Episode 79 – You Light Up My Life – Myths Your Teacher Hated

Episode 79 Show Notes

Source: Hindu Mythology

This week on MYTH, we’re going to be just a little bit late to the Festival of Lights. You’ll see that shoes make a good king, that you should stay behind the magic line, and that monkey kaiju are powerful. Then, in Gods and Monsters, you’ll learn how milk, tortoises, snakes, and mountains make a goddess. This is the Myths Your Teacher Hated podcast, where I tell the stories of cultures from around the world in all of their original, bloody, uncensored glory. Modern tellings of these stories have become dry and dusty, but I’ll be trying to breathe new life into them. This is Episode 79, “You Light Up My Life”. As always, this episode is not safe for work.
The festival of Diwali has just wrapped up, but here on the MYTH podcast, the fun is going to last a little longer. It is a festival of lights celebrated by a number of cultures, including Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and some Buddhists. There are a lot of stories and local traditions wrapped up in the great festival (one of the major celebrations in the region), so today’s episode is going to focus on one of the most common ones: Lord Rama’s return with his wife and brother after 14 years of exile. The Gods and Monsters segment will focus on one of the central figures of the festival – Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity and good fortune.
Much of the story of Lord Rama comes from the Ramayana which, along with the Mahabharata, is one of the two major surviving Sanskrit epics from ancient India. Scholars estimate that parts of the epic text date back to the 7th century BCE while the later sections date to at least the 3rd century BCE. Even the newest sections are very, very old and there are many versions and adaptations of the story. The Ramayana narrates the full life of the legendary Rama, prince of Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala. It’s a massive epic, but we’re going to focus on the parts relevant to the festival of lights.
Long, long ago, the wise King Dasharatha ruled over the kingdom of Ayodhya on the banks of the river Sarayu. He had three wives: Kaushalya, Kaikeyi, and Sumitra, but he did not have a son to succeed the throne. The king consulted with the chief priest Vasishta, who advised Dasharatha to conduct a fire ceremony, a sacrifice known as Putra-kameshti Yajna, to obtain a boon from the gods. The king saw the wisdom in this advice and performed the fire ceremony, pleasing the gods. One of them appeared to the king in the flames and offered him a pot full of golden nectar, telling Dasharatha to share this with his three queens.
Sure enough, the magical nectar did the trick and all three queens became pregnant, each giving birth to a son. Kausalya bore Rama first, then Kaikeyi had Bharatha, and Sumitra had twins – Lakshmana and Shatrughan. The king and his kingdom rejoice at this great fortune bestowed upon them. It soon became apparent that all four of the young princes were clever and good natured boys who all loved each other, but there was always a particularly strong bond between Rama and Lakshmana. I would have guessed that Lakshmana and Shatrughan would have had a special bond, what with being twins and all, but that’s not how it went down. All were also endowed to varying degrees with the essence of the Supreme Trinity Entity Vishnu (who is part of the triple deity that includes Brahma and Shiva). A demon known as Ravana had been opposing the gods but he could only be defeated and destroyed by a mortal, so Vishnu elected to be born into mortality in the form of these four boys.
The demon Ravana had been born to a great sage known as Vishrava and his wife Kaikesi, a rakshasa princess (a shape-shifting monster and man-eater). Kaikesi’s father, Sumali king of the rakshasa, had decreed that she should be married to the most powerful being in the mortal world. After rejecting all of the kings of the earth for being too weak, he sought amongst the sages and eventually chose Vishrava. Thus, Ravana came into the world with a deadly monstrous heritage but also with a first-class education; he was said to be a great scholar of the Vedas.
Ravana and his two brothers Kumbhakarna and Vibishana had performed penances on Mount Gokarna for 11,000 years, earning each of them boons from the great god Brahma. Ravana was blessed with invincibility to all of creation except for humanity and was also granted weapons, a chariot, and the ability to shape-shift (which he apparently hasn’t inherited from his mom). He went on to overthrow his half-brother Kubera to become King of Lanka, appointing Shukracharya as his priest, learning the Arthashastra, or the science of politics, from him. At some point, he tries to lift Mount Kailash in Tibet, the home of the god Shiva. It’s godly occupant didn’t take kindly to that and so Shiva pushed the mountain down on top of the demon king, trapping him beneath it. Ravana, being clever, built a stringed instrument known as a veena out of his own flesh (often depicted with one of his many heads and hands as the body of the instrument and his tendons as the strings). For a thousand years, he sang hymns in praise of and became the most revered devotee to Shiva, who finally released him from his imprisonment and blessed him with an invincible sword and a powerful linga (an abstract shrine to Shiva) to worship.
In a different story, Ravana and his brother Kumbhakarna are said to be reincarnations of the gatekeepers Jaya and Vijaya, who we met back in Episode 55. As noted then, the two brothers had been gatekeepers for the god Vishnu and had refused entry to the Sanatha Kumara monks because they had appeared to be children. As punishment, they were given a choice – either be reborn seven times as normal mortals and devotees of Vishnu or be reborn three times as powerful enemies of Vishnu. Eager to return to service for their lord, they chose the latter. Ravana and his brother are the second incarnation of the powerful enemies of Vishnu that was foretold (after being defeated in their first incarnations in the story from Episode 55).
The four princes were, of course, raised as princes and received the best education that money and power could buy (which is a pretty damned good education), including instruction in scripture and warfare from Vashistha, the king’s chief priest. When Rama was 16, Sage Vishwamitra came to the court of Dasharatha seeking aid. Demons were harassing him and disturbing his sacrificial rites. The king agreed to help out the priest and decided this is a fine time to test his sons in a real-world situation. He chose out Rama and Lakshmana to set out on this small quest.
