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Ravana, the Corrupt

Ravana sat idly on his throne with various torches lighting his face. His hall was dimly lit and gloomy - his attendants no less so. He remembered a time when is face was somber and his red eyes were not the fear engines they now were. However, on this day Ravana was given news of his rival's march. Rama was coming. Ravana's eyes looked longingly in the air while his mind wandered into the world of dreams.


Nine years earlier he had been a different demon. Resting in a field with his brothers, pondering the questions of Life, the Universe and Everything. It was then and there he had made the pact to sacrifice his heads until an answer came to him - and should he get no answer, his life would gladly be forfeit. Somehow Ravana knew that he would not die - call it faith, call it chance. He knew that his bluff would work. Even the likes of Brahma could be manipulated by Ravana.

Each year for nine years Ravana stood in front of a sacred flame devoted to Brahma and sawed off one of his ten heads. And so, closing in on that tenth year, he once again stood in front of the fire, his hand idly twirling the blade now crimson and black with his dried blood. The wounds of previous cuts ached upon the sight of the blood. Ravana muttered a prayer underneath his breath and pulled his head up with one hand. He inched the blade closer with the other and prepared for the end.

"Stop!" An image of Brahma appeared suddenly, though it was not Brahma Himself. "What will you ask of me to prevent this?"

Ravana held back a grin - Brahma did not see through his bluff. He lowered the blade and feigned naivety. "Oh, Lord Brahma, you are pleased with my offerings and the sacrifices I have made in your name?"

"Pleased?" Brahma's image sputtered out. "You are strong-willed and strong-minded, but you are misguided. Like a malady, I must treat your strange concept of sacrifices. What boon shall you ask of me?"

Ravana could not hold back his grin this time. "I wish to be immortal."

Brahma's head shook. "You have the power to live well beyond the lives of ordinary kind. If you truly ask this boon of me, state it once more and it will be made."

Grin fading, Ravana eyed his blade and asked for his boon a second time. "I wish to be immortal - I wish that no god, no demon and no monster shall slay me!"

"Then so those terms are writ." Brahma's image conjured up a bowl of nectar. "However, you may have overlooked something in your selfish request. Your life will not be rendered null by the hand of gods or demon, but it can still end at the hands of a man. Know this and forever be wise in your use of the boon you received!"


Ravana snapped out of the daydream. No matter how many times he remembered that fateful meeting with Brahma's visage, only the boon itself seemed important. He had been scolded by his brothers for accepting the boon without asking for immunity from humans as well - but Ravana scoffed at the idea of a man harming him. Still, it was a thought that stained the back of his mind.

Ravana cleared his head and gazed around his throne room. He looked up sharply when his golden chamber door opened...

Introduction
Ravana, the Corrupt
Devotee of Shiva
The Captive
The Final Battle
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Author's Note: I took this from my original storytelling here. This was one of my favorite parts of the Ramayana (despite it being only a few paragraphs in length) and I knew instantly I wanted to include it in my storybook. Exposition of the character goes a long way - Ravana is shown to be selfish and greedy. This will come into play in future stories. Of course, I added on some extra dialogue and a little bit of focus into the mind of Ravana.

My Storybook (as mentioned in the Introduction) is centered around Ravana. I created this first scene to introduce the exposition surrounding him and how he came to be an all-powerful and nearly immortal creature. However, I could not help myself from changing a few things to try and make this story slightly more realistic (and yes, I know that may be reaching).

The original story has Ravana waiting one thousand years between each chop of a head - something I just could not bring myself to get away with. So changing it into simply one year makes him look more pressing and a little more rash - a good thing for Brahma to recognize and stop him from finishing the job! Ravana attributes these characteristics in every part of the Storybook - he's a schemer and a manipulator to the highest degree.

The cliffhanger-ish ending of the frametale is really meant to open up the way to the next story - the basic idea is mentioned in my Introduction that lesser demons will come and go in his throne room. However, I wanted to utilize at least a sentence before and after every story to sort of institute a timeline of the events in my storybook.

Image Information: The Image of Brahma, OU Student Website
Bibliography Information: Buck, W. (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Narayan, R.K. (1972). The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic. London: Penguin Classics.
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