespread anger and calls for those officials to be held accountable for their actions.

This latest catastrophe only underscores the larger issue of the Lankan government’s inability to maintain security and protect its citizens. No replacement has yet been found for the post of guardian of the  gates. Readers will doubtless recall how Lankini was released from her curse when she was defeated by Hanuman during his illegal entry into our city. The residents of Lanka deserve better, and it is time for the administration to step up and take responsibility for their mistakes.

An official spokesperson for the Government expressed thoughts and prayers for those impacted by the fires, and urged Lankans to remain calm and patient as the city begins the long road to recovery. The spokesperson also claimed that Hanuman’s mission of taking back Sita was foiled by the quick actions of our fearless leader himself. Some have already cast doubt on this claim, and they are warning us of an impending invasion. The government spokesperson dismissed these claims because Ram and Laxman have no army to invade with, and the Kingdom of Ayodhya will not act on behalf of banished citizens.

There may be many unanswered questions about the future of our city. But even as citizens are left to pick up the pieces, one thing is clear. It is crucial that lessons are learned from this tragedy. The citizens of Lanka deserve a government that is proactive in protecting them and ensuring their safety. Until that happens, it seems that the city will remain vulnerable to outside threats and the wrath of foreigners like Hanuman.

So that’s the article. I hope it gives you the gist of the story so far. What the article is careful not to mention is that the abduction of Sita was carried out by Ravana, the King of Lanka. Ravana, the 10 headed demon king, had superpowers from Brahma himself, and he was the Supervillain in this saga.
Ram on the other hand was an avatar of Vishnu, who appeared with the express purpose of putting an end to Ravana’s tyranny.

Following the events described in the article, Hanuman the super-vanar flew back to Sugriva’s base camp. And that’s where we’ll continue the story. 

Hanuman had taken the liberty of letting all the Vanars feast themselves on the best fruits in Sugriva’s private garden. Sugriva did mind, but couldn’t say anything about it just then. Everyone else was speculating what Hanuman must have discovered.

Rama’s War Council Meeting

The scene is set in Sugriva’s war room, in the basement of his palace. Ram, Laxman and Sugriva were there of course. And so was Hanuman. A few other Vanars were there too – Angada, Nala, Nila and Jambavan, and an old Vanar who was just called “the wise one”. And a Vanar with a typewriter, to note down the minutes. Let’s call him Sachiv, which literally means secretary.

Sachiv went through the routine of announcing the members, and why they had gathered. It was a good thing he did, because Jambavan had been hibernating just then and he missed all the action with Hanuman’s return. Sachiv said they were all there for a debrief, and as usual, they were going to read the minutes from the last meeting. And those minutes, Sachiv said, started by reading the minutes from two meetings ago. This recursive reference was something Sugriva had insisted on for his own private amusement. But this was no time for monkey business. 

Sugriva could read the room and the impatient glances from everyone. “Yes, yes let’s skip past it,” he said aloud to Sachiva. “Hanuman, you have the floor.” Hanuman told them his story. we’ll skip that part since you already heard it from the Lankan journalist. He ended it by saying that they must all immediately go to Lanka.

Everyone agreed – that was the sensible thing to do. Ram had felt a jolt of excitement rush through him through all this. Sita was alive! Now that Hanuman had located her precisely, all they had to do was to go there and get her. But two problems remained. Ram focused on the smaller problem first.

“Hanuman, you’ve told us all about your meeting with Sita. By any chance, did you also observe anything about Lanka’s military capabilities?” Ram asked. 

Hanuman said he had. And not just observed, but he’d swooped into Lanka’s city planning department and grabbed a whole bunch of blueprints and schematics. 

There was a lot to read there, so Hanuman said he’d give them a summary. The entire city was walled. It was impossible for Humans or even Vanars to scale those walls without specialized climbing equipment and ropes and such. The type that hadn’t been invented yet.

“What about ladders?” Nala interrupted. “I had this weird dream about some evil creatures called orcs that used these gigantic ladders to get into this place called Helm’s deep”

“Tell us about your dream another time, Nala. Maybe write a book about it, I’m sure a lot of people will be interested in reading it. But for now, if you don’t mind, I’ll carry on with my description. Besides, the walls are not our problem.”

The entire city was surrounded by a massive moat, with crocodiles in it. There were four bridges across the moat, at each of the four doors. Each door is made of several layers of logs. Practically impenetrable. The wood is also covered in a special fire deterrent, so we can’t just set it on fire and burn down the door that way. 

Those were just the examples of the rigid physical obstructions.