The main offender was a demoness known as Tataka, who had her own sad story. Her mother Suketu had been a yaksha, a nature spirit, who had been desperate to have a child so she performed a yaga and was blessed by Brahma. He said that Suketu would have a girl child who would have the strength of 1000 elephants, who was of course Tataka. She grew to a beautiful young woman and was married to Sunda (a rakshas), who was later killed by a curse from Agastya, a powerful sage and hermit. Enraged at the death of her husband and her son, Tataka had gone with her surviving son Mareecha for revenge. Instead of getting vengeance, the sage cursed Tataka, saying she would become an ugly, dangerous cannibal and transforming her into a ferocious demon who ravaged the land.
Before the two brothers set out, Vishwamitra instructs the two young men in the fine art of hunting demons before declaring them ready and giving them supernatural weapons. Rama was conflicted; the Shastra forbade the killing of women by warriors, so how could a sage ask him to kill a woman? Viswamitra sensed this hesitation and reminded Rama that the duties of a king included upholding dharma (or cosmic laws) and eliminating those who posed a threat to that dharma. A king could not afford to be blinded by mercy just because the person committing an atrocity happened to be a woman. Tataka had become evil and thus needed to be destroyed (debatable I think – wanting revenge on the man who killed her husband and child is understandable, and it’s the sage’s fault that she became a cannibal demon).
Rama however was convinced (kind of – his plan was to cut off her ears, nose, hands, and legs as some kind of fucked up mercy, because somehow that was better than killing her); he and Lakshmana set out into the forest looking for the cannibal demoness Tataka. He drew in a deep breath and let out a fierce cry of challenge, which terrified the forest animals but caught the attention of Tataka. The distorted form of the former yaksha crashed out from the thick trees, and the stout hearts of the two brave men quailed at the horrifying sight. Rama recovered his courage and leapt into battle with the demoness. The fight lasted for an hour and a half, driving up a huge cloud of dust over them. Tataka showered the two brothers with rocks and boulders, forcing the princes to dodge and weave nimbly before answering her barrage with a hail of arrows. Rama managed to sever her arms while Lakshmana cut off her ears and nose, enraging Tataka and forcing her to use her power to turn invisible.
Vishwamitra had warned Rama and Lakshmana that the nature spirit would grow stronger as twilight approached and had warned them not to hesitate just because she happened to be female. Rama realized that the demoness had gone invisible, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be found. He closed his eyes and listened carefully; his keen ears soon picked out the sound of her approach. He and his brother launched another rain of arrows at her approximate location, and more than a few found their mark. Bleeding and in a lot of pain, Tataka dropped the exhausting invisibility spell and launched herself at Rama in a furious charge, but the prince met her with a well-placed arrow that pierced her heart and dropped her dead at his feet.
Vishwamitra was pleased, as were the gods, by the brave acts of the two princes (though I personally still feel a little bad for Tataka, who had a hard go of things). Vishwamitra took the two young princes with him to the neighboring kingdom of Mithila, ruled by King Janaka. Years ago, the king had found a girl child lying in the deep furrow dug by his plough. Janaka had been overwhelmed with joy at this discovery and had named her Sita, the Sanskrit word for furrow, and proclaimed her a miraculous gift from the gods. She grew up as his daughter and turned out to be a young woman of unparalleled beauty, charm, and grace. As is so often the case in these kinds of stories, the king decided to hold a competition, with Sita’s hand in marriage as the prize. Much like with the epic Odyssey that we just finished, the test was to lift and string a great bow that had been presented to the king’s ancestors by Shiva himself. It was said that selfish individuals could not even approach the celestial weapon, nor could normal mortals lift it.
Many suitors had come from far and wide to try their hand at the challenge, but few could lift the massive bow and none could string and draw it. Vishwamitra, having seen the young princes in action, had a feeling that they (and especially Rama) were destined for something special. Sure enough, Rama approached the bow of Shiva, lifted it with ease, and then strung and drew it in one smooth motion. He drew the bow as far as it would go to test its strength and tautness, and the bowstring snapped under his hand. The sound of the breaking string resounded like thunder, shaking the very earth with its power. It was clearly a sign, and King Janaka happily wed his daughter Sita to Rama, and the two lived together happily for many years. In addition, Lakshmana was married to Janaka’s daughter Urmila, Bharata to Mandavi, and Shatrughan to Shrutakirti.
Years passed, and King Dasharatha grew older and began to think about his heir. Rama was the eldest and had proved himself a great warrior against Tataka, so the king selected him as the next king, which the Kosala assembly approved of. The people of Ayodhya loved Rama, and so all agreed that this was a wise choice. Well, all except for the king’s second wife Kaikeyi and, most especially, one of her maids. This particular maid, named Manthara, was jealous of Rama’s position. She had spent her life serving Kaikeyi and her son Bharatha, and she wanted to see him become the king instead of Rama. Sure, he was the second born son, but why should that make him any less worthy? Manathara whispered poison into Kaikeyi’s ear (a convenient trope to lay the ultimate blame for the wicked deeds ahead at the feet of lowborn servants instead of the nobility).
At the maid’s prompting, Kaikeyi went to her husband to cash in the two boons he had promised her years ago. Her first request was for Dasharatha to send Rama away into the forest in exile for 14 years and the second was to make Bharatha king in his place. The king was heartbroken by this decision, but he had given his solemn word and since he couldn’t convince his wife to take back her request, he was honor-bound to obey her demands. Rama took the news of his exile and loss of the throne stoically, his bearing calm and self-controlled. Without complaint or hesitation, Prince Rama packed his things and left for the forest. His wife Sita began packing as well. He told her that this burden was his to bear and that she didn’t need to leave the comforts of the palace to go rough it in the woods with him – only he had been exiled. She snorted and told him that the forest where he would be was all the palace she needed, and staying here in the palace without him would be like living in hell. His steadfast companion, his brother Lakshmana, also insists on going, and the three set out for their forest exile together.
Sita wasn’t the only one who felt that way about Rama’s departure – King Dasharatha found his grief at what he had be been forced to do to maintain his honor unbearable. He died soon thereafter of a broken heart. Bharatha had been out of the kingdom visiting his maternal uncle while all of this was going down. He’d had no idea that his mother was scheming to unseat his brother and was horrified by the news.
When he learned about the events in Ayodhya, he refused to profit from his mother’s wicked scheming; instead, he sent a message to his brother asking Rama to return and take his rightful place on the throne. For his part, Rama was every bit as prickly about his honor as his father had been and was determined to honor his promise to the late king. He would not return from exile until the full 14 year term had expired. Bharatha found himself in a bit of a pickle, but he found a very clever solution – rather than taking the throne himself, he found a pair of Rama’s sandals that had been left at the palace and set them on the throne as a placeholder for the rightful king. Bharatha himself would rule while Rama was in exile, but only as regent. Rama’s place on the throne would be maintained until he made his triumphal return.
For the next 13 years, Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana lived in the rugged splendor of the forest, with Lakshmana using mystical rites to stay awake during this entire period so that his brother and sister-in-law were never undefended, initially journeying southward along the banks of the Godavari river to a pleasant spot where they built themselves a cabin. There, they had running water and access to plenty of plants to harvest and animals to hunt, allowing them to live off the land in the Panchavati forest. Things went well until, one day, a rakshasi named Surpanakha, the sister of Ravana, came by the little cabin to visit.
Surpanakha took one look at the handsome Rama and fell head over talons in lust and decided that they should be married. The fact that he was already married to Sita who was, you know, right the fuck there, didn’t seem to enter into things. She tried to seduce Rama, but he was a good man and loyal to his wife, so he refused the rakshasi’s advances. Frustrated but still horny, she moved on to Laskshmana. Unfortunately, the younger brother is also married and even though his wife elected to stay behind in the comfort of the city rather than risk needless exile, he too is faithful to his vows and refuses (being the demoness’s clear second choice probably didn’t help much either). Surpanakha, being a motherfucking monster, didn’t take kindly to being spurned twice in a row by mere mortals. She screeched in fury and charged towards Sita, intent on murdering her in vengeance for her hurt feelings for not being able to seduce married men. This time, what comes next is definitely on her.
Lakshmana intervenes, cutting off the rakshasi’ ears and nose (quickly becoming his signature move), which forces Surpanakha to retreat. She goes to her brothers Khara and Dushan and asks them to help her get revenge on the men who have mutilated her face. While technically true, this is hardly an accurate accounting of what happened, but what can you expect from a demon? Her brothers are outraged by the awful abuses of these two mortal shitstains and Dushan sends a small mob rushing off to avenge their sister’s honor, gathering thirteen more demons to help him out along the way.
Together, the 14 demons swarm around the cabin in the woods where Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana live. Rama steps out to greet the assembled monsters and warns them that this is a bad idea for them – it’s not too late to turn around and walk away. Surpanakha transgressed, she was punished, and all was square. If the assembled demons attacked, then the two princes would have no choice but to destroy them all. The demons laughed at this clear bravado, drew their lances, and hurled them at the two mortals in a deadly hail.
Rama sighed, drew his bow, and proceeded to shred all of the lances hurtling towards him with a single golden arrow apiece. The rakshasas stood there in silent shock as all 14 lances exploded harmlessly around the prince. Rama then drew 14 iron bolts and, in a blur of motion, fired all 14 into the chests of the assembled demons. The iron bolts were fired with such speed and power that none of the rakshasas had time to even flinch before the sharpened metal plunged into their ribs and exploded out their backs in a shower of gore and viscera to embed their bloody tips in the earth.
Surpanakha screamed with rage as she watched what she had thought were her avengers fall dead and cold to the bloody earth. She knew she was outclassed, but she had another ace up her sleeve – her other brother Khara. She fled Panchavati forest and raced to Trikantaka, the capital of Khara, and reported to him all that had transpired, especially the pile of dead demons. She begs her brother to avenge her and all of the slain with a war on the two princes. Khara didn’t take much convincing (especially since his brother was dead now) and soon set out with an army of 14,000 demons and monsters, a thousand times what his brother had taken to really up the stakes.
There were several unspecified bad omens along the march, but Khara’s bloodlust was up and he wasn’t going to stop until Rama was dead. For his part, all of Rama’s omens were good but he was still worried about the sheer numbers they were going to be facing. A single stray arrow could end the life of his beloved wife, and that was a risk he wasn’t willing to take. Rama asked Sita and Lakshmana to find a cave where they can be safe and an army can’t possibly swarm them. They did as Rama wished, finding an impassable cave whose entrance was narrow and could be defended by one good warrior against thousands.
