Lesser known facts from the Ramayana

1. The epic Ramayana was originally written by Maharishi Valmiki even during the lifetime of Bhagavan Sri Rama. This epic has 24,000 shlokas, 500 upkhand and 7 khand with answers.
2. At the time when King Dashratha organized a yagyan for the birth of a son, his age was 60 years. King Dashratha in fact had one more child.
3. Before Rama and his brothers were born, King Dashratha and his first wife Kausalya had a daughter named Shanta. Kausalya’s elder sister Vershini and her husband Raja Romapad (who was a great friend of Maharaj Dashratha as they had studied in same Ashram) had no offspring. Once, when Vershini was visiting in Ayodhya, she jokingly asked the King for a child, to which Dashratha promised that she could adopt his daughter, Shanta. As the promise of ‘Raghukul’ had to be kept, Shanta was adopted by Raja Romapad, the king of Angadesh. Once when Shanta was grown and a very beautiful woman, she was in a conversation with Raja Romapad. At this time, a Brahmin came to visit King Romapad seeking help for cultivation of his land during the rainy season. Engrossed in the conversation with his adopted daughter Shanta, the King ignored the Brahmin who left the King’s court dejected. Lord Indra, the God of rains, decided to punish Romapad and hence, it did not rain in the rainy season that year. When he came to know about the curse, Raja Romapad called a holy saint, Rishi Rishyasringa, to perform a Yagyan for rains, which succeeded. To honour the Rishi, King Dashratha and King Romapad decided to give the princess Shanta in marriage to Rishi Rishyasringa.

4. As Raja Dashratha had no male heir, he requested Rishyasringa to perform a Yagyan for him too, after which the God of Fire appeared and handed a vessel containing divine kheer to Dashratha for his wives to consume, eating which Rama and his brothers were born.
5. Vashishta Maharshi the guru of Raghu dynasty named Rama. He explained that the name ‘Rama’ is made up of two beeja akhyaras (alphabetical seeds): Agni beeja (Ra) and Amruta beeja (Ma). Agni beeja energises the soul, mind and body. Amruta beeja reinvigorates the prana shakti (life force) in the body.
6. The “Shiva dhanush” was easily moved by Sita in her childhood. King Janak observed this and this incident set the condition of “Sita Swayamvar” in the Ramayana
7. When Lord Rama went to exile he was 27 years old.
8. It is believed that Lakshman did not sleep for the entire period of the exile of 14 years in order to protect his brother and sister-in-law. Because of this he is called Gudakesh. He prayed to goddess Nidra Devi on the first night of their exile when Rama and Sita were asleep. Lakshman requested the goddess to grant him a boon of no sleep for the entire 14 years, so that he can be awake to watch over his beloved brother and Sita. The goddess was impressed by this and granted the boon on a condition that someone else has to bear his sleep. On Lakshman’s request the goddess visited his wife Urmila, sister of Sita. Urmila agreed to share her husband loss of sleep, and thus slept for entire 14 years. This was pre-ordained as Ravan’s son Meghanada had performed long and arduous penance to receive dark tantric powers and one of the boons he had asked was that he could be killed only by a person who had not slept for 14 years. As this was virtually impossible, he considered himself immortal.

9. Vidyutjinn was the husband of Soorpanakha, Ravan’s sister. He was a senapati (sommander-in-chief) in the army of Kalkay Maharaj. When Ravan was out conquering the world, he fought with Kalkay too. In that battle, Vidyutjinn died. A distraught Soorpanakha cursed Ravan that she would become the reason for her brother’s death.
10. After killing Vaali, Lord Rama promised him that he would have his revenge in his next birth. Vaali was reborn as Jara a hunter who was the cause of the death of Sri Krishna.
11. Ravan was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. A highly learned scholar, he could not be beaten in a debate. He was also an excellent ruler and a master musician. Attaining education, Ravan underwent a colossal penance to please Lord Shiva on the banks of river Narmada. Desiring to have a darshan of his favourite Lord, Ravan cut off his own head and offered it in the sacrificial fire. At once, a new head appeared. Each time he cut it; the head grew back, which continued 10 times. Pleased with his devotion Lord Shiva granted the 10 heads to Raavan that he had sacrificed. These 10 heads indicate the six shastras and the four vedas that Ravan mastered.

12. After defeating his own brother Kubera and winning over Lanka, Ravan again went to meet Lord Shiva in Kailash. He was denied entry by Nandi as the Lord and Devi Parvati were otherwise engaged. In his arrogance, Ravan dismissed Nandi insultingly saying what a bull would know of these matters… Nandi cursed him that his Lanka would be destroyed by a monkey!

13. Once Ravan was travelling in his aerial vehicle Pushpak Viman when he saw a beautiful woman busy in worshipping Lord Vishnu in order to obtain Him as her husband. Enamoured by her, Raavan grabbed her hair and ordered her to go with him. The woman Vedavati tore off her hair and in great anguish said she would now enter into the fire and die, but she would be reborn and become the reason of the destruction of Ravan. In her next birth this Vedavati became the wife of Agni Dev as Swaha. She exchanged places with Sita just before Ravan’s plot of kidnap her. So it was not the real Sita whom Ravan abducted, rather it was Maya Sita, the wife of Agni Dev.
14. Toward the end of the battle, when only Ravan was left to fight with Rama and his army of monkeys, Ravan organised a tantric yagyan for his victory. The caveat was: Ravan could not leave the yagyan. Coming to know of this, Rama asked Angad, the son of Vaali, to head a group of monkeys to desecrate and stop the yagna. Reaching the place of the yagyan, Angad and his group created mayhem but Ravan remained indifferent to the commotion. In order to distract Ravan and make him leave the Yagyan, Angad then pulled Mandodari’s hair in front of Ravan. When Ravan still continued to focus on the Yagyan, Mandodari cried out to Ravan to help her and taunted him saying “See what Ram was doing for his wife!” This made Ravan leave the Yagyan, and Angad and his group fled the place as their purpose was achieved.

15. Ravan and his brother Kumbhakarna are in fact the re-incarnation of Jaya and Vijaya the gate keepers of Lord Vishnu’s abode in Vaikuntha. They were cursed by Brahmas sons the Four Kumaras to be re-born on earth after they were refused entry into Lord Vishnu’s world. Jaya and Vijaya then pleaded their Master Lord Vishnu to find a solution by which they could avoid the dire consequence of their insolence. Lord Vishnu gave them two options. They could either be born as his devotees for 7 life cycles or as his enemies for 3 life cycles. They chose the latter since they preferred not to be separated from Lord Vishnu for a long period of time.

Om Vishnupad 108 Tridandi Swami Sri Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami Maharaj

Source – Sri Chaitanya Institute of Vaishnabic Culture