Ramayans - Some Facts You May Not Know

Ramayana is an epic of India, holy to Indians, especially to Hindus. We all have heard so many stories of Ramayana, but some of them you may not know because Ramayan is not a short book or a story. It is consisted of 24,000 couplets divided into seven books. That contained thousands of stories behind each and every character of it. Every character has a very deeply rich thrilling qualities.

Introduction

According to Vedas "Ramayana" took place in "Treta Yuga" and was written by Rishi Valmiki. Shree Rama was the main character referred to as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, who was given 14 years of exile by his Father King Dashratha unwilling on the demand of his favourite wife Kaikeyi. However he was his beloved son and the most famous among his brothers, he was given exile because of the 2 boons, he gave to Kaikeyi, after saving his life in a conflict. Rama belonged to a "kul" (clan) named "Raghukul", which was famous for the oath known as “Raghukul reet sada chali ayi pran jaiye per bachan na jayi”, due to this Dashratha couldn't back down from his words, had to given exile to Rama.

Thousand of characters revolve around “Rama” and “Sita” which completed the epic story of Ramayana. Here I have gathered some of a few you may know or may not know much about.

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1. King Dashratha:- According to Ramayan's Ayodhya Kanda, King Dashratha had 353 wives, among which Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi were his favourite. Kausalya was from the Kingdom of Dakshina Kosala, Sumitra was from Kashi, and Kaikeyi was from the Kekeya Kingdom.

2. Kekeya:- According to a story a sage granted her a boon of a left hand as strong as a diamond.

3. Shanta:- Nobody knows Rama had an elder sister name “Shanta”. She was the daughter of King Dasharatha and Kausalya, later adopted by Rompada (king of Anga), who was a close friend of Dasharatha and childless.

4. Kewat:- In Ayodha Kanda, Kewat was a character who had taken Rama, Sita and Lakshman in his boat and crossed the Ganges at beginning of their exile. It is said that at the beginning of the world when the whole world was submerged in water, the boatman was born in the Avatar of the Tortoise. He had a great love for Lord Vishnu in that Avatar too. Once Lord Vishnu was taking rest on his Shaya, he tried to touch his thumb for his salvation, but couldn’t succeed. After that, he did penance to god, in Treta Yuga, he was born as a Kewat who served Lord Rama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

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5. Ravan and Kumbhkaran:- According to legend, Ravan and his brother Kumbhkaran were the gatekeepers of Vaikunth (Vishnu’s home), Jaya and Vijaya, which made them a little arrogant. One day while they were guarding the gates of Vaikunth, the sons of Brahma showed up at the gates to meet Lord Vishnu, Jaya-Vijaya mistook them for some reason and didn’t let them enter. This made sages so much angry, that they cursed Jaya-Vijaya saying that they would not be able to serve their god and would be parted from their lord. Soon they realized their mistake and asked for forgiveness, getting to know they have realized their mistake the sages said that they could choose one of them, either spend seven lifetimes on earth as Vishnu's avatars' helper or only three lifetimes as their big enemies. Avoiding being parted seven lifetimes they choose to become enemies for three birth so that they can come back to serve early. In one of those three lifetimes, Jaya-Vijaya was born as Ravan and Kumbhkaran.

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