Week 5 Story: Don't Betray Loved Ones

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful queen that was married to the most well-known king of all, Rama. Rama was the strongest of the strong and everyone knew it. Unfortunately, like the sword in the stone, people hearing that it would be impossible to destroy him only encouraged them to challenge him to a battle.

The king seemed to always be gone proving his strength while the queen was left at home. He loved her so dearly that he did not want to bring her along in fear of her getting harmed.

Eventually, the queen became sad and lonely. She missed when Rama would spend time with her and treat her like the royal queen she is.

"It's time," whispered the evil king from the neighboring country with a smirk on his face.

Just as the queen finished sobbing over her loneliness in the royal garden, a man appeared. He complimented the queen as if she were dressed to go to a ball and presented flowers at her feet.

The queen suddenly felt as though her loneliness had been lifted and she couldn't help but smile.

After an hour of visiting, the evil king purposed a question to the queen, "What if you came back with me to my palace and never would have to be lonely again?"

The queen felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders with his offer. Not knowing how to tell Rama, the queen wrote a note expressing her love and sorrow to him, packed a bag, and left with the evil king before Rama returned. 

Little did the queen know, her letter had been replaced by the evil king. Instead, Rama came home to a note that read, "Finders keepers, losers weepers."

Enraged with anger, Rama hopped on his horse and headed towards the evil king's palace as he knew no one else would dare approach his queen but him.

Once Rama arrived, he saw his queen laughing and smiling from the gates and could not help but shed a tear. He loved her so much and she betrayed him for a man of no good.

Rama pulled himself together and stormed into the palace. Within minutes, the evil king was laying in a pool of his own blood and his queen was on the back of his horse in tears as they rode home.

"This should make you think again the next time you want to betray the one who loves you deeply," Rama said as he placed his queen in a prison cell with nothin but the letter from the evil king he had come home to.

(Photo from WikiMedia).

Author's Note:

In the original story, Sita was tricked into being kidnapped by Ravana, a Rackshasa. I changed that to her agreeing to leave with him and by taking out some of the mythological features of the story.

Ravana had Maricha disguise himself as a golden deer to catch Sita's eye. Rama knew that the Rakshasas usually take the form of deer for this reason. He immediately assumed that it was a set-up to draw Sita in and went about what he had to in order to slay the deer. 

In the chase, the deer was wounded and Sita hears the deer's cries in the voice of Rama and goes to try and save him.
Ravana was watching and waiting for Lakshmana, Ravan's brother, to leave Sita on her own so he could sneak towards her. Ravana was in disguise and Sita did not know this. She took his compliments until he began to ask her to leave with him to his kingdom. This shows her loyalty to Rama. Still, Ravana snatched her away. 
Sita calls out to Rama and Lakshmana telling them they she has been stolen by Ravana. Jatayu, a vulture heard Sita and awoke from sleep to go and try to stop Ravana from continuing on as he warned him that Rama would kill him. Jatayu took it upon himself when Ravana refused. He fought until the sky-faring car fell from the sky and Sita landed on his lap. But, Ravana still defeated him once on the ground and continued on with Sita.
Once in Lanka, Sita was stuck in the palace of the demon king. Ravana continued to try and impress Sita, but she refused to accept any of his words. She told Ravana that she would rather die than gratify him by becoming his wife.
In Rama and Jatayu, Rama returned to the hut where Sita had been and found it empty. He immediately knew she had been taken away, but did not know where she was taken to go save her. Rama and Lakshmana searched everywhere for Sita. Eventually, they crossed paths with Jatayu as he lay dying and he told them where to find Sita.

Rayamana, Part B. Sources used: M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder.