Ramayana

This summer, the British Library in London have been hosting a fascinating exhibition on the Indian epic, the Ramayana. Not only that, they are hosting online the 17th century illuminated manuscript which forms the centre piece of the exhibition. They have done a brilliant job, and you can and should go view it here.

I have alway been interested by the Ramayana story and its characters (Sympathy for Ravan, Translating Ramayana and Other Thoughts, Sita the Bitch, Chat-up Lines of the Ancients), but am not as familiar with the story as I would like to be, so when I visited a couple of months ago, some things struck me as unexpected. At the time I scribbled them down on a brochure, and now I jot them down here to share my ignorance and thoughts with my friends. These unexpected realisations were:

1. Rama is shown with blue skin and a moustache.

Thinking about it, Krishna is blue, and Rama and Krishna are both avtars of Vishnu, so perhaps that is not so odd. There is some logic, though I have not previously seen Rama depicted as blue-skinned. Why should Vishnu be blue though? It was Shiva who was neel-kantha or blue throated, from drinking the poison of the cosmic ocean.

The moustache thing is fascinating. From casual observation, a majority of Indian men seem to have a moustache, but in the popular depictions of Hindu Gods and Epics, only the demons, the villains seem to have moustaches, while the male Gods are depicted clean-shaven and looking somewhat androgynous. Is this perhaps only a recent innovation? I was thrilled to see a more hirsute Indian hero.

2. Why does Ravana have a donkey's head as one of his 10 heads in this image? Also, why was he shown with a donkey's head only on this manuscript page (page 38), but none of the other pages?















3. Don't you love the crazy faces of the women in the photo? One has a disturbingly wide smile, one appears to be a Zombie. But even the Zombie has found a lover. Ravana's Lanka seems a haven for those who are different, a kind of Amsterdam of its day.

4. Why are there bears (yes, they do look like boars, but the commentary said bears) fighting in Rama's army? What is the story here?


















5. Did you know monkeys come in two colours?

6. I was amused in a juvenile kind of way by the anatomical accuracy of the monkeys in the manuscripts. They all seemed to have visible male genitalia! If this casual observation was correct, this suggests that Rama's vanar-sena, or monkey army, was also exclusively male. This raises:

7. Why aren't there any female monkeys fighting? Are female monkeys not as good at fighting, and not even of some relative utility? Is war an exclusively male preserve across species? I don't know about the warrior capabilities of female monkeys, but it seems wasteful to leave them out fully!

8. This wasn't something I noticed, but rather I overheard. There were a group of serious sounding women discussing the Ramayana story. One said she was troubled as it began with a queen who controlled the king, and ended with a queen controlled by a king. This, she declared, made the Ramayana story quite problematic from a feminist perspective.

No comments!

Love: The Tale of King Bhartrihari

The complete story of Bhartrihari is not just a tale of a king, but also that of a lover, a poet, a grammarian, a philosopher, and an ascetic. This is only a small part of that tale.

One fine day, a devout Brahmin and his wife came to the court of King Bhartrihari, and supplicating before him, presented him with a strange looking piece of fruit. The Brahmin explained he had spent most of his life undertaking austere penances and meditations in praise of the Gods, and pleased with him, the Gods had blessed him and granted him this fruit, the amar-phal. Any one person who ate the fruit would have the gift of immortality. But the Brahmin did not desire to live forever while his wife, whom he loved dearly, should grow old and die, and therefore he had come to offer the fruit to the King.

The King was very pleased with this present, and rewarded the couple generously. But once they had left and the fruit was in his possession, he became uncertain of what to do with it. The obvious thing would be to eat it. To have the gift of immortality would make him equal in stature to the Gods! Further, was he not a good and just ruler, he reasoned, and therefore it would be for the betterment of his kingdom and subjects if he were to reign indefinitely.

But something in his heart stopped him from eating the fruit. It was love. Bhartrihari was obsessively in love with his Queen, and he could not bear the thought of living without her. It would be better that she should live, and he have the comfort of knowing that at least she would be with him the rest of his life. Better a few moments with her, he thought, than an eternity without! He went and gave his Queen the fruit.

The young Queen felt the same way too, but not about her husband. She was having an affair with the King's handsome and trusted advisor, who made her swoon with his suggestive glances. She accepted the fruit from her husband, but secretly gave it to the King's advisor.

The King's Advisor heart though was set on another woman. He was hopelessly enthralled with a long-eyed and slender-waisted poetry-reciting Courtesan of his acquaintance, and he wanted to impress her more than anything else in the world. He gave her the fruit.

