In Karnataka, there’s a folk tale about Kunti and Gandhari. They are believed to be very competitive mothers, not weak and vulnerable as depicted in TV serials! Every year there is an elephant puja in Hastinapur. As the widow of the former king, she can only afford elephants made with mud. When she goes into the palace she finds Gandhari worshipping golden elephants. She feels bad, goes home and cries before her sons. Arjuna is pained and tells her not to worry; he promises her that he’ll bring Airavata from his father, Indra. ‘You can then worship Airavata himself, which is even better than golden elephants.’ But how will he bring the celestial elephant from the heavens, Kunti asks him. Arjuna says he’ll build a ramp with his arrows going up to heaven, using which Airavata can come down to earth.
Significantly, the name Hastinapur means City of Elephants. Today, there’s no sign of it, but in ancient times, the area near Delhi where Hastinapur was supposed to be was a jungle full of elephants.
Elephants are also associated with important festivals.
In the summer months, elephants are worshipped in many Indian temples so that they will come, be happy and trumpet, thus summoning the monsoon clouds that will bring rain. During the Pooram festival in Kerala all the temple elephants are decorated ornately and brought together on a large ground. Idols of gods and goddesses are placed atop the elephants who are worshipped, given food and sugar cane to please them and make them trumpet.
In Puri, there’s a snaan yatra, when the gods and goddess in the Jagannath Temple are brought out and bathed in open air during summer. It is said that at this time they give darshan to their devotees in the form of elephants. The story is that a devotee once says he worships only elephants and refuses to pray to Jagannath since he does not resemble one. So Balaram takes the form of a white elephant and Krishna that of a black one. Such stories are all related to the summer.
In the Konark Temple a lion sits atop an elephant. What’s the significance of this?
This motif of a lion on top of an elephant is seen in many temples. An elephant is associated with kama, pleasure. The lion is a symbol of intellect. The intellect must conquer pleasure, or keep it under control. Another explanation of this image is that the elephant is the earth and the lion, a king. This image establishes the king’s authority over his kingdom.
I’ve heard of nagamani and also gajamani. What’s a gajamani?
This concept is popular in Indian danta kathas (mythology). Just as there’s a nagamani (jewel) on the hood of a naga (serpent), there is a gajamani which is in an elephant’s head; it’s very rare.
A very rich man once goes to the Puri temple and offers a very large sum of money (say, ten lakh rupees), asking that food worth that amount be offered to the gods. The priests wonder how they can make so much food so they approach Krishna. He says, ask him to give me paan, but the chuna (limestone) on it should be made with gajamani. The rich man gets scared when he hears this, and wants to know what a gajamani is. He is told that one in 10,000 elephants might have this jewel in its head. So he will have to buy all these elephants and kill them to find the gajamani. The rich man realizes that all his wealth will fall short before the sea of eternity.
11
Rama’s Ancestors
The word Raghukul is associated with Rama. What does it mean?
It means the ‘family of Raghu’. The dynasty of kings (vanshavali), where they have come from, is very important. Not just royalty, traditionally in India, whenever we meet a person we always ask where they are from, their kul, gotra. This is so that we can ‘locate’ a person, and conduct ourselves appropriately—whether we can sit and talk together, etc.
So when the question arises which tree is Rama the fruit of, the answer is Raghukul. Raghu was a great and illustrious king, the progenitor of his line. He was followed by Aja, then Dashratha who had four sons: Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana, Shatrughna.
Rama is also known as a Suryavanshi. What is the connection of the Surya Vansh with this kul?
There are two main vanshas of kings in India: the Surya Vansh (clan of the sun god) and the Chandra Vansh (clan of the moon god). The Surya Vansh is a big tree; one branch of it was Raghu, another was Rama.
Tell us about the other kings of the Surya Vansh.
