Two Tales of Two Brothers

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?

 

Rain Gods – Lord Indra

Indra was the King of gods and also referred to as Devendra, god of gods. The Vedic Indra was a very important god of the Hindu pantheon but by the Puranic times, the status of Indra had been significantly lowered, especially due to the rise of other gods like Vishnu, Shiva and others. Our focus here will be Indra of the Vedic times.

During the Vedic times, Indra was amongst the most important gods along with Agni and Surya. Indra was the god of skies with thunder and lightning on two of his hands and according to some hymns was the twin brother of Agni, thus was the son of Heaven and Earth and as we saw earlier, Indra was responsible for separating the two from the eternal embrace.

Indra killing Vrtra

However, the most important aspect of Indra is his conflict with Vrtra who is variously depicted sometimes as a demon and sometimes as a serpent. Vrtra is derived from the root word vr which means “to cover or to envelope”. In the Vedic times when rains became a need of the pastoral life, then Indra became the heroic rain god. He was also seen as a fertility god with his consort Indrani who stood for earth. Indra thus was the god of rains as well as fertility (no different from the other cultures as we have already seen) and his principal adversary was the cloud demon who had hidden all the waters of the land within itself. There are numerous hymns depicting the battle between Indra and Vrtra after which Indra vanquishes the demonic Vrtra to release all the waters from Vrtra as rain. 

Another reference of this confict says that Vrtra had taken control of all the five elements of the world, viz. earth, water, lustre, wind and ether collectively the life-sap of the world. The battle rages and Indra releases one by one each element after smashing Vrtra with his thunderbolt. There are a number of references of Vrtra all in different forms, which come in conflict with Indra with the latter being victorious at the end of it. The entire conflict is to be seen in the form of natural occurrences, every aspect of which is found in nature. The clouds gather all the waters only to release at a point of time. When the clouds get heavy and they don’t ‘release’ the waters, thunder and lightning force them to release the same. The conflict between Indra and Vrtra brings out this seasonal phenomenon very beautifully.

Many scholars have opined that Indra was a mortal hero who during the Vedic times was elevated to a divine status. Acts of his heroism and valour are captured in numerous hymns in Rig Veda. He was demoted from his position during the Puranic times where his role was limited to sending apsaras to seduce sages and relatively minor gods too could hurt his much-maligned status. But that is another subject. All said and done, Indra continued to be the king of gods and the god of rains of the Hindu pantheon.

With this we conclude the myths of Rain gods.

After rains comes the rainbow…..Keep reading....

Libidous Liaison

A number of recent cases of rape and scandalous relationships by high profile men has come to light and are being put under the scanner. Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his alleged rape of a Hotel maid, Silvio Berlusconi and his notorious Bunga Bunga parties (which were nothing short of sexual orgies), Muammar Gaddafi, and his female Amazonian Bodyguards, supposedly 40 of them and all virgins. The list is endless.

So what is so special about these? What makes these cases noteworthy is that the culprits were all powerful and influential men and many old and doddering. Dominique is (now was) the chief of IMF, Berlusconi is the Italian Prime Minister & Gaddafi is the leader of Libya (who is fighting to retain his leadership).

History has enough references of men with such high libidos and many of them were well known to have harems. Numerous wives, amorous relationships and behind the veil sexual escapades, has been a part of the popular lore. The same has been heard about the rich Zamindars later.

Such things have been said about many mythological characters too. Puranic Indra was known for his weakness for beautiful women. His Indrasabha was known to be a great place where fun and frolic with wine and apsaras being a given. Apsaras like Menaka, Urvashi and Rambha were there to entertain the gods and seduce mere mortals as and when needed. Indra was also attracted to mortals and didn’t have any qualms in violating their chastity for his own lustful needs. So was the Greek god Zeus who was known for his numerous liaisons with both the goddesses as well as mortals. Zeus’s lustful advances didn’t spare men too! Some of his acts like the abduction and rape of Europa and his affairs with Alcmene, Callisto, Danae, Leda and Io were just a few of his adulterous and extra-marital relationships. Not for nothing was Zeus referred to as Zeus the Adulterer! Mythology is replete with such adulterous, amorous and scandalous bits where a woman’s chastity has been violated quite nonchalantly and without remorse.

Just what makes these men in power do the undoable? At the risk of losing it all that has made them so powerful, why do they get into such scandals? Is it marital discord? Or is it the right to enjoy and live it up? Or is it the age-old culprit, testosterone to be blamed? Sexologists feel that it is unfair to blame testosterone as it is a healthy hormone which is responsible for many a good thing in human development, besides virility. Reckless and bestial behavior has nothing to do with testosterone levels in the culprit. Further, a high level of testosterone does not lead to such lusty behavior.

