Sparkles of Sundarakanda

SPARKLES OF SUNDARA KANDA

Sundarakanda, a significant part of epic, Ramayana, is studied by most, as a ritualistic daily practice known as ‘Parayana’. While this serves a purpose, a new dimension will be revealed if the study is made with a discerning attitude to fathom the rich cultural heritage of this ancient land. The sacred aspect of this book should not be allowed to outshine an intense exercise of delving deep into the historical and cultural val­ues of the hoary age. Let us consider a few in­stances bringing out the cultural eminence of the time of Ramayana.

The recent international conference on Ramayana held at Bangkok, attended by delegates from all over the world, speaks volumes of the cultural values of Ramayana, as cherished by the Indologists all over the world.

Dress and Ornaments: Dress worn by women at that time seems to be consisting of two fabrics, the separate upper cloth known as ‘Uttareeyam’ and the lower fabric, forming the skirt. And as is the fashion today the colour of these two fabrics was the same, matched. This mode of dress can still be seen among women of Kerala and Sree Lanka.

Hanuman saw Sita in the Asoka forest wearing a single yellow fabric “PeethamEkenaSamveetam” (15-21) What about her upper cloth? what was the colour of that piece?

Hanuman went into deep analytical think­ing whether the woman whom he saw was no other than Sita as he had already been disillu­sioned earlier by mistaking Mandodari for Sita. He began comparing the parts of ornaments and the dress. This intellectual eminence of Hanuman amazes the reader at every step in the epic. Thus Hanuman proves himself an emissary of a high order.

Identifying the yellow fabric worn by Sita, as skirt, Hanuman set to think of the yellow uttareeyam thrown by Sita, with her ornaments tied in it in a bundle. These two were of the same yellow colour, being matched. This made Anjaneya come to the conclusion that it was Sita for certain, who was seen sitting under the Asoka tree.

The jewellery of that time consisted of bracelets, ear rings, hair ornaments “Choodamani, rings (Anguleeyakam) studded with stones and corals. Strangely, mention is made of ornaments to the teeth: ‘Swadamshtrabharanam’, (15-­42) Even the teeth of women were not without decoration. May be, they must have been gold plates or tiny stones fixed to the teeth to give sparkle to the teeth.

Ornaments on the tree: Previously Anjaneya had a close watch on the ornaments found wrapped in yellow cloth and thrown by Sita on Rishyamooka hills. In Asoka Vana Anjaneya was looking at the ornaments hung at the end of the branches of Asoka tree. Sita was sitting under the same tree. Adhering to the custom that a woman distanced from her husband should neither wear ornaments nor flowers, Sita hung her ornaments at the end of the branches of Asoka tree. Therefore Hanuman felt certain that the woman was no other than Sita, as the ornaments hung, matched the de­scription given by Rama before.

Did Sita throwaway her ornaments at ran­dom, while being carried away by Ravana? Sita appears to have had the presence of mind even at such an hour of distress. She must have thrown only one of each pair, and retained the other one with her for future identification. May be, one bracelet, one ear ring and so on. Hanuman perceived that the one he had seen before in the bundle was not to be found on the tree and vice versa, ‘Tatra yanya vaheenani taanyaham nopalakshye yanyasya navaheenani tanee manee nasamsayah” (15-44). The ornaments he saw earlier in the cloth bundle were not to be found on the branches, and the things hung there were not to be found in the bundle. The missing factor became crucial.

How level-headed was Sita! How keen was Hanuman’s observation! And, lo, to what epic proportions, the sage poet Valmiki had gone in his meticulous depiction of details! It is this feature of interesting minute details to be found in Sundarakanda, that merits the attention of a discerning reader. The micro form in a mega epic.

Another interesting feature arises, if we try to answer the question why should Sita hang the ornaments on the branch of the tree, instead of keeping them somewhere near her? In fact she hid the important jewel choodamani tied to the end of her sari “tato vastragatammuktva divyam choodamani subham” (38-69). The answer again lends testimony to the keen intellectual percep­tion of Sita. She exhibited her ornaments promi­nently on the tree, as she wanted them to serve as visible signs to the search party of Rama find­ing them towards her whereabouts. If the throw­ing of some of her ornaments on Rishyamooka, was the first step aimed at helping the persons who might be later searching for her, the hang­ing of the ornaments on the branch may be termed as its culmination.

