I saw in a Malayalam daily, articles about Ramayanam, in the festive season of Adi-month . I had been trying to learn Malayalam, by writing down the 108-namavalis of Ganesa, Subramanya, Shiva, Vishnu and Devi.
That did help. But that was not sufficient. Now I tried to read and write Malayalam by reading the articles on Ramayanam and copying down the text of the articles everyday. Initially it was a little bit difficult. But later it became easy to read the sentences. I felt better and at ease because I knew the story. Another contributing factor was that Malayalam has a strong base in Sanskrit, a language which I studied with interest in school. I copied down the words correctly. This helped me gain better perfection in writing down. First my interest was to learn to write the aksharams of malayAlam correctly.While copying the first 10 articles I struggled a lot. Later only I started following the meaning. Fortunately I got enough guidance from friends to follow the meaning of each word and sentence. Then writing itself was enjoyable following the meaning.
Three different writers presented these articles, choosing specific events. insights of the chosen events and different interpretations were available.
When I enjoyed the thrill and depth of the of the cream of the epic's thought force, in malayalam,
I was really enjoying the epic. I was enjoying the beauty of the language which was giving the required literary depth of the epic efficiently. Other than the oft chosen topics and events there were out of the ordinary, but important topics were presented with special care. One such topic was Barathan and Mandavi. They are the third son Baratha of Dasaratha and Mandavi, the brother's daughter of Janaka and given in marriage to Baratha,
One B.Sandhya, I.P. S. presents thus. The life of Baratha after Dasaratha's death was totally different after he returned from his grandfather's kingdom, when Rama was gone on 14 years 'vanavasam' and immediately Dasaratha giving up his mortal body. Baratha chose not to take the throne but only to bring back Rama and coronate Rama as the king. The grand efforts he took, were laudable. Vasishta the Guru with his group of sages, the 3 queens cum mothers,the people of Ayodya, were all taken along to bring back Rama. Baratha's love and gigantic sincere efforts only brought him the responsibility of the kingdom to be administered; the pair of Rama paduka were Baratha's friend and solace, until Rama returned after 14 years.
He lead a simple forest life with Jata-mudi and bark garment. He helped the paduka-pair to rule the kingdom. He enjoyed reporting accounts and administration to Rama's revered paduka-pair. All this he did achieve only by the moral support and contributive shining subtle helping hand of Mandavi. Unless some one points out this current of Baratha's life, it passes off unreflected in the flood of the main stream of Ramayana. We are telling the truth, when we point out that Barata felt Rama's divine presence in the Paduka-pair, vibrant on the throne.
Ravana the scholar, devotee of shiva, had in his hands sangeetham; he had invented a violin known as 'Ravanahastham'. Many years of austerities, and boons lie at his credit. He hadcomposed on Lord shiva a sthothram WHICH ADORES SHIVA'S DANCE; it is known as 'Shiva thandava sthothram'. His Lanka city flourished with all that he desired to possess. When Rama came to Lankapuri and first saw Ravana, for one minute, Sri Rama forgot himself. The strength of all the victories of Ravana was his queen- Mandodhari's pathivrathyam, her love and dedication to her husband Ravana. She is one among the five pathivrathas, adored in the early morning by great souls, for auspicious beginning of the day.
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