Ryan's Blogs: Reading Notes: Public Domain Ramayana, Part A

Rama and Lakshmana battle the rakshasas. Source

King Dasharatha

Ruler of the Koshala kingdom
Lives in Ayodhya
Mighty and powerful
Heart full of sorrow because no son had been born to him be either of his 3 queens.
Conducts a horse sacrifice to obtain offspring
His chief wife, Kaushalya, plays a leading role
Gods promise him four sons.

King Janaka

king of the Videha kingdom
Lives in Mithilia
For someone to marry his daughter, the suitor must bend the bow of the god Shiva

Story

City of Ayodhya is the capital of Koshala
Ayodhya was full of prosperous and happy people
Reading about what the actual horse sacrifice is super strange
The horse gets puts in fancy jewels and gets killed for sacrifice (sacred scimitar)
Dasharatha needs to defeat Ravana, the King of the Rakshasas
The god Vishnu comes to help but Ravana cannot be defeated by gods therefore Vishnu is born on earth as Rama, the son of Dasharatha
Rama and his brother Lakshmana go with Vishvamitra to fight demons
Rama receives supernatural weapons as rewards after then fight
Sagar Island is where the goddess Ganga (the river Ganges) descended
Gautama cursed Indra and Ahalya for being disguised as him and seducing Ahalya
Rama falls in love with Sita (heavenly and eternal love)
Sita, Janaka family, is an avatar of the goddess Lakshmi, Vishnu's consort
Rama wins Janaka's challenge and gets to marry Sita
Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna find wives from the Janaka family
Dasharatha must decide which son will be the heir
Kaikeyi demands that Dasharatah sends RAma into exhile while making Bharata his heir
Rama always obeys his father without question
Sita and Lakshmana want to accompany Rama into exile
14 years of exile in forest
As Dassharatha dies, he remembers an accident when he was cursed to lose a son
None of his sons are present at the time of his death
Rama and Lakshmana have gone into exile
Bharata and Shatrugna are away in the kingdom of Ashwapata

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