Once the people he cared most about were safely away, Rama drew his bow and prepared for battle. His wrath began to grow until it is described as being the wrath of Lord Shiva himself. As the army approaches, he gives a loud warning shout to give them a chance to come to their senses and retreat. Naturally, Khara and his army are in no mood to hear calls for retreat – they have 14,000 against one lone warrior. How could they possibly lose? Using a chant taught to him by Vishwamitra, Rama summons the gandharva astra or missile of Shiva and fires it at the enemy along with a hail of arrows. The army is devastated, laid to waste by the destructive combination. Only Khara and his chief Trishira remain of the demonic force of Janasthaana. Khara looked out over the devastation and his defeated army in shock. He realizes how this is probably going to end, but he’s too proud to back down now. He marches towards the final confrontation with Rama.
Trishira, who had three heads, races out ahead to fight the mortal prince first. Unlike everyone else we’ve seen, this demon manages to actually strike Rama with several arrows. The prince smiles viciously and says that the demon’s arrows are no worse than having flowers thrown at him. Rama then draws his own cosmic bow and annihilates the demon captain with ease. Trishira was dead, and only Khara stood against the mortal prince.
Khara watched his last ally fall, took a deep breath, and charged into his own certain doom. The fight drags on as Khara is a closer match for Rama than any of his other opponents have been. He manages to destroy pieces of Rama’s armor with his blow, but Rama gets plenty of shots of his own and destroys Khara’s chariot. Both opponents are exhausted and looking for an opening. Khara found his first – in a flash, he drew an arrow and fired not at Rama, but at his cosmic bow. The arrow hits at the thickest part of the wood, knocking it from Rama’s hands. Khara followed up by driving seven more arrows into critical parts of Rama’s remaining armor. While his opponent was stunned, the demon fired a thousand more arrows at Rama.
Infuriated, Rama grabbed the Vishnu bow from the ground and released six well-aimed arrows at the rakshasa: one to the head, two to each hand, and one to the chest. He then unleashed a series of different magical arrows on Khara, destroying his body and leaving him dying in the dust. Rama walked softly over to the bleeding demon and gave him one last chance to surrender and live. He gives a long speech about the evils of causing suffering and using your armies to perform heinous deeds, but Khara is unmoved. He will not surrender, now or ever. Death first. In a last ditch effort of desperation, he hurls his mace at Rama’s head with such force that the wind of its passage tore trees up by the roots. Rama met force with force, smashing the mace to bits with a nonstop stream of magical arrows. Khara uprooted a massive tree and hurled that at Rama, but to no avail. Finally, out of weapons, Khara charged Rama himself, but Rama put a ritual fire arrow through the heart of the rakshasa and the great demon finally dropped to the cold earth and moved no more.
From their high mountain cave, Sita and Lakshmana saw Rama’s great feat and smiled in pride. Elsewhere, the rakshasi Surpanakha also saw the carnage of her brothers and their army and she wept bitter tears. Rather than take the L and go home, the demoness’ desire for revenge only burned higher than ever. Two of her brothers were dead at the hands of these fucking mortals! They needed to pay. It was time to call in her last, best hope – her brother Ravana.
She went to see the King of Lanka and told him a version of all that had transpired and of the mortals who had insulted her and brutally murdered their brothers. Ravana listened to his sister and he found himself also burning with a cold fury at the losses his family had suffered. Ravana was a better tactician than his brothers had been, and he wasn’t about to launch another futile frontal assault against a clearly capable enemy. Having heard the story of Rama challenging the 14,000 alone, Ravana quickly realized that Rama’s greatest weakness was his love for Sita. He therefore crafted a plan to kidnap Sita and use her as bait to destroy Rama.
Ravana reached out to his uncle Maricha and asked him to captivate Sita and lure her away from the protection of the two deadly princes. To accomplish this, Maricha transforms himself into a beautiful golden deer and ambles over to their home in the woods. Sita sees this magnificent creature and is immediately captivated by the sight of it. Having more sense than a lot of similar characters in similar situations, Sita is aware of how dangerous the forest is and does not go rushing off headlong into danger. Instead, she asks her powerful, deadly husband to capture it for her instead. Rama has a gut intuition that this is some kind of ploy on the part of the demons but he cannot dissuade his wife from her desire. Being a loving husband, he sighs and sets out into the woods to capture the golden deer, leaving Lakshmana behind to keep Sita safe.
Maricha led Rama on a merry chase through the woods but, having gotten him onto the scent, the demon couldn’t manage to shake the prince. After a wild hunt, Rama catches up to the disguised Maricha and puts an arrow through his ribs. Dying, the demon plays his part to the hilt. Maricha uses the last of his power to call out for help in Rama’s voice, begging Lakshmana to come to his aid, that he had been ambushed by demons. Lakshmana was torn between helping his brother and best friend and staying with Sita to honor his promise. Sita tilts the balance by begging Lakshmana to go and help Rama, terrified that she has put him in danger. Lakshmana reminds Sita that Rama is hardy and that he cannot be easily hurt, but Sita insists and he relents. The younger prince draws a magical line around the cottage known as a rekha; it creates a magical boundary that prevents anyone from entering but allows people to exit. Sita is not to cross that line or leave the cottage for any reason whatsoever. Satisfied that he has left Sita in as safe a condition as he possibly can, Lakshmana rushed off into the woods after Rama.
Naturally, this is all part of the ruse (although it’s unclear if Maricha’s death was always part of the plan or if that was just an unexpected bit of bad luck). Ravana has been lurking in the woods watching the cabin. Once the coast was clear and both brothers were too far away to be of any help to Sita, he transformed himself into a withered old hermit and wandered out of the woods. He saw the beautiful young woman in the isolated cabin in the woods and approached hesitantly. He begged her to allow him inside to get off his feet a moment and maybe get a bit to eat and a bit of water. It was dangerous out here and they were far from civilization, so he had been many days without food.
