Group Four
Mr. Hanuman: Finally, we have Group Four to close out the presentations. I can't wait to see what you all have in store for us!
Indrajitt: Thanks, Mr. Hanuman. Like many of the other groups, we will start with a short story.
Long ago, there were three rakshasa brothers named Suamli, Mali, and Malyavan. The father of the brothers had been given the boon of invincibility by the gods and the brothers wanted that boon too. After a long time of praying to the gods on Mount Meru, they were finally granted a boon by Brahma. The brothers asked to be "invincible, capable of slaying foes, immortal, lordly, and ever devoted to each other." They were granted the boon. They then asked Vishwakarma, known as the "Principal Architect of the Universe," to construct a city for them. He happily obliged, and the fortress of Lanka was created.
The brothers then began to terrorize the gods. This led to a war with the gods where Vishnu killed Mali and drove Sumali, Malyavan, and their armies back to Lanka. Embarrassed by defeat, the brothers left Lanka to live in exile in the nether regions. As Lanka was now deserted, Kubera, known as the "Lord of Wealth" inhabited the city at the urging of his father, Vishrava. Vishrava was very powerful and was the grandson of Brahma.
Sumali, learning of the great power of Vishrava, sent his daughter, Kaikesi to marry him. Vishrava fell in love with Kaikesi, and together, they had Ravana. Sumali urged Ravana to take control of Lanka, and he did so. Although Kubera was happy to share Lanka with Ravana, Ravana had no intentions of sharing the throne. To avoid war, Vishrava advised Kubera to leave Lanka, and he did, giving the throne to Lanka.
Lanka was a fictional city in present day Sri Lanka, also known as Ceylon, an island southeast of India. In 1948, Sri Lanka gained its independence from British rule, less than a year after India was given theirs. Today, there are over twenty-one million people living in Sri Lanka.
From 1983 until 2009, Sri Lanka was engaged in a civil war, which resulted in the deaths of close to 100,000 people. Sri Lanka is considered a "Second World" country; however, since the end of the war, it has one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Sugriva: Next, we will cover the bodies of water that separate Sri Lanka from India, the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar.
In his effort to reach Lanka, Rama was forced to cross a large body of water. He was able to do this with the help of the Vanaras. Ordered by the leader with the same name as me, Sugriva, the monkey army built a bridge from India to Sri Lanka composed of stones.
This land bridge actually exists and is called "Rama's Bridge," although it is more widely known as "Adam's Bridge," in reference to the Christian and Islamic Adam. This land bridge separate the Gulf of Mannar, in the southwest, from the Palk Straight, which is to the northeast. While the bridge cannot be completely crossed by foot today, it is believed that, until being damaged by a cyclone in the 1400s, the bridge was entirely above water and was cross-able.
Arjuna: Continuing our stay in the south, we will look at Mount Trikuta, the three-peaked mountain that surrounded Ravana's fortress in Lanka. While Trikuta is fictional, it is accepted as the Sri Pada Mountain, also known as Adam's Peak...yes the same Adam from earlier. At the summit of this mountain, the four major religions of the world, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam all come together by via a "religious footprint" rock formation. Buddhists believe it to be the left foot of Buddha, some Christians and Muslims believe it to be the footprint of Adam, as well as Sri Lanka being home to the Garden of Eden, and some Hindus believe it to be the footprint of Shiva.
We will now show a short video.
Sita: The last place we will be talking about is Dandaka Forest. This fictional forest is where Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita...not me, Rama's wife, served most their exile. Many things happened here, such as Lakshmana cutting off the nose of Shurpanakha and Sita being captured by Ravana. There is much debate about where the forest is actually located, or if it is even based off of a real place. Some believe it covered nearly the entire central portion of India, while other believe it may have been on the eastern side of the country. Others think it may have existed in ancient times, but is no longer around today.
The story of the forest is told to Rama by the sage Agastya. In the story, Danda, along with hundreds of brothers, come to be the sons of Ikshwaku, grandson of the Sun God, fully grown. After founding the city of Ayodyha, Ikshwaku and his priest conducted a sacrifice that resulted in all of his sons rising out of fire. All but Danda were obedient. Danda eventually created his own kingdom, Dandaka Kingdom. When he did, he took a sage named Shukracharya as his priest. One day, while Shukracharya was away, Danda encounter his daughter, and made unwanted advances. When Shukracharya returned, his daughter explained what had happened. Shukracharya then ordered the evacuation of the holy families and cattle. Once they had all left, he created a storm the destroyed the entire kingdom and everything in it. Over the course of many years, a forest grew in place of the kingdom.
Mr. Hanuman: Wow, such a fantastic way to finish the project! Thank you all for your hard work, you have all done a wonderful job!
Author's Note: After starting in the north with the Ayodhya and the Himalayas, I worked my way south until I reached (Sri) Lanka. I chose Sri Lanka because it is a very interesting place that plays a large part in the epic, but a place that I knew very little about in real life. It was also a suggestion given to me earlier in the semester. I tried to keep everything centered around this area. I think choosing the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar, as well as Mount Trikuta were really nice complementing features for Lanka. I really liked that I was able to find a connection between those two places as well, the connection being Adam. Although it didn't really fit into the theme of this presentation, I had listed Dandaka Forest as a place that I wanted to research earlier in the semester, but it ended up getting relegated to this group. I did use Sita as the presenter, so while there wasn't much of a connection to the other places covered, there was at least a connection with the presenter.
Overall, this has been an extremely fun and informative process, and I'm glad that I chose this type of project.
Sources:
Wikipedia/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War
Banner Image: