Story: Manthara Hisses to Kaikeyi

There once lived young, beautiful queen named Kaikeyi. She was the third wife of to her husband, King Dasharatha of the exquisite garden city of Ayodha. In this luscious green city, the vines of the jungle were indistinguishable from the furniture of the palace and the mountains indiscernible from the royal palace itself.

The day came that King Dasharatha chose the heir to his kingdom, his eldest son Rama. Although Kaikeyi's son, Bharata, was not chosen to be the next king, the youngest queen celebrated just as much as the others for Rama had proven himself to be a great ruler.

Later that day Kaikeyi was bathing in the stream, as she normally does on hot afternoons, when she heard a faint voice calling her name. Thinking it was one of her maids from the palace, she rose from the stream naked to find who was searching for her.

"Hello!", she called out, "I'm down by the stream".

The voice replied softly, "Follow my voice. I want to show you something".

Kaikeyi didn't recognize this quiet whispering voice as one of her maids, but it did sound familiar, like that of an old acquaintance, so she did as she was told and followed the ominous voice through the trees. She began lightly treading in the direction of the voice when it continued to guide her, this time moving slowly away from her as it spoke:

"So what do you think of Rama being announced as the new ruler of Ayodha?'

Following the voice further into the forest, as if hypnotized to do so, Kaikeyi replied, "I think it's lovely. No one is more deserving nor fit to be king."

"You aren't the slightest bit disappointed that Bharata was not chosen? He is the only one who can secure your safety as well as your wealthy lifestyle."

She responded to this jest with laughter: "No, Rama will respect me as if I were his biological mother. No harm will come to me or my lifestyle because that is the responsibility of a good king."

"You are a foolish woman then. I have seen many good men rise to power only to become cruel kings. Rama will make you a slave and exile your son out of jealousy when he takes the throne. If you think you and your son are safe, then you are gravely mistaken."

Seeing that the mysterious voice isn't joking, Kaikeyi is just about to demand the identity of her unknown guide and the reasons for their treacherous accusations of Rama when, suddenly, the voice stops in front of her.

Kaikeyi comes into a clearing where she finally sees the source of the whispering voice, the slithering creature named Manthara lying in the shadows of the trees. She then notices that the serpent has led her into a section of the king's forbidden gardens.

"Oh you evil thing! Why have you led me here? I could be executed for such trespassing into these gardens", Kaikeyi cried.

"Look over there. Do you recognize that tree? I bet not. It is the wishing tree whose rare fruits grant any desire of the person who is lucky enough to eat it. Why do you think this tree is kept secret by the king? It is because he doesn't want anyone, but himself to have the power to be happy. This is true of your husband and it is true of Rama, but now you have the power to change that, the power to make your son a king and ensure your happiness for the rest of your life."

With that Manthara left the naked Kaikeyi at the wishing tree to decide her fate.


Author's Note: While reading the initial story of Manthara and Kaikeyi, I couldn't help but compare it with Eve and the snake. Here was Kaikeyi, happy and blessed, until along came Manthara, whispering deception in her ear. In the end Kaikeyi is banished from her home and everything that she loves the same way that Eve is. In my retelling of the story I simply plaid with that imagery and attempted to make the allusion more obvious.

Bibliography: Public Domain Ramayana, Web Source
Image: Free Stock Photo, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Public Domain Ramayana, Section B

• Dasharatha's funeral ceremonies are very interesting to me. I could rewrite this story into a poem with a lot of  emotional imagery.
• Rama's and Bharata's monologues are very thought provoking and would prove challenging to rewrite.
• The fight with Viradha is thrilling. It might be fun to rewrite this story in an even darker style, similar to a ghost story.
• The poem version of Shurpanakha announcing her love to Rama paints the goddess as a very strong and powerful woman (which she is) while the prose version doesn't do so well of a job. I could play with this concept in a story.
• I would like to imagine what Sita was thinking when she first laid eyes on the golden deer, how it captivated her.
• The story of Kabandha is so short, but has so much potential. I could expand this story to make it more dramatic.
• With Viradha, Kabandha, and Shabari, there seems to be a theme developing in which Rama sets gods free by killing them.

