reading notes: ramayana, part b

•  rama and his accompaniment build a 4 bedroom hut in the forest and lived peacefully for 13 and a half years
• a rakshasa woman named surpanakha fell in love with rana and disguised herself as a beautiful woman to seduce him 
• rama would not leave sita so he said that she should marry his brother instead. she did not want this so she tried to kill sita and he cut off her ears and nose
• she went to her brother to show him what happened, and she ordered that he bring sita to her
• he sent 14 rakshasas to the forest, but rama killed them all. her brother wants to kill rama
• rama defeats an army of rakshasas, including surpanakha's brother 
• surpanakha went to the demon god ravana and told him what happened, so he agreed to bring sita in his chariot 
• ravanas brother maricha took the form of a beautiful deer which sita saw and wanted
• rama goes to kill the deer for her, and lakshmana said that rakshasas can take the form of deer
• rama killed the deer and it called out to sita in rama's voice before it died, alarming sita
• lakshmana left for rama and when ravana saw sita alone, he goes to seduce her
• he reveals himself as ravana and she does not believe that he would take her from rama, so he changes in to full demon form and steals her away 
• several spirits of the jungle tried to fight off ravana, but could not
• rama comes back to see the hut empty
• rama in his desperate search for sita came across the dying vulture king that tried to battle ravana, and he died in his arms
• they continued and fought a monster who wanted to eat them, but after they revealed their identity he was cremated to leave his rakshasa form
• to find ravana they have to seek the aid of the ape chief sugriva
• rama slayed the ape chief's brother so that sugriva could retake the throne
• ravana gave compliments to sita all the time while she was in captivity, and she constantly rejected him
• sugriva sent out armies of bears to find sita
• the lion hanuman crossed many demons to find sita, and crept through ravanas palace
• hanuman found sita in asoka grove guarded by demons
• hanuman offered to carry her back but she wouldn't, so she gave him a jewel and stayed
• he was caught and ravana wanted to sentence him to death, but instead they lit his tail on fire an sent him back
• both sides prepared for war, but ravana's younger brother Bibhishana advised ravana to make peace. he was exiled from ravanas kingdom and immediately went to help rama
• they tried to enlist the ocean king, but he advised that they get help from nala to build a bridge
• nala built rama's bridge in 5 days
• the two armies met, and apes fought the demons
• ravana came forth and rama shot the 10 crowns off his head
• raskshasas tried to awaken the great demon Kumbhakarna, so they gave him wine and told him to devour the apes 
• Kumbhakarna ate thousands of apes and seized hanuman and sugriva, but rama killed him by severing his head off 
  
• lakashmana killed ravana's son indrajit with an arrow
• ravana was going to kill sita, but the rakshasas wouldn't let him 
• ravana pierced lakashmana through the heart, killing him 
• hanuman used the healing herbs from the mountain to revive him 
• rama shot a flaming arrow through the heart of ravana, killing him 
• rama did not believe she was pure, so they called upon the fire god and she lept into flames. the fire god brought her back, proving her innocence
• rama was crowned ruler, and banished sita from the kingdom
• sita was banished to the forest with valmiki, and had two sons; lava and kusa
• rama took his two sons, but sita would not return
• she called upon mother earth to take her, and she vanished

Dasaratha and Kausalya

Source: Asia society

Valmiki. "Ramayana". Un-Textbook