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INTRODUCTION
AND CONTEXT OF RAMAYANA
The word “Ramayana”
refers to the story of Rama. The word “ayanam” means path and here refers to a movement in
time. Thus the word “Ramayana”
means the life history of Rama. The Ramayana written by Sage Valmiki is known as the
Valmiki Ramayana.
The Valmiki Ramayana is
an epic, itihasa, depicting the
traditions, ideologies and heroes of ancient India. Its characters provide role-models for the
child and the adult. The child’s mind seeks an anchor, a fantasy, a
hero in order to be inspired and grow into a beautiful, mature adult.
Every ancient culture carries myths and stories that provide a framework
wherein people can live a simple life committed to truth and beauty.
Valmiki, the great ascetic, once asked Narada, whether there
existed a man in the world committed to dharma, who is brave and strong, who is endowed with
accomplishments, who is a scholar, capable and handsome? Narada pointed
out that such a man did exist in flesh and blood and his name was Rama.
In this manner, Narada introduces the Sanksepa
Ramayana, where he tells Valmiki the entire epic in one hundred
verses.
Having listened to the words of sage Narada, Valmiki proceeded to
the River Tamasa for his daily oblations. As he was admiring the
beautiful landscape around the banks, he noticed two kraunca birds
sporting in union in a nearby tree. The next moment, an arrow released by
a hunter hit the male bird and killed it. The female bird started
grieving intensely over the loss of her beloved.
Moved by the plight of the bird, Valmiki cursed the hunter :
“O hunter, may you not gain peace for eternal years since you have
killed this kraunca bird sporting in love.” Soon after recovering
from the grip of compassion, he regretted having cursed the hunter. When
he recollected the curse, much to his surprise, he saw that it was an
expression of sorrow, soka, in
the form of a sloka, a simple
Sanskrit verse.
Pondering over the words of the sloka, Valmiki returned to his hermitage, asrama. At that time, Lord Brahma,
the creator, came to meet him at the asrama.
Lord Brahma told him that it was due to his blessings alone that the
curse came out in the form of a sloka
and that it contained the seed of the story of Lord Rama.
Lord Brahma blessed Valmiki to write the story of Rama by giving
him a vision of episodes in Rama’s life and of those individuals
associated with him. Thus Valmiki’s curse born of soka, grief became the cause for
the birth of Valmiki Ramayana,
a mahakavya.
BALA
KANDA
This section begins with a prelude to the writing of the
Ramayana. The actual story commences with a description of Ayodhya, the
capital of the kingdom
of Kosala. King Dasaratha, a descendant of the solar
dynasty, was ruling the kingdom of Kosala from Ayodhya. He had everything in life that
one could desire, except a son who could inherit his kingdom. He
consulted his guru, Vasistha and other sages in the assembly about
performing the Asvamedha-yajna, horse-sacrifice.
Sumantra, the minister, suggested that the king invite Sage Rsyasrnga to
perform the sacrifice. Vasistha and others approved this suggestion and
the king ceremoniously invited the great Sage Rsyasrnga to officiate the
sacrifice.
All the devatas also assembled at the yajna-sala to receive their
oblations in the yajna. Seeing that the time was opportune, they prayed
to Lord Vishnu for relief from the harassments of Ravana, the powerful
raksasa king. The Lord blessed them and assured them that he would be
born as Dasaratha’s son and would kill Ravana.
After Asvamedha sacrifice was completed, Dasaratha requested
Rsyasrnga to perform a ritual that would help him beget children.
Rsyasrnga performed the Putrakamesti-yajna,
a sacrifice done for the sake of progeny. As the ritual was about to
end, a divine being appeared from the fire altar with a pot of payasam, kheer. The divine being
asked Dasaratha to distribute it among his three queens. Rejoicing at the
appearance of the divine being, the king gave half of the payasam to Kausalya, a quarter of
the portion to Sumitra and one-eighth of it to Kaikeyi, the youngest
queen. The remaining one-eighth of the portion was again given to
Sumitra.
All the queens soon after became expectant mothers. On the
auspicious ninth day of the bright fortnight of Caitra, Kausalya gave birth to Rama. The next day Bharata was
born to Kaikeyi and the following day Sumitra gave birth to twins:
Laksmana and Satrughna. All of Ayodhya celebrated the birth of the princes.
The four brothers grew up receiving all the samskaras and education befitting their royal clan. They
loved each other and shared everything. Though Dasaratha loved all his
sons, he was extremely attached to Rama, the eldest. Rama was devoted to
his father and at every available opportunity he tried to please him.
Many happy years went by in the palace and in Ayodhya.
One day, Sage Visvamitra arrived at the palace on an urgent
mission. King Dasaratha welcomed the sage with great joy and reverence and
offered to help him in any way needed. Visvamitra, pleased with the
king’s words, revealed the purpose of his visit. He told the king
about a yajna he had started at
his asrama which he was unable
to complete due to the interference of two powerful raksasas : Marica and Subahu. Since he could not curse the raksasas while the yajna was in progress, he
requested Dasaratha to send Rama with him to protect the yajna.
Dasaratha was shocked to hear Visvamitra’s request, as the
thought of being away from Rama was unbearable. He began proposing
alternatives to Visvamitra which would achieve the same purpose. Knowing
that only Rama could solve the problems caused by the raksasas, Visvamitra insisted on
Rama accompanying him. He began expressing displeasure at Dasaratha’s
attempts to go back on his words. Finally, on the advice of Vasistha,
Dasaratha reluctantly agreed to let Rama go but he decided to have
Laksmana accompany him.
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