THE WORD ‘Rāmāyaṇa’ can be split as ‘rāmasya ayanam’ – the journey of Rāma; it refers to the physical, emotional, and spiritual journey of Śrī-Rāma. The poet has also called the epic ‘Sītāyāścaritam’ – the story of Sītā, and ‘Paulastya-vadham’ – the slaying of Rāvaṇa.
The primary characters are evident from the names of the epic. The journey of Rāma is the story of Sītā; the epic captures their extraordinary life as an ideal couple. Rāvaṇa’s interference disrupts their life, their journey and their story. Even after the vile rākṣasa is killed, there is no peace in Rāma’s and Sītā’s life.
Kṣemendra, in his Rāmāyaṇa-mañjarī captures the essence of the epic in the following verse –
bhogārhe navayauvane'pi vipine cīrāmbaro rāghavaḥ
tatrāpyasya pareṇa dāra-haraṇaṃ kleśaḥ tad-anveṣaṇe |
saṃprāptāpi janāpavāda-rajasā tyaktā punarjānakī
sarvaṃ dukham-idaṃ tad-astu bhavatāṃ ślāghyo vivekodayaḥ || (First verse after the Uttara-kāṇḍa)
At the peak of his youth, the phase of life in which the best of pleasures can be enjoyed, Rāma was banished to the forest and he had to live there clad in bark-garments. Even the minimal necessities of food, shelter, and clothing were not guaranteed to him. Though his beloved wife accompanied him of her own accord, they couldn’t live a happy life as she was abducted by another man. Rāma had to undergo tremendous difficulties in searching for her. Even after she was brought back safely to the kingdom, citizens heaped upon her the slime of suspicion and the unblemished daughter of King Janaka had to be abandoned. The lives of even the dhārmic individuals are filled with sorrow; it is therefore important to let wisdom blossom upon our beings.
The poet tries to hint that it is not just the adhārmic beings who undergo trouble, even the dhārmic ones undergo pain. The wicked deeds of an individual can have cascading effects on innumerable families and an entire kingdom.
The demands of Kaikeyī took away the life of a king; it subjected the royal family and the kingdom to immense agony. The unwarranted advances made by Śūrpaṇakhā towards Rāma led to the downfall of the golden kingdom of Laṅkā.
While in the case of Kaikeyī, it was an undue favouritism for her biological son with the hidden motive of attaining the status of the queen-mother, in the case of Śūrpaṇakhā (and Rāvaṇa) it was kāma breaking the bounds of dharma.
When her son Rāma of unblemished character is banished, Kausalyā declares in agony that people will lose faith in dharma if such deeds take place; if a dhārmic individual who is loved by all is banished, Kausalyā wonders what the ultimate purpose of dharma and love is.
Similarly, the rākṣasīs of Laṅkā complain that they have lost their families because of the wicked deeds of Śūrpaṇakhā and Rāvaṇa. It is therefore important for people in positions of authority to carefully make their moves – this lesson equally applies to Daśaratha and Rāvaṇa. Both were driven by strī-moha – excessive attachment to women.
The Rāmāyaṇa teaches us the importance of adherence to superior values, not just in happy moments but also when faced with unfavourable circumstances. Rāma is the best example of an ideal son – he gracefully accepted the responsibility of being the crown prince when his father told him that he would anoint him. He was equally steadfast when he was told that he was to give up the kingdom and live in the forest for fourteen years, clad in bark garments and subsisting on fruits and roots.
Rāma is an ideal brother in that he had declared to Lakṣmaṇa that he would rule the kingdom along with him when he is anointed as the crown prince; and when Lakṣmaṇa grows suspicious of Bharata’s intentions when they see his army from a distance in the forest, Rāma admonishes him and expresses his complete trust in Bharata.
When Lakṣmaṇa loses consciousness on the battlefield, Rāma finds no purpose in continuing to live. In fact, later in the Uttara-kāṇḍa, we see that Rāma goes on the mahā-prasthāna as soon as he learns that Lakṣmaṇa had breathed his last. The younger brothers also loved their older brother dearly; no one had compelled Lakṣmaṇa or Bharata to give up the kingdom just because Rāma was banished to the forest. The younger brothers truly recognised the superiority of their elder brother and followed his path.
