History of India/Volume 1/Chapter 10

by Romesh Chunder Dutt

CHAPTER X

THE EPIC AGE—THE RAMAYANA

The tide of Aryan conquests rolled onward. When the country between the Jumna and the Ganges had been completely conquered, peopled, and Hinduized, new bands of adventurous settlers crossed the Ganges and marched further eastward to found new colonies and new Hindu kingdoms. Stream after stream was crossed, forest after forest was explored and cleared, region after region was slowly conquered, peopled, and Hinduized in this onward march towards the unknown east. The history of the long struggles and the gradual development of the Hindu power in these regions has been lost to us; and we only see, in the literature which has been preserved, the establishment of powerful and civilized Hindu kingdoms east of the Ganges—the kingdom of the Kosalas in the country now known as Oudh, that of the Videhas in North Behar, and that of the Kasis round the modern Benares.

Some recollection of the eastern march of the Videhas has been preserved in a stray passage in the first book of the Satapatha Brahmana. In legendary form the story is told how King Madhava followed the course of the sacred fire from the

A PLACE HALLOWED BY RAMA.

banks of the Sarasvati eastward to the river which flows from the northern mountains, or the Himalayas, and is called Sadanira, the modern Gandak. That river formed the boundary between the two kingdoms; the Kosalas lived to the west of it, and the Videhas to the east of it.

In course of years, probably of centuries, the kingdom of the Videhas rose in power and in civilization, until it became the most prominent kingdom in Northern India, and Janaka, King of the Videhas, is probably the most important figure in the history of the Brahmanic and Epic Period in India, for he not only established his power in the farthest confines of the Hindu dominions, but also gathered round him the most learned men of his time, entered into discussion with them, and instructed them in holy truths about the Universal Being. But Janaka has a still higher claim to our respect and admiration. While the priestly caste was multiplying rituals and supplying dogmatic explanations for each rite, the royal caste seems to have felt some impatience at this course, and learned Kshatriyas, while still conforming to the rites laid down by priests, began to inquire about the destination of the soul and the nature of the Supreme Being. So bold, so healthy, and so vigorous were these new and earnest speculations, that the priestly classes at last felt their inferiority and came to Kshatriyas to learn something of the wisdom of the new school. The Upanishads contain these speculations of the warrior caste, and King Janaka of Videha is honoured and respected more than any other king of the time as one of those who inspired the Upanishads, the culmination, in many ways, of the philosophy of India.

These are real claims of Janaka, King of the has, to the admiration and gratitude of posterity, but, curiously enough, posterity remembers him, as well

SCENE IN CEYLON.

as the Videhas and the Kosalas, rather through a myth which has become associated with their names, and relates to the Aryan conquest of Southern India, the Ramayana, the second great epic of India, being devoted to the conquest of Ceylon by a king of the Kosalas who had married the daughter of Janaka, King of the Videhas. This poem, like the Mahabharata, is utterly valueless as a narrative of historical events and incidents. In both the heroes are myths pure and simple.

Sita, the field furrow, had received divine honours from the tune of the Rig-Veda and had been worshipped as a goddess. When cultivation gradually spread in Southern India, it was not difficult to invent a poetical myth that Sita was carried to the south. And when this goddess and woman had acquired a distinct and lovely individuality, she was naturally described as the daughter of the holiest and most learned king on record, Janaka of the Videhas.

But who is Rama, described in the epic as Sita's husband and the King of the Kosalas? The later Puranas tell us that he was an incarnation of Vishnu, but Vishnu himself had not risen to prominence at the time of which we are speaking. Indra was still the chief of the gods of the Brahmanic and Epic Period, and in the Sutra literature we learn that Sita, the furrow goddess, is the wife of Indra; it seems, therefore, that Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is, in his original conception, only a new form of Indra battling with the demons of drought. Myth is thus mixed with the epic which describes the historic conquest of Southern India.

