Friday, February 2, 2018

Week 3 Story: Jatayu and Ravana

As Ravana was mesmerized with Sita, he decided to abduct her and take her back to his kingdom. Therefore, up, up, and away they went however as Sita was crying and yelling for Ravana to let her go, a great and mighty bird appeared. This bird was named Jatayu and Sita begged him for help.

Jatayu came to Sita's aid and said to Ravana, "You surely will not get away with this. Rama is powerful and he will punish you for your wrongdoings."

As Jatayu said those last words, Ravana attacked him and a battle between the two begun. Ravana began to shoot arrows and missiles at the mighty bird. Jatayu felt the piercing pain of each weapon go into his body. Ravana was slowly weakening him, but before Jatayu was completely defeated, he tore off Ravana's bows which sent the chariot crashing from the sky to the ground. Sita, Ravana, and Jatayu all safely fell to the earth, but it was Jatayu who was badly injured and terribly weak from Ravana's arrows and missiles.

Jatayu lay silently on the ground unable to fight back, Ravana took his sword and chopped up the mighty and beautiful wings of Jatayu. Jatayu gave a piercing and deadly shriek which drew Sita towards him. However, before Sita could aid her brave friend, Ravana stole her once again and back to the sky they went. Sita was devastated and was mourning for her friend. Nevertheless, Ravana was as ruthless as ever and did not care for Sita's feelings. He was selfish and continued with his plans of abduction.

Even at a grieving state, Sita was still smart and one step ahead. Sita saw five large and strong monkeys, and pleaded for their help. The monkeys came to Sita and she gave them her precious and beautiful jewels as a trail for Rama to find his precious bride. The monkeys cast down to the ground Sita's precious gifts for Rama in the hopes that he will be able to find her. Sita stared at the earth and at the last twinkle of her jewels, turned around and wept.

(353 Words)

Author's Note: This story is about the battle between Jatayu, the bird, and Ravana, the evil king. Ravana has captured Sita and Jatayu is attempting to save her. As Jatayu and Ravana battled each other, Ravana got the upper hand and defeated Jatayu. Sita is taken back hostage by Ravana. In order for Rama to find her, with the help of monkeys, she cast down to the ground her precious jewels as a trail for her beloved husband to find her.

Bibliography: Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita (link)



Jatayu and Ravana fight. Source: Wikimedia Commons

3 comments:

  1. Nikole, this is one of the stories that I did not read very in-depth the first time around, so I loved hearing your creative interpretation of it! I liked that you added in dialogue for some of the characters. It certainly added life to your story! However, I think you could add even more dialogue! Although it can be challenging to create dialogue, it adds an element of excitement to your story and makes the reader feel like they are in the middle of the action. Overall, great job!

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  2. Nikole, I liked the addition of dialogue in your telling of the story. I love not only hearing a story but knowing each characters' motivations and intentions, and dialogue is a great way of showing this in writing in my opinion. I also liked your flavor text, adding descriptions such as a piercing shriek in order to get the picture into the readers mind.

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  3. Hi again, Nikole!
    I loved reading your creative re-telling of this story! The most heartbreaking part about this is the way Ravana killed Jatayu, who would have saved Sita for Rama. Also, great job with the ending! I think the trail of jewels is so romantic and if you continued another story with Sita and Rama, you could even start with this.

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