Week 3 Story: Four Little Princes

Before the Epic Began. 

King Dasaratha felt so lucky to have his four sons if it would not have been for the Sage Rishya Sringa, he might have died never having any children. Since Dasartha was an older father, he enjoyed watching the boys play and interact together while they were little from afar.

Rama was the eldest and usually made the decisions but never felt he had power over the others and the other brothers had a respect for him. Bharatha was the second and very honorable, but his mother always kept a close eye on him. And last, were the twins Lakshmana and Sathrugna, even though they were twins that were entirely different from each other. Lakshmana enjoyed playing with Rama the most, and you would almost think that they had been born the twins. Sathrugna on the other hand, preferred his studies and did not enjoy the company of others and would go off on his own to meditate. Dasaratha had a feeling that these traits would play a hand in each of the boys' future. On one particular day, the boys had all finished their lessons for the day and went outside to play together.

Lakshmana looked like he wanted to shoot his bow around but first asked Rama what he wanted to play. "Rama what should we play today?" Asked Lakshmana.

Rama looked around then already knowing that Lakshmana preferred to play with the bows replied, "I am happy to play whatever game we all decide on, but I think I would like to play a shooting game with the bows?"

Lakshmana laughed, Rama always knew what he was thinking. "Okay but only if you want to too? Are you two going to play?" Lakshmana asked his two other brothers.

Bharatha readily agreed, but Sathrugna declined and went to sit under a tree to watch. "Yes, it will be fun to practice our shooting, count me in," Bharatha told Rama and Lakshmana.

The three brothers began to shoot their arrows towards the targets. Rama had the best shot, but Lakshmana came in a very close second. After playing around for a while, Bharatha mother Kaikeyi came to call Bharatha away. Even though he did not want to go Bharatha went away with his mother because he knew it was the right thing to do.

Once Bharatha left Rama and Lakshmana were left to play together just the two of them. It seemed that this pattern, of only the two bothers getting to play together, played out for most of their lives with the Rama and Lakshmana becoming closer as they got older.

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Author’s Note: This story is based off of the story The Ramayana by R.K. Narayan. In the story of The Ramayana we learn about King Dasaratha who has four sons. The book only briefly describes the four sons as children and then skips ahead to when Rama and Lakshmana leave with Viswamithra to help protect him against rakshasa. I decide to write a story that gives a little more information about the childhood of the boys. I wanted to show that Rama and Lakshmana became close when they were little and then how Bharatha wanted to play with them too but his mother always seemed to pull him away. This is parallel to how the boys are when they grow up and how Bharatha mother makes him look like the bad guy even though he wants Rama to be King not himself. I decided to have Sathrugna not participate because in the book it seems like he does not want to get involved with anything and is just a quiet bystander that is barely mentioned. I hope you have enjoyed my story and would love to hear feedback!

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Image: Four brothers playing around. Source: pixabay by blueMix