You see, Ravana, a ghastly man with ten heads was a very jealous man and when he heard of Rama's great triumphs and strengths he wanted him dead. When Ravana seeked Rama to take care of him himself he became distracted by the beautiful glow of Sita. Ravana became so distraught with love for Sita he completely forgot about Rama and his triumphs and snatched Sita without a thought.
Ravana and Sita painting from Wikimedia
"You will be my Queen in the city of Lanka" Ravana exclaimed to Sita as he approached his castle. Ravana never thought someone would not want to live a life of luxury but Sita refused everyone and every fine meal. After a while Ravana became tired of her antics and sent Sita off to a garden on the outskirts of Lanka.
"Finally", Sita sighed. "Maybe Rama will have a chance of finding me now."
Sita knew Rama had to be searching for her and that he had to pick up on her trail she tired to leave on her journey to Lanka.
"Sir, please." Hanuman trying to calm Rama down, "let me call upon Nala and Nila, they can construct us something to get all the army across the ravaging sea and this will take us to Lanka where Ravana has hidden Sita".
"Fine, fine the sooner the plans take place the sooner we get to Sita", Rama replied impatiently.
Nala and Nila built the city the monkey clan lived in and were known far and wide for their architectural techniques.
"Sir Rama, a bridge only makes sense!"Nila said exasperated, he had been arguing with Nala about what type of structure to make for the sea crossing for hours now.
"I'm telling you Nila, a boat will move much faster than what the army can walk!"
Tired and ready to start building Rama interrupted the two, "We will build a fleet of ships! and this is how we will cross the sea to Lanka and retrieved my dear Sita who has been waiting on me long enough!".
Nala and Nila, intimidated by Rama's loud outburst nodded politely and left the tent to begin work on the ships for the army.
Nala and Nila proved the rumors true and provided Rama with a beautiful fleet of ships suited to carry him, Lakshman and the monkey army across the tossing sea.
The trip across the sea to Lanka was a difficult one with the crashing cold waves and and strong Northward winds. The Ocean God, Varuna, was relentless and sent gigantic waves almost overturning the ships.
Rama Conquers Varuna by Wikimedia
The fleet reached Lanka after five days at sea and Rama announced, "we make camp here, on the shore! And in the morning, we fight!!"
The army cheered and hollered so loudly Ravana heard them in his Kingdom while watching musicians with his wife and knew the battle was to begin.
Bibliography: The Divine Archer by F. J. Gould. 1911
Authors Note: In the story Nala and Nila build a bridge across the sea to Lanka and the Ocean God, Varuna agrees to make the trip for the army as easy as possible. I thought it would be interesting if everything went wrong for Rama instead of in his favor and see how he would handle the situation. I really enjoyed the idea of having a story about Nala and Nila to see deeper into their characters and learn more about who they are.
I enjoyed the twist on the story; a fleet of ships does seem far more convenient than a bridge, doesn't it? Although perhaps some more detail could be added about the mishaps that occurred before they successfully made it to Lanka. Or maybe expound on why Varuna would have wanted to make the voyage more difficult?
ReplyDeleteThis is a great story! I really enjoyed the fact that you made Nala and Nila into more important characters and the twist of everything going wrong was relatable. In life it always seems that the times you need everything to go right the most are the times when everything seems to go wrong. Your writing style was descriptive and I felt like the characters were very relatable. I felt like I was right there in the middle of the story! Great job!
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