First is Manu, then Ikshvaku, then Mandhata. Before our present time, the Kali Yuga, was Krishna’s time, and before him was Rama. When you say ‘from Mandhata’s time’, it refers to a time before both Krishna and Rama. Mandhata too is Rama’s ancestor. Kalidasa has written a beautiful poem on Rama’s recent ancestors called the ‘Raghuvamsham’. These are Dilipa, Raghu, Aja, Dashratha and then Rama. The list is not standard. Sometimes Dilipa comes after Raghu, sometimes, before. Broadly, the purpose of this is to show that they came from an important gharana, vansh (lineage).
In Valmiki’s Ramayana, during the Baalkand (childhood episode), when Rama is going to Mithila with his guru Rishi Vishwamitra, the rishi tells him about his family. He tells Rama that Ganga came from heaven to earth because of his family, the sea was created because of his family. He wants to show him what an important family he comes from. We learn about Raghukul for the first time in the Ramayana.
Was Manu the first king of the Surya Vansh?
Manu is the progenitor of all human beings. The word comes from mann (mind). Thus all kings originated from Manu. Whoever has mann has originated from Manu—you, me, all of us.
Tell us the story of King Dilipa and Kamadhenu.
Kamadhenu wants Dilipa to protect her, which he promises to do. Once, in the forest, a lion approaches the king and tells him that he wants to eat the cow since he is hungry. Dilipa tells the lion to eat him instead, because he’s given his word—the word of Raghukul—and is committed to keeping it.
A deeper, metaphorical meaning of this story is that a cow is a domestic animal, which belongs to a kingdom, and represents artha vyavastha (economy), the world of civilization. A lion is a wild animal, unconnected to civilization. The king stands on the boundary between these two worlds. In the jungle, the instinct is to be aggressive, to dominate; it is where matysa nyaya (law of fish, where bigger fish eat up smaller fish) applies. The king needs to keep the jungle at bay to protect and secure his kingdom. The ability to protect cows (gauraksha) is always expected of kings. Some people take it literally but the metaphorical meaning is more powerful. The first duty of a king is to protect the Kamadhenu and Dilipa did it. Dilipa is associated with dharma.
Tell us the story of Raghu.
Raghu performed the Ashwamedha yagna and conquered the world, becoming a Chakravarti Samrat, an illustrious king. Before going to the forest for vanaprastha ashram, he donated cows among his people (go-daan) and established a strong artha vyavastha in his kingdom. Dilipa protected cows, and Raghu donated them; so Dilipa is associated with dharma, and Raghu with artha.
Raghukul and heaven are closely related because all Raghukul kings become Indra. This is why Indra is always jealous of and insecure about the scions of Raghukul, thinking that someone will come and replace him. In our Puranas, Indra is a position, not one person. So whoever does good work on earth becomes Indra. In the Ramayana, Indra is terrified of the Surya Vansh because most Indras come from this clan, particularly of Sagar who is an ancestor of Rama.
Tell us Sagar’s story.
Sagar means ocean, and it was created by King Sagar.
The story goes that Sagar is performing a yagna, his 1000th, and upon its completion he will become the king of heaven. Indra becomes nervous and steals the king’s horse and hides it in Kapila Muni’s ashram. Sagar asks his sons to find the horse so that he can complete the yagna. They start digging the earth to look for the horse, and end up creating such a deep ditch that when water collects in it, it becomes the ocean. So Sagar’s sons are credited with creating the ocean. Finally, at the end of their search, they arrive at Kapila Muni’s ashram and accuse him of having stolen the horse. Kapila Muni is doing tapasya and gets very angry at being disturbed; he opens his eyes and reduces all
of Sagar’s sons to ash.
Devastated by his sons’ death, Sagar wonders how to get them back. He prays to the gods who tell him that if the ash is put into the waters of the heavenly river Mandakini (another name for Ganga), they’ll be reborn. Thus the concept of rebirth is introduced through this story in the Valmiki Ramayana. But how was the king going to get the river from the heavens to the earth? His grandson Anshuman does tapasya, as does Dilipa, but they do not succeed in this near-impossible task. Finally, Bhagirath, their descendant, is granted a boon that he will be able to bring the river down to earth. Even today, taking up an extremely difficult task is called Bhagirath prayas (effort).
