As the brothers grew larger, they also grew bolder. Their mother warned them often of flying too high. She told them that to touch the sky meant losing your head - you could never know which was was up and which way was down; you would either be kissed by the sun, or crushed by the ground.
But, the brothers grew arrogant and did not heed the words of their mother. One summer day, Jatayu challenged his brother, Sampati, to a race. Up and up and up they flew, each trying to outpace the other. Sampati began to grow nervous, but Jatayu did not slow. His shape grew to be a speck against the brightness of the sun and he turned and began plummeting down to the earth far below.
Sampati urged his own wings to carry him forward, and his talons secured around his brother, and his wings grew wide and their fall slowed. But Sampati was still young and not quite strong. His wings ached from the weight and burned from the heat of the sun. He felt them snap and it was as if flames had erupted across his whole body. Sampati fell and lay unconscious on a mountain.
It was three days and three nights that Sampati and Jatayu lay on the mountain side, each too weak to move on. Sampati cried to the skies, begging that he might die. But Jatayu prayed for strength, so that he might save his brother as his brother had saved him. And this prayer was granted.
Soon, Jatayu began to venture out and bring back food and water for Sampati. Sampati regained some of himself, though his wings remained forever mangled. He did not begrudge his brother, however. For he learned more of life on the ground and of humility, which he would have never found if he had lived his whole life in the sky.
To this day Sampati and Jatayu live alone on the mountain top. Often they remind each other of their own strength and their own weaknesses, realizing that not everyone is meant to kiss the sun, and not all are crushed by the ground.
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| Sampati - The King of the Birds by el-grimlock. |
Author's Note:
This is based of Sampati and Jatayu found in the Public Domain Edition Ramayana. In this story, Sampati is recalling the story of his brother's death and his own mutilation to the monkeys. When I first read this story, it really reminded me of the story of Icarus who flew too close to the sun and fell to his death. In my story, obviously, neither of the brothers die and I chose to remove the involvement of the monkeys and Rama's company, because I wanted it to have the feeling of being an independent fable, rather than a portion of the over-arcing Ramayana. I would like to incorporate this story into my final project eventually, because, somehow it is my favorite portion of the Ramayana. I think it sticks out to me because it is so different from the rest of the story.
Overall, I felt like this story had the potential to morph into being a stand-alone piece that could tell its own story, rather than just contributing to the progression of the plot of the Ramayana. I really enjoyed reading fables when I was younger and wanted to see if I could write something that had the same feeling to it.
As a side note, I chose the particular image above because I felt like it captured the overall intensity and emotional trauma that I wanted to touch on in my story.
