When Dasaratha was a young man, long before his ascension
to the throne, he loved to hunt in the local forest. He enjoyed the pleasure of
bringing back various trophies, at which his friends and family would marvel.
One day, when Dasaratha was hunting in the forest, he heard what he perceived to
be the sound of an elephant drinking from a nearby stream. Dasaratha had never
seen an elephant in the forest, and knew that ivory would make for an excellent
trophy. In his excitement, Dasaratha hastily strung his bow and fired an arrow
over the small hill that lied between him and the stream. Much to his dismay,
Dasaratha’s arrow was received with the cry of a young boy. Upon hearing the
cry, Dasaratha abandoned his bow and raced over the hill. Dasaratha reached the
boy just in time to hear his final request. The boy told him about his parents,
who were old and blind, and requested that Dasaratha return to them with the
pitcher of water that he was fetching. Dasaratha gave the boy a proper burial
and set out in search of the elderly couple.
(King Dasaratha with his bow: Revealing Illusions of Maya)
When he arrived at the small hut that the young boy had
described, Dasaratha let himself in, as he knew that the boy’s parents were
blind. “Son, is that you?” the couple inquired. “I am afraid not,” replied
Dasaratha. “My name is Dasaratha. I am a hunter from the local forest, and I
have returned with your pitcher of water.” “We appreciate this act, but where is
our son?” The couple sounded worried. Dasaratha could not bring himself to
speak; he fell to his knees and wept. “Where is our son?” the couple insisted. Dasaratha
described the events that had transpired, and offered his most sincere
apologies. “Do you understand the implications of what you have done? Our son
is our eyes and our legs. Without him, we are nothing. We cannot see, we cannot
eat. By killing him, you have taken our lives as well. With this, our dying
breath, we wish upon you this same fate. May your son be taken from you, and
may the pain that you suffer be your demise.” Before Dasaratha could intercede,
the couple took one another by the hand and left this world.
Hey, Austin! I totally agree with what you said about this area of our epic being underdeveloped and I appreciate how you chose this story (even though it wasn't the most popular) to add in more details and try to "fill in the gaps" to create a more vivid re-telling of the story. You're a very talented writer and I look forward to reading more of your work in the future!
ReplyDeleteI like that you chose to give a sort of 'prequel' to the events of the Ramayana, using a story that is just briefly mentioned in the epic. I think you could have gone even farther and been more creative in your retelling, perhaps by describing the events more and making more of a full, compelling story out of it. I thought you did a good job of taking the clues from the brief story to imagine what the characters would say.
ReplyDeleteI also like that you decided to take a story which we did not really have much information about and chose to turn it into a more fully developed tale. The great part about this tale is that only the bare backbones were provided in Narayan's retelling of "The Ramayana," allowing you to take a lot of creative license with the plot. However, that being said, I wish that you had gone farther into the details and emotions the characters felt in the tale, evoking more interest.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, you did a fantastic job with this story! I especially like how you explained the parents' deaths upon the death of their son, and the way you foreshadowed what would happen when Dasaratha lost his own son. Great work!
I like the emotion Dasaratha expressed when he confronted the parents. I wish you had gone into a little bit more detail with it, though. You could've also told us who the boy was, besides just the son of two blind people. What was he thinking that day before he died? You did a good job in taking a story that took up about two sentences in the book and expanding it into a whole story, though!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job with this story Austin. I think the fact that you left out somethings is s strength, because the the ramayana you have given us just enough information to allow our imagination to do the rest, which allows another retelling of the story. Also, the best part of this is that it is from an extremely underdeveloped part of the story so by reading your story we are given so new details to the story, so not only have you allowed us to change your story but you have done the same by allowing us to change the ramayana as well if that makes sense.
ReplyDelete