The Uttarkand also has the important story of the Ashwamedha yagna. Tell us about it.
In Vedic times, a king would perform this yagna in which a horse is let loose, and wherever the horse roams unopposed, that becomes the king’s territory. Rama also does this yagna.
At that time, many writers, poets, storytellers come to the court to show their work. Luv and Kush too come, and narrate the Ramayana to him. Rama asks them where they’d heard this story, which was his own, and they tell him that Rishi Valmiki had taught them. He says it can’t really be his story because the Rama in their story is too great a man, not like him. He asks them what they would like as a reward. They say they don’t want anything other than to meet his queen, Sita. Rama shows them an idol of Sita next to the throne, and tells them she had to leave for the forest because his people saw her as a tainted woman. They are surprised that the great woman for whom such a huge war was fought had been ill-treated like this and does not have a place in his kingdom.
They return to the ashram and tell Sita that Rama is not so great after all; he abandoned his wife. When the Ashwamedha horse reaches the ashram, and they find out it is Rama’s, they refuse to accept his rule. They stop the horse. In the ensuing battle between Rama’s army and the boys, Rama’s army, including his brothers and Hanuman, is defeated. Finally, Rama arrives and picks up his Brahmastra. That’s when Sita stops him and tells him that they are his children. After the truth is revealed, the family is briefly reunited.
At this time, Rama says that he had abandoned the queen not the wife. In order to perform the Ashwamedha yagna, a king needs a wife; if he’d indeed abandoned his wife, he’d have had to remarry. But he did not. Instead he installed a gold idol of Sita. Gold is a pure metal. So Rama believed his wife was pure, but the rules of Raghukul dictated that his reputation remain untarnished at all costs. People think this would be a happy ending, and request her to return to the kingdom. Sita says she does not want to live in a kingdom where reputation was more important than love. ‘I’ve raised two good, strong children who have proved their worth by defeating even Rama’s army,’ she says. ‘So let them go with their father, and I will go back to my mother.’ At that, the earth, her mother, opens up and takes her in. This is how Sita departs.
Does the Uttarkand end here?
There are many stories in the Uttarkand, but basically, once Sita is gone, Rama rules for a few years more, until his children grow up. He then takes jal samadhi as he cannot live without Sita. He walks into the Sarayu river and never returns.
In the Uttara Ramayana, Rama had beheaded Rishi Shambuka. Is this story caste related?
A story goes that one day a Brahmin comes into the king’s court carrying his dead son and says that there is no dharma in Ramarajya, that his son died before him when it should be the other way around. When Rama asks Narada how this could happen, Narada says that every yuga has a different system. In the Kriti Yuga, only Brahmins could become sanyasis, in the Treta Yuga, Kshatriyas too could become sanyasis, in the Dvapara Yuga, even Vaishyas could become sanyasis and in Kali Yuga, anyone can become a sanyasi. Rama is in Dvapara Yuga, and a Shudra—Rishi Shambuka—has become a sanyasi, thus upsetting the system and causing problems. Rama wonders why there would be a problem if a Shudra takes sanyas. Narada explains that there is now imbalance in the system and as king, it is Rama’s duty to restore the balance.
Rama goes to Shambuka, who says he’s performing tap for moksha prapti (liberation), and wishes to go to Vishnu-loka. He is unwilling to return to ordinary life and follow his jati dharma. Rama is torn. Here is a man striving for moksha and you want to pull him back into the social structure of the caste system. So Rama beheads him and releases him.
This is the negative side of maryada purushottam. There are two sides to this persona. As a follower of rules, in the first part of the Ramayana, Rama is an ideal man and loved by all. In the second half, we see the other side of rules, that there is no freedom. When rules become too rigid, and the order of society is made paramount, many people get crushed, like Sita and Shambuka. This story is for future kings and rulers, to understand the negative aspect of unbending rules.
30
Yayati
Who is Yayati?
Yayati was a Chandravanshi king and his descendants play a big role towards the end of the Mahabharata. His relation is with the characters of the Mahabharata.
