The place where Bharata and Ram meet, Ram’s first major camp after his exile, is called Chitrakut.
Across India, there are cities that are divided based on the events that occur in the Ramayana. In Varanasi, for example, there are portions of the city identified with Ayodhya (Ram Nagar) and with Lanka. They are located on either side of the river Ganga. Then there are specific locations identified as Chitrakut where Ram meets Bharata and as Panchvati from where Sita gets abducted. Thus the grand epic becomes particular and intimate. Similar mapping is seen in Wayanad in Kerala.
Bharat Milap (1942) is a popular Hindi film based on the meeting of Bharata with Ram.
In the Buddhist Dashratha Jataka, Dashratha who is king of Varanasi exiles Ram into the forest to protect him from his ambitious second queen. Astrologers tell Dashratha he will live for twelve years and so he tells Ram to return after twelve years. But when Dashratha dies only nine years later and Bharata goes to fetch Ram, Ram insists on keeping his word and staying in the forest for twelve years. He speaks of the impermanence of all things, thus revealing himself to be the Bodhisattva. This display of integrity makes him noble and worthy of reverence.
In the Dashratha Jataka, Ram and Sita are described as siblings. The assumption that this indicates a prevalence of incest has riled the Hindu orthodoxy. Beyond such titillating interpretations that get media coverage, the story probably resonates the ancient belief in Indic faiths that there was once a golden age (the sushama-sushama period or the yugalia era of Jain cosmology, for example) where couples were not husbands and wives but brothers and sisters, twins actually, as there was no need for sexual activity since the mind was so highly evolved that the body did not crave sensual pleasure and children were born out of thought. With time, pollution crept in, and sexual activity emerged, giving rise to marriage laws and incest taboos. Thus Jain Agama speaks of Rishabha having two wives, Sumangala who is his twin and Sunanda whose twin dies in an accident. Further, in India, where child marriages were prevalent, husbands and wives addressed each other as brother and sister, until they were deemed old enough to consummate the marriage.
The Last Rites of Dashratha
When the tears stopped flowing, Bharata told Ram the terrible events that followed after Ram had left the city.
Bharata had left Kekaya and returned home after receiving urgent word from his mother. He found the city shorn of all joy. No music, no smiles, no fragrances, no colour. Glum faces everywhere. At the palace gate, Manthara greeted him, but no one else. In his mother’s courtyard, he found his mother with a shaven head, wearing the ochre robes of a widow. Rather than telling him how the king died, she told him excitedly how he would now be king. When he insisted on knowing about his father, she revealed how he had collapsed on the threshold of the palace shortly after Ram’s departure to the forest. He died without his sons by his side, or his subjects around him. His body had been kept in a vat of oil, to prevent decomposition, waiting for one of his sons to perform the last rites.
‘But I did not perform the last rites,’ said Bharata. ‘Sumantra told me the king’s last wish very clearly. He did not want Kaikeyi’s son to light his funeral pyre. Shatrughna, the youngest, had to do what is supposed to be done by the eldest.’
Shatrughna then said, ‘Yes, the rituals are complete but our father’s spirit refuses to cross the Vaitarni. Yama’s crows refuse to eat the funeral offerings. I have been tormented by dreams. Father wants the meat of the one-horned rhino, hunted by his four sons together. That is why we have come to see you.’
Ram realized how desperately his father wanted to see his children united. ‘Then let us go hunting. Let us work as one and give our father the food he is hungry for.’
While the royal entourage waited, the four brothers went deeper into the forest in search of the one-horned rhino. They returned shortly with its carcass, and performed the necessary ceremonies. The crows accepted this offering, indicating that Dashratha was finally ready to leave the land of the living.
‘Produce sons soon,’ the spirit of Dashratha whispered in his sons’ ears before he left. But he realized that all four sons would live like tapasvis until Ram’s return fourteen years later. He would have to be patient until then. Enraged, he caused the wind to uproot a few trees in the forest, before he crossed the Vaitarni to await rebirth from the land of the dead.
Traditionally, the eldest son performs the last rites of his father. In the Valmiki Ramayana, the tragedy of Ram not being able to perform the last rites of his father, even though he is the eldest son, is highlighted.
The detail of Bharata being denied the right to perform the funeral comes from Kamban’s Ramayana.
The hunting of the rhino episode is based on the Ramayana play performed in rural Odisha.
Hindus believe that the river Vaitarni separates the land of the living from the land of the dead. In the land of the living live the sons or Putra. In the land of the dead live the forefathers or Pitr. Pitr are reborn through Putra. Those who fail to produce Putra are doomed to be trapped in the hell known as Put. Scholars are divided if Putra and Pitr are gender-neutral terms or refer specifically to sons and forefathers.
In Bhasa’s play Pratima-nataka, Ravana takes advantage of Ram’s desperation to perform the last rites of his father. Pretending to be a brahmin well versed in funeral rituals, he advises Ram to offer a golden deer found in the Himalayas to please the departed soul of his father. Thus Ram is encouraged to leave the hermitage, enabling Ravana to abduct Sita.
Gaya in Bihar is favoured by Hindus for making funeral offerings to ancestors. The river Falgu has no water here, even though there is water upstream and downstream, because it runs underground. Digging the riverbed reveals the waters. It is said that Ram came to this spot with his brothers to perform Dashratha’s shradh rituals and while he was away bathing, the spirit of Dashratha appeared before Sita and asked her to feed him immediately. She did not have any rice or black sesame seeds, so she gave him pinda balls made of riverbed sand. This pleased Dashratha. When Ram returned, she told him what had happened. He did not believe her. Sita pointed to her witnesses – the banyan tree, the river, the cow, the tulsi plant and the priests. Unfortunately, none but the banyan tree spoke up. Enraged, Sita cursed the river that henceforth it would lose its water in Gaya, the cow that it would henceforth be worshipped from the back not the front, the tulsi plant that it would not be worshipped in Gaya and the priests that they would always be hungry. She blessed the banyan tree that it would have the power to accept funeral offerings made not just to deceased parents but also deceased friends, enemies, strangers and even oneself if one is childless.
The Sandals of Ram
All ceremonies of death were performed facing south. When the mourning period was over, Dashratha’s sons were asked to face east, and resume the ceremonies of life. Bharata said, ‘It is now time to return home. End this nonsense. You shall be king as you are meant to. And I shall serve you.’
Memories of his father rose in Ram’s heart. He enfolded Bharata, Lakshman and Shatrughna in his arms and wept. They were orphans now. Then he said, ‘Our father died keeping his word. Let us live keeping his word. I will have to stay in the forest for fourteen years.’
‘Look at all the people who have followed me. Look at the expectation in their eyes. They all want this bad dream to end. Let us go back to things as they were.’
‘No, Bharata,’ said Ram calmly.
‘I will follow you then,’ said Bharata, ‘as Sita and Lakshman do.’
‘Who then will take care of Ayodhya?’ asked Ram. ‘We are kings, Bharata. Let us not sacrifice responsibility at the altar of sentimentality. Father was not obliged to give our mother a boon; but he did, not one but two. While expressing gratitude to his wife who had saved his life, he forgot he was also a king and his boons could have far-reaching implications. We now have to face the consequences of that lapse. The Raghu clan must not be seen bending their rules for the sake of convenience. We need to be dep
endable kings.’
‘But I do not have to be king to take care of the subjects. I renounce what has been given to me by my mother’s deceit. I shall rule Ayodhya as your regent, awaiting your return.’
Ram realized that Bharata was determined. He could not be stopped. He could not be forced to be king. Never before and nowhere had anyone seen princes of a royal clan each willing to give up the throne for the other. They realized why the Raghu clan was truly illustrious, a worthy branch of the solar dynasty.
Bharata then asked Ram to step into the royal golden sandals worn by the kings of Ayodhya. ‘Claim these by stepping into them. I shall place them on the throne till you come back. They shall symbolize you. I too shall live like a hermit till then, for it does not behove a servant to enjoy the pleasures denied to his master.’
Worshipping the footwear of an elder, a holy man, a king or a teacher is common practice in India.
