In this week’s video, Dr. Sharpie, Possum, and some friends decide to act out a story from the Ramayana.
As usual, full script is below.
Rolf: Sharpie, I’ve been reading the Ramayana in comic book form.
Sharpie: Ah! The Ramayana, the great book from India, written down by Valmiki.
Possum: I love that book! Let’s act out the story of Sabala the Cow!
Possum: Once upon a time there was a Queen who was so powerful that her neighbors didn’t dare to start wars with her. So her country lived in peace and quiet.
Queen Sharpie: Everyone in my country is happy. But I’m bored.
General Packie: Let us go with your army and tour your dominions.
Possum: They marched until they came to a peaceful grove in the forest where there lived a saintly hermit named Vasishtha. People came from miles away to hear his wise sayings, and to see his miraculous cow Sabala.
Castor-the-hermit: Please be seated on the sacred grass. How is your majesty?
Queen Sharpie: We are well. And you, and your followers, and your sacred fire?
Castor-the-hermit: All is well in this delightful grove. You should stay with us, eat the sweet roots and berries I bring, and sit on the sacred grass and meditate.
Queen Sharpie [aside]: If I stay here, I’d be even more bored. [to hermit]: You speak with words of wisdom. But really, I must be going.
Possum: The hermit insisted, and to be polite the Queen agreed to stay with her army and meditate. Meanwhile, the hermit went to talk with Sabala the Cow.
Castor-the-hermit: My gentle, loving, friend, we owe much to the Queen, who fights wars that allow us to sit here peacefully. Will you please make a feast fit for a Queen, something more than roots and berries?
Rolf-the-cow: Of course I will.
Possum: So Sabala the Cow made a feast appear, with the most wonderful foods for the Queen and her army. This delighted the soldiers. But not the Queen.
Queen Sharpie [to herself]: Why does a lowly hermit get to have such a cow, but not the Queen? [to the hermit]: Queens have a right to everything in their queendom. So the cow belongs to me. Since I’m so nice, I’ll give you a hundred thousand cows for her.
Castor-the-hermit: I would not exchange Sabala for a million cows.
Queen Sharpie: But you need to live simply, and I’m just removing a temptation from you.
Castor-the-hermit: There’s no credit in virtue without temptation. So no, you can’t have her.
Queen Sharpie: I’ll give you fourteen thousand elephants and ten million cows. That’s my final offer, and remember: Queens take by force what is not given to them.
Sharpie: That Queen isn’t very nice, is she? She thinks she can do whatever she wants.
Castor: I wonder what the hermit will do if the Queen tries to take Sabala the cow away?
Rolf: I can’t wait to act out the ending of the story next week!