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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. What does Bharata do to save Manthara from lifetimes of suffering?

2. What delays Rama’s search for Sita?

3. What do Rama and Lakshmana learn from this teacher?

4. Where does Sumantra put Dasaratha’s body after he dies?

5. How does Maricha help Ravana abduct Sita?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Ravana’s origins.

2. How does Dasaratha describe Rama’s banishment as punishment for his own actions?

3. How did Ravana win the Battle of the Heaven?

4. Why does Dasaratha decide that he wants to see Rama made king, and what do his advisors say?

5. How does the Ramayana explain where it has its origin as a poem?

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

7. Why does Rama insist on going into the Dandaka Forest, against Sita’s wishes?

8. What kind of relationship do Sita and Ravana have, from their first meeting?

9. Describe the history of Five-Apsarasa Lake.

10. Describe Bharata’s meeting with Guha.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Debate the proposition that the Ramayana is too old to be relevant in modern times.

Essay Topic 2

Identify the most important plot points in the Ramayana. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course between other alternative and possible plots?

Essay Topic 3

Research the history of the Ramayana’s development as a poem. What cultural conditions led to the creation of the poem? To what kinds of cultural questions was the Ramayana an attempted answer?

(see the answer keys)

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