In Vishnu temples of South India, devotees are not allowed to touch the feet of the deity. In blessing, a priest places a crown, with the footwear of the deity on its top, on the head of devotees. Thus though the devotee cannot touch the deity’s feet, the deity’s footwear makes its way to the devotee’s head.
In some versions, Ram gives to Bharata his forest sandals made of kusha grass. In others, he simply places his feet in the royal shoes that Bharata carries with him.
Across India, in sites associated with the Ramayana, pilgrims are shown Ramcharanchinnha, Ram’s footprints, which are much revered.
Bharata does not enter Ayodhya. He rules from the outskirts of the city, from a village called Nandigram that faces the forest.
Jabali
As the royal entourage prepared to leave, Jabali, a rishi who had accompanied Bharata into the forest, spoke up: ‘You give too much value to your father’s words and your family reputation. It burdens you, prevents you from enjoying life. Values are artificial – created by man, for man. Hold on to them if they create a happy society; abandon them if they create an unhappy one. In nature, the only purpose of plants and animals is to grab nourishment and survive, often at the cost of others. So there is nothing wrong in grabbing pleasure and enjoying life. Don’t let these silly human notions of appropriate conduct burden your life. Let go of these troublesome vows, return to the city, enjoy what you are so lucky to receive by the accident of your birth into a royal family.’
Ram bowed before the sage and said, ‘You crave for the king’s life that you see me being denied. You see me as a victim, stripped of a wonderful life that should be mine. You see me as a fool for submitting to the will of my father, and for not looking at life the way you do. You feel all that I value is false and all that you value is true. But what you value and what I value are both imaginary. The difference is you seek to change the way I see things, you want me to subscribe to the way you see things, while I seek to understand why others do not see things the way I do. I don’t see myself as a victim. I don’t crave for the king’s life. I don’t feel living in the forest, bereft of royal comfort and authority, is a tragedy. I see it as an opportunity and wonder why others do not think like me. I want to understand what is so wonderful about a kingdom that Kaikeyi craves for it and what is so terrible about the forest that Kaushalya fears it. Away from society, away from responsibilities, I will finally have the opportunity to do tapasya so that when I return I can be better at conducting yagna.’
Awestruck by these words, Jabali said, ‘Most people seek to enjoy life. Most people crave dominion over people and property. Most people see a life without enjoyment and dominion as a lesser life. But not you. You are a sage, who seeks to understand life. You are a worthy son-in-law of Janaka. I bow to you.’
Jabali touched Ram’s feet. So did everyone from Ayodhya who had followed Bharata to persuade Ram to return. This was no child. This was no hero. This was God, what humans can become.
Jabali embodies the philosophy of materialism and hedonism known as Charavaka. It rejects the notion of soul, of God, or that life has any purpose at all. It mocks all ritualism and reflection.
The notion that the world is more than what we sense and that life has meaning forms the heart of most world philosophies and ideas. But like all ideas, these are countered by philosophies that reject the notion of any grand plan or purpose or meaning in the world. The Ramayana became popular across the Indian subcontinent because through the narrative it made people speculate on the nature of existence. Ram became revered because he functioned on the basis of the principle that life was not just about pleasure and hoarding things: it was about finding meaning and purpose.
The Ramayana seeks to construct a family and a society based on certain principles of mutuality and empathy. The epic also reveals the heavy cost of social rules and the dark side of civilization.
The Previous and Next Life of Manthara
When Bharata and all the residents of Ayodhya headed for Kosala, one woman stayed back. It was Manthara. The light of victory had disappeared from her face. She stooped more than before, her visage was that of one crushed in battle. ‘I am to blame. I, a servant, destroyed the great Raghu clan. Forgive me,’ she cried, banging her head on the ground before Ram’s feet.
‘No, Manthara, you are not to blame. You ignited Kaikeyi’s latent fears and she revealed the irresponsibility of my father. He could have chosen not to give her open-ended boons. She could have chosen not to exercise them. Everyone is responsible for their actions. I do not blame you or hold you responsible. Go back home in peace.’
