Week 3: Storytelling, "Dasharatha's Sons"
Author: Bahur Artists, Date: 1700, Description: Dasaratha bids farewell to his sons, Link
"Dasharatha's Sons, A Retelling".
Author Notes: In today's storytelling, I will be retelling the story of how Dasharatha got his sons. The story is pretty standard. Dasharatha wants to get at least one son to take over after he dies, so he decides to sacrifice a brahmin to make it happen. I will be changing up the story from the brahmin's perspective.
Bibliography: Mackenzie, A. Donald, 1913, Link
There once lived a brahmin named Donald who minded his own business. He grew up in a normal fashion, nothing about his life was special. He did his job as a brahmin, he helped his owner on the farm when it came to handiwork. Although his owners didn't realize it, Donald was able to understand the human language. After living on the farm his entire life, he was able to speak the human language. It took years of practice for him to do it, but he accomplished a feat that was like no other.
One day, as he was working on the farm, he heard his owner talking to his wife. He overheard the owner say that King Dasharatha was desperate to have a son after all four of his wives birthed women. At first, Donald wasn't too interested in the story because he didn't have anything to do with the king. However, once he heard the part about the king wanting to perform the Ashwamedha, or horse sacrifice, a mild chill went down his body. Donald thought that there's no way that he would be chosen out of all of the horses in the land. After the conversation died down, the owner and horse went back to work.
That night, the owner put him back in his barn to sleep. Before the owner left, he apologized to the horse. The owner stated that Donald was chosen to be the sacrifice. The owner wept but stated that this was for the best and that this would be the most honorable thing he could do for the king. Donald tried to speak, but only neighs escaped his mouth. After trying to communicate with the owner for several minutes to no avail, the owner left the barn.
Infuriated with the situation, Donald sought out a plan to escape the barn. He tried to kick open the door, but that didn't work. After hours of pacing around, Donald gave up. He looked to the sky and asked the gods why he had to be chosen. He cursed them and promised that if he was reborn, he would go out of his way to get revenge on the king. Realizing that this would be his last day on this Earth, Donald wept himself to sleep, unable to console himself.
Hi Brandon
ReplyDeleteThis story actually put me in my feels. Something about domesticated animals being killed just hits me right in the gut you know. Nevertheless, I really liked how you changed the perspective to the horse's it's very unique and adds a lot of flavor to the story itself. I also enjoyed how you showed the regret that the owner felt, but he was honor bound to help the king which is a recurring theme in the Ramayana itself.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story Brandon and I am excited to read more!
Rohit
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI wonder why you made the horse of the story a brahmin? From my understanding, a brahmin was a priest, agriculturalist, or warrior and a human in the Hindu sense. At first I thought you were telling the story where the horse are essentially the people, but then you mentioned the owners of him were humans so I was confused. Is Donald a holy or warrior horse of some sort? Perhaps you could clear that up or revise the story. Overall, I found your story interesting and a bit sad at the ending. I would love to see a part two of how he would plan to get revenge and how that goes. Also, would the horse be able to escape once they came to get him for the sacrifice? I would imagine the owner would try to lead him out, but a horse should surely be able to overpower him.