Tokens: Hanuman was no common em­issary. He was entrusted with the stupendous task of tracing the abducted Sita in a far off inacessible, well guarded island of a demon king. He was praised by Sita as ‘Vikramatswatvam, Samardhas thvam, Prajnostvam’ powerful, efficient and shrewd. He had taken ‘Anguleeyam’ as a token from Rama while starting on his errand. He gave it to Sita to prove his bonafides. He had taken an­other token from Sita her ‘choodamani’ and offered it to Rama, indicative of his successful mission.

Languages:- Hanuman considered care­fully the language he should employ while addressing himself to Sita. He must have rehearsed it in his mind. He was a great linguist, an erudite scholar in Vedanta, Tarka, Vayakama Mimamsa faculties. Rama at the very first sight of Hanuman could discover his abilities and attainments and Hanuman pondered over the question whether he should talk in pure, chaste Sanskrit diction employed by the Brahmins of the time (“Dwijateeriva samskritam” {30-18}) or the spoken dialect of Sanskrit used by the common man. Rightly he decided upon the popular San­skrit, lest Sita should mistake him as Ravana approaching her in disguise ‘Avasyamava vaktalyam vakya mardhavat” (30-17)

“It can thus be deduced, that at the time of Ramayana, there were two versions of spoken Sanskrit, the classic and the popular and Hanuman preferred the latter as best suited to his purpose.

Food and Drink: Anjaneya, spying in the palace of Ravana, came across various types of meat dishes and wines. Meats of several ani­mals and different types of wines, and other intoxicants were descended by Valmiki.

Cannibalism also must have been preva­lent in the remote island of Lanka as the security guards of Sita would often threaten her that she would be used as their breakfast delicacy.

Sages and saintly persons were subsisting on roots and fruits available in the forest while they practised their austerities.

But the kings were not vegetarians nor tee­totallers. Even Rama was said to be eating meat and drinking wine. To the anxious enquiries of Sita about the welfare of Rama, Hanuman would tell Sita that in his great distress on the loss of his beloved wife, Rama would neither eat meat nor drink wine. (‘na mamsa Raghavo bhuktena, na chaapi madhu sevate’) (36-41). Of course that meat must have been of a superior quality of a hunted animal and similar must be the drink too.

Surgery in Ramayana: Dexterity in sur­gery in the hoary age of Ramayana should surprise one and all. This makes one recall Susruta, the father of surgery, who it is said made ex­periments of blood transfusion with goat’s blood!

Feeling helpless on all counts with suicidal tendencies rising upper most in her mind, Sita began thinking that after the expiry of the ultima­tum of the two-month period set by Ravana, the demon king would slay her by cutting to pieces as a surgeon would carve the dead embryo to pieces to bring it out from the womb) of the mother, “garbhastha jantoriva salya krintalia” (28-6), Isn’t it a piece of skillfull surgery!

The Hair Style: Women were wearing hair, in one or two, or three braids. Hanuman saw Sita wearing single braid (“Ekaveni”). There was a woman security guard called Dwijeta with two braids, and the benevolent demon-guard ‘Trijata’, (88-84) having three braids. There must have been individuality exhibited in varied hair styles of the women of those times.

Some social customs: In the first chapter of Sundarakanda (1-47) Anjaneya’s flight into the air as a jet plane from the hill, Mahendra, was described at length by Valmiki. It almost re­sembles the take-off of a space shuttle or a jet plane of the modern age. The impact was such that huge trees were uprooted and blown high into the air before falling down to earth. This ex­ercise was compared to the social practice of following a departing guest to some distance, say, up to crossing a stream or a river bank (“Swabandhumiva bandhava” (l-47).)

This analogy of the ancient practice holds good even to this day among the rural folk in some villages. In cities also we give send - off to the guests at bus stands, railway stations or air­ports and return home.

Again with a humane touch, Valmiki made Sita request Hanuman while he was about to take leave of her to stay for one more day as his pres­ence gave her extreme relief from the gloom she had been experiencing. (“Visrantasvo gamisshyasi”) (39-20) “you can leave tomorrow taking rest”. Asking a dear guest to stay on for a day or two is still the most common practice among people having cordial rela­tionship.

Two Suicidal Attempts: Strangely we come across two suicidal attempts in Sundarakanda resorted to by no mean charac­ters, but by noble characters, Hanuman and Sita. One wonders how Sage Valmiki could depict these attempts by two great characters, while scriptures prohibit any attempt at suicide. Of all the poets, why should Valmiki resort to this step, is a significant question warranting close scrutiny.

Firstly it should be understood that Valmiki was the most humane poet endowed with deep feelings. He was a murderous dacoit, as the legend goes, transformed into an epic poet, af­ter long penance and devotion. He was even unmindful of the anthills grown on him during his long penance. And the origin of Ramayana is traced to the first pangs of his heart when he was moved by the poignant scenario of the crying of a bird who was bereaved of her mate, being killed by a hunter. The sloka “ma nishada pratishtam” emerged spontaneously at the heart - rending scene of the shrieking bird. This pang became the birth pang of Ramayana.