Now the Courtesan had met and known many rich and great men, and she despised almost all of them, including the King's Advisor. But there was one man whose kindness and concern for others had captured her heart, and though her feelings remained unspoken, she was very much in love. She went and gave the fruit to the man she admired - the good King Bhartrihari.

Bhartrihari accepted the fruit from the Courtesan, and understood what had happened. He saw the infidelity of his wife, and also the love of the courtesan for him. He concluded:

She who is always in my thoughts prefers
Another man, and does not think of me.
Yet he seeks for another's love, not hers;
And some poor girl is grieving for my sake.
Why then, the devil take
Both her and him; and love; and her; and me

That night, Bhartrihari put on the robes of an ascetic and stole away, leaving behind his wife, his palace and his kingdom. Some say he never returned, renouncing all things and becoming a great philosopher and poet. Or less romantically, a grammarian. Some suggest that Bhartrihari was a man who could not make up his mind whether to follow the sensual or ascetic path. Each time he chose one path, he would see its deficiences and the attractions of the other. And so he would move back and forth from pleasure and renunciation. Who can say they know for sure the truth!

***

The tale of King Bhartrihari continues a haphazard survey of that universal predicament - the unreliability of love. We have previously seen in The Madness of King Shahryar, a different reaction from Bhartrihari's to a lover's infidelity. Poets appear a particularly miserable lot. Whether the Thabri, or Momin, or Ghalib, or Raaz, all their relationships seem to end badly. We saw failed romances wherever we looked, but we kept looking anyway. Sadly, we have not had time to correct the gender bias in our choices. We would have particularly liked to sympathise with poor Sita, whose husband Ram would tastelessly demand proof of fidelity from her after she had been kidnapped by a villain! We have wonderered whether monasticism isn't a better option, but like Bhartrihari, couldn't make up our mind. Not all love is so fickle though. We have sympathised with moths, who hurl themselves at their flame. We have admired the great romance of Hir and Ranjha, and sighed over our love of Madhuri. Ominously, all these great romances also end badly. In conclusion, we are no wiser than when we started, which was not very wise at all.


***

The Tale of the Three Goddesses

In Greek Mythology, the prelude to the Trojan War sees three Goddesses - Hera, Athena and Aphrodite - arguing with each other as to who is the most beautiful. Unable to agree, they ask a shepherd-boy called Paris to adjudicate. Aphrodite succesfully bribes Paris to choose her, things snowball from hereon in, and eventually this petty dispute between the Goddesses results in the Trojan War.

It is instructive to compare the differences with a similar tale in Indian Mythology. One fine day, the three great Goddesses - Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati - are arguing with each other as to who is the most - wait for it - chaste. Unable to agree, they ask Narada, the great sage, to adjudicate.

Narada shocks the three vain Goddesses with his response. None of them, he replies. The most chaste woman is Anasuya. She resides in Dandaka forest in the second world, wife of the Rishi Atri, and though she is only human, she is more chaste than all the goddesses.

The Goddesses are shocked! Shocked! Unwilling to accept Narada's word, each of them returns home and pesters her husband - the great trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva - to go and find out if Anasuya is really all that chaste. It's a strange invitation/request, and Brahma Vishnu Shiva, sensing potential domestic trouble, are understandably reluctant to acquiesce. But the Goddesses are adamant, and eventually the hen-pecked husbands submit to their wives' wishes, and go off to test the chastity of Anasuya.

Ladies, don't try this at home!

The Thousand Eyes of Indra - III

Women! Intruders of our dreams, invaders of our hearts, destroyers of our sanity! When a woman beckons, otherwise rational men are lured to their own destruction, like lemmings by the sea, moths by the flame, seamen by the wailing of the sirens, worker bees by their queen, the alcoholic by his drink, like Hawwa by the serpent, like fools by their leaders! And from the first man Adam, to the last, it is the fate of men to be led astray by a woman.

The Thousand Eyes of Indra - II

The crowd surrounding the travelling narrator scratch their heads and murmur restlessly. One raises his hand.

"What about a handsome teenage boy, sir? One who is just starting to get the fuzzy moustache of adolescence, whose skin is still shiny and smooth?"

And now other voices chime in:

"The greatest ecstasy lies in mystical union with God!"

"The frisky mountain goats from the Panjshir Valley, sir! When we were in the Mujahideen, we never saw any women anyway!"

"I haven't known a woman for years. I have been reduced to a slave of the left hand!"

"In a fine town like this? Brother Stranger, you must allow me the honour of showing you our local whore-house myself."

"Yes, much more pleasurable than the left hand are those whom the right hand would possess!"