Sita tried to explain about the magical line and that he couldn’t physically come inside, but the hermit feigned confusion and continued to ask her for help, for food. He was starving, didn’t she have a heart? As we’ve seen before, hospitality is a Big Deal in the ancient world and the hermit’s anger and confusion got under her skin. Sita felt bad about having to turn down a poor beggar in need, and so she grabbed up some spare food from the cabin and headed out to meet the beggar. Heedless of Lakshmana’s warning, she crossed the one-way magical line and became vulnerable.
As soon as she was beyond the magical barrier, Ravana dropped his disguise, snatched Sita up, and flew away to Lanka with the princess in tow. As they soared above the forest, Sita cried out for help. Ravana ignored her, certain that they were too far away from Rama and Lakshmana for either to get involved. He was right, but Sita had made friends with others in the forest over the last 13 years and Jatayu, King of the Eagles (or of the Vultures in some versions), soared out of the clouds to try and intercept. He raked Ravana with his talons, but the terrible demon whirled on the giant bird and ripped into his chest. Blood and feathers flew everywhere, and with a harsh scream, Jatayu spiraled down to the earth, mortally wounded.
Ravana carries Sita away to Lanka and places her under the guard of rakshasas. He asks the beautiful princess to marry him, but Sita refuses. As the demon already knows, she’s very much already married to Rama. She’s loyal to her vows and devoted to her husband. Nothing is going to make her abandon Rama. Not ever.
Back in the forest, Rama and Lakshama finally meet up and swap stories. Both quickly realize that they’ve been had and rush back to the cabin to find it empty. Sita is gone. They set out immediately in pursuit and find the dying Jatayu, who tells his old friends that Sita has been kidnapped by the demon king of Lanka. Thanking Jatayu for his information and assistance, they set out at once in pursuit. They meet a demon named Kabandha, a headless torso whose eyes and mouth are set into his chest and stomach as a result of a curse from Indra, king of heaven. The two brothers kill the carnivorous demon and cremate his corpse, freeing the cursed rakshasa and restoring him to his Gandharva form. In thanks, he points the brothers towards the Rishyamukha mountain where the exiled monkey-chief Sugriva is hiding. The resurrected Kabandha tells Rama that it would be beneficial to form an alliance with Sugriva for help in tracking down Sita.
Rama and Lakshmana traveled high into the peaks of Rishyamukha mountain to find Sugriva, the younger brother of Vali who ruled the ape kingdom of Kishkindha. A rampaging demon named Maayaavi had come to the gates of the kingdom and challenged Vali to a fight. Vali, an honorable ruler, had charged out to meet his foe, who had fled in terror at the sight and sought refuge in a cave. Not wanting to have to worry about this demon coming back a second time, Vali took his younger brother in pursuit. When they reached the deep cave, Vali entered but told Sugriva to wait for him at the surface.
Time passed and soon, Sugriva heard pained shouts echoing from deep inside the cave. Worse, blood began to run in a small rivulet from somewhere deep inside. Sugriva knew that his brother had been killed by Maayaavi, leaving him with little choice. His heart heavy, he rolled a massive boulder across the entrance of the cave, trapping his brother’s murderer inside. He returned to Kishkindha and took the throne as his brother’s successor.
As it turned out, Vali had actually survived the encounter and killed the demon, though he had been gravely wounded in the fight. It took him some time to move the boulder trapping him inside the cave, but he was strong and determined and he eventually escaped. Making his way back to his kingdom, Vali saw his brother seated on his throne and, remembering the boulder trapping him with the demon, he reached the fairly reasonable conclusion that his brother had betrayed him. Sugriva, shocked to see his beloved brother alive, tried to explain what had happened, but Vali didn’t believe a word of it. He exiled his brother from the kingdom for the attempted coup and forcibly took Sugriva’s wife Ruma as his own bride (his second, since he was already married to Tara). Sugriva had felt bad about what had happened to his brother, but the combination of exile and the mistreatment of his wife (which is where Vali loses my sympathy) angered him; the brothers soon became bitter enemies. Since Vali could not tread on Rishyamukha (he had been cursed by Sage Mathanga to die if he ever set foot on the mountain), it was there that Sugriva made his home.
Rama was sympathetic to Sugriva’s plight (especially since he was also trying to save his kidnapped wife) and they promised to help each other. Together, they set out for the kingdom of Kishkindha. Rama hung back in the shadows out of sight while Sugriva howled a challenge to his brother. Vali screamed back in wordless answer and rushed out to do battle with his hated enemy. They fought with rocks and trees and fists and teeth, but each was a match for the other and neither brother could gain the upper hand. Worse, the two were nearly identical twins, and in the fury of their combat, Rama could not figure out who was who. They were locked in a stalemate until Sugriva’s councilor Hanuman risked his life to place a garland of flowers around Sugriva’s neck. Now able to distinguish them, Rama stepped forward, drew his bow, and launched an arrow through Vali’s heart. With his brother dead, Sugriva reclaims his throne and frees his wife Ruma while also claiming Vali’s widow Tara as his second wife.
Sugriva immediately proves himself no better than his brother and ignores his promise to Rama and Lakshmana, instead spending his time enjoying his newfound power. Enraged, Lakshmana rampages through the city threatening to destroy it brick by brick. The former ape queen Tara steps in and calms Lakshmana down, promising to intervene and convince her new husband to honor his vow. Lakshmana agrees to stay his hand until Tara can make her case. The clever ape queen is able to get through to Sugriva and convince him that it is in everyone’s best interest to help Rama. He orders his army to spread out across the four corners of the earth to look for Ravana and Sita so that Rama can rescue her.