The famous story of the river flowing to earth through Shiva’s dreadlocks is also part of this tale. The river comes to earth, Sagar’s sons’ ashes are submerged in it and they are reborn. Thereafter the river flows into the ocean that Sagar’s sons had created. This is how Rama is connected with the ocean, the Ganga and rebirth. Rama’s name is chanted during the last rites (Rama naam satya hai) because he is connected with the idea of rebirth. This is not an ordinary story because for the first time, Indian philosophy was conveyed to the people through this medium.
Amidst all these serious stories, are there any romantic stories related with Raghukul?
The most romantic story is that of Rama and Sita, which makes up a major part of the Ramayana, where there are so many complexities. Another story is about Rama’s ancestor Aja, which is narrated by Kalidasa in the ‘Raghuvamsham’.
Indumati is a beautiful princess who chooses King Aja in a svayamvara and marries him. They are happy and deeply in love. Unfortunately, once, while out on a stroll, the queen is crushed by a falling tree. The king is grief-stricken. He continues to grieve, and finally when their son Dashratha turns fifteen, Aja hands over the throne to him and says he will take sanyas. This is a serious story but also one of the few instances where a husband is shown grieving for his wife. Usually it’s the other way around; it is always a woman who is shown in bereavement—viraha dukha. However, Kalidasa frequently shows men pining for women: Dushyant for Shakuntala, Aja for Indumati. Aja’s story is so tragic, his grief so intense that he cannot live without his wife. It is not quite sati, but he takes jal samadhi (submerges himself in the sea).
This too is about integrity, albeit within personal relations. The stories of Raghukul are associated with sagar, dharma, artha, kama—it’s a glorious family.
What is the story of Bhagirath’s birth?
This story is from the Krittivasa Ramayana from Bengal. Since it’s not from the original text, it is slightly controversial. King Dilipa has two wives, but no children, so he organizes the Putrakameshti yagna for a child, as Dashratha does too. However, while the yagna is being conducted, Dilipa dies. His widowed wives wonder what to do with the payas, the potion that has emerged from the yagna. They consume it and make love to each other, of which a baby is born. In the Tantric school of thought, it’s said that a baby’s solid parts, such as the bones, come from the father, and flesh and blood from the mother. Since this child is created by mothers alone, it does not have bones; it’s just a lump of flesh and blood. The queens don’t know what to do. Sage Ashtavakra comes and blesses the child and it acquires bones. The child is then named Bhagirath (‘bhag’ is woman and ‘rathi’ is lovemaking).
This vansh talks a lot about integrity. Are there no negative characters here?
Just as any tree may have some bad fruit, there are a few unsavoury characters here too. In the Puranas, there are recurring stories of the competition between Vishwamitra and Vasishtha; the latter is a devarishi (a rishi from birth), while the former is a king who becomes a rishi. One of Vasishtha’s sons, Shakti, was said to have cursed Vishwamitra’s son Saudas, that he’d be a cannibal (nara-bhakshi). As a result he would not be able to have relations with his wife. Saudas was a Rahguvanshi, and after the curse people were scared of him.
Another slightly negative character is Trishanku. His name was originally Satyavrata but he commits three big crimes—he kills a cow, eats its flesh and has an adulterous relationship with a married woman—which earns him this new name. As punishment his father drives him away from home. He goes into the forest, does tapasya, and asks to be accepted in heaven. Indra in Swarga-loka says that because he is a sinner, he cannot enter heaven. When Vasishtha refuses to help him, he goes to Vishwamitra, who promises to send him to heaven. But Indra does not want him in Swarga-loka. So Trishanku gets stuck between heaven and earth. To call someone Trishanku is a reference to he who is stuck between two worlds, who belongs neither here nor there. Trishanku is also of the Surya Vansh.
One of my NRI friends calls himself Trishanku; he says he’s neither an Indian nor an American, and doesn’t belong to any one place.
