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  The Uttarkand also has the important story of the Ashwamedha yagna. Tell us about it.

  In Vedic times, a king would perform this yagna in which a horse is let loose, and wherever the horse roams unopposed, that becomes the king’s territory. Rama also does this yagna.

  At that time, many writers, poets, storytellers come to the court to show their work. Luv and Kush too come, and narrate the Ramayana to him. Rama asks them where they’d heard this story, which was his own, and they tell him that Rishi Valmiki had taught them. He says it can’t really be his story because the Rama in their story is too great a man, not like him. He asks them what they would like as a reward. They say they don’t want anything other than to meet his queen, Sita. Rama shows them an idol of Sita next to the throne, and tells them she had to leave for the forest because his people saw her as a tainted woman. They are surprised that the great woman for whom such a huge war was fought had been ill-treated like this and does not have a place in his kingdom.

  They return to the ashram and tell Sita that Rama is not so great after all; he abandoned his wife. When the Ashwamedha horse reaches the ashram, and they find out it is Rama’s, they refuse to accept his rule. They stop the horse. In the ensuing battle between Rama’s army and the boys, Rama’s army, including his brothers and Hanuman, is defeated. Finally, Rama arrives and picks up his Brahmastra. That’s when Sita stops him and tells him that they are his children. After the truth is revealed, the family is briefly reunited.

  At this time, Rama says that he had abandoned the queen not the wife. In order to perform the Ashwamedha yagna, a king needs a wife; if he’d indeed abandoned his wife, he’d have had to remarry. But he did not. Instead he installed a gold idol of Sita. Gold is a pure metal. So Rama believed his wife was pure, but the rules of Raghukul dictated that his reputation remain untarnished at all costs. People think this would be a happy ending, and request her to return to the kingdom. Sita says she does not want to live in a kingdom where reputation was more important than love. ‘I’ve raised two good, strong children who have proved their worth by defeating even Rama’s army,’ she says. ‘So let them go with their father, and I will go back to my mother.’ At that, the earth, her mother, opens up and takes her in. This is how Sita departs.

  Does the Uttarkand end here?

  There are many stories in the Uttarkand, but basically, once Sita is gone, Rama rules for a few years more, until his children grow up. He then takes jal samadhi as he cannot live without Sita. He walks into the Sarayu river and never returns.

  In the Uttara Ramayana, Rama had beheaded Rishi Shambuka. Is this story caste related?

  A story goes that one day a Brahmin comes into the king’s court carrying his dead son and says that there is no dharma in Ramarajya, that his son died before him when it should be the other way around. When Rama asks Narada how this could happen, Narada says that every yuga has a different system. In the Kriti Yuga, only Brahmins could become sanyasis, in the Treta Yuga, Kshatriyas too could become sanyasis, in the Dvapara Yuga, even Vaishyas could become sanyasis and in Kali Yuga, anyone can become a sanyasi. Rama is in Dvapara Yuga, and a Shudra—Rishi Shambuka—has become a sanyasi, thus upsetting the system and causing problems. Rama wonders why there would be a problem if a Shudra takes sanyas. Narada explains that there is now imbalance in the system and as king, it is Rama’s duty to restore the balance.

  Rama goes to Shambuka, who says he’s performing tap for moksha prapti (liberation), and wishes to go to Vishnu-loka. He is unwilling to return to ordinary life and follow his jati dharma. Rama is torn. Here is a man striving for moksha and you want to pull him back into the social structure of the caste system. So Rama beheads him and releases him.

  This is the negative side of maryada purushottam. There are two sides to this persona. As a follower of rules, in the first part of the Ramayana, Rama is an ideal man and loved by all. In the second half, we see the other side of rules, that there is no freedom. When rules become too rigid, and the order of society is made paramount, many people get crushed, like Sita and Shambuka. This story is for future kings and rulers, to understand the negative aspect of unbending rules.

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  Yayati

  Who is Yayati?

  Yayati was a Chandravanshi king and his descendants play a big role towards the end of the Mahabharata. His relation is with the characters of the Mahabharata.

  There’s some interesting story about his wives . . .

  Very interesting. He had two wives—Devyani and Sharmishta. But it’s a complicated relationship. Devyani is the daughter of Shukracharya, the guru of the asuras. Sharmishta is the daughter of the king of asuras, Vrishparva. One is a princess and the other is a Brahmin’s daughter. Both are friends. In Puranic times, the relationship between a rishi and a king was complex. A king sits on the throne, lives in the palace, and takes the advice of a rishi who lives in the forest. In terms of power, the raja is superior, but in terms of knowledge, he is dependent on the rishi. The raja gives the rishi a lot of importance, touches his feet, but the rishi salutes the king because he is the king. The tension in their relationship is depicted through their daughters.

  Once, the girls go bathing in the river. After the bath, they wear each other’s clothes by mistake. On their way back Sharmishta notices the error and asks Devyani why she has stolen her clothes. Devyani says it must have been in error. Sharmishta continues to accuse her of theft, saying her father was like a beggar who bowed to her father, the king, and depended on his charity to survive, and so on. It could’ve been a minor argument, as often happens among children, but Sharmishta takes it to such a degree that she ends up pushing Devyani into a dry well and she goes away in a huff. Devyani calls out for help and is saved by King Yayati, who happens to be passing by. Devyani thanks him profusely. By the time she is able to return, it is quite late, and she tearfully tells her father, Rishi Shukracharya, the entire story. The rishi says that since the king touched her while helping her out of the well, he is like her husband. This is episode one.

  The rishi goes to King Vrishparva and complains about his daughter’s insulting behaviour and how she said the rishi’s dakshina was merely the king’s charity. The king asks for forgiveness and says, ‘My daughter will serve your daughter from now on.’ The hierarchical position between the two girls is thus reversed, where the princess becomes the Brahmin girl’s maid. Some days later, Yayati comes to meet the rishi and Devyani tells her father that he was the man who’d saved her from the well. The rishi thanks Yayati and tells him that he is now Devyani’s husband. Yayati is sort of trapped into marrying Devyani. So he takes her to his palace. Her ‘maid’ Sharmishta accompanies them. The king falls in love with Sharmishta and she with him, and unknown to Devyani they have a relationship. So the king is outwardly married to a Brahmin girl, but his secret wife, junior wife—some say mistress—is the maid of the first wife, who is actually a Kshatriya princess by birth. Their status by marriage is different, and a rivalry starts between their children.

  So, whose son will become king?

  Exactly, that’s the question. When Devyani finds out about the relationship and Sharmishta’s children from Yayati, she is furious. She goes to her father and tells him that the king has betrayed her. The rishi curses Yayati and takes away his youth. Yayati instantly becomes old. Shukracharya’s thoughtless curse causes his daughter more grief, since her husband is now old. So he modifies the curse and says that if a son of Yayati’s were to accept his old age, his youth would return. That is, he can exchange his old age with his son’s youth.

  Yayati goes home and calls his sons. He asks Devyani’s older son Yadu to exchange his old age with him. Yadu says it is adharma since the natural order is for the older generation to move on and the next generation to take its place. He does not accept Yayati’s request. The angry king dismisses his son, ordering him to leave the kingdom; he curses him that his descendants will never become kings. Yayati’s youngest son, Puru, is from Sharmishta. When ask