But though the Ramayana is utterly valueless as a narrative of events, still, like the Mahabharata, it throws side-lights on the state of ancient society in India, and the story of the epic therefore needs to be briefly told. In the Ramayana we miss the fiery valour and the proud self-assertion of the Kshatriyas of the Mahabharata, and the subordination of the people to the priestly caste is more complete. Janaka himself is not described as the proud assertor of Kshatriya learning and dignity that he was, but as a humble servant of priests, and Rama himself, the hero of the epic, though he encounters and defeats a Brahman warrior, Parasurama, does so with many apologies and due submission! The story of Parasurama probably conceals a great historic truth. He is said to have fought against the Kshatriyas and exterminated the caste; and then he was conquered by the Kshatriya Rama, the hero of the epic. It would seem that this story indicates the real rivalry and hostilities between the priestly and warrior castes, indications of which we have found in a literary form in the Upanishads.

For the rest, one feels on reading the Ramayana that the real heroic age of India had passed, and that centuries of residence in the valley of the Ganges had produced an enervating effect on the Aryans. We miss the heroic, if somewhat rude and sturdy, manners and incidents which mark the Mahabharata. We miss characters distinguished by real valour and battles fought with real obstinacy and determination. We miss men of flesh and blood, of pride and determination, like Karna and Duryodhana and Bhima; and the best-developed characters in the Ramayana are women like the proud and scheming Kaikeyi or the gentle and ever suffering Sita.

The heroes of the Ramayana are somewhat tame and commonplace personages, very respectful to priests, very anxious to conform to the rules of decorum and duty, doing a vast amount of fighting work mechanically, but without the determination, the persistence of real fighters. A change had come over the spirit of the nation; princes and men had become more polished and law-abiding, but they had become less sturdy and heroic.

TEMPLE DEDICATED TO RAMA AT PUSHKAR NEAR AJMERE.

SACRED TANK OF RAMA AT NASIK.

Turning to the story of the Ramayana, we find that Dasaratha, a distinguished king of the Kosalas, had his capital in Ayodhya, or Oudh, whose ruins are still shown to travellers in some shapeless mounds. King Dasaratha had three queens honoured above the rest, of whom Kausalya bore him his eldest son Rama, while Kaikeyi was the mother of Bharata, and Sumitra of Lakshmana and Satrughna. Dasaratha in his old age decided on making Rama the Yuvaraja, or reigning prince, but Kaikeyi insisted that her son should be Yuvaraja, and the feeble old king yielded to the determined will of his wife.

Before this Rama had won Sita, the daughter of Janaka, King of the Videhas, at a svayamvara, or court of love, in which the bride chooses her husband. Kings and princes had assembled there, but Rama alone could lift the heavy bow and bend it till it broke in twain. But now, when Ayodhya was still ringing with acclamation at the prospect of Rama's installation as Yuvaraja, it was decided in Queen Kaikeyi's chambers that Bharata must be the Yuvaraja and that Rama must go into exile for fourteen years.

Rama was too obedient and dutiful to resist or even to resent this decision. His faithful half-brother Lakshmana accompanied him, and the gentle Sita would not hear of parting from her lord. Amidst the tears and lamentations of the people of Ayodhya, Rama and Sita and Lakshmana went from Kosala's capital.

The exiles first found their way to the hermitage of Bharadvaja in Prayaga, or Allahabad, and then to that of Valmiki in Chitrakuta, somewhere in modern Bundelkhand. Valmiki is reputed to be the author of the epic Ramayana, just as Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas, is said to be the author of the Mahabharata.

Dasaratha died of grief for Rama. The youthful Bharata proceeded at once to Chitrakuta, informed Rama of their father's death, and implored him to return. But Rama felt himself bound by the promise he had made, and it was agreed that he should return after fourteen years and then ascend the throne. Bharata hastened back to Ayodhya, and leaving Chitrakuta, Rama wandered for thirteen years in the Dandaka forest and toward the sources of the Godavari among jungles and non-Aryan tribes, for Southern India had not yet been colonized by the Aryans.

