Bow's story - Post 9
Dear srivaishNava perunthagaiyeer,
First of all, I offer my apologies to you all, since I missed a
commitment, which I made in post 1. The commitment reads "In this and
next few posts, we will see how this bow brought a special name to
raama, given by none else than that `girl' seethaa, who was won
through that act of bravery with the bow". Without giving you what is
this special name given by seethaa to raamaa, and some points on that
special name, I concluded the series erroneously. So I offer my
apologies.
A. Now here is the special title or name to raama. It is "sthriyam
purusha vigraham" ? hey raamaa you are "a women in a man's garb". The
slOkam for reference is -
kim thvaa amanyatha vaidhEha: pithaa mE mithilaa adhipa: |
raama jaamaatharam praapya sthriyam purusha vigraham || 2-30-3
Meaning: What my father, the king of mithila, belonging to the
country of vidhEha, think of himself having got you, as son-in-law, a
woman having the form of a man?"
Why such a `beautiful title' seetha confers on raama? She has seen
his bravery in breaking the bow ? that bow which even the mighty
raavaNa failed to even lift vertically up and string it. [why raavaNa
is brought in here? See point C below]. That too, when seethaa's
father vaidhEha himself exclaimed as ? [to visvaamithra]
bhagavan, dhrishta veeryO mE raamO dhasaratha aathmaja: |
athi adhbhutham achinthyam cha atharkitham idham mayaa || 1-67-21
meaning: janaka to visvaamithra - Oh, god, I have evidently seen the
gallantry of raama, the son of dhasaratha and [the whys of this boy
and wherefores of his stringing that massive bow] are unimaginable
[to me, more so, humans lifting it, how so?] An unhoped [act by me,
besides, breaking it!] A highly wondrous [experience is this for me].
For, raama refused now to take seethaa to the forest along with him.
Father dhasaratha of raama had given the vow, to mother kaikeyi. And
she ordered raama to leave for the forest for 14 years. But, when
seethaa wanted to accompany raama, the husband of hers, he refused to
take her along with him. In that anger on refusal, and in the
anxiety, she gave him such a nice title. Just then, she addressed
him `veera' ? hey brave one, [but suddenly position changed to confer
that title]. See
eershyaa rOshou bahishkruthya bhuktha sEsham iva udhakam |
naya maam veera visrabdha: paapam mayi na vidhyathE || 2-27-7
Meaning: seethaa to raamaa "Oh, brave man! By abandoning, as water
left over after drinking, the impatience and anger and having faith,
take me. There is no sin in me".
She thought she even convinced raama so that he will say yes, for she
said -
na cha maam thvath sameepastham api saknOthi raaghava |
suraaNaam eeshvara: sacra: pradharsayithum Ojasaa || 2-29-6
Meaning: Oh raama! Even dhEvendhra, the lord of celestials, by his
strength, cannot over power me, when I am in your vicinity.
To such a brave raama, on whose side dhEvEndhran also becomes
incapable, to such a highly powerful raama, suddenly she changed her
mind and gave a title as above. Since raama continued refusing to
take her along, in spite of such convincing words, she, with a bit of
anger or sarcasm gave raama that title. On this `sthriyam purusha
vigraham' title, lot of important points are offered by sri
poundareekapuram andavan swamy. That perhaps we will see in next post.
B. I missed in presenting another point also on this siva's bow.
Since that point is also an important one on the bow's story title,
and worth noting, I give it here.
See here, seetha claims, when she was talking to anasooya, the wife
of sage athri in the forest, that, the bow was given to her father,
by varuNan, the god of water, [athidhEvathaa for water and ocean]
[ayOdhyaa kaaNdam 118th sargam]
"mahaayagnaa thadhaa thasya varuNena mahaathmanaa |
dhaththan dhanur varam preethyaa thooNee chaakshayya saayakou || 2-
118- 39
meaning: in that great fire sacrifice, varuNan gave that divine bow
[siva dhanu:] to my father along with two quivers with unending stock
of bows.
[in the next few slokams she goes on how raama broke the bow and
marriage took place. Bhakthaas may recall that raamaa said `let my
father come and say yes, then only I will accept this offer of
kanya'. That description of such an incident is described by seethaa
in this meeting of anasooya ? sargam 118 of ayOdhyaa kaaNdam - which
we saw in "raamaa wins" series of posts by MGV]
The point here: king janaka claimed to sage visvaamithra the siva
dhanu was given by siva himself after the war with vishNu to his
ancestor dhEvaraatha [as we saw in post 1 ? 1-66-8 and 12 and
parasuraama also said that to raama ? see 1-75-20]
dhEvaraatha ithi khyaathO nimE: jyEshtO mahee pathi: |
nyaasO ayam thasya bhagavan hasthE dhaththO mahaathmanaa || 1-66-8
preethi yuktha: thu sarvEshaam dhadhou thEshaam mahaathmanaam |
thath Ethath dhEvadhEvasya dhanoo rathnam mahaathmana: || 1-66-12
nyaasabhootham thadhaa nyastham asmaakam poorvajE vibhO |
dhanoo rudhra: thu sankrudhDhO vidhEhEshu mahaayasaa: || 1-75-20
dhEvaraathasya raaja rishE: dhadhou hasthE sa saayakam |
[since meaning is already given in post 1, and 3, I am not repeating]
Is it not contradictory? Daughter vetoes what father said? I would
like learned bhaagavathaas to comment on these two slokams - baala
and ayOdhyaa kaaNda slokams. [I am not able to see some comments in
other places given in the posts earlier. I am afraid Kamban is not
giving this incidence of seetha describing her marriage to
anasooya].
Dhasan
Vasudevan m.g.
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