Let me tell you
about an interesting observation. But first stories, which many of us might be
quite familiar with.
The first one is
from the epic Ramayan, related to the Kishkindha episode. Sugriv and Vali were brothers
and Vali was the king of the vanars
in the Kingdom of Kishkindha. He had a boon, that he would absorb half the
strength of his opponent in a fight/battle. Once a demon by the name of Dundubi
threatened him to a duel, but when Vali accepted it, he developed cold feet and
ran away. Both Vali and Sugriv chased him till he entered into a cave. Before
going inside the cave, Vali asked Sugriv to wait for him outside the cave and
in case he saw blood coming out of the cave, then he should assume him to be
dead and return to the kingdom and crown himself the King. After Vali had gone
inside the cave, Sugriv heard loud sounds and soon he saw blood coming out of
the cave. Sugriv assuming that his brother was dead, bolted the entrance of the
cave with a boulder and came back to the kingdom to inform all that their King
was dead and assumed the throne.
Soon Vali
managed to kill the demon, and came back to his kingdom to see Sugriv crowned
as a king. This enraged him and he rushed to kill Sugriv. When Sugriv tried to
explain that he had done as instructed to him, Vali would not hear and rushed
to kill him. Sugriv had no option but to escape from there and live in exile.
Vali in the meanwhile also forcefully took Sugrivs’ main wife Ruma. Later when
Ram and Lakshaman came there in search of Sita, they met Sugriv and assured him
of their support.
As planned,
Sugriv challenged Vali to a duel in the forest and while the two were fighting,
Ram hid behind a tree and shot an arrow and killed Vali. This singular act is
seen as an unfair blemish in an otherwise spotless character of Ram. (We will not get into the details of the
unfairness and will leave the story here.)
In the epic Mahabharata,
during the war of Kurukshetra, again two brothers were pitched against each
other, Karna and Arjun. During the war, when Karna gets off the chariot, to
release its wheel which was stuck in the ground, Krishna coaxes Arjuna to kill
Karna, even though Karna was unarmed. This too is seen as an unfair act by
Krishna and he has been criticised for the same.
Am I telling you
stories that you know?
Well now for a very
interesting comparison in both the tales related above.
In the first
tale, Vali and Sugriv were brothers because they were born of same mother,
Aruni, but not the same father. Vali was the son of Lord Indra and Sugriv was
the son of Lord Surya. In this case, Ram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, sides
with the son of Lord Surya to kill the son of Lord Indra.
In the second
tale, Karna and Arjun are again bothers because they were born of the same
mother, Kunti, but not the same father. Karna was the son of Lord Surya and
Arjuna was the son of Lord Indra. In this case, Krishna, an avatar of Lord
Vishnu again, sides with the son of Lord Indra, to kill the son of Lord Surya!
The first epic
was written by Sage Valminki and the second was written by Sage Vyasa, but the
similarities are too glaring.
- In both the cases, the fathers are Lord Indra and Lord Surya, the most important Vedic deities.
- In both cases, the driving force was Lord Vishnu in different incarnations
- In both cases, the death of one of the brothers is by unfair means.
What is more
important is that what was done in the Ramayan was reversed in an effort to balance
in Mahabharat, a poetic justice of sorts for the fathers, Indra and Surya!
Isn’t this
interesting? Two epics, written by two different sages, during two different ages
(Ramayan during Treta Yuga and
Mahabharata during the Dwapar Yuga)
but enabling a balance of justice.
Finally to
conclude, Vali before dying is supposed to have told Ram that shooting him from
behind and that too when he was fighting someone else was unfair. To avenge
this unfairness, Ram allowed Vali to be reborn as the hunter Jara during the dwapar yuga (Mahabharata) who shoots an
arrow at Krishna’s feet thinking him to be a deer, leading to the death of
Krishna!
Jara killing Krishna (courtesy Wikipedia) |
Doesn't this also depict the declining standards of morals? What was unfair during Ram's times and allowed to avenge later, is missing during Krishna's times?
No comments:
Post a Comment