Ten heads

Ten heads.

He looked down from the top at the massive hall full of rakhshas of various sizes but the one he was interested in was the king who was sitting on a throne which looked like a hood of a cobra. It had to be wide enough to accommodate all of his ten heads. He was amused at the sight of the king. Many questions were racing through his mind about the ten heads. He was wondering,”How does he sleep with ten heads?Certainly he can’t sleep on his sides. Which mouth exactly used for feeding and which one for speaking. He observed that all ten heads were glaring at him from the lower position of the throne.

“How dare you sit in front of me?”

Yes, the rakhshas around also wondered how someone dared their king by sitting and not standing before him with bowed head.

He spoke tauntingly from the top, “You call yourself a Brahmin but you did not have the decency to offer a seat to your guest. You are yet to learn the etiquettes.”

The king growled at his words. He heard the growl as echo as all ten heads were together growling at him. He noticed that all the heads moved in synchronous with each other. He rubbed his eyes thinking that he was hallucinating because of the Brahmashtra which had hit him. Indrajeet was not amused at the discomfiture of his father Ravan. On his order he had brought the monkey after a fierce fight when the monkey rose to the sky, he had to hit Brahmashtra to bring him down. Then he tied down the usual size monkey by a rope and brought him to his father who was the king of Lanka.

He actually brought manasputra of Shiva the great Hanuman. Who willingly allowed him to get captured as the arrow had Lord Shiva’s blessing. In reverence to Lord Shiva he surrendered.

When tied by rope he came with Indrajeet then all courtiers were amused thinking that small monkey had destroyed the loved Ashok Vatika of Ravana where Sita was kept  captive.

But Vayuputra Hanuman was not amused because he had a mission and the mission was to locate Sita. Having located her he wanted to have fun so after tasting the delicious fruits of the garden he went on rampage and destroyed Ashok Vatika. When he found that he was not offered a seat in the court he expanded himself ,  his tail which went on growing with his body until he was looking down at Ravana by sitting on his coiled tail.

Again ten heads bellowed at him for his audacity to laugh at them. The ten heads with 20 eyes were looking at Hanuman at the top.Hanuman could not make out how ten heads were joined with the body, he was getting the top view.When he came in as a small monkey then he had to look up at Ravan so never got the chance to have a look at the neck. He thought probably a side view would clarify his curiosity . He was wondering whether all the heads sneeze together, he was tempted to tickle the nose of one of the heads to find out about sneezing but then he thought why not humor Ravana by asking how he assigns duty to each head. Hewas about to ask Ravana when the ten heads growled again at him.

“What are you doing sitting there?" this time I heard the sound and with a start I got up in my sofa and found my wife yelling at me. I had fallen asleep while reading Sita by Devdutt Pattanaik and just finished Lanka Kand and then the posto which I had taken for lunch took over my senses and I fell asleep with the book Sita on my chest. I was wondering about the ten heads of Ravan when I dosed off. The explanation of ten heads is pretty contentious , it’s more of a symbolic in nature but on the Dashera day we burn effigy of Ravana with ten heads.My fertile mind was busy with the riddle of ten heads when i fell asleep. I thanked the book for giving me a first hand glimpse of the Ramayana's Lanka Kand.