Week 2 Storytelling: The Courageous Prince

(Reclaiming a desert into a forest by Atul Kulkarni)

A long time ago, there was a prince and his name was Rama.

This prince was just a boy, you see, but a boy with great courage and mighty tasks ahead of him. He had to hear the stories of ones before him and fix them. He could not become king if he was unable to help these people and one of his three brothers would take his place.

Rama was eager to fix these stories and create peace in his lands. His first story was Thataka's story. Thakata was a supernatural being that wanders the land alone. She was the widow of a great demigod Sunda who had passed away as payment for the destruction and harm he had caused to the lands around him. It was a curse by a sage that killed him. The death of her husband by this sage made her infuriated.

She sought revenge for Sunda's death and went to the one who had cursed him. Once she found the one that had cursed Sunda, she stormed into his forest and declared revenge. Agasthya, the one who had caused Sunda's death, met her challenge and then created a curse to plague her and her sons. They were to fall from demigod status into demonhood and roam the lands until Rama came to visit.

From that moment on, Thataka created a path of death and destruction that killed everything in sight. It caused forests to become deserts, lakes to dry up, and even the smallest of animals would not survive in her presence. She was preparing for this elusive "Rama" and would be ready to crush him when he came.

Rama heard this story and decided that he must take on Thataka at once. He summoned her into his presence and was surprised by what he found: a woman who was tortured by the loss of her loved one and suffering from years of demonhood. He instantly felt pity for her. He attempted to talk to her about her loss and see if she would be willing to discover peace through dialogue. Rama tried to help her leave behind the anger and hurt by speaking softly to her, but the more he tried the more she got angry.

She started to attack him. First, she sent her two sons after him. One by one, Rama shot them down with his arrows. Next, she made it rain heavy boulders. Rama turned them into dust with one arrow at a time. Finally, Thataka went after him herself. She put all of her sorrow and anger into her attack and unfortunately, even that was not enough to defeat Rama. Thakata used every attack that she had ever learned against him. Nothing seemed to work and this exhausted her. All of the anger she put forth to destroy Rama eventually destroyed her. He told her that she would be reunited with Sunda as soon as she accepted the feelings she had been repressing. She immediately gave into the sadness and hurt. Rama reassured her that everything was going to be okay and she apologized for all of the pain she had caused. She wept on his shoulder as the sadness, pain and heartache consumed her and took her life.

Little did she know, Sunda had watched the entire thing from above and was waiting for her when she died. They were finally together and free from pain. Rama knew they were together because of what happened after she had died.

Immediately after her death, the deserts became forests, the lakes were back, and animals were happily roaming the land. It was as if time had turned back and his job was complete. He had brought peace to the land by helping Thakata. Her happiness restored the lands.

Rama felt guilt in killing the woman, but knew that it was for the greater good. He knew deep down that she was once again with her beloved Sunda as she should be and everything was okay.

With the first of his missions complete, Rama searched for his next adventure.

Author's Note: I was really inspired by Thataka's story. In the original, it seems as if Sunda is influenced by his children to destroy the lands and pays the price because of that. I did not stray too far from the original story. I just wanted to make The Ramayana a series of tasks that Rama had to go through to finally become king. I felt that this was the strongest one to start on, not because it was the first task but because I could play with the story a lot. The men's hesitancy to harm women really inspired me. To make Thakata more than bad or evil, I added complexity and depth that was not there before. To me, she is just lost and lonely. I was really inspired by that. The children did not play a major role in this story because I wanted to focus on Thakata. In the original story it seems that they kind of left Thataka alone. To me, they didn’t seem impacted by the loss of Sunda and they only played a large part after their mother had died by avenging her death. Not to mention, they were also part of the reason that she was stuck in this situation. The image I chose depicts the land before and after Thataka’s loss. Everything was destroyed.

Bibliography:
R.K. Narayan, The Ramayana: A Modern Prose Version of the Great Indian Epic (Penguin Books, 1977)