Description: “So there’s this one called Ramayana. So the the pretense is like theres this demon in Sri Lanka who’s like gonna fuck up the whole world. I think it’s the whole world but the people who wrote the story didn’t know anything about anything outside of India, presumably. There’s like three main Hindu gods and one of them is like I’ve gotta go down there and destroy this man before he destroys earth, right? So he comes as a prince, or he’s born as a prince and he grows up into a very good prince/king everybody wants him to be the king. His dad who’s the king has many wives, right? And one of his wives who’s not Ram’s, the main character, direct mother, is jealous that her son is not the crowned prince. So like I forgot what the exact stipulation is but she puts some weird condition on the king where she had to send away like he had to send away Ram. And her actual son is Ram’s little brother and best friend who’s also like a great warrior and a great person. So they end up leaving. He takes his wife who’s like a princess from another kingdom in India. They encounter like all kinds of crazy phenomena. And they do all kinds of miracles and what not. He’s like a very good warrior with magic and fighting and stuff. Eventually, and keep in mind this is all precipitated by the god himself he needs all this to happen. He doesn’t speak on it, but he knows he’s the reincarnation of this god and he knows what his duty is truly at a certain point. And, there’s a point when they’re in their exile and he knows the peak of his duty is coming. So he calls on the god of fire and says can you protect my wife until this is all over. And so the god of fire takes his wife to his realm and leaves his wife with a fake version or a replacement that’s like exactly the same. Something like that. Eventually, like I don’t remember how exactly it happened, that demon king kidnaps the wife. They’re like alright we gotta go get her back. He also befriends a kingdom of ape like humans who are really strong like warriors and stuff.  He helps them. The man general guy, his name is Hanuman, like people have tattoos of him because he’s known to be really strong and stuff. He becomes one of their squad members and is like a really good fighter. They go down to Sri Lanka. I believe they bring an army and they build a rock- they build like a rock bridge to the Sri Lanka and they get there and they have camps. First the ape dude, Hanuman, he fights the demon and like beats his ass but something stops him from killing him. His tail catches on fire and he sets the whole demon kingdom on fire right? One of the demon king’s brothers who’s like a reasonable man. He’s like biologically a demon in the mythology but he’s not like a demon in the mind. He joins Ram’s faction, the good guys, and tells him all the secrets and trains him and like in ways in new magic and stuff that can like helm him defeat. I don’t know if that part is true or not actually. I don’t remember. Eventually there’s this huge war and it comes down to them shooting arrows at each other and what not. It’s this huge epic battle. Between the demon army versus Ram and his army. Eventually it comes down to them using magical god given arrows at each other. They’re clashing and like he finds out the only way to kill him is to shoot him in the naval. Eventually he gets him there and like he dies. That was the rough version. I haven’t read about it in over ten years.

2. My friend read stories like these when he was a child but it’s also transmitted by word of mouth as well.

3. I went into his dorm and asked if he could tell me some Hindi folklore. He said sure and started off with this one.

4. This is definitely a tale on an epic scale. I see a few similarities with Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is God born into a human body so that he may redeem the world. In this case He is 100% God and 100% a man. Ramayana is a god (small g) and is born into human form. From what my friend told me it doesn’t seem like the story is very clear on his deity versus his humanity. That’s just about the extent of the similarities though. As far as I could observe, Hindu people don’t exactly think that Ram was real. At least today they don’t.