There’s actually an entire epic (the Sundara Kanda) that centers around Hanuman’s adventures while searching for Sita, but they’re not entirely relevant here (and this episode is running long) so we’re going to very briefly summarize what happened.
The search parties from the north, east, and west return with no information, but the southern party (under leadership of Angada and Hanuman) learns from a vulture (or eagle) named Sampati (the elder brother of Jatayu from earlier) that Sita was taken to Lanka. Hanuman transformed himself into a fucking kaiju and just jumps across the sea to the island of Lanka. He faces a number of challenges while traveling through Lanka to find Sita, including facing a Gandharva kanya (a type of celestial being) who tests his abilities in the form of a demon and a mountain named Mainakudu who offers Hanuman a chance to rest (which he refuses because time is short).
Inside Lanka, he meets a demon who is the protector of all Lanka named Lankini. Hanuman fights with her, subduing her to gain entry into the heart of the island. This is especially hard for Lankini since she had earlier received a vision from the gods warning her that, when she was finally defeated, the end of Lanka was nigh. Hanuman sneaks into the capital city and spies on Ravana, locating Sita in the Ashoka grove. There, she is being wooed by Ravana and threatened by his rakshasas to marry the king of the demons and forsake Rama.
Hanuman waits until Sita is left alone in the grove and then he goes to her, reassuring her that he comes from Rama. As proof, he shows her Rama’s signet ring and offers to carry her back to her husband. Sita considers this offer, but eventually rejects it. Her understanding of dharma (or cosmic law) is that this is Rama’s quest to fulfill and it will not have the proper significance if Hanuman carries her to Rama instead of Rama coming to her. She was carried away behind Rama’s back, and the only way for Rama to restore his honor and avenge the insult is to save her himself. Hanuman is swayed by her passionate argument, and agrees to carry her answer back to Rama so that he can do what needs to be done.
Leaving Sita in the garden, Hanuman heads out to the city proper and begins to wreak havoc – destroying trees, ravaging buildings, and killing Ravana’s warriors. He draws enough attention from the kingdom that a huge force eventually converges on him. Hanuman allows himself to be captured and demands that he be taken to King Ravana personally. Given the scope of his destruction, the guards comply. He makes a bold speech to the demon king, denouncing him for his cowardly actions and demanding that he return Sita to her husband or risk Rama’ wrath. Ravana is unmoved, condemning Hanuman to death. He sets Hanuman’s tail on fire, intending to burn him alive, but the ape slips out of his ropes and leaps out of the prison. He then bounds from rooftop to rooftop, setting multiple fires throughout Ravana’s citadel before leaping back to the mainland. He rejoins the search party, who immediately sets out to find Rama and tell him the good news.
With a definitive location finally in hand, Rama and Lakshmana convince Sugriva to lend them a massive army. There, they meet Ravana’s outlaw brother Vibishana, who has deserted his brother’s evil army and agrees to join with Rama in his quest for righteous vengeance. The ape engineers Nala and Nila built a floating pontoon bridge from the mainland out to the isolated island of Lanka with stones that magically float on the water because they had Rama’s name written on them. Another story claims that each of the stones had been cursed to not be able to sink, forcing them to float and allow them to be built into a bridge. Either way, it held and the army marched across to invade the demon kingdom. Ravana has been anticipating this ever since Hanuman escaped his death sentence and met the ape army with a demon army.
A lengthy, bloody war ensues with thousands dying on both sides but Rama’s army is slowly gaining the upper hand. In desperation, Ravana summoned his younger brother Kumbhakarna who had a habit of sleeping for six months at a time thanks to interference from Indra when he asked a boon from Brahma. The goddess Saraswati had tied his tongue at the perfect moment so that instead of asking for Indrasana (the throne of Indra), he asked for Nindraasana (the bed for sleeping). Ravana walks a thousand elephants over his sleeping form to wake him from his enchanted sleep early. He tried to convince Ravana that he was in the wrong in this situation, but ultimately decides to fight out of loyalty to his brother. He eats a mountain of food to power his giant form back up after his most recent snooze before charging headlong onto the battlefield, striking terror into the ape forces (he had previously fought and defeated Indra, the king of the gods). He ravaged the ape warriors, killing and eating many of them. Sensing the hesitation in his army, Rama leapt to the front lines and took on Kumbhakarna himself in single combat, eventually killing him.
More desperate than ever, Ravana sent in his own son Indrajit, widely considered to be one of the greatest warriors of the Hindu sagas. When he had been born, Ravana (a great astronomer) commanded all of the planets and constellations into a favorable alignment to try and make Indrajit immortal. All of the planets feared Ravana and did as he asked except for Shani (Saturn), which had disobeyed and allowed Indrajit (who was born under the name Meghanada or thunderous lord of the sky because his birth cry was said to have echoed through the heavens like thunder) to have some mortal vulnerability. When Ravana had waged war against Indra and the Devas in ages past, Indrajit had led the effort to rescue his father after he was captured. He had single-handedly defeated the devas and even Indra himself, tying the king of the heavens up and dragging him away in his chariot to Lanka. Ravana and Indrajit had decided to kill Indra until Lord Brahma had intervened and asked Indrajit to free the captured king in exchange for a boon. He had asked for immortality to try and bolster his father’s near failure, but Brahma had refused, saying that true immortality was against the laws of nature. Instead, after completing the Yagna (fire ceremony) for Prathyangira, he would be granted a celestial chariot that would leave him invulnerable during war while mounted on it. It was Brahma who coined the name Indrajit, or conqueror of Indra, in honor of his valor during the Deva war. Brahma also promised Indrajit that he could only be killed by a common mortal who hadn’t slept in 14 years (which sounded almost as good as out and out immortality).
