Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Storytelling Week 12: Ancestors of Rama

Raghu, the great grandfather of Rama, sent his son Aja to Vidarbha to compete for a wife. Her name was Indumati. On his way to Vidarbha, a fierce elephant attacked Aja. After a long battle Aja finally came out victorious and delivered the final blow. A burst of bright light shot out of the elephant and its form changed to that of a gandharva (celestial musician). The celestial musician was impressed by Aja’s combat skills and offered him a gift.  The gandharva said, “This magical spear is a celestial weapon. It will help you in your future conquests. Good luck.” Aja thanked the gandharva and continued his journey to Vidarbha.

Aja finally arrived at the city of Vidarbha. He made his way to the bride and noticed that many suitors were trying to court her. Princess Indumati announced that there would be a huge competition where the suitors would have to fight for her hand in marriage. She said that each suitor would get one weapon of choice, and would have to be the last man standing in the arena if they wanted to secure their prize. Each contestant will fight one on one in a tournament style. The way to win is to either push your opponent outside of the ring or to keep them down for ten seconds.

All of the suitors were excited for the tournament. They each selected their weapons and prepared themselves for the fight. The first couple of rounds were very easy for Aja. He did not even have to rely on his magical spear. He used hand-to-hand combat and overwhelmed his opponents with his speed and strength. After many battles Aja secured himself a spot in the final match. Princess Indumati said the final battle will take place the next day. She gave Aja and his opponent a room and some food to for the night.

The next day was filled with excitement. Everyone in the whole city gathered at the arena to watch the two fierce competitors battle it out. The bell rung and the fight began.

“Before we start this fight I would like to introduce myself. I am Aja, son of Raghu, from the Kingdom of Ayodhya. Prepare yourself,” Aja screamed.

“I am Rizwan from the Kingdom of Lanka. Sumali is my cousin. It is you who is going to have to prepare yourself,” Rizwan screamed.

The two warriors began to fight the serious battle. They were even fighters matching each other in every strike. At one point in the battle Aja, almost succeeded in throwing Rizwan outside of the ring. Rizwan plunged his sword into the edge of the ring and used it to stay in bounds.

“You are going to try to defeat me off of that cheap tactic? I will destroy the ring,” Rizwan said as he jumped up into the air and delivered an earthshaking punch right in the center of the ring. The ring disintegrated at the sheer force of the blow.

“Now we will fight like real warriors! You will die now,” Rizwan cried.

The two warriors fought with all their might. The battle went on for hours and neither of them would let up. They began to rely heavily on their weapons towards the end of the battle. At one point Aja’s spear and Rizwan’s sword clashed. The two warriors pushed back and fourth at each other but neither one would give in. Aja gave one final push with all of his strength and knocked the sword out of Rizwan’s hand. Aja was about to claim the finishing blow on Rizwan but decided to spare his life.

“You are a great warrior, and I enjoyed this fight very much. I will spare your life,” Aja said. He turned his back to Rizwan and began to walk away. Rizwan grabbed his sword that was lying on the ground next to him and hurled it at Aja’s head. Aja’s spear began to glow with a bright light. The light enveloped Aja, and caused the sword to redirect its path to Rizwan. The sword pierced Rizwan’s body and delivered a lethal strike.

Aja looked into the sky said a silent thankyou to the gandharva that gave him the spear. The whole crowd began to cheer for Aja as he claimed his bride. Aja and Indumati made there way to Ayodhya where they lived happily ever after.

One of Rizwan’s messengers went back to Lanka to deliver the bad news. “Hahaha, little Rizwan was defeated by the likes of a mere human. Serves him right for being so cocky all the time. I can’t believe that he is so weak. Curse the day that another human brings shame to our great rakshasha lineage,” Sumali laughed as he sipped on his tea.
This is a picture of the comic book that the story was based off of.

Author’s Note:
In the original story, Aja wins the spear from the gandharva elephant as I described in my version. Aja is chosen by the bride to be her husband and they make way for Ayodhya. On the way home a group of jealous princes attack the couple but are quickly put down by Aja. In my version I wanted to make the suitors fight for Indumati’s love. I thought it would be interesting to bring in a made up relative of Ravana’s to compete for Indumati’s hand in marriage. This would add more history to the conflict between Ravana’s family, and Rama’s family. At the end of the story I made Sumali laugh off the event like it was no big deal. This part of my story was meant to show irony.

Author: Amar Chitra Katha
Year: 1977

Title: Ancestors of Rama

2 comments:

  1. I was engaged then entire read through. It flowed really well! That's an great comic. I might have to read it to find out more. I could see what you meant by making it another wife battle. Those styles of competition tend to happen often in these storylines. Great story and great retelling. There were some good twists and there and I was able to read it without any real grammar mistakes popping out.

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  2. That was a great story and I really enjoy reading your type of writing. It reads very well and your formatting of the text helps. I liked the note you included in your Author's Note that pointed out the irony you had in your story. I have not read any of the comics yet, but I do feel like I should check out at least one before the end of class.

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