The Story of Rama: A Mythological Novel
()
About this ebook
From the very beginning, being the eldest son, Rama was groomed as the future king. He was brave, courageous, and valorous person as well as truthful, obedient, and righteous son. In an early age, he killed several ferocious Rakshasas, belonging to a savage race comparable to demons. Rama won the hand of Sita, the daughter of king Janaka of Mithila by stringing a great celestial bow. At the age twenty-five, he was to be consecrated as a crown prince.
However, Kaikaeyi, mother of Bharata, played the spoiler. As earlier, she had been promised two boons by her husband, she took that opportunity to get them fulfilled. She secured crown for her son Bharata and fourteen years of exile for Rama in a forest. Reluctantly agreeing to kaikaeyis deictates the king banished his beloved son, but died out of grief. Rama left for the forest. His wife Sita and brother Lakshmana accompanied him. He spent his time protecting the Brahmanas and ascetics from the Rakshasas in different forests and safeguarding their interests.
During the last year of their sojourn Ravana, the king of Lanka and head of all the Rakshasas, abducted Sita. Rama undertook journey to the southern state of Kishkindha, made friendship with Sugriva, the king of the Vanara community, by restoring his throne to him after killing his oppressive brother Valin. With the help of Sugriva, he was able to wage a war against Ravana, kill him, and recover Sita. However, for the fear of public opinion going against Sita because of suspected violation of her dhastity during her captivity by Ravana, Rama was initially reluctant to take her back as a wife.
Sota was required to undergo a trial by placing herself in the fire to prove her chastity. Although Rama accepted her initially after her successful trial, when he found later that the public opinion in Ayodhya was against her, he banished her into a forest. Sita took refuge in the hermitage of Valmiki. Being already pregnant, she delivered twin sons named Kusha and Lava there. At an early age of twelve, the two children sang Ramayana as composed by Valmiki in the streets of Ayodhya and won a pardon for their mother not only by Rama, but also by the people. However, it was too late for Sita. She prayed the mother earth to take her in her la and vanished into it.
After ruling for several more years and setting up a model system of administration, still considered the ideal one, Rama finally took to heaven.
Narendra K. Sinha
Born on August 2, 1932, the author is currently an honorary fellow at the Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S.A., an affiliation he took up after retiring as a Director of Rehabilitation Services. He has primarily been a South Asianist. He started his career as a lecturer in the Department of Hindi at Gaya College, Gaya, Sanskrit, and a Ph.D. He has extensive teaching, research, and publication to his credit in the fields of language, literature, and linguistics. His academic affiliations had been with Magadha University, Gaya, India; All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Delhi University, New Helhi; Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, India; Vishwabharati, Shantiniketan, West Bengal; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, U.S.A.; and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S.A. He had shown his literary flare at an early age of eleven. Since then, he had been writing poems and plays in his school and college days, all remaining unpublished. He took to writing fiction lately, only after his retirement. He has published a collection of short stories in Hindi entitled Adhure Sapne from Grantha Sadan, Delhi in 2003. He has completed a collection of short stories in English entitled Walls All Around. The present work is his first novel.
Related to The Story of Rama
Related ebooks
The Homewood Trilogy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Woman Ruler: Woman Rule Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlokas of Sri Ramodantam - With Summary in English Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDance Of Govinda Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Big Elephant Has Been Killed: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVinaya-Patrika A Book of Supplication & True Love for God by Goswami Tulsidas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Goddess of Atvatabar: Being the history of the discovery of the interior world and conquest of Atvatabar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWynema: A Child of the Forest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Apex Magazine Issue 111: Apex Magazine, #111 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA World of Darkness: Cotton Mather and the 1692 Salem Witchcraft Trials Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIndian Why Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love in Ancient India Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythological Juggernaut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLooking Backward, 2000 to 1887 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Conjure Woman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Time Dancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRace and the Literary Encounter: Black Literature from James Weldon Johnson to Percival Everett Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHindu Gods And Heroes Studies in the History of the Religion of India Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Indian Fairy Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCivilization of the Americas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chronicles of Devi: Cosmos & Mahisha Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657-1777 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten People: Restoring a Missing Segment of Plaquemines Parish History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fourth Dimension Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beloved: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwice a Slave Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Myths: A Realistic Approach Towards Mythology and Epic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crescent Moon Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
General Fiction For You
The King James Version of the Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beartown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Terminal List: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Other Black Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Story of Rama
0 ratings0 reviews