Psychologist feel Power is the main reason to take things for granted. Rather it seems that a combination of power, arrogance, lust and a canine-like libido is what makes for a heady concoction which leads to such acts by men, many of who are technically senior citizens! A feeling of being above-board adds to this behaviour and a personal high with such (sexual) gratification leads to a sense of mental orgasm which is so intoxicating that the powerful individual does not realize that the so-called high is taking him down.

But just as Lord Indra was not spared for his amorous acts and Zeus was constantly under the secret supervision of his wife Hera, such people should not be allowed to scot free. If the institutions they represent care for their reputation and if the women-folk are to be respected, then crime must be punished and higher the position of the individual, greater should the punishment be. The spouses of such people should not stand by them, but rebel and stand by the victim instead. Else simply leave.

Spouses, you have nothing to lose in abandoning your lecherous husbands – rather you stand to gain huge alimonies……ask Mrs. Tiger Woods!!

The Birth of Lord Buddha

On Buddha Purnima, let us understand the myth of the Birth of Lord Buddha.

King Suddhodana was the ruler of a Himalayan kingdom. One day his wife, Queen Maya, had a strange dream. As per her dream, some angels carried her high into the snow-capped mountains and draped her in flowers. Then a magnificent white elephant carrying a white lotus approached her and walked around her thrice. The elephant then struck her on her right side with its trunk and entered into her from her right side.

The Queen woke up very perplexed and when she related the dream to her husband, the King summoned Brahmins to interpret the dream. The Brahmins then told the King that the Queen would give birth to a son, who would grow up to be a great ‘conqueror’.

When the time for delivery came closer, she took leave of her husband to travel to her own town. On her way to her town, she came across the Lumbini grove which was in full bloom. The Queen decided to take some rest in the grove and with the help of her attendants went in the centre of the grove. When she reached the spot, she developed labour. She held the branches of a Sal tree and delivered the child in a standing position. Later the Queen returned to her kingdom, but died within seven days and Gautama was raised by her mother’s sister, who in due course of time got married to the King.

This is an interesting myth associated with a historical person. There is historical evidence of the birth of Gautama, but has mythical connotations to his birth. The white elephant is a symbol of fertility and the white lotus is a symbol of enlightenment in Buddhist art and mythology. In mythology, the birth of a hero always has magical circumstances or unnatural events preceding or succeeding the birth, needless to say at times the birth itself.

Scholars have found parallels of the birth with the birth of Vedic Indra, who too was considered to be a mortal hero, who got deified later. Indra too was born from the side of his mother and there were earthquakes during his birth. The association of a white elephant is also found in myths of Indra, as his vahana was the mighty Airavata, a powerful elephant. Many scholars feel that the birth of Gautama could have been drawn from the Vedic references of the birth of Indra, except that there have been no major battles associated with Buddha, as is found in the case of Indra. However, Buddha ‘fought’ a lot of personal battles like vices and temptation to achieve Nirvana. If we are to compare this aspect too, then Indra fought his battles outside himself, whereas Buddha fought his battles inside to achieve Enlightenment.

Ravan’s Family – Meghnaad

Meghnaad was Ravan’s son and an extremely brave and courageous warrior and according to some scholars, a great citizen too. It is said that when he cried soon after his birth, it sounded like thunder and lightning, and thus he was named Meghnaad.

During one of the battles with the gods, he had won a victory over Lord Indra, and was awarded the Brahmastra (a weapon) and was christened, Indrajeet (one who achieved victory over Indra), by Lord Brahma. Besides Brahmastra, Meghnaad had access to other divine weapons like Pashupatastra and Nagpaash, or the serpent spell. In the entire Ramayana, Meghnaad has been lauded for his battle skills and was quite a formidable force for both Ram and Lakshman. It was during the battle with Meghnaad that Lakhsmana was seriously wounded, which needed Sanjivani buti from the mountains. With all his skills and his ability to steal victory, he too had even tried to reason with his father, Ravan, that they were fighting a war for the wrong reasons and that he should return Sita to Ram and save Lanka from destruction. But Ravan would not heed to any suggestions and on the orders of his father, Meghnaad went back to the battle field to face imminent defeat. Many scholars compare his devotion to his father being similar to Rama’s devotion to Dashrath.

On conquering Indra, he had tied Indra to a chariot and when he was taking Indra away, Lord Brahma intervened and sought the release of Indra. In return he was granted a boon, of invincibility. However, this invincibility could be broken if the Yagna preceding any battle could be disturbed by someone. This knowledge was with Vibhishana, the younger brother of Ravan, who had moved on to Ram’s side during the battle. He shared this with Lakshman and together with Sugriva, both of them manage to disturb the Yagna that Meghnaad was performing on the third day of the battle. Thus Meghnaad was defeated by Lakshman and a great warrior, had to meet his end by the collective deceit of Vibhinshan, Lakshaman, Kuber and others who participated in the disturbance of the Yagna.

