The Book of RAM Read online

  It must be noted that the author of the Ramayana, Valmiki, was in fact an outcaste bandit called Ratnakar who through the chanting of the name of Ram became a great sage who created the Ramayana and ultimately sheltered Sita when she was abandoned by Ram. That Ratnakar does not adhere to the varna-dharma but cleanses himself through meditating on Ram makes it clear that the Ramayana and Ram do not dehumanize or devalue people because of their varna.

  The varna system of the Vedic period has metamorphosed into jati-pratha or what is called the caste system today. It introduced inhuman practices where, because of one’s lineage, people were and still are denied basic human rights like education, water and even the human touch. One has to ask: did Ram subscribe to this? Not according to the Ramayana where Ram is shown treating people of all varnas with dignity.

  Guha

  Ram went deep into the forest and came to a small tribal village. Its chief, Guha, welcomed Ram and offered to let him stay in the village for the entire duration of fourteen years. Ram declined as hermits cannot stay in any settlement. They must wander and call no place home. Guha organized a boat to take Ram, Lakshman and Sita cross the River Ganges. He even washed Ram’s feet that had been soiled by the forest floor. Ram hugged him with affection and bid him farewell.

  For Ram, varna-dharma is a way of organizing society and determining vocation, not a tool for one group of people to dominate another. To create hierarchy, to give value to one group of people over another, would be an endorsement of the law of the jungle which is against the spirit of dharma.

  That Ram does not dehumanize other varnas is elaborated in the popular folk story of Shabari. While Shabari is mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana, her offering berries to Ram is a later addition that appears in the Padma Puran traced to around the eleventh century.

  Shabari

  While searching for Sita, Ram met residents of the forests. Amongst them was an old tribal woman called Shabari. She invited Ram to her house and offered him some berries. To Lakshman’s horror, Shabari would bite a berry and then either throw it away or give it to Ram. What surprised Lakshman even more was that Ram would joyfully eat what was offered. Lakshman felt this was a highly insulting way to treat a guest. When he complained, Ram advised him to ask Shabari the reason for her strange behaviour. Shabari replied that she wanted to feed her noble guest the sweetest of berries and the only way to do so was to taste the berries first. What Lakshman saw as insulting behaviour was actually an act of great affection.

  Had Ram subscribed to caste excesses, he would never have eaten food from the hands of a tribal woman. That he has no such qualms shows that while Ram, the king, upheld a code of social conduct that determined vocation in his age, he never subscribed either to a code that created hierarchy or to a code that stripped people of their dignity.

  While Ram’s very own varna-dharma makes him king, his ashrama-dharma makes him husband and householder. These two roles come into conflict when he hears the gossip doing the rounds on the streets of Ayodhya. His subjects feel it is a matter of shame that the queen of the Raghu clan is a woman of soiled reputation, one who spent months in the palace of a lustful demon-king. This presents Ram with his greatest challenge, one that shatters his own personal life.

  Abandoning Sita

  Ram learnt of a quarrel between a washerman and his wife. The washerman had refused to take his wife back because she had not returned at dusk, as promised, from her mother’s house, but at dawn, as she had been delayed by a storm. ‘I am not Ram who takes back a wife after she has spent the night in someone else’s house,’ he said, referring to Sita’s stay at Lanka. This comment became the talk of the town. Ram realized that the gossip was harming the reputation of his illustrious household. The people of Ayodhya did not want a woman with a stained reputation as their queen. So he decided to part with his wife. Ram asked Lakshman to take the pregnant Sita out of Ayodhya and leave her in the forest. Abandoned by Ram, all alone in the forest, Sita found shelter in the hermitage of Valmiki, a poet who was composing an epic on the life of Ram which he had heard from the celestial sage, Narada. There she gave birth to her twin sons, Luv and Kush.

  Must Ram stand by his faithful wife or must Ram surrender to public opinion to uphold family honour? Must he be husband or king? This story creates a conflict that has no easy answer. It offers no scope for Ram to be both a good king to his people and a good husband to his wife. A choice is demanded and a decision is made.

  The decision, however, is highly criticized. How could Ram mistrust Sita despite her trial by fire? How could he give so much value to the words of a washerman?

  While the Valmiki Ramayana holds gossip responsible for Sita’s abandonment from Ram’s kingdom, other retellings state that palace intrigues were as much to blame. Jealous of Ram’s love for Sita, women in the palace did everything in their power to drive a wedge between the divine couple.

  Ravana’s drawing

  Sita was once asked by the palace women to draw an image of Ravana. Sita who had refused to look upon Ravana’s face knew only the shape of his shadow which he cast on the earth and the sea while taking her across to Lanka in his flying chariot. After much persuasion, she agreed to trace it out on the wall. Later when she was away, the same palace women showed Ram the image drawn by Sita on the wall. ‘She still thinks of him,’ they said poisoning Ram’s mind against his innocent wife.

  Folk narratives from Kerala say that the women responsible for doing so were actually disguised Rakshasa women, the wives and sisters of Ravana determined to avenge his defeat.

  Throughout the Ramayana, Ram is always projected as king, not husband. He is always rather aloof with Sita, treating her with almost ritual propriety, never displaying his passion for her, for passion is considered unsuitable for a king, the root of many ills. After all it was passion for Kaikeyi that led Dashratha to give the two boons that caused Ram’s exile in the first place. The only time Ram publicly demonstrates his deep love for Sita is when he first learns of Sita’s abduction by Ravana. He mourns his loss as a lovebird mourns the passing away of its beloved. He loses his poise and submits to the pain of separation, an act that is seen by Lakshman as indulgence for a king, and therefore highly inappropriate.

  Ram’s grief

  Having discovered that the golden deer was actually a demon, Ram realized this was an elaborate decoy to draw him away from the grass hut. As he rushed back, he saw Lakshman running towards him. Both realized that they had been tricked by Rakshasas. They rushed back to the grass hut where their worst fear was realized—Sita had disappeared. There was some sign of struggle but no footprints. A nervous and agitated Ram begged the trees and the animals in the vicinity to tell him where his Sita was. They scoured the forest around the hut and found the vulture, Jatayu, lying on the forest floor bleeding to death. ‘Ravana, king of Rakshasas, has taken Sita on his flying chariot and gone south. I tried my best to stop him but failed. Forgive me, Ram,’ Jatayu said and then breathed his last. Ram’s heart sank when he heard this. Sita, daughter of a king, daughter-in-law of a king, had abandoned the pleasures of the palace and followed him to the forest and endured the harsh conditions stoically. She was his responsibility and he had failed her. He felt her helplessness and terror at being touched by a brute. He wept. Lakshman comforted his brother and then admonished him for displaying such emotions. ‘It is unbecoming of a scion of the solar clan to behave so,’ he said.

  Ram, the husband, is never allowed to grieve by Ram, the king. He is not allowed to wallow in self-pity. He is expected to rescue Sita, not out of love for his wife, but because it is his duty as king.

  When Ravana is killed, Ram does not rush to meet Sita. Instead he treats her with a formality that almost borders on cruelty. He first crowns Vibhishana king and only then sends for her. When she arrives full of expectation, he says he rescued her because it was his duty to wipe out the stain on his family’s honour. Thus shame, not love, is what brought him to Lanka. He insists that Sita prove to the world