Week 5 Story: Brothers Don't Fight (PDE Ramayana Part C)

Note: This story was added to my Portfolio.


In old ancient India, there were two brothers who were both born as prince. The two brothers had vastly different, almost contrasting personalities. Sugriva, who was the older brother of the two, was ambitious, brilliant, yet humble. He was willing to listen and take advice from those who were beneath his royal dignity.


The younger of the two, Vali, on the other hand, was even more ambitious than Sugriva, arrogant, and full of himself. Even as a little youngster, Vali would often slay his adult teachers and tutors in front of others when they tried to correct his arrogant and unruly behaviors. So everyone around Vali was so scared of him and minced words when they were speaking to Vali. Nonetheless, there was one exception: Sugriva, being an older brother with 8 more years of life experience, would say all he wanted to Vali despite knowing his unruly, explosive personality.


Sugriva had always felt as if he was obliged to take care of younger, immature Vali.


Time flew, and the brothers became adults. Their predecessor King, who was their father, died of diabetes. All the wealth of India was concentrated in the kingdom, and the royals enjoyed all-you-can-eat buffet all throughout the day. The hundreds of chefs and catering staff took three shifts every day, each shift being eight hours long. The royals could always enjoy fresh fruit, nuts, meat jerky, and deli cuisines that came from all over the subcontinent. Top ten chefs from each region and district of India were selected to serve the King and the royals.


As a result of this opulence, King and the royals were fat. In fact, most of them were so fat and obese that they couldn't stand or walk and needed a litter with slaves who could carry them around.



Sugriva, calmly and persuasively, talked to Vali, "Brother, I'm the older, first son. So I deserve the crown."


Vali, in reply to Sugriva's claim to the crown, yelled, "No! That ain't why you should be next king."


Sugriva, clinching teeth with patience, told Vali, "Brother, you don't even sound like a King. You still speak like a little child. And you are already 21 years old."


Vali, despite being an unruly, short-tempered, and impetuous person, had never hit his older brother out of reverence. Vali had always thought Sugriva was smarter than him and revered his even-temper. When he was told that he still sounds like a child with a contemptuous tone, Vali had enough. Vali was a foot taller than Sugriva and weighed 70 pounds more. Vali punched Sugriva's face with full force. Sugriva fell backwards heavily and got fainted. Sugriva's eyes were turned upside, only showing flipped, white side of the eyes; in addition, his mouth was full of saliva bubbles that came from shock. It was embarrassing to look at, and crowd around Sugriva saw his fatal defeat.



Indian people had always regarded physical strength as an essential trait of the King. Crowd who saw Sugriva's embarrassing defeat by his younger brother all thought, 'If the king is physically feeble like Sugriva, how could he protect us from wars?'


The crowd celebrated Vali's decisive victory, and they gave Vali a hand throw into the air, shouting, "King, King, King, King!!"


A sudden angry thunder roared in the clear sky.

Hanuman, the just and virtuous monkey god, went into Sugriva's body in a form of spirit.


Sugriva's ferociously opened his eyes, and his face suddenly turned blue. His body was transformed into a shape of a monkey: his eyes and ears were enlarged, a tail quickly grew out of his butt, and Sugriva started to scream like a real monkey.

 
The crowd shouted, "Hanuman! It's Hanuman! He chose Sugriva!"


Vali, who saw this unbelievably supernatural phenomenon, got scared. His brother's eyes looked so much more ferocious, and Sugriva now even had claws in his hands and feet that looked like sharp swords.


Vali couldn't give up his crown nevertheless. So Vali took out his sword to slay his brother.


Vali swang his sword, but Sugriva's claws immediately grabbed it. Sugriva squeezed the sword, then  it got broken into little pieces like a broken glass.


Vali was so scared that he peed in his pants. Vali also cried because he felt he was about to be killed.


Ferocious Sugriva suddenly burst into loud laughter. It was Hanuman inside Sugriva who was laughing so loudly.


Vali was taken by total surprise and embarrassment.


Sugriva shouted at the crowd, "Look! We're all weak. Your king is a human like you, so he will have weakness. However, I, Hanuman, shall always protect you!"


The crowd was taken by awe. They all kneel their knees to the ground to pay deference to the monkey god. 


Sugriva continued his shouting at the crowd, "And brothers shall not fight! I hereby name Sugriva and Vali as co-Kings of the Kingdom. They shall have equal power and always collaborate!"


Hanuman exited out of Sugriva's body. Sugriva fell down to the ground.


A few minutes after, Sugriva gradually opened his eyes. He saw his brother Vali crying next to him.

Startled, Sugriva asked, "Brother, are you okay? Why are you crying?"


Vali cut the gold crown into half with a heavy stone, and gently placed it onto Sugriva's head.


"Brother, you and I shall be the co-Kings of the Kingdom, and we shall never fight again.", Vali said to Sugriva.


The two brothers co-ruled their kingdom peacefully afterwards.


Having two kings in crown was a great strength for the Kingdom, and smarter decisions were made

because of the brothers' collaboration.

Brothers don't fight each other. Source: The Statue of Brothers

Bibliography:

M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder.





Author's Note: I created this story of PDE Ramayana in my own version of the story. Original content may be different from my re-created story, so you are advised to visit the website in my bibliography for the original content of the story.