The heroism and the victorious death of Meghnaad has been depicted in a famous poem by the noted Bengali poet and author Michael Madhusudan Dutt, in his epic poem, “Meghnaad-badh kabyo”, which was first published in 1861, which took Bengal by a storm, since in this Meghnaad was depicted as the tragic hero who was wronged by the gods, for a change!

Govardhan Puja

During Diwali, many places in India observe what is known as Govardhan Puja. Let us go through the myth behind the puja first.

Once when Lord Krishna was a child, he saw his father make elaborate preparations for some worship. On enquiring he was told that they were preparing to worship Lord Indra, who was responsible for giving them rain, which led to the welfare of the people. Krishna reasoned with his father and all present, that it was not Indra, but mountain Govardhan who was responsible for the welfare of the people, as it was thanks to the mountain that they got grazing grounds for the cattle. It was the mountain which stopped the clouds and compelled them to rain and also gave them lots of greenery and different plants and shrubs required. Mount Govardhan was also home for numerous medicinal plants which was required for preparing local medicines. It made more sense to worship the mountain instead of Indra. At the end, Krishna convinced the people to stop the worship of Indra and start worshipping Govardhan Mountain. This angered Indra so much that he decided to punish the people of Vrindavan and sent merciless rains leading to days and nights of downpour. People got scared and went to Krishna, saying that they had angered Indra and something needed to be done.

Krishna, then came forward, worshipped the mountain as he had decided and lifted the  mountain in his last finger creating a giant umbrella to save the people from a potential deluge. Lord Indra was thus humbled, and accepted the supremacy of Krishna, and thus was started the practice of Govardhan Puja. Since this episode, Krishna was also referred to as Giridhari – the one who holds the mountain.

The myth makes a very important statement which is writ large in the theory of Mythology. No hero is forever. Indra had been a chief deity during the Vedic times, but by the Puranic age, Indra had lost considerable sheen. Gods like Vishnu (and his different avatars, like Ram, Krishna, etc.); Shiva and other gods had gained prominence. It is human tendency to demean someone to highlight the importance of another. This is exactly what happened to Lord Indra during the Puranic times. Indra who was also sometimes referred to as Devendra (Lord of the gods) was nothing but a caricature of a fallen god. There are numerous instances, where, even asuras have defeated Indra in battles and he has to seek help from Vishnu and other such gods. There is also the famous instance of Ravana’s son defeating Indra and earning the epithet of Indrajeet (literally - one who has achieved victory over Indra) in Ramayana. Such cases of old heroes making way for new are not unheard of in mythology. Many also see this conflict as a conflict of two cults, one gaining prominence at the expense of the other. Subsequently, Indra was relegated to a relatively smaller position of a smaller deity, that of being a god of rains.

Why only Mythology, isn’t the same visible in our real lives too? People who were heroes for our parents were not for us and our idols are not the ones our children look up to. But it is important to mention here that during the Vedic times, and in Rig Veda, Indra had occupied a prime position and a number of myths talk of his bravery and valour.

The Meaning of the Myth of Ahalya

The myth of Ahalya has generated enough controversy both in the feminist world as well as against the so-called Aryan-supremacy. But can we scratch the veneer of myth and see if it has any other meaning?

According to the myth from Ramayana, Ahalya was very beautiful and also the wife of the sage Gautama. She was seduced by Indra through trickery, and was later cursed by the sage to become a stone (a woman who cannot understand the difference between her husband and another man, even in the dark, is no better than a stone!). Needless to say, Indra too was punished, but let’s leave his punishment for the time being.

The myth goes on to the period when Ram is passing by and Ahalya is redeemed by the touch of Ram’s foot, and gets united with her husband, sage Gautama.

How insulting for a woman who was not quite at fault and how chauvinistic of the man to redeem a woman by the touch of his foot! I’ll leave one paragraph for my feminist friends to fill up!!

Let us analyse this myth –

When we break-up the word Ahalyā, अहल्या, it has three components

A – hal – ya

Hal stands for ‘plough’, hal-ya stands for ‘plough-able’ and thus a-hal-ya stands for ‘un-plough able’.

A deep study of the myth can be understood as follows –

Ahalya could be a tract of land or a region which was considered to be barren. As part of Ram’s socio-economic reforms, during his passage, he could have been responsible for teaching the residents a method of cultivation, unknown to them till then. The barren (stone) land thus becomes fertile (alive woman) by stepping (touching by foot) of Rama on the land.

Again some might ask, as to why the imagery of a woman? Well the earth has always been associated with the feminine principle across all cultures, so that’s not out of place.

Needless to add here that Ram in the entire Ramayana has been seen as someone who stands for the downtrodden, like Sabari, aborigine tribes better known as the Baali’s, Sugriv’s and the Vanara’s of Ramayana, etc. The myth of Ahalya could be another such act.

Pic Courtesy - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ahalya_rama.jpg