Okay, so we left off with Kooni having convinced Kaikeyi to ask Dasaratha for Rama's exile and for Bharatha's coronation. Dasaratha has spent the day spelling out all the details necessary for the coronation ceremony (which is still for Rama at this point), and then decides to seek out Kaikeyi's company. Meanwhile Kaikeyi is in the kopa gruha, or the room of anger; there the king finds her, sulking and sprawled on the ground.
This next scene kind of surprised me--heck, it almost annoyed me. Kaikeyi turns out to be quite the manipulative witch. Dasaratha expects her to be excited for the coronation, which keeps him from realizing that she's upset for a surprising amount of time seeing as she is in the room of anger. When Kaikeyi starts asking for a bowl of poison so she may end her troubles, Dasaratha freaks out--I mean, she is his favorite wife, so I can see that. But when she asks for her two favors, you can't really outright deny her; and obviously she isn't in the most stable state of mind, so bargaining is also probably out of the picture. And I get that that's extremely upsetting for the king. Yet the extreme of his agony seems unrealistic. A king who falls apart as soon as one close to him departs seems utterly unreliable and not worthy of my faith or trust, if you ask me.
Then, to top it all off, Dasaratha doesn't even have enough strength to talk to Rama or the ministers himself; no, he trusts this task to Kaikeyi, the scheming witch or initiated the whole mess. I mean, my estimation in Kaikeyi grew in that I now respect her cunning and performance skills, but everyone else? What the heck are they doing? The ministers cave to her demands almost immediately and the king and Kausalya spend the whole time lamenting. And Rama, well, he just accepts Kaikeyi's orders without saying a word to the king. It's very honorable and all, but shouldn't he have at least asked that the king give the orders himself? Rather than trust the distrustful witch? . . .
In any case, Rama willfully bows out while Dasaratha basically claims he will die as soon as Rama leaves. And then, upon hearing that Rama did actually depart and head into exile, Dasaratha does, in fact, die. Leaving the kingdom without a monarch until Bharatha can be summoned and brought back to Ayodhya.
At this point I really started to wonder about Rama's personality and services to the people. When he leaves, the entire kingdom mourns; heck, half of the kingdom tries to go into exile with him. That is some insane devotion right there. We don't really know much about Rama's life up to this point, other than that he is a morally and spiritually upstanding guy who no one believes can do any wrong. And it leads me to wonder what he did to deserve all the allegiance he has from the people. But, moving on. . .
Lakshmana meanwhile has what I would consider a reasonable--and even judicious--response to the whole scenario. He is enraged, and is ready to fight for Rama's spot not only in the country but on the throne. He wishes to "overpower fate itself," a sentiment I believe many of the characters in this epic could benefit from. But Rama, ever levelheaded, says that Kaikeyi deserves the kingdom, and that he is privileged to head into exile. Bah!
So Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita head into exile in the woods together. When Bharatha returns to Ayodhya and finds Dasaratha dead and Rama banished he is overwhelmed with sadness but chooses to act on it. Big step forward for characters in the story right there! In any case, he eventually concedes that Rama will perform his fourteen years of exile and that Bharatha will serve as a regent during his absence--but he does this only after the gods order him to do so, soooo. . . Yeah. Everyone really loves and supports Rama, basically. Except Kooni and Kaikeyi, of course.
As Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita travel, they encounter various figures such as Athri and his wife Anusuya and the Great Eagle, Jatayu. Eventually they settle at Panchvati, where Lakshmana (luckily an adept architect) builds them a home. Not long after they arrive, Ravana's sister Soorpanaka approaches Rama, her demon's appearance hidden behind the guise of a beautiful maiden. Soorpanaka wishes to claim Rama as her own, and so after he first rejects her advances she works to capture Sita and take her place in Rama's home. Luckily, the ever-present and ever-angry Lakshmana protects Sita and mutilates Soorpanaka. Soorpanaka once again tries to gain Rama's favor; however, when he rejects her once more she sets her brother Kara and his armies on our exiled trio.
Fortunately--and just a bit unrealistically--Rama is able to defeat everyone who comes at him all by his lonesome through the use of his trusty bow. Three cheers for Rama! Fulfilling his destiny to defeat the demons like a pro, haha. But, of course, Rama has yet to encounter Ravana, the supreme lord and leader of the rakshasas, who has just been informed of his stepbrother's defeat and sister's mutilation from the scorned Soorpanaka herself. . .
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