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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Maricha help Ravana abduct Sita?

2. Why does Rama kill Vali?

3. What is Sumantra’s opinion, when Dasaratha asks him for his thoughts about putting Rama on the throne?

4. Complete the following statement: Rama and Lakshmana learned two mantras, one for strength, and one for ________.

5. What is this age characterized by?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Bharadwaja’s feast for Bharata and his party.

2. Describe the history of Five-Apsarasa Lake.

3. Describe the birth of Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Satrughna.

4. Describe Dasaratha’s funeral.

5. How does Rama finally motivate Sugriva to start searching for Sita?

6. How does Rama help Hanuman?

7. How did the statue of Shiva save Guha’s life?

8. What delays Rama in his search for Sita?

9. How does Ravana defeat Jatayu and escape with Sita?

10. How is Bharata convinced to leave Rama in the forest, and accept the throne of Ayodhya himself?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When is the Ramayana most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 2

Who is the audience for the Ramayana? What is the ideal reader for the Ramayana likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is it trying to teach him or her, or get him or her to do?

Essay Topic 3

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

(see the answer keys)

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