There was once an Apsarasa named Rambha. Everyone who saw her praised her
beauty. “What a heavenly creature!” they’d say. That Apsarasa woman happens to
be me.
I’ve always been close friends with Lord Indra. I want the best for him.
So when a mortal king started encroaching on his power I didn’t think twice
about going down to try to tempt him away from living a goodly life.
I did everything I could think of to try to seduce him or draw him away
from goodness, but he would not give in. After several weeks of ignoring my
attempts, he finally got fed up and turned me to stone. It was terrible! I kept
all of my senses, but lost my ability to move. You don’t realize how agonizing
it is to see and hear and smell everything but never be able to reach out and
take part in it.
The king left me behind and people forgot that I was actually human. Some
new men came by one day and thought I was a statue. “What a lovely ornament! Let
us take it back to Lord Vaishravana so he may praise us for finding this
beauty!” they exclaimed. So they picked me up and took me to their Lord, who
put me in his garden.
Many years later the spell that held me in stone form wore off and I
could move again. Oh, how happy I was! The first thing I saw after regaining my
humanity was Vaishravana’s son, Nalakubara. He was such a beautiful man, so kind
and gentle looking. We fell in love with each other immediately.
I knew that I did not belong on Earth, but in heaven. This was such a
terrible feeling for me. I wanted to be with my love. So every night I would
sneak down from heaven and be with him. Those nights brought so much joy and
happiness to my life.
There was another king, the king of the Rakshasas, named Ravana. Ravana
and his armies had taken control of much of the world and the heavens by force.
He decided that he wanted many wives of all different races. He cared nothing
for the women, just their beauty. He’d take them away from their homes and
families by force and would force himself on them. He kept them as prisoners.
Of all his hundreds of forced wives he did not have an Apsarasa. Since he
had heard rumors of my beauty, he decided that he wanted me. He drove his
chariot all the way to Vaishravana’s kingdom and waited for me to come down to
meet my lover in the garden. As soon as I was in his sight, he jumped out and
started harassing me. “Who are you seeing? What lucky man gets to get drunk on
your love tonight? You should want me! Love me!”
I naturally was not interested in this man of such hideous character. I
told him, “I cannot love you because I am already married.”
“Apsarasas don’t marry!” he growled back. “How can you be married?”
“You do not need a ceremony to join the hearts of two people who love
each other,” I told him.
As I said that he jumped on me and raped me. He just used me and left me
there to suffer. I got up and ran to Nalakubara, who was waiting for me across
the garden. I told him all that happened as tears streamed down my face. “Please
forgive me for my weakness, for you are my husband and another man has been
with me,” I pleaded.
“I have no need to forgive you. You did not give in to him, he forced
you. Please stop crying, love,” my lover gently said. As Nalakubara was trying
to console me, a tear fell from his eye and he shouted out in anger, “Ravana!
The next time you try to force yourself on a woman, may all ten of your heads
burst!”
Though Ravana had already made it back to his home thousands of miles
away, he still heard the curse. To this day he has not forced any woman and
cannot, lest he die.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Author’s
Note: I chose to tell this story from
Rambha’s point of view because she was already disrespected enough when she got
raped. She deserves to be able to tell her side of the story. I added the part
where Nalakubara doesn’t see the need to forgive her; there should be
absolutely no blame put on rape victims. The original story did not specify
whether or not she was forgiven for her “weakness,” so I thought that the story
needed to specifically say that there was no reason for blame to be put on her.
Bibliography: Buck, William (1976). Ramayana. Pages 177-180.
Image Source: Wikipedia
Hey, Gretchen- great story! I really appreciate how you took a story that was touched on briefly and added so much life to it. Also, it was really cool how you wrote it in first person. I do not read a lot of pieces written from that point of view so when I do, it’s really special. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI really liked that you told the story from the view of the victim which in turn added a lot of emotion to the tale. I also like you take on the view that Nalakubrara should of had towards his lover if in fact he did truly love her. Overall I think you did a great job at changing the viewpoint of the story while sticking to the main components of the original.
ReplyDeleteWow Gretchen great job with this story. I loved reading the whole story because it was so detailed and interesting. I am glad you chose to tell Rambha's point of view because she was definitely not treating very well throughout the book and she deserves to say her feelings. I liked how to presented her emotions and feelings though that was great. Good job again!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job of filling in the blanks to this story. So much of the Ramayana is left to the imagination and I always like to read someone else's thoughts on what they think happened. The point of view you chose is something that I would have never thought to do, and you did it in a way that updated the view of how women were treated in the Ramayana. I think this is a great updated version because so many times in the Ramayana women are made to suffer for the actions of others and are blamed for the result of those actions and your version of the story puts the blame where it belongs.
ReplyDelete