Bibliography: Public Domain Ramayana, Web Source

Image: Killing of Kabandha, Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Public Domain Ramayana, Section A

• King Dasharatha, ruler of Ayodhya was happy except for the fact that he had no sons by either of his three wives: Kaushalya, Kaikeyi, or Sumitra.
• I wonder what the horse did and where it went for an entire year before returning to Ayodhya for the sacrifice. What was the brahmin doing?
• The Ocean of Milk in Rama: The Avatar of Vishnu triggers my imagination. Maybe I could write a story that emphasized its beauty.
• Thataka presents the second instance I've read so far in which a woman's nose is cut off. Is this a theme in Hindu storied, and if so why? 
• Thataka also seems to be unfairly attacked as vengeance/ bait for her sons. She didn't even possess any weapons but stones. Still, Rama's celestial weapons are pretty cool.
• Bhagiratha's story interests me a lot because of his abstinence from food. I have read of many instances like this with Hindu activists in the 20th and 21st centuries.
• I love the love story of Sita and Rama is so much! It reminds me of so many movies. It would be so fun to rewrite this story in modern day or a different setting.
• Manthara and Kaikeyi interest me because it represents the classic struggle for power fueled by fear. It also reminds me of biblical imagery of the snake whispering in Eve's ear.

Bibliography: Public Domain Ramayana, Web Source

Image: Ram-Sita on Wikimedia Commons

Growth Mindset

I have never heard of Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset philosophy before, but it makes total sense to me. I have been put in gifted/talented classes since elementary school where the teaching strategies followed this idea. I was never expected to finish a project completely or correctly. There was always something to improve or a skill to learn in order to do better next time. Now, my academic goals don't always follow this philosophy very well. All my classmates talk about during enrollment are which classes are the "easy A's", and it's difficult not to give in to this idea when various post-graduate programs judge harshly on your college GPA.

However, I do still try to challenge myself by enrolling in extra classes that I find interesting and volunteering with new groups each semester. Now, the main challenge for me is time management between everything as opposed to learning new skills. Anatomy is the perfect example of this. I enrolled in this strenuous 5-hour course when it wasn't required because I was genuinely interested in the material.

Image: Female Anatomy 1897, Source: Wikimedia Commons

Starting the Semester Right

Here are a few things I do throughout the semester, but especially at the beginning in order to be successful:

1. Write all major assignments/ exams in my agenda - It makes me feel in control, but all of the work also doesn't seem so overwhelming once I see how its spread out through the semester.
2. Start assignments early - You never know exactly how long an assignment will take until you've already completed a couple, so it's better to overestimate instead of waiting until an hour before it's due.
3. Get into a steady sleep schedule - I am a night owl at heart, but during the school year I make myself wake up early so that I have plenty of time during the day to accomplish everything that I need to. I also feel more healthy and energized when I go to sleep and wake up around the same time every day.

Image: Free College Pathology Student Sleeping Creative Commons, Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Options

I have chosen to read the Public Domain version of the Ramayana mainly because I can access it from home. Normally I wouldn't mind renting from Bizzell, but this semester I am living off campus and don't want to make any extra trips (or deal with parking). The links to Wikipedia will also be very useful for me since I don't have much experience with Indian culture. I have written papers over the political struggles during the civil war and have recently started watching Bollywood movies, but I have never fully explored religious and cultural stories. So I am excited to begin reading next week! Below is a photo of one of my favorite Indian actors, Varun Dwahan.

Varun Dhawan Stardust Conference, Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

Storybook Favorites

The Ravana Diaries was the first storybook that I read. The introduction is quite interesting and definitely draws the reader in. It is very descriptive and paints a clear picture of the archaeologist's struggle. The topic material was difficult for me to understand because I have little to no prior knowledge of Hindu faith. However, I am excited to learn as the semester goes on. I really like the author's creativity in writing journal entries instead of the usual story layout. The design looks simple, making it easy to navigate through everything, but a little plain, especially when considering the content of the stories.

The next storybook I read was Animal Tales from India to Oklahoma. I liked the introduction to this one as well. Not only does it introduce another creative way to tell these stories, but it also gives a brief outline of each of the stories near the end. These stories seem to be written for a wider variety of audiences also. Even though I don't know much about Indian culture, I was able to fully understand and enjoy the stories in this book. The design is about the same as the last storybook. It is straightforward, but not very decorative or elaborate. It would have been nice to have more cute illustrations since the concept of the squirrel story teller is so fun.

Lastly, I read a storybook from the Mythology and Folklore course called Cinderella's Latest and Greatest. This introduction was more about giving an overview of each of the stories instead of how they are related which makes sense for this storybook. These stories were written in a screenplay format about a TV show, so yet another creative way to retell the older tales. I did really like that in the Author's Notes she compared the traditional stories with the more popular Disney telling of Cinderella. The design was similar to the others except that it didn't have the handy navigating bar in the top left corner, making it annoying to navigate between each story.


                   Thank you for reading my blog!

Photo taken by merec0, Web Source: Flickr