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
that she has indeed been faithful despite spending months in Ravana’s palace.
A perfect king is not allowed to be emotional. Everything has to be correct, formal, public. Ram’s relationship with Sita is always aimed at pleasing society. There is nothing private or personal about it. And so when people complain that their queen is stained by reputation, the scion of the solar dynasty is forced to abandon Sita, who though innocent in person has become the symbol of royal shame.
Later, Ram is asked to perform the Ashwamedha yagna. To perform this ritual he needs a wife by his side. In Sita’s absence, the people ask Ram to take another wife. His father after all had three wives. But Ram refuses to do so: he has given up the queen his people did not want but he had never given up his wife. Thus by refusing to take another wife he endorses his position as ekam-patni-vrata, faithful to a single wife, the only character in Hindu chronicles to be recognized so.
Golden Sita
Ram decided to perform the Ashwamedha yagna as part of which the royal horse would travel around the world followed by Ram’s army. All the lands it traversed unchallenged would come under Ram’s suzerainty. Those who stopped the horse would have to face the might of Ram’s soldiers. No king could perform this ritual without a wife by his side. Since Sita was no longer in Ayodhya by Ram’s side, the sages advised Ram to marry again. Ram refused to do so. Instead he placed next to him an image of Sita made of gold.
That Ram uses gold to make the image of Sita is significant. Gold is the purest of metals that can never be contaminated or corrupted. Thus, symbolically, Ram, the husband, projects to his people his own opinion of his wife. He does not doubt her chastity.
To stretch the point further—is it justice for a husband to abandon a woman on grounds of adultery? As an epic, the Ramayana celebrates compassion not righteous indignation. It repeatedly forgives human frailties. One must never forget that the unfaithful Ahalya, who was cruelly turned to stone by her husband, is liberated by none other than Ram. This situation of Ram abandoning Sita has nothing to do with the issue of adultery; it has everything to do with the issue of governance. Should governance be determined by a king’s will or by public opinion or should both, people and king, be governed by an impersonal dharma? And is Ram husband first or king?
In Indian literature, the separation of lovers is a popular theme for plays and songs. The separation of Ram and Sita because of social issues is no exception. In the forest, Sita single-handedly raises her twin sons. They grow up to be fine singers whose songs stir the soul and ask heart-wrenching questions on the validity of social values.
Luv and Kush
As Ram performed the Ashwamedha yagna, news reached him that two boys, twins, were going around the city, lute in hand, singing a song composed by Valmiki. They were narrating the story of Ram—his great fourteen-year forest adventure. At the end of the narration, which concluded with the defeat of Ravana and the coronation of Ram, the children were called to the palace and given gifts by Ram, who did not recognize his own sons. The boys were very pleased to see Ram but they did not find Sita beside him. ‘Where is she?’ they asked innocently. ‘In the forest,’ replied Ram. ‘Why? What did she do wrong?’ asked the children. Ram had no answer.
Ram’s children are symbols of Ram’s marriage. Besides challenging Ram’s decision to abandon Sita, they also challenge his authority by confronting his army, the symbol of his kingship.
Victory over Ram’s army
Luv and Kush caught hold of Ram’s horse and thereby challenged Ram’s authority. Ram’s soldiers who followed the royal horse tried to make the children see sense but the twins refused to part with the horse. Finally the soldiers decided to use force. They raised their weapons. To their astonishment, the two boys turned out to be fierce warriors. They too raised their weapons and fought with such skill that the soldiers were forced to retreat. Luv and Kush were able to defeat Ram’s entire army including his brothers, Lakshman, Bharata and Shatrughna. They were even able to imprison Hanuman. Finally Ram was forced to join the fight. But even he was no match for the children. The people of Ayodhya realized that the twins were no ordinary children. When Valmiki came into the battlefield and revealed that the two boys were the sons of Sita, it was clear to all that dharma stood not with Ram or Ayodhya but with Sita and her children for victory always follows righteousness.
Ram who could defeat Ravana with an army of monkeys is unable to defeat the sons of Sita with an army of powerful soldiers. It is the only defeat that Ram faces in his entire life. According to Hindu belief, victory always sides with those who uphold dharma. Ram’s defeat by Sita’s sons thus implies Sita’s moral high ground over Ram. In Ram’s defeat, the imbalance created by his unfair decision to abandon Sita is rectified.
