“My Lord, we have taken all but one of the
celestial strongholds.Surrender is
expected any minute now,”one of my
military advisors informs me as I recline uncaringly on my throne in
Lanka,
with a model of the heavens spread upon the floor before me.A few servants rush deftly through it and
place small red flags on the newly conquered sites.I glance absently at the action in front of
me and then return to my thoughts.The
informant stands for a few seconds longer before giving up and leaving
the
Great Hall.I have been in a poor mood
all day, and no doubt he thought this news would lift my spirits and
win him
some kind of honor.
In truth, this news is just as worrisome
for me as it is hopeful.This war has
been going on for years now and I have yet to see any sign of what I am
truly
searching for.Now that the war is
nearly through, the truth of it will come out.It will either bring this massive campaign to an end, or it will
prove
to be just another piece of my futile crusade.
“It is here, My Lord, news of your
victory!The Gods have surrendered! Your
greatness prevails! You are now the ruler of the three worlds!”My advisor declares with a deep bow as he
returns to the hall.“All of the
prisoners and women have been brought.”As he says this, the two groups file in and line the length of
the
hall.
“Very good,” I respond.This
will be the moment of truth.I take a deep
breath as I slowly rise from my
chair and close my eyes.Holding my
breath for just a second, I prepare myself to accept calmly whatever
the
outcome might be.As I release my breath
I open my eyes and scan the line of women.As my sight reaches the end of the line, I know this war has
been
a
failure.I force myself to scan the line
of captives as well, more just for show than for anything else; no
doubt my
kingdom has gained some valuable new inhabitants as a result of this
war, but
right now I am hardly able to focus from the disappointment.
I walk down the steps to the floor of the
Great Hall and then over to the line of women.I inspect each one carefully, randomly selecting a few to add to
my
harem.I try to make sure they are at
least decently pretty, but I’m not paying much attention and I know no
one will
say anything anyway.When I reach the
end of the line my fears are confirmed; my daughter is not here.
Even though it has been years since that
day in the forest, I have never once forgotten about her.I was sick for weeks after the incident,
during which time I dreamt about her non-stop.When I recovered, the dreams became less common, but they still
haunted
me and I immediately began my crusade.I
began my search based on my dreams, but they were very unclear.I dreamt that my daughter had fallen into the
Earth,
so I searched the underworld.Then I
dreamt that she was harvested out or born from the crops, so I searched
the
lands.I also dreamt that she was in
heaven, in the place of Lakshimi, sitting next to Vishnu.This led to the latest invasion of the
heavens.
As these years at war went by, the image of
her in my dreams changed.I watched her
gradually grow from an infant to a toddler to a teen to a woman.I saw the changes without experiencing the
joys of being in her life to know them.It
was torture to see her in my dreams and not be able to wake up and
touch her
face and hear her voice and tell her everything she needed to know.Things like “don’t chew with your mouth open”
and “it’s going to be alright, you don’t have to worry” and “you are
the most
beautiful girl in the world, don’t ever change” and “I love you.”
I had originally just intended to lead a
search party, to ‘find what is worth conquering,’ but my advisors
insisted that
if I am making the effort to go, I should assert my power and take
whatever I
find.I didn’t want to seem weak, for
fear of losing respect, but now, as my military commander reads the
data of
losses on the field, I wonder if it was all worth it.I know that some of the people around me are
not as supportive as they seem.I think
they may be working for themselves or someone else, letting me do the
hard work
and just waiting for a chance to take my place.I already had to take care of my own sister’s husband because I
discovered his true intentions.Now I
only hear from Soorpanaka every so often, after she disappeared from
the
kingdom after a failed attempt on my life.I know she is angry about her husband, but I wish she would
understand
and come back.She knows I have forgiven
her.
I suppose there is no way to change the
situation.I am so far in that I know no
way
out and I keep hoping that the more regions I conquer, the closer I am
to my daughter.
“Welcome to my kingdom,” I announce to the
crowd lining my hall.“You are now under
my command.Join me and reap the rewards
or deny me and suffer the consequences.These are your choices.”
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Author’s note:This story
has a number of purposes, some of
which are more apparent than others.Firstly, it is to demonstrate the ‘real’ reason for Ravana’s
massive
wars, from his point of view.Secondly,
it hints at who Ravana’s daughter will eventually turn out to be, and
show how
determined he is to find her and how he is feeling about her during
this
time.Some of the less obvious points of
this story are the relationships between Ravana and his advisors, which
stem
from the two previous stories.Ravana
still has an issue with how he is perceived by those around him, and
does a lot
of things out of a desire for acceptance.Although he cares very much for his daughter and very little for
the
war, he is unable to assert his own desire and instead takes the long
way
around in order to maintain face as a king.In his search to find his daughter he has kind of lost his
vision
for a
united universe, but he rectifies it with himself, by ruling fairly
and
providing his subjects with everything they need.Finally,
it is important to note that there
are high tensions between Ravana and the Gods, whom he has just
conquered.They held out until the very
end and will now
be forced to work beneath Ravana, a fate they bitterly resent and thus
ties
into the introduction.I would also like
to humbly suggest that their opinions had some influence on how Ravana
was
portrayed in the Ramayana.As a side
note, the relationship with his sister and her husband (Ravana killed
him) will
come in to play later.
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