The narrator holds his forehead in his hand. He has a headache, he is getting far too old for this constant travelling, and he can't understand why the strange Northern men are interrupting his rhetorical eloquence with such weird remarks. And where are all the women?

The Thousand Eyes of Indra - I

It all began, as trouble often does, with a woman's beauty and a man's desire. Devaraja Indra, the Ruler of Heaven, Lord of the Overworld, husband of Devranee Indrayani and Playboy Extraordinaire, was feeling distracted from his duties...for his heart and his mind were secretly consumed by the thought of a woman.

Narrator: My brothers, men of this but-for-women-cursed world, husbands and lovers, sons of Adam, which one among you hasn't been enslaved by the beauty of a woman? Have you really never met a woman who has disturbed the beating of your heart, who made the blood rush from your liver to your head, and elsewhere lower below too, whose desire made you blind to all reason and logic, whose lust made you forget your duty to your parents and to the seven generations of your ancestors? It is true for all of you, admit it now! Because a woman is such a thing, nay, the only thing, that unleashes such storms of passion in a man's heart.

prelude

It all began, as trouble often does, with a woman's beauty and a man's desire. Devaraja Indra, the Ruler of Heaven, Lord of the Overworld, husband of Devranee Indrayani and Playboy Extraordinaire, was feeling distracted from his duties....

***

This is a story which is also being told in the world outside this blog...If it continues there, it will continue here. If not, then not.

Sita the Bitch

Laxman, Ram and Sita

For someone venerated in popular hindu tradition and culture as the most perfect of women, the very ideal and epitome of feminity and womanhood, the best of wives and the best of daughters, an inspiration and example for all women to aspire to, an incarnation of the goddess Lakshmi to be worshipped and respected, for someone who is considered all these things, at times that Sita was one dirty-minded untrusting aspersion-casting foul-mouthed bitch.

Allow me to remind you of a certain incident. In those days, Sita was living in the forest along with her husband, Ram, who had been exiled from his kingdom. Laxman, Ram's devoted younger brother, was also living with them.

One day, the demoness Shurpnakha happened to see Ram and was very attracted towards him. But when he (and subsequently Laxman) rejected her offer of marriage, in jealousy she tried to attack Sita, only to be stopped by Laxman who cut off her nose.

Shuurpnakha, noseless, a woman spurned, went to her brother, Ravan, the ten-headed demon-king of Lanka, with visions of revenge. She persuaded him that he should kidnap the beautiful Sita and make her his own wife. Ravan agreed, and a trap was laid.

Time passed, and one day Sita saw a golden deer playing in the forest. She was so captivated by its beauty, she asked Ram to catch it for her. Ram, ever obliging and considerate, told Laxman to guard Sita, and went in pursuit of the golden deer. But the deer was just a lure; it was in reality the demon Mareecha in disguise, who led Ram further and further away from his forest home. Now Laxman and Sita were alone.

Suddenly, they heard cries of anguish in Ram's voice coming from the distance. Laxman was unmoved. He reminded Sita that Ram was invincible, the greatest of warriors, this could not therefore be his voice, it must be someone pretending to be him. And so they should be wary of these cries.

But Sita would not listen. She begged, pleaded, and implored Laxman to go to his brother's defence. He insisted he must stay there and guard her as his elder brother had instructed.

Sita became silent, and eyed him thoughtfully. When she spoke again, her voice had venom in it. I see now what is happening, she said.

You lust for me, and because of your desire, you wish to see your brother dead. It is clear now. That your brother is in grave trouble gives you much pleasure. You don't want to defend him, you don't want to help him, no, you want to stay here to be with me. You are debased and condemnable, you bring shame to your ancestors and find pleasure in your brother's suffering. You came into exile with Rama. When he is not here, with what intention and legitimacy do you stay here with me now? It is not unsurprising that people like you, would-be-rivals with concealed desires, commit such terrible sins. You have followed Ram into exile only because of me. But I will not touch any other man than Ram. I will take my own life first.

Under this onslaught of rage and fury, Laxman succumbed, and left Sita alone to go in search of Ram. In his absence, Sita was kidnapped by Ravan and taken to Lanka. Ram raised an army and headed to Lanka to wage war on Ravan. Eventually, Ravan was defeated and Sita rescued. The defeat is marked by the festival of Dussehra (literally ten heads), where Ravan's effigy is burnt, and Ram and Sita's safe return to Ayodhya is celebrated as Diwali. But the relationship of Ram and Sita was over for good. On her return, Ram would express doubts over Sita's fidelity, and require proof of it from her. Sita went through a trial of fire to give him the proof he required, but humiliated, she then left him and returned to be with her mother.

