Week 3 Story: The Rakshasas of Texas Continued

King Janak finds Sita in the furrow

Here is The Rakshasas of Texas continued, if you haven't read my week 2 post you may be a little lost. No worries skim through my first story post and then this week's will make more sense.

Daddy: "Hey princess! What do you want to listen to today?" 

Little 6 year old: "Will tell me more about Gibbs?"

Daddy: "Oh, let's see, where did we leave off last week?"

Little 6 year old: "Oh daddy it was that part about the sage cursing the Rakshasas."

Daddy: "Oh yes, okay let me tell you a little more about Gibbs and her previous birth. Many centuries ago during the time of kings and queens, there were two well known kingdoms Janakpuri and Kosala. King Dasharatha ruled over the kingdom of Kosala, while King Janak ruled over Janakpuri. King Dashratha had 4 sons, Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, Shatrughna. These four sons were born after many prayers and yagnas being held, they all were the heart and soul of all of Ayodhya, especially Rama. King D had 3 wives and all of them got along so well that they never thought of each other's sons anything less than their own. Under the wing of Sage Viswamithra Rama and Lakshmana are taken to Janakpuri where it is love at first site for Ram and Sita. 

Sita, was the daughter of Earth, she was found in the furrow of a field being plowed. King Janak took her in and raised her as his known. He knew she was special and after numerous attempts in trying to find a suitable groom, King Janak decreed that whomever could bend, string, and pull the ancestral bow of Shiva shall be the groom of Sita."

Little 6 year old: "Wow daddy are you going to do that for my wedding?"

Daddy: "Honey, remember when I said many centuries ago, we have different traditions now. Now, let's get back to the bow. In an attempt to find the groom a competition was held and lucky for King J, the sage had decided long ago that Rama and Lakshmana would be taken to this event. Okay, listen to this, we are now in the court of King J, in comes Ram and his brother along with sage. Everyone is amazed by the beauty of the two brothers, but listen to me and hear how respectful Ram is. Before taking a chance at the bow on King J's insistence, but he asks Sage Viswamithra for permission to proceed. As fast as the speed of light Ram had strung the bow, but with a few seconds the bow breaks. In come Sita and her sister to congratulate Ram of winning the competition. The four brothers married the four daughters of King Janak and left for home after having a huge wedding with elephants, horses, and thousands of guests. Back home everyone ecstatic at hearing that Ram's coronation is soon. 

But you know so people become jealous and that is not good. There was this one lady in particular who went around turning good people evil. 

Little 6 year old: "What's her name?"

Daddy: "She was called Kooni, but her real name is Manthra. She really was not that bad, but money, power, and ego can all make a person do bad things. Because of her one day Ram was told to live in the forest for 14 years, with Ram went his wife Sita and brother Lakshman. Sita, a girl who grew up in a palace, playing with dolls and her sisters in the palace garden like you do. She lived with air conditioning at home and had a pretty horse too. But she stood by her husband's side and took on the life of a person with nothing. You know how I showed you those poor people living in the mud and grass houses?"

Little 6 year old: "Yeah! You said that was how Sitama lived with Ram and Lakshman."

Daddy: "You remember, Sita never once complained about the troubles, she learned to adapt."

Little 6 year old: "What does adapt mean?"

Daddy: "Adapt means that you fit in anywhere, you change and learn to mix with any situation you are in. Sita was the daughter of Earth and was born to assist Ram in his quest to kill the Rakshasas of Lanka."

To be continued...

Authors note: I chose to continue the original story from my first story post, but this time I chose to bring the the history behind Gibbs. Since we are reading the Ramayana right now I wanted to portray Gibbs as the reincarnation of Sita so I wanted to start from the beginning and make Sita the main character by emphasizing her characteristics that make her the daughter of Earth. N.K. Narayan's version of the Ramayan is very similar to the my narration above, except he does not mention King J having other daughters except Sita, and I chose to omit the parts King D dying, the city in deep sorrow from the loss of Rama and how Bharat refuses the throne. I also did not include the stories that Sage Viswamithra about Thatka, Mahabali, Ganga, and Ahalya.

Bibliography. Ramayana by N.K. Narayan, online pdf.