The real challenge was going to be the people they had to fight. The Lankan warriors had weapons, all kinds of powerful weapons and they had magic on their side. They could fly! They were expert illusionists. The biggest threat was going to be them. There was Indrajit, he was called that because he had literally defeated Indra, the King of the Devas himself. There was Kumbhakarna – a giant even amongst the Demons of Lanka. And then there was Ravana himself. He could not be defeated by anyone – in fact the only one who had succeeded so far was Vali. Yes, the very same Vali whose help they could no longer rely on, because they had just assassinated him in Episode 125.

The ordinary Lankan soldiers may not have all the superpowers of their commanders, but they had a big advantage in battle. Literally, because they had thousands of well-trained elephants. Those elephants could crush enemy soldiers at a signal.

The wise one hadn’t said a word so far. But now he did. “Yes, well done everyone. Huge win for us! But is it a win, really? Now, all of Lanka knows we’re on our way. We’ve lost the element of surprise. Yes we’ve located Sita, but we only know where Sita was today. What if Ravana decides to move her? He’s got a flying car – a Pushpak Vimana, and he can fly himself. What’s stopping him from simply moving her elsewhere? What will happen if we cross the ocean, cross the crocodile infested moat, scale those massive walls, fight those thousands of elephants and hundreds of thousands of demons, and then we find that Sita’s been moved. We’re all going to look pretty silly then”. But he was also grumpy, so no one paid much attention to the possibility that Ravana might move Sita out of Lanka.

Ravana’s War Council Meeting

Meanwhile, in the walled city, surrounded by its crocodile infested moat, Lankans went about rebuilding their city with their trained Elephants. But a different sort of activity was taking place in the palace.

The scene is set in Ravana’s war room, in the basement of the palace. Ravana, his son Indrajit, his brother Vibhishana were all there of course. There was also Ahiravana, Ravana’s brother who ruled the netherworld. And there was Kumbhakarna, the giant of a brother who could make someone like Hagrid look like a midget by comparison(if you know your Harry Potter). He had just woken up from a long nap. A few other demons were there too. But there was no one with a typewriter unlike the Vanar council. Because some things are too embarrassing to be on record.

“He came, he saw, he conquered” said Vibhishana.

“Conquered nothing!” objected Indrajit. “He failed! That monkey couldn’t take Sita away. And not one of us was hurt. I don’t know if he was on a rescue mission or an assassination mission, but either way – it didn’t work.”

Prahasta, who was a commander in the army, chimed in that he agreed with Indrajit. Hanuman only got the residences and shops in the city. He didn’t even attack their military base. There was nothing to worry about.

On the contrary, Vibhishana retorted. “We have everything to worry about. Look at the damage a single monkey has done to us. Now imagine what might happen if Ram and Lakshman themselves arrived here with a thousand monkeys”

“And how exactly would they arrive?” objected Indrajit. “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a massive ocean in between us? And unlike us, they have neither a Pushpak Vimaan, and nor can they fly”

“Excellent point, my dear nephew. Something I had been meaning to bring up myself. They have neither a flying car nor can they fly like we do. And yet, Hanuman showed up here”

Murmurs around the table.

“Maybe he used a boat,” someone murmured.

“With all those sea monsters on the way? I don’t think so.”

Indrajit tried a different tactic – “how does it matter how Hanuman got here? Even if he did somehow manage to hitch a ride from a passing flock of geese, the point is they can’t get here en masse”

“And that’s where you, Indrajit, and really all of you, are underestimating Ram. He has weapons that can dry up the entire Ocean”

“I don’t think he will. He’d only be upsetting the planet’s ecological balance.” Kumbhakarna observed. 

Ravana felt the need to intervene – “So what are you proposing,  Vibhishana? Assuming you are proposing something. I have to say your pessimism isn’t helping here”

“Send Sita back. Send her with gifts for Ram and Laxman, and even the Vanars. Give them gold. Make peace, not war and maybe our city will survive.”

Indrajit stood up from his seat and called his uncle several things that aren’t polite ways to address your uncle, and it was clear he spoke for all of them.

“We’ll have no more of that, little brother,” Ravana said. “Let’s see how we can properly manage this threat”

At this point, Kumbhakarna spoke. “Look, I know I missed all the action while I was sleeping these past few months, but I have to say one thing – it is indeed a sin that you’ve committed brother. It was not okay for you to have carried off another man’s wife. That’s just not cricket. That being said, I will stand by you. I’m going to crush Ram and Laxman into tiny pieces. That will legitimize your future marriage to Sita”

“I’ve got it,” Prahastha said. “Why not marry Sita now? Just do it. That will devastate Ram, maybe even stop him coming here”

Ravana paused for a couple of seconds and then sheepishly admitted that he couldn’t. And it wasn’t just that their place of worship was burned down by Hanuman. He genuinely couldn’t forcibly marry Sita. There was a curse on him. A curse from Brahma.