Maybe I judge Sita harshly, but then falsely accusing your brother-in-law of wanting to have sex with you and wishing to see his own brother dead, indeed being complicit in his murder through willing negligence, doesn't fit in with my ideal of womanhood.

Also, should you think I am being sexist and picking on Sita alone, I hasten to add that she is not the only flawed character to be found in the Ramayan and Mahabharat epics. From Ram's own behaviour towards Sita after rescuing her to Yuddhistara's addiction to gambling to Krishna's adulterous sex-crazed ways, the heroes of the epics also have their failings and flaws. Maybe more on them another day.

photo source

chat-up lines of the ancients

"oh, finely limbed lady"

We continue our quest to glean the secret, hidden wisdom of Valmiki's Ramayan. Our findings:

Indra, the thousand-eyed one, is very direct, employing the following opening gambit with Ahalya, already married to a sage:

"Oh, finely limbed lady, indulgers do not watch out for the time to conceive, as such oh, slender-waisted one, I desire copulation with you. [1-48-18]

Effect: Great success. Need I elaborate what follows?

Rama, that model of virtue, that paragon of excellence, sadly seems to have married Sita without exchanging a word, so perhaps the implication here is to speak not with words but actions. But if you seek words, we know he said the following to Shuurpnakha:

"I too wish to know about you. Whose wife are you? What is your name? Or, whose daughter are you? By the way, you are with a most enthralling personality, and then you must be a demoness. [3-17-18]

Effect: Shuurpnakha is besotted. Success.

Shuurpnakha, the she-demon, makes a brazen offer to Rama:

You can lustily ramble about Dandaka forest along with me while enjoying yourself on various mountaintops in the sky and in forests on the earth." So Shuurpanakha said to Rama. [3-17-28]

Effect: Rama is not convinced. Failure.

Shuurpnakha is advised by Rama that his younger brother Lakshmana is single. She tries her luck with him:

"I with my best complexion will be your deserving wife meetly to you charm, you can happily take a jaunt all over Dandaka forest along with me." So Shuurpanakha ran after Lakshmana. [3-18-7]

Effect: Failure. Lakshmana not only declines the offer, he cuts off her nose!

Ravana, Shuurpnakha's brother and King of Lanka, tries to woo Ram's wife Sita by praising her beauty and asking her name:

"Glittering like the glitter of gold, silkened in ochry silks, you are like a lotus-tendril garlanded with divine lotuses as your ensemble, who are you?" Thus Ravanan started addressing Seetha [3-46-16]

Effect: Sita spurns Ravana's affections, and then Rama comes and kills him. Horrible failure.

***

Overall Conclusion? Be silent, but if you must say something, speak to the point. Being a God will also improve your chances. Truly profound insights can be gained through diligent and determined study of our holy epics.

translating Ramayana and other thoughts

I was searching for the original Sanskrit verse by Valmiki which has been translated with such tenderness by John Brough:


Blow, wind, to where my loved one is,
Touch her, and come and touch me soon:
I'll feel her gentle touch through you,
And meet her beauty in the moon.

These things are much for one who loves -
A man can live by them alone -
That she and I breathe the same air,
And that the earth we tread is one.

When I find the original sanskrit, I will update it here, but so far all I have found is this hilariously abominable translation of a different passage, but on the same theme: Ram's reaction to the loss of Sita.

"Oh, Lakshmana, very evidently demons have either gorged up Seetha, or perhaps abducted her, because she is not returning to me who am whiny indeed for her. [3-62-7b, 8a]

"Indeed these teary-eyed mobs of deer look as if to explain that nightwalkers have gluttonised my lady. [3-62-8b, 9a]

And then a little later, Ram continues to share his true concerns and thoughts with remarkable honesty:

"Those two roundish bosoms of my ladylove which always deserved the application of pleasantly looking red-sandalwood's paste might definitely be unshiny, as they might be bedaubed with muddy blood when they are extricated from her body for devouring. [3-63-8]

And with this brilliant work of translation, high drama is transformed into high farce. And yet, the result is mainly because of a literal translation of the original. Perhaps the Hindutva brigade should consider campaigning for a ban on Ramayana and other classical literature, lest the passions of our young maidens be inflamed, their chaste minds corrupted, and the morality and soul of our nation fall into decay!

Now you know the real reason your grandmother spends all day in the prayer room reading Ramayana and Mahabharata.

