Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana Read online

  An angry Parashurama once again picked up his axe and hacked off the wicked king’s arms until he bled to death.

  Kartavirya’s sons avenged their father’s death by beheading Jamadagni. So Parashurama raised his axe a third time, and took an oath, ‘If the rules of society are not respected by kings themselves, how are we any different from animals who live by force? I shall kill every king who disrespects the rules of society; rules of society are greater than any king.’

  Parashurama went around the world killing all rulers he found unworthy. Hundreds were thus slaughtered. A few survived by hiding behind women. From these cowards were born the next generation of kings, who were too timid to govern.

  ‘Will I ever find a perfect king who respects the rules of marriage and the rules of property?’ wondered Parashurama.

  Parashurama is a violent avatar of Vishnu who enforces rules; he is very different from Ram who upholds rules and Krishna who bends rules. Parashurama has no wives, Ram has one wife and Krishna has many. The Goddess manifests as Parashurama’s mother (Renuka), Ram’s wife (Sita) and Krishna’s friend (Draupadi). Thus there is a pattern of progression in the three avatars.

  Parashurama’s story reveals a period of great unrest between kings and sages. It marks the rise of the notion of property. Both women and cattle are seen as property, an early indicator of patriarchal thought.

  Parashurama’s story is a harbinger of things to come, for Ravana will tempt Sita with a golden deer and seek to possess her, even though she is another’s wife. Kaikeyi will seek the throne of Ayodhya for her own son as Kartavirya seeks Jamadagni’s Nandini.

  Many communities like the Chitpavans of Pune and the Nairs of Kerala trace their ancestry to Parashurama. Though traditionally priests, these communities play a key role in political matters of their respective societies.

  In the Deccan region, especially Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, Renuka’s head and headless body are worshipped as the goddess Yellamma, Ekavira or Hulligamma. Yellamma shrines have been associated with the infamous, and now illegal, devadasi practice of dedicating young girls to the deity and compelling them into prostitution.

  Kaushika Becomes Vishwamitra

  Kaushika was a king who performed many yagnas to satisfy the hunger of his subjects. Then one day, he met a rishi called Vasishtha who had with him a cow just like Indra’s Kamadhenu who could fulfil any wish. Kaushika felt that such a cow should belong to a king so that he could feed his entire kingdom effortlessly.

  Vasishtha, however, refused to part with the cow, stating, ‘The wish-fulfilling cow only comes to one who has no desires.’ Kaushika tried to take the cow by force but the cow resisted. From her udders emerged a band of fierce warriors who repelled every attack of Kaushika’s.

  Kaushika realized that the only way to possess a Kamadhenu was to become a rishi like Vasishtha and compel Indra to give him one of the magical cows that grazed in the paradise known as Swarga. For that he had to acquire siddha. For that he had to do tapasya. For that he had to live in the forest like a hermit. For that he had to renounce his kingdom and his crown.

  A determined Kaushika did it all. In time, he had enough siddha to make nature do his bidding.

  But while Kaushika was busy restraining his senses and gathering siddha, his family was left neglected. No longer in the palace, they had to fend for themselves. They found it difficult to find food. They would have starved had it not been for the generosity of a man called Trishanku.

  A grateful Kaushika offered Trishanku a boon. Trishanku said, ‘I have disrespected my father. I have forced myself on a married woman. To satisfy my hunger, I have killed cows and made calves weep. As a result, I do not have enough merit to enter Swarga. Use your siddha to force my entry into that garden of delights located in the realm of the stars.’

  Using his siddha, Kaushika caused Trishanku to rise from the land of humans through the sky towards the land of the devas. Indra, ruler of Swarga, did not take this kindly. Trishanku was an unworthy, uninvited guest. He pushed Trishanku back towards the earth.

  Kaushika had enough siddha to prevent Trishanku from crashing to the ground, but not enough to overpower Indra. So Trishanku got stuck midway, suspended between the earth and sky, between the land of humans and the land of the devas.

  Kaushika continued his austerities, determined to gain more siddha and defeat Indra. Fearing the worst, Indra sent the apsara Menaka to seduce the former king. Menaka danced before the meditating sage and it was only a question of time before he succumbed to her charms.

  Frustrated at not being able to turn into a rishi as powerful as Vasishtha, Kaushika resumed his austerities. Just when he was about to regain his siddha, a king called Harischandra who was out hunting disturbed his concentration. Enraged, Kaushika was about to curse the king and his clan when the king offered his entire kingdom as compensation. Kaushika accepted this compensation as it allowed him to feed his starving family.

  To ensure that Harischandra’s compensation was not mistaken as alms or bhiksha, or as charity or daana, Kaushika asked the king for dakshina, a service fee for liberating him from the karmic obligation of his crime. Having given away his entire kingdom, Harischandra realized he had nothing more to give. So he did the unthinkable: he sold himself, his wife and his son as slaves and gave the money he thus collected to Kaushika as dakshina.

  Harischandra was bought by a chandala, the caretaker of a crematorium, who asked him to tend to the funeral pyres. His wife and son were bought by a priest, who made them servants in his household. The son died of snakebite while he was collecting flowers in the garden. The distraught mother brought her son’s body to the crematorium and found her husband there. Harischandra, once a king, now a chandala, demanded a fee to cremate his own child, for those were the rules of his master. The former queen had nothing to give but the clothes on her body. So she offered the same, and he accepted it as fair payment.

  In the light of the funeral pyre, Kaushika saw the naked queen and the stoic king, weeping for their son, but neither blaming nor reproaching anyone for their terrible situation. From where comes this wisdom that enables you to be at peace even in tragedy, asked Kaushika. ‘From my guru, Vasishtha,’ said Harischandra.

  At the mention of his old rival’s name, Kaushika’s envy reared its ugly head again. He goaded a man-eating rakshasa called Kamlashpada to devour Vasishtha’s son, Shakti.

  Shakti’s son, Parasara, thus orphaned, decided to destroy all rakshasas on earth. But Vasishtha pacified his grandson by explaining to him the laws of karma: ‘Every action has consequences. Why blame the instrument of karma for what is determined by our own past actions? By denying Kaushika the Kamadhenu, because he did not deserve it, I ignited rage in his heart, which led him to goad Kamlashpada to kill your father. I am as much responsible for Shakti’s death as Kamlashpada and Kaushika are. I wish I had more sons that Kaushika could kill until he has his fill of anger.’

  Hearing this, Kaushika realized that it is not siddha that makes a man a rishi, it is the ability to care for others. To care for others, we have to first see them, understand them truly. Vasishtha had seen Kaushika in a way that Kaushika had not seen himself. And Kaushika had failed to see Vasishtha as he truly was. His gaze was coloured by rage. He realized Vasishtha was a wise seer, and he a powerful sorcerer at best.

  ‘The purpose of yagna and tapasya is not to increase my wealth and my power. It is to make me unknot my mind, move from aham to atma, see the world from another’s point of view. Only then can I be a rishi,’ Kaushika thought.

  With this realization, Kaushika was transformed. He stopped being Vishwashatru, enemy of the world, and became Vishwamitra, friend of the world. He no longer wanted to change the world; he wanted to help the world. He decided to use his learning and his experience to create noble kings that even Parashurama would admire.

  In narratives, kings perform a yagna to harness material wealth from nature, and sages perform tapasya to get magical powers that e