Pattanaik - Ram son

PENGUIN BOOKS

Devdutt Pattanaik is a medical doctor by education, a leadership consultant by profession and a mythologist by passion. He has written and lectured extensively on the nature of sacred stories, symbols and rituals and their relevance in modern times. His books with Penguin India include The Book of Ram, Myth=Mithya: Decoding Hindu Mythology, The Pregnant King, Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata, Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana, and the Devlok series of stories for children. Devdutts unconventional approach and engaging style are evident in his lectures, books and articles. To know more visit www.devdutt.com.

By the same author

Myth=Mithya: Decoding Hindu Mythology
The Pregnant King
Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata
Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana
Shikhandi and Other Tales They Dont Tell You

Any discussion of Ram today is dominated either by academic analysis or political debate. The former thrives on portraying Ram as a patriarchal poets fantasy. The latter either asserts Ram or rejects Ram, transforming him into a potent political lever either way. In the din of these discourses of power, the discourse of love is lost. One forgets that for hundreds of years, for millions of people, across history and geography, Rams name and Rams story has been a window to the divine.

Rams name, the Ram-nam, is repeatedly chanted to tide over a crisis, for the name, Ram, when reversed becomes Mara, which means die. Ram is the opposite of Mara. Ram is lifewith all its demands and desires and destinies. Rams calm repose in the face of all adversity, so evident in the Ramayana, has made him worthy of veneration, adoration and worship.

I have tried to create a mix of these elements, though I have consciously left out stories which have gods and goddesses and supernatural beings solving problems,or even those in which animals are given human qualities. My stories do not have animals, gods, miracles or curses. My own favourites, and these are ones I loved hearing many years ago, are about how men and women, boys and girls, land themselves in trouble and how they extricate themselves from it. They are about human emotions and everyday human activities.

Rams story has reached the masses not through erudite Sanskrit texts but through theatre, song and dance performed in local languages. All of these retellings of the Ramayana have their own twists and turns, their own symbolic outpouring, each one valid in their respective contexts.

I write this book celebrating the Ram of the common man, the power of his name, the many retellings of his tale, drawing attention to the several layers of metaphors and meanings in the rituals and narratives, bringing forth my own creative insight, well aware that:

Within infinite myths lies the Eternal Truth
Who sees it all?
Varuna has but a thousand eyes
Indra, a hundred
And I, only two

Devdutt Pattanaik

PENGUIN BOOKS

Then he appeared
The merciful one
The benefactor of the weak
And Kaushalya was blessed
The mother beamed
Sages were unable to describe his beauty
Bewitching eyes
Dark skin Four armed
With a garland of flowers
And large eyes, reflecting the beauty of the oceans
With folded hands we pray
O Infinite One
How does one worship you?
Do we praise your deeds?
Or do we recite the scriptures?

From Bhaye Prakat Kripala of the sixteenth-century
saint Tulsidas

Before Ram, Dashratha had a daughter by Kaushalya. Her name was Shanta. Shantas story is not found in Valmikis Ramayana but can be pieced together from bits of information scattered across the Mahabharata and other regional retellings of Rams tale.

Angry with the clouds that had released rain and made him wet, a Rishi called Rishyashringa forbade the clouds from releasing any more rain. Rishyashringa could do this because he practiced tapasya, or absolute restraint of the senses, which included celibacy. In fact, so intense was his tapasya, that he had never seen a woman in his entire life. The resulting tapa or spiritual heat that he generated gave him siddhi or magical powers with which he could subvert the laws of nature. The only way to put an end to the drought that followed Rishyashringas curse was to get him married. So long as he has no knowledge of women, the drought will continue, the gods told a local king called Lompada. But Lompada had no daughter who could turn this hermit into a householder. So he turned to Dashratha, king of Ayodhya, who allowed Lompada to adopt his daughter, Shanta. Succeeding in arousing Rishyashringas curiosity, Shanta made him her husband and with that the rains returned to Lompadas kingdom once more.

The story of Shanta and Rishyashringa is significant because it transforms the Ramayana into a householders epic. It does not look down upon the material world. In fact, it frowns upon monastic practices that reject all things worldly.

The world may be ever-changing and full of uncertainties, but walking away is not the answer. World-rejection, according to the epic, is dangerous and destructive. That is why the rains fall and the earth blooms only when Rishyashringa embraces a woman and becomes a husband. It is this stance of the Ramayana that has led to its classification as iti-hasa which literally translated means so-it-was, is and will be. The Ramayana reflects on the problem of the human condition, of how desire and destiny make the world impermanent and tragic. It also offers the solution by showing us how to live a spiritually fulfilled life through responsible conduct.

Though Dashratha seems to have fathered Shanta without any difficulty, he is unable to father any more children. Dharma insists that a man must father a son and continue his lineage and that a king must produce an heir for the throne. A desperate Dashratha therefore marries a second and a third time. When despite his numerous marriages he remains bereft of a male heir, he decides to perform a yagna and compel the gods to give him a child to carry the line of the solar-kings forward. The Rishi who is called to perform the yagna is none other than Rishyashringa, subtly implying that the Rishis tapasya not only caused the drought in Lompadas kingdom, but also the barrenness in Dashrathas household. Rishyashringas yagna gives sons to Dashratha, just as his marriage gave rains to Lompada.

Kaushalya was Dashrathas first wife. After bearing him a daughter, Shanta, she gave birth to no more children. So Dashratha married Kaikeyi, princess of Kekaya. It was foretold that Kaikeyi would bear a great son and her father gave her hand in marriage to Dashratha only after Dashratha promised that Kaikeyis son would be his heir. Unfortunately, Kaikeyi did not bear any children, let alone sons. Finally, Dashratha married a third time. But even the third queen, Sumitra, bore no children. A frustrated and desperate Dashratha decided to perform a yagna that would please the Devas and compel them to give him a son, one who would follow him to the throne. So, the sage Rishyashringa was invited and he performed an elaborate yagna. As the yagna drew to a close, a celestial being rose from the fire-pit. Dark and dressed in red, he offered Dashratha a vessel containing a celestial potion. Offer this to your wives and they will bear divine sons, said the being before disappearing. A very happy Dashratha, immediately rushed to his wives and divided the magic potion between his senior queen, Kaushalya, and his favourite queen, Kaikeyi. Both of them divided their share and gave one half each to Sumitra, the junior queen. As a result, the three queens gave birth to four sons. Vasishtha named Kaushalyas son, Ram, Kaikeyis son, Bharata, and Sumitras twins, Lakshman and Shatrughna. Lakshman born from the share given by Kaushalya to Sumitra grew up devoted to Ram while Shatrughna born from the share given by Kaikeyi to Sumitra grew up devoted to Bharata.