Under the BanyanOld stories, illustrated and annotated

The Ramayana, issue 10 of 10

The Dying Wings

An empty hut. A silent forest. A prince on the edge of burning the worlds.

Why this issue matters Sita's whereabouts are no longer a mystery: Ravana took her south. The search begins in earnest here, and the road leads straight to Sugriva and the vanaras, who will become Rama's allies. The lesson
Who's who

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The Dying Wings, cover
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The lesson of issue 10

Look closely before you strike

Rama finds the empty cottage, and his grief turns to such rage that he fits Agastya's bow and threatens the three worlds. Lakshmana kneels and asks him to look closely at the wreckage. There is one chariot, one broken bow and one set of footprints, so one wrongdoer is to blame, not all creation. Rama listens, lowers the bow, and puts his grief to work. Dying Jatayu names Ravana, Kabandha shows the road, and Danu tells him a true friend is one who shares hard days.

To think about

Can you remember a time when anger made a problem look bigger than it was, and what helped you see it clearly?

Notes on the tellings

Where this issue follows Valmiki, and where other tellings differ. Each note also appears on its page.

  • Page 8 In the critical edition, Rama questions the silent Godavari and the mountains, then the brothers turn south and find the crushed flowers fallen from Sita's hair. The vulgate adds a passage in which a herd of deer look at Rama, leap toward the south and glance up at the sky to show him that Sita was carried that way.
  • Page 19 Ayomukhi appears in the traditional (vulgate) text of Valmiki's Ramayana, not in the scholars' critical edition. In the vulgate she seizes Lakshmana as he walks ahead of Rama and asks him to be her husband. The critical edition leaves out these twelve verses and goes straight from Lakshmana's warning of his throbbing arm and the cry of the vanchulaka bird.
  • Page 22 We show the violence of these fights through shadow, silhouette and aftermath rather than wounds, so the issue suits readers of every age. Jatayu lies whole on the earth as he dies, and Kabandha's release is shown in silhouette.
  • Page 23 In Valmiki, Kabandha explains that two things gave him his shape. The sage Sthulashiras cursed the Danava prince Danu to keep the frightening form he had put on to scare forest hermits. Then, when Danu challenged Indra, Indra's thunderbolt drove his head and thighs into his body, and Indra gave him league-long arms and a mouth in his belly. He is freed when Rama and Lakshmana cut off his arms and burn him.
  • Page 28 In Valmiki, Shabari offers Rama whole forest fruits and roots gathered along the banks of Lake Pampa. She never tastes the berries. The famous story in which she tastes each one to be sure only the sweetest are served comes from later devotional retellings.
  • Page 30 In Valmiki, Shabari leaves her body at the sacred altar. We show her rising in light to join her teachers. On page 32 we pair a memory of her guidance with the brothers' first sight of Mount Rishyamuka.