There’s some interesting story about his wives . . .
Very interesting. He had two wives—Devyani and Sharmishta. But it’s a complicated relationship. Devyani is the daughter of Shukracharya, the guru of the asuras. Sharmishta is the daughter of the king of asuras, Vrishparva. One is a princess and the other is a Brahmin’s daughter. Both are friends. In Puranic times, the relationship between a rishi and a king was complex. A king sits on the throne, lives in the palace, and takes the advice of a rishi who lives in the forest. In terms of power, the raja is superior, but in terms of knowledge, he is dependent on the rishi. The raja gives the rishi a lot of importance, touches his feet, but the rishi salutes the king because he is the king. The tension in their relationship is depicted through their daughters.
Once, the girls go bathing in the river. After the bath, they wear each other’s clothes by mistake. On their way back Sharmishta notices the error and asks Devyani why she has stolen her clothes. Devyani says it must have been in error. Sharmishta continues to accuse her of theft, saying her father was like a beggar who bowed to her father, the king, and depended on his charity to survive, and so on. It could’ve been a minor argument, as often happens among children, but Sharmishta takes it to such a degree that she ends up pushing Devyani into a dry well and she goes away in a huff. Devyani calls out for help and is saved by King Yayati, who happens to be passing by. Devyani thanks him profusely. By the time she is able to return, it is quite late, and she tearfully tells her father, Rishi Shukracharya, the entire story. The rishi says that since the king touched her while helping her out of the well, he is like her husband. This is episode one.
The rishi goes to King Vrishparva and complains about his daughter’s insulting behaviour and how she said the rishi’s dakshina was merely the king’s charity. The king asks for forgiveness and says, ‘My daughter will serve your daughter from now on.’ The hierarchical position between the two girls is thus reversed, where the princess becomes the Brahmin girl’s maid. Some days later, Yayati comes to meet the rishi and Devyani tells her father that he was the man who’d saved her from the well. The rishi thanks Yayati and tells him that he is now Devyani’s husband. Yayati is sort of trapped into marrying Devyani. So he takes her to his palace. Her ‘maid’ Sharmishta accompanies them. The king falls in love with Sharmishta and she with him, and unknown to Devyani they have a relationship. So the king is outwardly married to a Brahmin girl, but his secret wife, junior wife—some say mistress—is the maid of the first wife, who is actually a Kshatriya princess by birth. Their status by marriage is different, and a rivalry starts between their children.
So, whose son will become king?
Exactly, that’s the question. When Devyani finds out about the relationship and Sharmishta’s children from Yayati, she is furious. She goes to her father and tells him that the king has betrayed her. The rishi curses Yayati and takes away his youth. Yayati instantly becomes old. Shukracharya’s thoughtless curse causes his daughter more grief, since her husband is now old. So he modifies the curse and says that if a son of Yayati’s were to accept his old age, his youth would return. That is, he can exchange his old age with his son’s youth.
Yayati goes home and calls his sons. He asks Devyani’s older son Yadu to exchange his old age with him. Yadu says it is adharma since the natural order is for the older generation to move on and the next generation to take its place. He does not accept Yayati’s request. The angry king dismisses his son, ordering him to leave the kingdom; he curses him that his descendants will never become kings. Yayati’s youngest son, Puru, is from Sharmishta. When ask
ed, Puru accepts his father’s request willingly. The child becomes old and Yayati gets his youth and virility back.
Sharmishta is upset and accuses Yayati of being selfish and greedy and uncaring of his son. The son accepted his father’s old age out of his love for him. Did the father not care about his son’s needless suffering?
Does Puru get his youth back?
Many years later, after Yayati is satiated with youthful pleasures. Some stories say that he finally realizes that there is no end to the desire for pleasure and becomes mature. He calls Puru and gives him his youth back. And although Puru is the youngest, he makes him the king. Yayati then retires to the forest. By that time, so many years have passed that Puru is already old. So Puru never experiences youth.
This is an ironical story where Yadu, the son who knows and talks about dharma, does not become the king. The youngest, who is an obedient son, but who is willing to change the rules of space and time, and dharma, becomes the king.