Lakṣmaṇa gives up his family for the sake of his brother; Bharata lives like a hermit and does not enter the kingdom that is bereft of Rāma. He even declares that he would end his life if he does not see Rāma return at the end of fourteen years. Lakṣmaṇa never complains about Rāma. Although he cautions Rāma that the golden deer is an illusion, Rāma goes ahead to hunt the deer, which finally leads to the abduction of Sītā. Rāma chides Lakṣmaṇa for leaving Sītā alone in the hermitage but Lakṣmaṇa never points fingers at Rāma for having gone after the deer in the first place.
Rāma and Sītā constitute the ideal couple. Bhavabhūti in his Uttara-rāma-caritam says,
advaitaṃ sukha-duḥkhayor-anugataṃ sarvāsvasthāsu yat
viśrāmo hṛdayasya yatra jarasā yasminnahāryo rasaḥ|
kālenāvaraṇātyayāt-pariṇate yat-prema-sāre sthitaṃ[1]
bhadraṃ tasya sumānuṣasya katham-apyekaṃ hi tat-prāpyate|| (1.39)
[1] yat-sneha-sāre sthitaṃ is an alternate reading; with this reading, the verse emphasises that sneha – friendship between the husband and the wife is the most important emotion. Deep friendship drives life forward.
Rāma and Sītā were united in their joys and sorrows; Rāma’s joy was Sītā’s joy and Rāma’s sorrow was Sītā’s sorrow and vice versa; they were committed to each other in every walk of life. They found peaceful refuge in each other’s hearts; their love for each other did not wither away with old age, but only ripened with time. Each was an embodiment of the other’s love. Only the fortunate human gets to enjoy such rare companionship of undivided love.
Hanūmān is an ideal servant and an ideal devotee. He implicitly understands his master’s purpose. Kālidāsa describes Hanūmān leaping across the ocean in half a verse –
mārutiḥ sāgaraṃ tīrṇaḥ saṃsāram-iva nirmamaḥ| (Raghuvaṃśa, 12.60)
Māruti, i.e., Hanūmān leapt across the ocean just as a person who has given up selfish attachments crosses the ocean of life.
Hanūmān was an absolutely selfless individual; he was ready to take extreme risks and even explore unknown lands because he knew that a dhārmic man and his wife were in trouble. There was bigger adharma and Hanūmān was ready to sacrifice himself for the greater good. He not only locates Sītā in Laṅkā, but also plans a way to help his lord by weakening his enemy.
Like a war strategist, he makes note of the security arrangements in Laṅkā and even lets himself be captured to see the king of the rākṣasas in flesh and blood. He stands as a symbol of Rāma’s might; he not only reduces a large part of Rāvaṇa’s kingdom to ashes but also psychologically weakens the enemy.
Rāvaṇa and the other rākṣasa chiefs wonder time and again how powerful Rāma could be if one vānara from his army could wreak such large scale destruction on their kingdom.
Hanūmān provides mental strength to Sītā and comforts her by assuring that the warriors in Rāma’s army are equal or superior to him in might. In Hanūmān, we also see the qualities of an ideal messenger and an ideal speaker.
Rāvaṇa is an ideal villain. There was no desire of his which had gone unfulfilled. He had the physical and intellectual might to achieve everything he wanted even at the cost of the world’s suffering. Sītā was the last woman he abducted and the first woman who wouldn’t succumb to his advances. She had morally defeated him and Rāma had to only slay his mortal body. Rāvaṇa was thus vanquished jointly by the husband and the wife. Sītā’s pātivratya gave her the strength to single-handedly face Rāvaṇa and the other rākṣasas. Her spotless character was her strength.
In this sense, the Rāmāyaṇa is an ideal epic with ideal characters and ideal relationships. The grey shades are lesser compared to the Mahābhārata. Nevertheless, when we dive deep into the epic, we will see that Vālmīki is unbiased and shows the weak spots of all his characters.
To be continued
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