We can observe the same poignant reflec­tions while Valmiki portrayed the agony of Sita in Asoka forest separated from Rama. If this analogy is extended further, one can understand why Valmiki descended the two great suicidal at­tempts by Hanuman and Sita. In a way it can be understand that it was only a Valmiki that could touch the cords of human life in its intensity touch­ing the depths of the depressed mood of human beings. No man, however great, is free from moments of depression and suicidal tendencies at one time or other, whether it be, brief or long, light or intense. And Valmiki played on the strings of the gloomy mood of human beings, creating a melancholy music of the human soul. He dived deep to fathom the lives of people at the lowest ebb of life.

Touching this dark aspect, the sage - poet would at once turn the pendulum to show the emergence of sunshine of life from its blackside, He used darkness to serve as a foil to the fol­lowing brilliance and to offer an immortal lesson to the humanity not to give way to dark, nega­tive thoughts, but to entertain positive thinking, required for a successful life. His immortal words thus roll, “Anirvedah sriyo moolam’, (12-10)” Freedom from sad thoughts only leads one to success”.

Anjaneya too was in a similar situation. Not able to trace Sita after his strenuous nocturnal exercise of investigation in the palace of Ravana, Hanuman began pondering over the consequence arising out of the failure of his mis­sion. That would trigger a cycle of deaths if it were to be known that Sita’s whereabouts were untraceable. To ward off such a serious calam­ity of a string of deaths, Hanuman began con­templating that it would not be in the best interest of every one to return home with the failure of his mission.

The process of the suicidal thinking ran thus “Shall I burn myself in fire, or shall I die by starvation, so that my body may be preyed upon by birds and beasts? I find that ‘Niryana’ or death by starvation also known as ‘Prayopavesam’ is a practice even accepted by sages for terminating one’s life. I may even drown myself to death”. (13-12, 13, 14, 15).

Valmiki thus depicting the dark forebod­ings of Hanuman, would turn to the situation showing the sunny side of life leading to the success of his mission, concluding his significant message to mankind that man should live on with hope. ‘Jeevan bhadrani pasyathi” (13-46, 47), “Man can achieve happy results (one day or other) if he continues living”.

Discounting the negative thoughts and re­covering from the depressed mood Hanuman retrieves his adventurous spirit and praised Rama, Lakshmana and Sita in the famous sloka ‘Namostu Ramaya saLakshmanaya.....’ (13-59): He started again on his entrusted mission. This sloka is con­sidered by many as having Mantric effect and people caught in doldrums of life are advised to recite this sloka for their benefit. This Sloka is said to contain Beeja Akshara, words with high benevolent cosmic vibrations and this is the great gift of Valmiki to mankind.

Coming to Sita’s attempt at suicide, it is described that Hanuman found Sita ready to com­mit suicide using her single long braid of hair as a rope to hang herself on the branch of the tree, (“Venyud gradhanam griheetva.....seeghra maham gamishyami yamasya moolam” (28-18). Through this act she wanted to go to the land of death, Yamaloka. Sita even earlier considered about death, thus “even man or woman can not end the life, if destiny does not ordain it” (25-12). Again she would plead that man is not given even the freedom to give up his life (25-20). “But at this darkest moment in her life Sita felt the presence of omens and got over the dark mood.

Hence Sundarakanda is considered the most sacred part of Ramayana. It contains the two great Mantric slokas “Namostu Ramaya sa Lakshinanaya (13-50), and “Jayathyathi balo Ramo (42-33), said to confer benevo­lent effects upon the person who recites them in devotion. Studying Sundarakanda, it is said, one gets ‘paritapopasamanam’ freedom from stress and sadness. It also ensures success in one’s life.

‘By and large, the object of human life as renunciation of the world and attainment of salvation presented to the people during the last few centuries, was an ascetic path so high and transcendental that it left millions of them, all except a small minority, mentally and spiritually ill-nourished and often wrongly nourished, because it had no message for them and it was indigestible to them. There was very little stress on social ethics along with it’s civil and social virtues and responsibilities which they could understand and digest and from which they could derive profit and brighten their life on the earth below. Religion as presented in the Gita, is a full philosophy which included the positiv­ist dimension of DHARMA or social ethics and ABHYU DAYA or social welfare along with MUKTI or spiritual welfare.

–SWAMI RANGANADHANANDA