***

The sanskrit originals appear to be as follows:

vaahi vaata yataH kanyaa taam spR^iSTvaa maam api spR^isha
tvayi me gaatra samsparshaH candre dR^iSTi samaagamaH 6-5-6

bahv etat kaamayaanasya shakyam etena jiivitum
yad aham saa ca vaama uurur ekaam dharaNim aashritau 6-5-10

Though it seems that Brough has failed to mention Sita's charming thighs, which Ram refers to in the original. Literal translations given at http://www.valmikiramayan.net/

“Oh, wind! Flow from the side of my beloved. Touch her and touch me too. It is through you that I get a contact of her limbs. It is through moon that I get a contact of her eyes.”

“It is enough for me, who is passionate, that Seetha with charming thighs and myself are resting on one the same earth and on this fact I am able to survive.”

Ram should surely have been more restrained in the detailed praises he went into of Sita's physical charms, he could have ended up creating lots of rivals in love.

The Tale of King Shahryar

Read the beginning first, as this is a continuation:

Let us travel back in time. The King Shahryar is a generous and kind man, loved by his subjects, content and satisfied with fate. He adores his wife (who is a model of beauty...and symmetry and perfect loveliness), and if there is any shortcoming in his life, it is the absence of his younger brother Shahzaman, who lives in distant Samarkand and who he longs to see. He decides to invite Shahzaman to come and visit him.

But when Shahzaman arrives, it becomes apparent that he is deeply unhappy and upset. Shahryar is troubled, but Shahzaman refuses to divulge what makes him so miserable. What is the secret that Shahzaman is hiding, and which Shahryar does not know?

I will tell you this now...

The Tale of King Shahzaman

King Shahzaman was very pleased to receive the invitation from his brother, and decided to set out for his kingdom at once. But in the middle of the night, only a little way outside his own city, he realised that he had left something behind and immediately rode back alone to his palace to retrieve it. He entered his bed chambers and found his wife sleeping in the embrace of a dirty foul-smelling servant.

He thought: If such case happen while I am yet within sight of the city, what will be the doings of this damned whore during my long absence at my brother's court?. He drew his sword and killed them both.

But both the infidelity and murders continued to pray on his mind, and when he reached Shahryar's court, he was still a troubled man.

* * *

So Shahzaman mopes, while Shahryar tries to cheer him up. He organises a hunting expedition for his brother's amusement, but Shahzaman chooses to stay behind and sulk. With the whole court including his brother off on expedition, Shahzaman is free to wander alone around the palace. He comes across a window looking out into a hidden garden full of fountains and flowers. Looking out, he sees lying on the grass ten couples, ten pairs of handsome young men and women, uncovered, fornicating enthusiastically. And alone in the centre of the garden is his brother's shapely and beautiful wife, and she is also without clothing.

Shahzaman hides and watches. The queen's lover arrives - a large, rough looking black man. He embraces the queen, touching her all over, and takes her on the spot. This exercise of lust continues for hours until everyone is exhausted. Then the men finally depart, and the queen is left with her ten hand-maidens.

Shahzaman is amazed. My brother, he speculates, is greater than me in every other respect. But even his wife makes a fool out of him and cheats on him with another man. He laughs and feels much better.

When Shahryar returns from hunting, he finds his brother in excellent humour, eating with relish and full of laughter. Shahryar is very pleased to see this.

***

Shahryar was less pleased though to discover his wife's treachery. In fact he was distraught. He said to his brother Let us leave our kingdoms and wander through the world, and let us if such a terrible fate has befallen any others

And so the two brothers left their kingdom without telling a soul, and wandered alone across the earth, until they came across the genie and the fair maiden.

The Genie and the Fair Maiden

The genie was big and fierce and fast asleep, his head resting on the maiden's lap. The two brothers tried to hide, but she spotted them. She called out Come here and be with me, or I will wake the Genie and he will surely kill you

Fearful, then obeyed. She undressed, and lay with them both. When she was finished, she said, Give me the ring from your finger. She then told them her story.

This loathesome Genie kidnapped me on my wedding day. Like other men, he is extremely jealous and possessive, and would not have me lie with anyone but him. So when he has to leave me, he keeps me trapped in a box inside a box, locked seven times over, and placed at the bottom of the sea. But when he is asleep, I still lie with as many men as I please. I take from each man a ring as a memory. I had five hundred and seventy two rings earlier, and now I have two more.

Shahryar and Shahzaman marvelled to hear this. Truly, they said, no man should be fool enough to have faith in a woman! Praising God, they each thanked the woman and returned to their kingdom. Shahryar ordered his wife's execution for adultery, and the next day he ordered that a virgin bride be found for him. She too was executed the next day.

No wife of his, Shahryar had decided, was going to cheat on him. And thus began the madness of King Shahryar.