The Ayodhya that gossiped about Sita’s character and forced its king to abandon his queen upholds dharma only in word, not in spirit. It did not see Sita’s heart; it saw only her reputation. This loss of moral authority results in the defeat of Ayodhya’s mighty army by two children. A humiliated Ayodhya realizes its mistake and begs Sita to return. Ram, the husband, is most pleased. Ram, the king, then requests Sita to display her chastity publicly once again, so that no one questions his honour ever again.
Sita returns to earth
‘Do it once more. Then, you had done it before monkeys and demons. Now, do it before my people,’ said Ram. Tired of her morality being put on public display repeatedly, Sita decided to take a drastic step. She joined her palms and said, ‘If I have been true to Ram may the earth split open and take me into its bosom.’ Instantly the earth split open and Sita slipped into the ground. Ram watched his beloved disappear under the earth right before his eyes. He tried to stop her but he could catch hold of just one strand of Sita’s hair. This turned into the sacred grass known as kusha.
With Sita gone, Ram, the husband, loses all interest in worldly life. But Ram, the king, continues to do his royal duty until death comes to him and tells him it is time to die.
Ram enters the Sarayu
After Sita was swallowed by the earth, Ram performed his kingly duties until finally he was informed by the gods that the time had come for him to leave the earth and return to Vaikunth. He divided his kingdom amongst his sons and then walked into the Sarayu river to discard his mortal flesh.
Like Shambuka’s beheading, the story of Sita’s abandonment is edited out of most retellings and translations. Both make uncomfortable reading. Both challenge Ram’s uprightness. But it is precisely these incidents that show what makes Ram divine.
Mythological stories are meant to resolve insurmountable emotional and social conflicts through events that are grounded in faith, and are hence by nature fantastic not realistic. In Shambuka’s story, his beheading by God, and not a mortal king, restores social organization (different roles of different varnas in different yugas) while respecting the essential equality of all souls (eternal desire of every living creature for moksha). In Sita’s story, the implausible defeat of Ram’s army by his two sons, resolves the conflict between Ram’s role as king (law) and Ram’s trust in his wife (justice).
At all times, Ram remains upright, faithful to dharma alone, motivated not by authority but by the larger good, struggling to harmonize apparently irreconcilable forces, driven not by passion but by duty, not by power for the self but by love for others. That is what makes Ram the model king.
9
Vishnu’s Incarnation
I am grateful to you
Lord of the universe
For touching me with the dust of your feet
Dust that all the gods long for
It is strange, Ram
How you enchant everyone
Behaving as human do
Bringing happiness everywhere
Without walking anywhere
—From the prayer of Ahalya in Adhyatma Ramayana
God on earth
Hindus believe that God is both nirguna, without form, and saguna, with form. God with form has multiple ma
nifestations as no single form can convey the notion of completeness. Traditionally, the male trinity of Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva along with the female trinity of Saraswati, Lakshmi and Shakti embody God.
Brahma, in the form of a passionate priest, opens his eyes to desire and creates the world. Shiva, in the form of an indifferent ascetic, shuts his eyes to desire and destroys the world. Vishnu stands in between them, as the sustainer, balancing desire with detachment, ensuring there is order and stability in the world. The world that thus created, sustained and destroyed is the source of all knowledge, wisdom and power embodied in Saraswati, Lakshmi and Shakti.
Vishnu institutes and maintains order in the universe through the code of dharma. With the passage of time, this code gets corrupted. At regular intervals Vishnu descends from his paradise, Vaikunth, to redefine dharma for a particular era or yuga. These descents of Vishnu are his avatars or incarnations.
Hindus believe that the world goes through cycles of rebirth like all living creatures. The world’s life cycle can be broken down into four eras—Krita, Treta, Dvapar and Kali. Vishnu descends when one yuga is giving way to the next. He was Parashuram at the end of the Krita yuga, the first quarter. He was Ram at the end of the Treta yuga. He was Krishna at the end of the Dvapar yuga. And he will be Kalki at the end of the Kali yuga.