Devlok With Devdutt Pattanaik Read online

  In Karnataka, there’s a folk tale about Kunti and Gandhari. They are believed to be very competitive mothers, not weak and vulnerable as depicted in TV serials! Every year there is an elephant puja in Hastinapur. As the widow of the former king, she can only afford elephants made with mud. When she goes into the palace she finds Gandhari worshipping golden elephants. She feels bad, goes home and cries before her sons. Arjuna is pained and tells her not to worry; he promises her that he’ll bring Airavata from his father, Indra. ‘You can then worship Airavata himself, which is even better than golden elephants.’ But how will he bring the celestial elephant from the heavens, Kunti asks him. Arjuna says he’ll build a ramp with his arrows going up to heaven, using which Airavata can come down to earth.

  Significantly, the name Hastinapur means City of Elephants. Today, there’s no sign of it, but in ancient times, the area near Delhi where Hastinapur was supposed to be was a jungle full of elephants.

  Elephants are also associated with important festivals.

  In the summer months, elephants are worshipped in many Indian temples so that they will come, be happy and trumpet, thus summoning the monsoon clouds that will bring rain. During the Pooram festival in Kerala all the temple elephants are decorated ornately and brought together on a large ground. Idols of gods and goddesses are placed atop the elephants who are worshipped, given food and sugar cane to please them and make them trumpet.

  In Puri, there’s a snaan yatra, when the gods and goddess in the Jagannath Temple are brought out and bathed in open air during summer. It is said that at this time they give darshan to their devotees in the form of elephants. The story is that a devotee once says he worships only elephants and refuses to pray to Jagannath since he does not resemble one. So Balaram takes the form of a white elephant and Krishna that of a black one. Such stories are all related to the summer.

  In the Konark Temple a lion sits atop an elephant. What’s the significance of this?

  This motif of a lion on top of an elephant is seen in many temples. An elephant is associated with kama, pleasure. The lion is a symbol of intellect. The intellect must conquer pleasure, or keep it under control. Another explanation of this image is that the elephant is the earth and the lion, a king. This image establishes the king’s authority over his kingdom.

  I’ve heard of nagamani and also gajamani. What’s a gajamani?

  This concept is popular in Indian danta kathas (mythology). Just as there’s a nagamani (jewel) on the hood of a naga (serpent), there is a gajamani which is in an elephant’s head; it’s very rare.

  A very rich man once goes to the Puri temple and offers a very large sum of money (say, ten lakh rupees), asking that food worth that amount be offered to the gods. The priests wonder how they can make so much food so they approach Krishna. He says, ask him to give me paan, but the chuna (limestone) on it should be made with gajamani. The rich man gets scared when he hears this, and wants to know what a gajamani is. He is told that one in 10,000 elephants might have this jewel in its head. So he will have to buy all these elephants and kill them to find the gajamani. The rich man realizes that all his wealth will fall short before the sea of eternity.

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  Rama’s Ancestors

  The word Raghukul is associated with Rama. What does it mean?

  It means the ‘family of Raghu’. The dynasty of kings (vanshavali), where they have come from, is very important. Not just royalty, traditionally in India, whenever we meet a person we always ask where they are from, their kul, gotra. This is so that we can ‘locate’ a person, and conduct ourselves appropriately—whether we can sit and talk together, etc.

  So when the question arises which tree is Rama the fruit of, the answer is Raghukul. Raghu was a great and illustrious king, the progenitor of his line. He was followed by Aja, then Dashratha who had four sons: Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana, Shatrughna.

  Rama is also known as a Suryavanshi. What is the connection of the Surya Vansh with this kul?

  There are two main vanshas of kings in India: the Surya Vansh (clan of the sun god) and the Chandra Vansh (clan of the moon god). The Surya Vansh is a big tree; one branch of it was Raghu, another was Rama.

  Tell us about the other kings of the Surya Vansh.

  First is Manu, then Ikshvaku, then Mandhata. Before our present time, the Kali Yuga, was Krishna’s time, and before him was Rama. When you say ‘from Mandhata’s time’, it refers to a time before both Krishna and Rama. Mandhata too is Rama’s ancestor. Kalidasa has written a beautiful poem on Rama’s recent ancestors called the ‘Raghuvamsham’. These are Dilipa, Raghu, Aja, Dashratha and then Rama. The list is not standard. Sometimes Dilipa comes after Raghu, sometimes, before. Broadly, the purpose of this is to show that they came from an important gharana, vansh (lineage).

  In Valmiki’s Ramayana, during the Baalkand (childhood episode), when Rama is going to Mithila with his guru Rishi Vishwamitra, the rishi tells him about his family. He tells Rama that Ganga came from heaven to earth because of his family, the sea was created because of his family. He wants to show him what an important family he comes from. We learn about Raghukul for the first time in the Ramayana.

  Was Manu the first king of the Surya Vansh?

  Manu is the progenitor of all human beings. The word comes from mann (mind). Thus all kings originated from Manu. Whoever has mann has originated from Manu—you, me, all of us.

  Tell us the story of King Dilipa and Kamadhenu.

  Kamadhenu wants Dilipa to protect her, which he promises to do. Once, in the forest, a lion approaches the king and tells him that he wants to eat the cow since he is hungry. Dilipa tells the lion to eat him instead, because he’s given his word—the word of Raghukul—and is committed to keeping it.

  A deeper, metaphorical meaning of this story is that a cow is a domestic animal, which belongs to a kingdom, and represents artha vyavastha (economy), the world of civilization. A lion is a wild animal, unconnected to civilization. The king stands on the boundary between these two worlds. In the jungle, the instinct is to be aggressive, to dominate; it is where matysa nyaya (law of fish, where bigger fish eat up smaller fish) applies. The king needs to keep the jungle at bay to protect and secure his kingdom. The ability to protect cows (gauraksha) is always expected of kings. Some people take it literally but the metaphorical meaning is more powerful. The first duty of a king is to protect the Kamadhenu and Dilipa did it. Dilipa is associated with dharma.

  Tell us the story of Raghu.

  Raghu performed the Ashwamedha yagna and conquered the world, becoming a Chakravarti Samrat, an illustrious king. Before going to the forest for vanaprastha ashram, he donated cows among his people (go-daan) and established a strong artha vyavastha in his kingdom. Dilipa protected cows, and Raghu donated them; so Dilipa is associated with dharma, and Raghu with artha.

  Raghukul and heaven are closely related because all Raghukul kings become Indra. This is why Indra is always jealous of and insecure about the scions of Raghukul, thinking that someone will come and replace him. In our Puranas, Indra is a position, not one person. So whoever does good work on earth becomes Indra. In the Ramayana, Indra is terrified of the Surya Vansh because most Indras come from this clan, particularly of Sagar who is an ancestor of Rama.

  Tell us Sagar’s story.

  Sagar means ocean, and it was created by King Sagar.

  The story goes that Sagar is performing a yagna, his 1000th, and upon its completion he will become the king of heaven. Indra becomes nervous and steals the king’s horse and hides it in Kapila Muni’s ashram. Sagar asks his sons to find the horse so that he can complete the yagna. They start digging the earth to look for the horse, and end up creating such a deep ditch that when water collects in it, it becomes the ocean. So Sagar’s sons are credited with creating the ocean. Finally, at the end of their search, they arrive at Kapila Muni’s ashram and accuse him of having stolen the horse. Kapila Muni is doing tapasya and gets very angry at being disturbed; he opens his eyes and reduces all