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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 do the queens do in Dasaratha’s name, after his funeral?

2. What does the crow surrender, when he apologizes to Rama?

3. What do the Valakhila saints say war is preferable to?

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

5. Who came to take Dasaratha away, after he told the story of why Rama had had to be taken?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Dasaratha’s funeral.

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

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

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

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

6. Describe Bharata’s meeting with Guha.

7. What is Sita’s response when she hears about Rama’s exile?

8. Describe the history of Five-Apsarasa Lake.

9. Describe Rama and Lakshmana’s training by Viswamitra.

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

How would you rewrite the Ramayana, if you were to adapt it and make it your own? What part of the book would you preserve? What part would you change? Explain your motivation for the changes you would make.

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

Read another translation of the Ramayana, and compare and contrast William Buck’s edition with the other. How are they similar? How are they different? What makes Buck’s edition unique and valuable? What are its shortcomings compared to the other edition?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 931 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample