LIST OF SUGGESTED STORY TOPICS FOR WEEK 7:

A Battle Song for Jambavan, Hanuman and Sugriva. Re-read Buck's account of Jambavan's battle with the demons, and how Hanuman and Sugriva united to defeat the demon magicians Lightning Tongue and Thunder Tooth. After you have visualized all the drama and details clearly in your mind, write the words to a ballad commemorating this battle!

A Battle Song for Kaikeyi. Were you surprised to learn about Kaikeyi's actions as Daśaratha's charioteer? Buck provides a detailed account of her participation in the battle against the drought demons. Re-read Buck's account of this battle and after you have visualized all the drama and details clearly in your mind, write the words to a ballad about Kaikeyi the charioteer!

Sita and the Ramayana. Buck describes in detail the night that Śatrughna spends in Valmiki's heritage, describing how he felt lying there listening to the song sung by Kusa and Lava. But what about Sita? How does she feel as she listens to Valmiki composing the words of the Ramayana, and teaching the song to her sons? What is she thinking when Śatrughna comes to the hermitage with the invitation to the festival? Imagine an inner monologue as Sita also spends that night listening to the singing of Kusa and Lava, and what she thinks and feels about that.

Trijata at the Festival. Buck tells us that Trijata, the old demon who had been kind to Sita in Lanka, comes to the festival together with Vibhishana, but that is all that Buck says about her. For your story, tell Trijata's experience at the festival. What does she expect to see? What does she find there? What does she think about what has happened to Sita? (Remember that it was Vibhishana who intervened with Narada to send Valmiki to help Sita: do you think Trijata knows about all of that too?). You can choose to tell your story in Trijata's own words, or using third-person narration.

Janaka and Sita . As you saw, Buck devotes considerable attention to Janaka, Sita's father, and his philosophical reflections about what is happening. He provides a long dialogue between Janaka and Rama, for example. Yet we do not see Janaka having a dialogue with Sita. Buck only tells us that: Janaka embraced his daughter Sita. 'I sowed seed in Earth and tended her, and she bore you to me from a plowed field. I've loved you all our life, though I let you marry and go.' - but Buck does not give Sita's reply. What do you think Sita would say to Janaka at this moment? What kind of dialogue would the two of them have?

The Statue of Sita. Rama had a golden statue of Sita, but when Sita was briefly restored to him the statue was "carried away" before she arrived. When he loses her again, he goes back to "keeping her golden statue by him in her palace rooms." What do you think finally happens to that statue after the story is over, after Rama and all his friends and followers have departed this earth? Tell a story about the fate of that statue. What happened to it? Where became of the golden image of Sita in the end?