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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 is on the throne when Rama and Sita return to Ayodhya?

2. What does Prahasta carry in addition to weapons, rockets and poisons?

3. Who said that creatures with faces like monkeys would kill Ravana?

4. Why do Rama and Sita have to return to Ayodhya?

5. What is Indrajit’s weapon?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the outcome of Ravana’s conversation with time?

2. How do Rama and Samudra and Ocean Lord resolve the question of the bridge to Lanka?

3. What success does Indrajit have on the battlefield?

4. Describe Sita’s interaction with Ravana as Hanuman is watching.

5. How is Ravana killed?

6. Why does Vibhishana defect from Ravana?

7. How did Mainaka come to be at the bottom of the sea?

8. Describe the chariot Pushpaka.

9. What happens after Hanuman’s tail is lit on fire?

10. How does Indrajit capture Hanuman, and how does Hanuman get free?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

How would you compare the Ramayana to a work of Western myth or religion, such as the Iliad (also about an abducted wife), the Odyssey (about a man’s wanderings) the Aeneid (about great battles) or the Bible (about a culture finding its religion)? Using examples from the text of the Ramayana and the text of a text you are familiar with, describe what kind of culture is encapsulated in the Ramayana.

Essay Topic 3

Would you recommend the Ramayana? For what purposes would you recommend the Ramayana, and what kinds of readers would you recommend it for? What other book would you recommend that would cover the same material or tell the same story in a different way?

(see the answer keys)

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