There was a collective gasp from the table. Not so much that Ravana faced a curse. Rather – they were shocked that Brahma was capable of cursing anyone. Usually, he just handed out superpowers.

Another demon Mahaparshva had been largely silent so far. He volunteered to end this here and now. Well not here and now, but today, in Sugriva’s camp. He could just fly across the Ocean that night, with a small crew – say 4 other Rakshasas. They could assume the form of Ayodhya soldiers and claim to be from Bharat’s army. And when they got close enough, one of them would take out his sword and it would be off with Ram’s head. It would be a piece of cake! Don’t get him wrong – he didn’t mean that literally. Both pieces of cake and human heads were staple Demon food, but cakes are sweet.

Or even if Mahaparshva didn’t want to take a chance of being too close, the demon and his 4 henchmen could throw rocks from up high. Gravity could do most of the work. They just had to aim well.

Ravana was tempted. That might solve his problem. But Indrajit and Kumbhakarna and the other demons were quite opposed to it. Indrajit felt he needed to demonstrate the power of his awesomeness to those monkeys. Sneaking up behind their backs, or rather sneaking up on them from above and destroying them with well chosen rocks would be a bit anticlimactic. Kumbhakarna felt the same – he personally wanted to crush the Ayodhya brothers. Sneaking up on them in the middle of the night and dropping stones on them from the sky was no sneakier than Ravana’s act carrying Sita off while Ram and Laxman weren’t around.

Mahaparshva didn’t look convinced. But he didn’t say anything. Ravana got a little worried – that demon had been known to take matters into his own hands before. He must keep one of his 20 eyes on the Mahaparshva to make sure he didn’t attempt to carry out the stone throwing plan. Ravana didn’t have any concerns with it if the demon succeeded, but if he failed – that’d be worse than if he hadn’t tried at all.

There were more discussions and debates, until finally they all agreed somewhat reluctantly to a compromise solution. They would send a messenger to speak to the enemy. It was a true compromise, because none of the members wanted exactly that. It’s just that this became the least hateful alternative. The messenger would be aimed not at Ram, but at Sugriva. Ravana provided a carefully worded message that everyone agreed would aim to break the partnership between the Ayodhya brothers and the Vanars.

No one even brought up the possibility of moving Sita to some other secure location. Thankfully so, otherwise it would have seriously complicated the rescue mission.

The meeting concluded, everyone went their way. Except there was a rakshas amongst the crew, who did something he was not supposed to. He gathered four of his most trustworthy men for a mission. They prepared to fly, and took all of their best weapons with them. Silently, and avoiding the watchful eyes of everyone else in Lanka, they took off from the rooftops and sailed in the wind, headed directly for Sugriva’s camp. They had also decided to act from the sky. It didn’t make sense for them to be on the ground amongst the Vanars. The crowd might become hostile and rough them up.

As they reached the palace it was still late evening. They had encountered a good tail wind and practically no turbulence. These demons expected to find everyone sleeping. But they were wrong.

Ram’s council meeting continued

The council meeting at Sugriva’s palace was still going on. But they had changed the venue after the lunch break. They decided that there was no need for them to be sneaky and do this war room discussion in the basement of the palace. They could have this discussion in the palace garden, in the open. Not Sugriva’s private garden that the Vanars had looted earlier in the day. This was a different garden. 

They were discussing the bigger problem that Ram had thought of. How could they all cross over to Lanka? They had many ideas. Nala suggested Giant inflatable Helium balloons. He’d an idea that with enough balloons, you could lift a house right up off the ground. 

Angada said they could grab some massive sea creatures and transport them. The Jedi did this regularly a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Why couldn’t they just grab a passing blue whale or something and teach it to carry Vanars on its back?

But both of these ideas were dismissed as being too impractical.

Sugriva said Hanuman could grow any size he wanted! Couldn’t he just ferry us all on your back or something?

“Too dangerous,” Hanuman said. “To do that I’d have to grow large enough that I risk causing an apocalypse. I might strip the Earth of its entire atmosphere the next time I inhale. Or if I were to move or jump or anything at all, it might kick the Earth out of its orbit and freeze the entire planet”

Nila said they should build several giant mirrors. They could focus them all on the ocean and given enough time the water would all evaporate. Of course there was a risk that all the evaporating water would promptly come back to the Ocean as part of the water cycle.

The secretary volunteered here – what about the magical green stone that could make the ocean itself clear a path that could be walked across. He’d heard of something like that helping a pacific islander princess who goes sailing across the ocean. Sugriva shook his head. Sachiva was mixing mythologies here, no such stone existed in Indian mythology.

Jambavan had an idea, why not use a small or medium vessel propelled in water by oars, sails or an engine. But no one seemed to believe that a vessel like that could hold thousands of Vanars and bears and humans.

They were still brainstorming when a voice spoke from the sky. There were demons! 4 of them. Immediately everyone became alert, and drew out their weapons.

The demon in the lead said “I am Ravana’s brother Vibhishana. I tried convincing my brother to give up Sita but he wouldn’t listen to me. I’ve given up my family and my Kingdom and I’ve come to join forces with you”

Sugriva spoke in an aside to Rama that he wasn’t fooled. Vibhishana was a spy, here to destroy them from the inside. Just give me the word Ram, and we’ll bring that demon down from the sky and rip him apart.

But Rama asked him to wait. One by one, Ram quizzed each of the council members. Most of them thought that Vibhishana was a spy. Angada said he wasn’t sure but they needed to test Vibhishana before Angada would agree to let him into their circle.

The only one who thought differently was Hanuman. Hanuman applied what he called the psychology of the individual. Yeah, I’m ready to trust Vibhishana. He isn’t here to spy on us. He’s here for a purely selfish motive. Vibhishana wants to be on the winning side. He wants to become ruler of Lanka after we win the battle. And you can see from his manner that he is indeed convinced that the Lankans are going to lose this war.

Of all those opinions that he heard, Ram agreed with Hanuman’s. An additional point in its favor was that Ram didn’t think Vibhishana could actually do anything to hurt Ram even if he tried.

Vibhishana came down to the ground with his mates when he heard Ram give his word that he was open to a partnership.

Vibhishana said that as a mark of their partnership, he had a lot of beans he was ready to spill. And he didn’t mean that literally, he meant he had secrets. He had tried to bring along some schematics from the city planning department but apparently they had been stolen earlier. Funny coincidence. But anyway, Vibhishana described Lanka’s defences with the same level of detail as Hanuman had.

Which also helped to prove that at least Vibhishana wasn’t misleading them.

But the bigger problem remained – how were they going to get across. And Vibhishana had no answer for that either.

The council decided that the next step was to move towards the shore. Nothing they were going to do here was going to work.

They had two ideas at the top of their shortlist of ideas for getting across. The first was to pray to the sea god to open up a pathway across the ocean like Sachiva thought other mythologies would remember in the future.

The other was to dry up the ocean, but not using Nila’s idea of giant mirrors. Ram had an arrow that could dry up the ocean a lot faster. Sure it would risk an apocalypse but at least it would be something to fall back on if the Ocean didn’t clear a pathway for them.

That’s where we’ll leave it this week. We’ll see how they eventually manage to get across the ocean, but that is in a future episode.

Some notes on the show

Check out the links in the show notes for other Ramayana episodes.

Valmiki was the author of the Ramayana. We covered his origin story 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 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.

We met Jayant – Indra’s son in Episode 182 and Kakbhushundi in Episode 185.

Episode 101 – Ramayana – A Wild Stag Chase explained how Ravana engineered a diversion so he could abduct Sita. In Episode 112 Ram and Laxman got their first hint of what had happened to Sita and also were told that Sugriva could help them

In Episode 118, Ram and Laxman learned more about Sugriva and Vali’s rivalry before finally meeting Hanuman and ensuring Sugriva’s victory in Episode 125 – Ramayana – Sugriva and Vali. Hanuman met Sampati in Episode 132 and then crossed the ocean in Episode 142 and infiltrated Lanka in Episode 156. Vali was also the character of the Week in Episode 21. Hanuman burned Lanka in Episode 168.

Jambavan was character of the week in Episode 2. 

Jatayu and Sampaati’s story is mentioned in the Character of the Week section of Episode 11.

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we’ll learn a bit of wisdom from animal behavior. It’s time to dive back into the Jataka tales.

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Thank you for the warm reception of the last episode. Well, you know how I know everything about the future – I can definitely say that a showbiz career is on the cards for Hira. But I can’t tell you exactly when. You’ll just have to wait for it yourself. I loved reading all your comments! And Bindu, I will work on the Brahmaputra episode.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or tweet @sfipodcast, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook.

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A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!