But Manthara, old, bent and gaunt, kept weeping and beating herself. Sita tried to comfort her and sensed how lonely she was. Ugly, she had clearly been rejected by her parents, never been cherished by a beloved; she had secured all her importance by serving Kaikeyi, protecting her fiercely as a dog protects its territory, fighting for her, seeking her approval, whining when she expressed unhappiness. Should she be discarded because her loyalty made her venomous?
Finally Ram said, ‘Hear this, Manthara. You are acting out the will of Brahma. In your past life, you were a gandharvi and you were told by our common father to take birth as Manthara and ensure that the eldest son of Raghu-kula is exiled into the forest where he can put an end to the rakshasa way of life, expanding their minds so that they outgrow their animal instincts. In your next life, you will once again be born as an ugly, bent woman. You will be called Kubija or Trivakra. Then you will meet me again. I will be Krishna. I will embrace you passionately and straighten your back and make you feel beautiful again. This I promise you.’
Sita and Lakshman were astonished to hear this.
Ram continued, ‘As Vishnu, in defence of Indra’s Swarga, I beheaded the wife of Bhrigu and the mother of Shukra who had been sheltering asuras. For that crime, I was cursed to be born on earth as Ram and live a life of great hardship, live as a hermit in the forest though entitled to live like a prince in a palace. And just as I denied Bhrigu the company of his wife, I was cursed that I would constantly be denied the pleasure of mine. So it is that Sita, though my wife, shall always be at arm’s length so that I keep my promise of living as a tapasvi. And I fear even the pleasure of her company will be denied me by the rakshasa hordes and maybe eventually Ayodhya too will be thus deprived. But we cannot blame anyone for our misfortunes, as all calamities are an outcome of our past deeds. We have to take responsibility for all the good that happens to us and all the bad. We are the cause, and we have to face the consequences. This is the law of karma.’
The story of Manthara’s previous life as a gandharvi comes from the Ramopakhyan, the retelling of Ram’s story in the Mahabharata.
That the Ramayana is part of a larger narrative becomes apparent through stories such as the one where Vishnu kills Bhrigu’s wife, found in the Puranas.
Hindu philosophy is based on the notion of karma. Every event is a reaction to a past event. So Ram’s exile is predestined. Manthara and Kaikeyi are but instruments of karma. It is foolish to blame or judge anyone, as we are unaware of
the many forces at work that make an event happen.
The gentle wisdom of Ram as he goes into exile is what transforms him from an ordinary hero into a divine being. He does not see himself as a victim. It is significant, however, that when Sita is later banished into the forest, the authors of the epic do not grant her the same gentle wisdom. They prefer visualizing her as victim, not sage. This gender bias continues even in the most modern writings.
In Sanskrit plays, Ram appears as an upright hero. In regional literature, Ram appears as a personification of God. But scholars are divided on how Valmiki portrays him. Some believe Ram of the Valmiki Ramayana is not divine. Some conclude he does not know his divinity. Some others believe Ram is aware of his divinity. This is in stark contrast to Krishna who is fully aware of his divinity right from his birth. This is why Krishna, not Ram, is the more popular avatar of Vishnu and called the purnavatar or the complete incarnation.
According to astrological calculations based on lines from the Valmiki Ramayana, Ram goes into exile in the year 5089 BCE, which means he was twenty-five years old at the time of exile.
Book Four: Abduction
‘Her body could be imprisoned, but never her mind.’
Into Dandaka
Sita, along with Dashratha’s sons, left the woods of Chitrakut, crossed rivers and mountains, and made her way into the forest of Dandaka.
This was once a kingdom called Janasthan, ruled by one Danda. While out hunting one day, Danda came upon a beautiful woman called Aruja and forced himself upon her. She ran crying to her father, a rishi by the name of Shukra. ‘A land where boundaries are not respected is no different from a jungle,’ said a furious Shukra, cursing that dust storms and thunderstorms would wipe away Danda’s kingdom of Janasthan, leaving no trace of it and replacing it with a jungle. And so this land had become the most dreadful of forests that few dared cross.