Whenever we talk of the Surya Vansh and the Chandra Vansh, we talk only of men. Weren’t there any women in these vanshas?
If we look at Puranic stories through a modern lens, it’s quite depressing because they’re dominated by men. Vansh is always seen as male lineage; a king passes his throne to his son, and it continues like that. Historically, there have been queens in India and they have played important roles, but the vansh/lineage is not traced through them. Although the Pandavas are called Kaunteya (the sons of Kunti), they are said to be descendants (vanshaj) of Pandu, not Kunti. This division is always there.
12
Mountains
It is believed that Mount Meru is the centre of the earth. Is this true or is it just a concept?
When it comes to Puranic stories, you have to know whether you are speaking of scientific truth or believed truth. These are concepts, ideas, psychological tools (yantra) to explain some things. Meru means the base foundation. The vertebral column in our body is called merudand (the staff of Meru), our body’s centre; if anything goes wrong with this, we will fall seriously ill. Likewise, the world has a centre, its merudand.
A mountain is an important concept in all mythologies and religions of the world. In Greek mythology there’s Mount Olympus, and in the Bible there’s Mount Sinai from where Moses (Musa in Islam) descended. In the Puranas, Meru has been given a lot of importance. Here, geography has been described poetically. Each petal of a lotus flower in full bloom is a continent and in the centre stands Mount Meru. One of the continents is Jambudweep, in the shape of a jambul fruit; this is Bharat. In Bharatvarsha there are many mountains, but the primary mountain is Meru. Sometimes, Meru is called Mandar, and is associated with the gods. On top of the mountain, near the clouds, is Amravati, abode of the gods. From this mountain originate rivers to irrigate the petals (continents). This is a beautiful, poetic concept.
How are Vishnu and Shiva related to Meru?
This is interesting. As I’ve mentioned earlier, Shiva is associated with vairagya or asceticism and Vishnu with the worldly life (grihasta). Meru’s relation with them is also the same. It is believed that beyond the salty waters around the continents is the Kshir Sagar, the ocean of milk. The asuras and devas used Meru as the churning staff for the Amrita manthan, to extract Amrita from this ocean. So, Vishnu used it for creativity, to produce many precious things useful for the worldly life—dharma (Saranga, Airavata, Ucchaishrava), artha (Kaustubh or the Chintamani, Parijat or Kalpataru, Kamadhenu), kama (Nidradevi, apsara, Chandra, gandharva, varuni).
Shiva’s story is quite the opposite. Three asuras once established a place, Tripura (three purs; pur means city). These were three cities of three asuras that were afloat in space, not unlike flying saucers. These asuras would fly off to different places and trouble people as well as the devas. They had Brahma’s boon which made it nearly impossible to destroy them. The only way to destroy the cities and the asuras is to do so at once, but with the cities always floating in different directions, never aligning together, it is extremely difficult. So Shiva takes on the task. He says that the moment they are aligned, I will shoot an arrow. But he requires a powerful arrow and bow to do so. He makes Mount Meru the shaft of his
bow and the serpent Vasuki the bowstring. Vishnu himself is to be the arrow. But after killing the asuras, he feels so remorseful that he smears the ash from the destroyed cities on his forehead, known as ‘tripundra’ (three marks) to depict the three cities. These could also be a metaphor for the three worlds—Patala (netherworld), Bhu-loka (earth), Swarga-loka (heaven).
So Meru can be productive with Vishnu and destructive with Shiva.
Why are mountains so important in Puranic stories?
Mountains are symbols of stability. Mountains are there when you are born; they are still there when you die. They are, in a sense, eternal, symbols of immortality. The opposite of this is water (ocean, sea, river), which is never stable. Water has waves; it is always flowing. Vishnu is associated with oceans and Shiva with mountains. There’s a balance.
Shiva and Parvati are always associated with mountains. Shiva with Mount Kailasa and Parvati, as her name suggests, is Parvat’s (mountain’s) daughter.