On his first day of combat, he had ridden out with the army and met Angada (Hanuman’s second in command). The fighting was fierce, but Angada finally forced Indrajit to retreat, but not before wiping out most of Sugriva’s army. As he retreated, he laid a trap for Rama and Lakshmana, drawing them out into open conflict with his illusion magic to avenge the death of his uncle and several brothers who had already perished in the fighting. The two princes fell prey to his Nagapash, a trap made of a million snakes, stunning them and dropping them breathless to the earth. They were rescued from certain death by Garuda (a legendary bird monster and uncle of Jatayu and Sampati) on orders from Hanuman, killing the serpent (Garuda is the mortal enemy of all snakes).
Indrajit soon learned that Rama and Lakshmana had survived the trap and been carried to safety, and he vowed to kill them both personally on the next day of battle. As morning dawned, he rode out and proceeded to smash the armies of Sugriva, reversing many of the gains from the earlier fighting. Lakshmana stepped into the gap to prevent the lines from buckling into a full retreat and challenged Indrajit. Using all of his skills with illusion and sorcery, Indrajit darted around the battlefield as quick as thought, constantly disappearing and reappearing right behind Lakshmana. The young prince struggled to keep up with his nigh-invisible foe, and took several arrows he wasn’t able to dodge in time. He summoned Vasavi Sakthi, the spear of heaven, and drove it through Lakshmana’s body, impaling him. He was bleeding out slowly, but Indrajit estimated that he would be dead by sunrise of the next morning.
Lucky for Lakshmana, Indrajit left him to suffer rather than dealing the coup de grace, allowing Hanuman to discover his plight. He brought the mountain Dronagiri from the Himalayan range to Lanka under the cover of darkness so that he could find a magical herb known as sanjivani high on the peak, the only cure for wounds from the Vasavi Sakthi. Lakshamana was cured of his grievous wounds and managed to survive the night.
When Indrajit learned that Lakshmana had once again managed to escape death, he was furious and went to perform the Yagna ceremony and obtain his celestial chariot. His uncle Vibhishana (who had defected to Rama’s side) learned of his nephew’s plan through spies and warned Rama of what would be coming on the third day of fighting with the son of Ravana. Lakshmana and Vibhisana challenged Indrajit to combat in the Yagna Agaar, a mystical place where weapons could not be touched. Instead, they fought with dueling Yagnas in a battle of will and faith, but Lakshmana and his armies are able to destroy Injarit’s, enraging him and causing him to storm out of the temple cave. Seeing his uncle at his mortal enemy’s side, he unleashed all of the power he had been conserving to try and punish this betrayal, but Lakshmana (acting on a warning he had received earlier from Kubera, god of wealth) was able to defend his ally.
This stunned Indrajit, and he had his first sinking realization that Lakshmana was more than a mere mortal prince. He realized that he and his father might be fucked, and he went back to the palace to ask Ravana to make peace with Rama. Blinded by pride and rage, Ravana accused his son of cowardice for having fled the battlefield (nevermind that he himself was safe in the palace). Indrajit’s pride was stung by this hurtful accusation, and he raged. Ravana realized that he had done fucked up and quickly apologized to his son for his hasty words. Indrajit also apologized, promising that he was dedicated to his father’s cause and would not abandon him, even in death.
He geared himself up to return to battle, his mind troubled by a dark premonition that he was indeed riding to his own death so Indrajit said his final goodbyes. For the third day in a row, he and Lakshmana fought one on one. On this day, Indrajit’s arrows refused to harm Lakshmana, who had been revealed as the incarnation of Sesha Naga, the king of Nagas and one of the primal beings of creation. Lakshmana gets the upper hand thanks to a curse laid on Indrajit from Sesha Naga for marrying the elder being’s daughter without permission and slays Indrajit. The Naga king had incarnated himself as Rama’s brother, forgoing sleep for 14 years just so he could avenge himself on Indrajit and behead the demon prince.
With his most powerful allies dead, Ravana is finally forced to enter the fray. Rama finally has his chance and confronts the demon king in single combat, slaying him. With the king and prince both dead, the rest of the demon army flees, laying down arms. The war was over. In thanks for his assistance, Rama places Vibhishana on the throne of Lanka. Despite having fought an entire war to retrieve her, Rama proves to be a little bit of a dick here. Since Sita has been living in another man’s home for some time now (because she was, you know, fucking kidnapped), he doubts that she has remained faithful to him. Sita is justifiably pissed off at her husband for being an asshole and she tauntingly asks why he didn’t just abandon her when Hanuman came to see her. Exasperated, she asked Lakshmana to build a pyre so that she could prove her devotion with a trial by fire. She prays to Agni, god of fire, and steps into the raging flames. Agni himself appears in the fire, carrying Sita in his arms and restoring her to Rama, proving that she had done exactly as she had said. If Rama had just been willing to, you know, believe his wife none of this would have been necessary. A different version of the story (Tulsidas’ Ramacharitamanas) says that Sita had been under the protection of Agni, who had created a magical duplicate known as the Maya Sita. This doppelganger needed to be returned to Agni (either destroyed or reborn as the heroine Draupadi or as the goddess Padmavati) before the real Sita could be restored to Rama, which is a better version in my opinion.
