Lesson 5: The Ramayana
Different Versions of the Ramayana
The Ramayana was first written by Valmiki the robber-turned-sage. The story of Rama was narrated to him by Narada. Once he witnessed a bird being killed by a hunter and heard the heart-rending cry of the bird’s mate. He felt the pain and out of this pain he was inspired to write the Ramayana. The date of Valmiki’s Ramayana has bee stated by various sources as between 1500 BC and 500 BC.
Since then the Ramayana has been written in practically each Indian language and several foreign languages. Then there are numerous stage, film and television productions of the Ramayana. Tulsidas writes, “God is limitless and there is no limit to his stories.” In this section we shall be concerned with Valmiki Ramayana and two others. One is Kamban Ramayana written in Tamil in the eleventh century by Kamban. The prescribed text is based on this Ramayana. The other is Rama Charita Manas written by Tulsidas in the sixteenth century. This has been written in an early form of Hindi. We shall consider two episodes from the Ramayana, Ahalya and Vali, which have moral and social repercussions and try to draw conclusions about the changing values in society.
Ahalya was created by Brahma as the most beautiful woman. One meaning of ‘hal’ is deformity and Ahalya therefore means one who has no deformity or one of perfect beauty. She was married to Sage Gautama. For many years Gautama was practicing abstinence in order to increase his divine powers and hence Ahalya too was forced to live a life of abstinence. Once, when the sage had gone for his morning bath, Indra came to Ahalya disguised as the sage and made love to her. Gautama discovered them and punished Indra and turned Ahalya to stone. When Rama’s feet touched the stone, the curse was broken and Ahalya regained her human form. Valmiki and Kamban describe this episode in some detail, whereas Tulsidas makes a brief mention. Though the essence remains the same there are differences in detail between Valmiki’s and Kamban’s narrations. We are concerned with what was Ahalya’s involvement in this affair.
According to Valmiki when Indra approached Ahalya disguised as her husband she immediately saw through the disguise, but consented to the affair with Indra. According to Kamban she realised that the man she was with was not her husband only midway through the liaison, but was unable to protest and continued. Tulsidas gives no details about the incident. He simply says that Ahalya was turned to stone because of Gautama’s curse.
In Valmiki’s time it was acceptable to acknowledge adultery though not to condone it. Sex was not consigned to the closet but healthily discussed. In Valmiki Ramayana one can feel an underlying sympathy, though again no justification, for Ahalya’s act. In Kamban’s time it was not possible to accept that the wife of a sage could descend to the level of wilful adultery. Hence Kamban projects the incident as one of seduction. In Tulsidas’s time it would not be possible to discuss sex nor accept that Ahalya was at any time aware that it was Indra who was with her and not Gautama. This sequence shows two trends. One trend is of an increasingly puritan society and the other of typecasting people as either good or evil. There was no grey area in between.
There is another very interesting interpretation of this incident. Another meaning of ‘hal’ is plough. ‘Halya’ is ploughable and ‘ahalya’ is unploughable. The interpretation is that Ahalya refers to a barren tract of land which though the effort of Rama (divine or otherwise) was converted to a fertile paradise.
We continue our discussion of different versions of the Ramayana with the incident about Vali. This incident is one of the most controversial in the Ramayana. Rama is portrayed as the epitome of virtue and moral uprightness. The question then arises why he did not challenge Vali to a face-to-face contest, but chose to kill him from hiding while Vali and Sugreeva were engaged in a duel. Had anyone else performed such an act he would surely have been branded a coward. Vali puts this question to Rama in Valmiki and Kamban Ramayana. Again Tulsidas does not deal with the issue.
In Valmiki’s Ramayana Rama justifies his action by saying that Vali is a mere monkey, while Rama is a human and a royal. Humans regularly trap animals and hunters do not challenge their prey. The conduct of royals is not to be questioned. In Kamban’s Ramayana, Lakshmana answers Vali. He says that Rama had already promised Sugreeva that he would reinstate Sugreeva on the throne of Kishkinda. Had Rama met Vali face to face and had Vali too approached Rama for help Rama would have been in a moral dilemma. Hence he had no choice but to avoid a direct confrontation.
The trend shows an increasing deification of Rama. Valmiki very blatantly offers a reason that would be unacceptable coming from a person of a very high moral standard. Kamban offers a more sensitive but not a very convincing argument. Tulsidas overcomes the problem by eliminating the question altogether. One can perhaps look at Valmiki’s Ramayana as a chronicle of the times, but Tulsidas’s Ramayana is nothing short of a hymn in praise of God. Ahalya thanks her husband for the curse because it led to her meeting Rama and Vali thanks Rama for being the instrument of his death and therefore eternal salvation.
Optional Exercises
3a. Read about the account of Ahalya from ‘The Indian Epics Retold’. It appears on page31.
3b. A detailed account of the Ahalya episode as per Valmiki and Kamban is given in the following site. Also a comparison between the two versions is given. In many translations of Kamban Ramayana it is said that Indra had induced Ahalya to consume liquor as a result of which she was not able to repel his advances.
http://www.auburn.edu/~downejm/sp/serpro...
3c. Replacement of organs in humans with animal organs is a common ritual in Hindu mythology. We have seen it earlier in the case of Daksha and Ganesha and now the case of Indra.
3d. Is there anything in the rendering of the Ahalya episode by Valmiki and Kamban that suggests the ecological interpretation?
3e. Read the chapter Vali from ‘The Indian Epics Retold’ on page 113.
3f. Read the account of Vali from Valmiki Ramayana at the following site
http://www.valmikiramayan.net/kishkindha...