Meanwhile Ravana, the monster King of Lanka, or Ceylon, and of Southern India, heard of the beauty of Sita, who now dwelt in the jungles, and in the
RAVANA.

absence of Rama he stole her away from their hut and carried her off to Ceylon. Rama, after a long search, obtained a clue of her, made an alliance with the non- Aryan tribes of Southern India, who are described as monkeys and bears, and made preparations for crossing over to Ceylon to recover his wife.

Vali was a great king among the non- Aryans, but his brother Sugriva thirsted after his kingdom and his wife. Rama fought and killed Vali, helped Sugriva to win the kingdom and Vali's widow, and Sugriva then marched his army to Lanka.

Hanuman, the commander-in-chief of the non- Aryan army, led the way. He leaped over the strait of sixty miles which separates India from Ceylon, found Sita, and returned to Rama.

A causeway was then built across the strait by means of boulders and stones. The reader is aware that a natural causeway runs nearly across the strait, and there is no doubt that the physical aspect of this locality suggested to the poet the idea that the causeway was built by the superhuman labours of Rama's army. The whole army then crossed over and laid siege to the capital of Ravana.

The account of the war which follows, though full of poetical incidents and stirring description, is unnatural and tedious. Chief after chief was sent out by Ravana to beat back the invaders, but they all fell

ABDUCTION OF SITA.

From Oman's Indian Epics.

before the supernatural weapons and mystic mantras of Rama. Indrajit, the proud son of Ravana, battled from the clouds, but Lakshmana killed him. Ravana came out in rage and killed Lakshmana, but the dead hero revived under the influence of some medicine brought by the faithful Hanuman. One of Ravana's brothers, Vibhishana, had left his brother and had joined Rama, and told him the secret by which each warrior could be killed, and thus chief after chief of Ravana's proud host fell. At last Ravana himself came out, and was killed by Rama. Sita was recovered, but she had to prove her purity by throwing herself into a lighted pyre and then coming out of it uninjured.

The fourteenth year of exile having now expired,

HANUMAN.

Rama and Sita returned to Ayodhya and ascended the throne. But the suspicions of the people fell on Sita, who had been in Ravana's house and could not, they thought, have returned unstained. And Rama, as weak as his father had been, obediently exiled his wife.

Valmiki received her at Chitrakuta, and there her two sons, Lava and Kusa, were born. Valmiki composed the poem of the Ramayana and taught the boys to repeat it, and thus years were passed.

Then Rama decided to celebrate the Asvamedha sacrifice, and sent out the horse. The animal came as far as Valmiki's hermitage, and the boys playfully caught it and detained it. Rama's troops tried in vain

HANUMAN AND THE VANARS REJOICING AT THE RESTORATION OF SITA.

Reduced from Moor's "Hindu Pantheon."

to recover the animal. At last Rama himself saw the princely boys, but did not know who they were; he heard the poem Ramayana chanted by them, and it was in a passion of grief and regret that he at last knew them and embraced them as his own.

But there was no joy in store for Sita. The people's suspicions could not be allayed, and Rama was too weak to act against his people. The earth, which had given Sita birth, opened and received its long-suffering child. The Vedic conception of Sita, as the field furrow, manifests itself in the epic in this incident; but to millions of Hindus, Sita is a real human character, a pattern of female virtue and female self-abnegation. There are few Hindu women throughout the length and breadth of India to whom the story of Sita is not known, and to whom her character is not a model to strive after and to imitate. And Rama, too, though scarcely equal to Sita in worth of character, has been a pattern to men for his truth, his obedience, and his piety. And thus the epic has been for the millions of India a means of moral education, the value of which can hardly be overestimated.

RAMA WITH SITA, LAKSHMANA, AND HANUMAN.

From a native painting.