Thus, having defeated the evil demon king and saved his wife, Rama, Savi, and Lakshmana return to Ayodhya as the 14 year term of exile ends (with Hanuman in tow as well). Rama is at last crowned as king, but the people are suspicious of the ape Hanuman and demand that he prove his loyalty. In a hardcore move of holy fuck, he tears open his chest with his bare hands to reveal an image of Rama and Sita in his very organs.
The original epic ends there, but a later addition has Rama abandoning Sita again, despite having proved her loyalty to him, because of public opinion. Sort of. He was furious with the people for doubting his wife after she had undergone literal trial by fire (led by Nagarsen), but Sita offered to go into exile with the sage Valmiki. Rama tried to stop her, but she insisted that Ayodhya was more important to her than her own happiness and she left. In exile, she gives birth to twin boys, Lava and Kusha. With his queen gone, Rama conducts a ashwamedha yajna (a holy declaration of royal authority) and places a golden statue of Sita on her throne by his side. The two sons have their own series of adventures, defeating many of Rama’s allies before finally losing in combat to the king himself. It’s only when the two boys convince Rama that he is their father (with Sita being brought back to the kingdom by Valmiki as proof) that he accepts them. Nagarsen again challenges Sita’s character and demands that she prove her purity again. Sita is Over It, and declares that the earth will swallow her up if she is true. Sure enough, the earth opens up beneath Sita to transform her into the form of Lakshmi, goddess of beauty, prosperity, and good fortune. Rama rules alone for many more years before eventually deciding to leave the world with his three brothers to finally be reunited with Sita AKA Lakshmi.
And so, with all that was wrong set right and everyone reunited more or less happily ever after, it’s time for Gods and Monsters. This is a segment where I get into a little more detail about the personalities and history of one of the gods or monsters from this week’s pantheon that was not discussed in the main story. This week’s goddess is Lakshmi.
As we just saw, Lakshmi was once Sita, wife of Rama before she became the goddess. The third day of Diwali is the day of Lakshmi Puja, the darkest night of the traditional month (with the second day of Hanuman Puja dedicated to the return of Rama after his exile and of Hanuman who became a deity of strength and protection). Lakshmi is one of the principal goddesses of Hinduism and is traditionally considered the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, and prosperity and (as we saw in the main tale) she is also associated with Maya or illusion in at least some versions.
Whenever Vishnu descended to the earth as an avatar (as he did in the form of Rama and his brothers), Lakshmi would accompany him as his consort (also appearing as Rukmini to Vishnu’s Krishna) with tradition identifying 8 prominent manifestations known as the Ashtalakshmi which symbolize the 8 sources of wealth: spiritual, monetary, agricultural, animal, fertility, courage or valor, victory (in battle and in life), and knowledge. Archaeological discoveries, especially ancient coins, suggest that Lakshmi has been worshipped since at least the 1st millennium BCE. Since the festivals of Diwali and Sharad Purnima are still celebrated today, Lakshmi has some impressive staying power.
The most common version of her birth involves a snake, a turtle, milk, and a mountain. Both the devas (the heavenly deities) and the asuras (considered as either demons or something akin to the titans of Greek mythology) were mortal back when the universe was young. The divine nectar that grants immortality, known as Amrita, could only be obtained by churning one of the seven oceans known as Kshirasagar or The Ocean of MIlk. They decided to use the mountain Mandhara to do the churning. In a tale known as the samudra manthan, the devas and asuras agreed to work together to rip up the mountain. Vishnu, currently incarnated as Kurma the tortoise was placed beneath the mountain to use as a base to rotate the mountain and Vasuki, the enormous venomous serpent god (not unlike Jormungandr from the Norse) was wrapped around the mountain. With the devas on one end of the snake and the asuras on the other, they pulled the snake back and forth, which spun the mountain it was wrapped around and churned the ocean. Lakshmi rose out of the waves bearing the lotus flower, followed by Kamadhenu the divine cow, Varuni (a water goddess), the Parijat tree, Apsaras (a cloud spirit), Chandra (the moon god who is also the moon) and Dhanvantari (the god of medicine) with the sought after Amrita. Some versions have her as the daughter of the sea god Varuna given her birth from the waves. Having risen from the joint effort of the devas and asuras, Lakshmi was given the choice to join either side. As you can likely guess, she chose the Devas and, among the 30 devas assembled, she chose to stand with Vishnu, cementing their eternal partnership.
That’s it for this episode of Myths Your Teacher Hated. Keep up with new episodes on our Facebook page, on iTunes, on Stitcher, on TuneIn, on Vurbl, and on Spotify, or you can follow us on Twitter as @HardcoreMyth and on Instagram as Myths Your Teacher Hated Pod. You can also find news and episodes on our website at myths your teacher hated dot com. If you have any questions, any gods or monsters you’d want to learn about, or any ideas for future stories that you’d like to hear, feel free to drop me a line. I’m trying to pull as much material from as many different cultures as possible, but there are all sorts of stories I’ve never heard, so suggestions are appreciated. The theme music is by Tiny Cheese Puff.
Next time, we’re headed to Otherworld, land of the fae. You’ll discover that babies and puppies look the same on the inside, that you should always raise strange children dropped as loot by defeated monsters, and that you should never get into a bag. Then, in Gods and Monsters, you’ll learn the legend behind one of the strangest bridges in the world. That’s all for now. Thanks for listening.