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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. Who first leads the demons against the bear and monkey army?

2. At what time of year does Rama kill Ravana?

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

4. For how long does Rama reign in Ayodhya?

5. For how many years does Rama continue to rule Ayodhya after his festival?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What advice does Khumbakarna give Ravana before he goes to fight?

4. Describe the origins of the Ramayana.

5. Describe Rama’s return to the throne of Ayodhya.

6. How is Ravana killed?

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

8. What success does Indrajit have on the battlefield?

9. How is Indrajit killed?

10. What happens to Queen Mandodari after Ravana’s death?

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

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

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 951 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample