Daily in April will be posted a written story: 'How Dragons Shaped China'; the Hindu Ramayana from SITA's point of view; and from Korea, 'Taming of Tiger'; from my days of telling verbal stories at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. These tradi...
Kumbrakrana, Kumbrakrna, the brother of fearsome strength,
Ravana, Ravana, the ten-head twenty-armed obsessive Daemon.
Let your story be told.
Bells Ring!
Rama, Rama is an earthly man.
Loyal wife Sita serves his will.
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The heavenly poem stopped his singing and lute playing, the gods and goddesses reclined on the clouds. Valmiki stares into his bowl of water watching a storm spin, and the wind blows the leaves on the trees. The fire dances in cracking and popping; flames reach into the sky. Sita with the twins Lava and Kusha urging, Mother, the battles between Rama and the Daemon Ravana, what happened?
~~~~~~~~~~~Sita sighs, "Yes, Rama's battles with the Rakshasas."
In the grove of I could not see the fight. I hear the cheers for Rama then cheer for Ravana. I could not sleep. Finally, Trijata enters the Asoko Grove with her offering of fruits and water. She is upset, "Ravana banishes his brother, Vibhishana, my husband, for saying that Ravana should give back Sita to Rama and stop the battles. Ravana screamed, 'Sita was his possession, and he would keep her.'"
I turn to Trijata, "Why does an Emperor of vast riches and controls the three world want a mere woman who repels him?"
"Sita, you are the mere human woman he does not possess, you are his doom."
At Trijata I stare, I could not imagine.
"My husband, Vibhishana goes to Rama for protection across the sea. The rumors are he was accepted because Hanuman remembered when he saved Hanuman's life when captured by Ravana's warriors."
Trijata tells me, "A bridge built stretched from the south land to beach of Lanka."
I look with disbelief, "How?"
With wide-eyes Trijata explains, "I heard this among the gossip on the streets. Rama shot arrows into Sea for Varuna, the Sea God, to stop his huge waves and help. God Varuna demanded that Nala, the Monkey engineer, design the bridge that floats. God Varuna would hold the bridge until the battles finished. All the animals help carried rocks and logs cut by the monkeys. In five days the animals walked to Lanka.
