Storytelling for Week 4: The Golden Bow

There once was an archer named Parashurama, and with his magical golden bow he could perform unimaginable feats. This special bow, in all of its glittering splendor, was originally created for the god Shiva, but fell into Parashurama's possession because of a wish owed to him for saving Shiva's life .
"With this bow I am completely unstoppable!" Parashurama thought to himself as he took aim at an apple hanging from a tree off in the distance. And as he loosed one of his magical arrows, it whirled through the air and split off in to three arrows that fell upon the apple like a hailstorm, bringing it hurling to the ground.

Parashurama was filled with excitement.  He could not wait to show off his new bow and compete in the next Contest of the Heroes, a competition in which all of the bravest heroes of India would show off their skills in battle in hopes of winning over the daughter of the king Janaka. There was not a doubt in Parashurama's mind that he would win this contest and marry Janaka's daughter. The only problem was that this competition was many miles away and started in only a few days, so Parashurama needed to make haste and travel quickly to get there in time. With that, he gathered his belongings and his magical golden bow and headed to King Janaka's palace, where the festivities would be held.

The journey to King Janaka's palace was no easy venture. The road ahead entailed rivers and swamps and haunted forests that no man dare enter, but Parashurama had no fears as no Rakshasa could withstand the might of his bow and its magical arrows. When he was almost at the end of the last forest he had to travel through before getting to the kingdom, a horde of a dozen Rakshasas and Rakshasis surrounded him, looking greedily at his bow as if they wanted it for themselves.
"Oh, so it's my bow and arrows that you want then, huh?" Parashurama shouted at them in a mocking way.
"Well here, have some arrows then!" And a hundred arrows were sent zipping in the evil horde's direction.  And with that, a dozen Rakshasas fell instantly and Parashurama carried on as if nothing happened, with King Janaka's palace in sight barely peeking over the hills in the nearby distance.

Parashurama's bow

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After a long and tiring travel filled with fighting, Parashurama finally made it into the palace just in time to compete in the Contest of the Heroes, which was to be held the very next morning. All of this travel and excitement had Parashurama feeling very weary and tired, so with that he headed off towards his designated guest room in the King's palace (he and King Janaka go way back so he always has a place to stay there).

"Hey, excuse me, sir, you can't take that bow into the living quarters area. You gotta check it in at the weapons desk and they'll hold on to it for you." one of the guards explained.

"It's a new rule in place for the palace this weekend, just as an added safety precaution because of all the new faces wondering around these halls," the guard added.

Parashurama was rather understanding of the situation, so without argument he took his bow and checked it in at the weapons counter. Parashurama then went up to his comfy bed and dozed off, hoping to get some well needed rest for a few hours.  Suddenly, just as he was getting comfy and dozed off, he heard a loud snapping sound and felt a heartache that had never been felt before.
"My bow!" he shouted as he jumped out of bed frantically racing towards the downstairs lobby he could sense through its magical powers that his bow had been destroyed. As he raced towards all the commotion he saw a man standing in the middle, holding one half of the bow in his left hand, and the other half of the bow in his right.

The name of the young man who did this deed was Rama, a strange-looking blue-skinned man from a village far away, and he looked so proud of his accomplishment. In snapping this magical bow, Rama thought this would surely be the type of impressive display of strength that would win Sita. Parashurama was left stunned and in horror, as he watched this Rama character from the top of the lobby staircase. Flooded with an overwhelming rage, he began to walk towards Rama with hate in his eyes.

Author's note: I took the part in the story of the Ramayana where Rama goes to King Janaka's palace to win Sita and take her hand in marriage by impressing King Janaka, and turned it into a spin-off story with a slightly different plot. I liked the idea of merging the key elements of the original plot line of the Ramayana with an entirely new plot line of my own, in which that bow belonged to one of many heroes, competing to win over the love of Sita. This story was also unique in that Rama comes off as somewhat of a bad guy, which is kind of fun to write about since he is portrayed as being so perfect and noble in the Ramayana stories. Parashurama's character is also very different in this story because he is actually good friends with the kings and royalty and does not wish any harm on them, whereas in reality, he is their bitter enemy that kills and hates them with a passion. I thought it would be fun to play out the events of the actual story where he breaks the bow, but put a different spin on how it happened and why.  I also added some additional information from a different point of view to give an idea as to how Parashurama fits in. In the Ramayana version of the story, Parashurama's character isn't really explained and there is no back story on why he appears or why the bow once belonged to him.

Bibliography: The Divine Archer, by F.J Gould (1911).

Reading Diary B: The Divine Archer

My first impression while reading part B of this week's reading was the part about Hanuman having to use the bridge to get to Lanka, where Sita was being held prisoner. When I was reading this part of the story on the PDE version of the Ramayana, I interpreted the beast as something evil that was trying to kill or eat him.  In this version, it was very clearly stated that the serpent was only sent by the gods to test Hanuman's courage, and then let him travel on towards Lanka. The next thing I noticed was that the scene with Sita sitting in the Asoka grove was played out somewhat differently than the PDE version.  In this version, instead of Ravana telling Sita that she has two months to decide if she will marry him or be killed, he initially raises a sword as if to kill her but then at the last second decides not to and walks away.  Also, in the PDE version the Rakshasis are mocking and harassing Sita while in the grove, but in this story, instead of mocking her they bowed to her out of fear and left quickly after Ravana. That is because in this version (The Noble Archer), one of the Rakshasis has a prophetic dream of Hanuman's attack and of Ravana's fall and Vibishan's rise to power.

Sita sitting in the Asoka grove

Wikipedia

Changing the story in that way adds a pretty different effect for the reader while reading through that scene.  In the PDE version, I felt sorry for Sita and she comes off as much more lonely and sad about being held captive.  In this version, she seems stronger as she even commands Ravana to kill her, and instead of Rakshasis tormenting her, they fear her and leave the grove after bowing down to her! It's very interesting how even when two stories follow the same plot, they can still leave a very different feeling in the minds of the reader just by describing the little details a bit differently.  It has been very interesting discovering differences like these as I read the two different versions of the same story.

Reading Post A: Divine Archer

Overall, this story followed the plot very closely to the online public entry version of the Ramayana that I finished reading last week. The only differences were in the minor details as the story was being told. For instance, the version of the Ramayana that I am reading this week went into detail on explaining the omens that foreshadowed Rama's supreme powers when he was a baby. In the Divine Archer, it is explained that Rama had several marks on his feet. This version also talks about the vajra, dhvaja, and ankusha, which I don't remember reading about in the PDE version.  I also don't remember reading anything about Rama being able to convert back and forth between a cosmic being and baby, which is also described in this week's version of the reading. There is also nothing mentioned about the world being held up by elephants on the back of a turtle in the PDE version, which is mentioned in this week's version of the reading.

All in all, I enjoyed this version of the reading much more as it still followed the same plot line almost exactly with no deviation, but it also provided more details for the reader to learn about Rama and other parts of the story in more focus.  It seems like the PDE version was just a short, simplified version of the story that was meant to make reading easy for beginners, while the book version gives more detail and makes it more fun to read for me.

Parashurama

Wikimedia