Is this Yadu the same one from the Yadava Vansh?
Yes. This is the seed of the story of the Mahabharata. From Puru arises the Kuru Vansh from which come the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Krishna is Yadu’s descendant, so he can never become king because his forefather was cursed by Yayati. This is how the Yadava Vansh is always insulted.
Why is this story important? The Ramayana has an obedient son, and Puru too is an obedient son. What’s the difference? Rama is obedient and dutiful for Ayodhya, for the kingdom. He is following the rules so that people know he keeps his word as is the custom of Raghukul. He does not do so for his father’s pleasure, like Puru. What Puru does is not dharma because merely obeying your father is not dharma. It’s all being done so that the king can enjoy the pleasures of youth. No one is even thinking about the kingdom. Only Yadu is saying this, and his descendant is Krishna.
Yayati was an exploitative father then?
In psychology, it’s known as the Yayati complex. Sigmund Freud wrote about the Oedipus complex. Oedipus is a character in Greek mythology, who unwittingly kills his father and then marries his mother. The young defeats the old and establishes his authority; here, the young is more powerful than the old. The Yayati complex is the opposite, where the old exploits the young. It is said that this is the difference between the East and the West. In the West, youth is more powerful; in the East, it’s the opposite.
Did Yayati also have a daughter?
Yayati’s daughter is Madhvi, and this story too is exploitative and depressing. When she is born, astrologers predict that she will have four sons who will all become great kings. Yayati worries that these boys will end up warring with each other and it will create a messy situation for his kingdom. Once a rishi comes to him and says that his guru wants 5000 horses. Yayati says he has only 1000 horses, and offers his daughter. He tells the rishi to marry her off to any king who wants a son and buy 1000 horses from each as her bride price. The kings will each get a good son, and since the children will not be in one house, there will be no war. Basically, Yayati sells off his daughter. She is never asked what she wants.
After she gives birth to her fourth son, she takes sanyas. She becomes a great tapasvi. The four sons grow up to be great kings and come to the forest looking for their mother. When they hear her story, they want to go to war with Yayati. She asks them to forgive him. Meanwhile, Yayati has gone to Swarga-loka and all his punya, or good karma, gets used up. He has to come back to earth, and wonders how to return to Swarga-loka. The gods tell him to seek forgiveness from his daughter. Madhvi says she’s already forgiven him, and asks her sons to share some of their punya with their grandfather to send him back to Swarga. When her sons ask her how she can be so forgiving after everything her father did to her, she says it’s all in the past. ‘What would be the point of my doing tap if I couldn’t forgive him.’ So, while the king wronged his daughter, she sent him back to Swarga.
This story is not often read or told, and perhaps this is why the Mahabharata too is not read so much because of all these painful stories that are there in the epic.
* The author does not endorse the caste system and the inequalities it creates. This is simply an attempt to understand how it came into being.
Author’s Note
This is a collection of easy-going conversations about Indian mythology, based on the eponymous television show
What is discussed here is not meant to be factually ‘accurate’—you may refer to your guru for clarity
This is not an academic work and does not claim to be authoritative
Contained here are simplified versions of mythological tales, taken from various versions found in different scriptures and in folklore
The attempt is to retain the essence embedded in the tales, and to provoke readers to dig deeper into the philosophy
I offer here a subjective truth, my truth, which is one among many truths, because:
Within infinite myths lies an eternal truth
Who knows it all?
Varuna has but a thousand eyes
Indra, a hundred
You and I, only two
Epic
From stories you never heard to questions you never knew whom to ask, Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik on EPIC Channel has it all! Watch all the episodes to explore the fascinating world of Indian mythology.
THE BEGINNING
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This collection published 2017
Copyright © EPIC Television Networks Private Limited 2017
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Jacket images © Chetan Kishore
ISBN: 978-0-143-42843-5
This digital edition published in 2017.
e-ISBN: 978-9-386-49515-0
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Devdutt Pattanaik, Devlok With Devdutt Pattanaik
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