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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. Where does Bharadwaja tell Bharata to find Rama?

2. What is Ravana’s feeling about Rama’s name?

3. Who plants the troubling idea in Kaikeyi’s mind?

4. What word does the Ramayana begin with?

5. Why does Rama go after the deer in spite of Lakshmana’s warning that it is an illusion?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the history of Five-Apsarasa Lake.

3. When had Kaikeyi almost used her two wishes previously?

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

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

6. How does Rama help Hanuman?

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

8. Describe Ravana’s origins.

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

10. What gift does Indra make to Sita?

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

What does the Ramayana tell the reader about the relations between men and women, husbands and wives? Using examples from the text, describe the poem’s lessons for relations between the sexes.

Essay Topic 3

What is the primary purpose of the Ramayana? What kinds of purposes does it attempt to serve—explaining the history of the world, describing the right way to live, etc. Using examples from the text, propose one mode that is most important. Be sure to say why the others are not as important.

(see the answer keys)

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