Pathak, Shubha. 2014. Divine Yet Human Epics: Reflections of Poetic Rulers from Ancient Greece and India. Hellenic Studies Series 62. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_PathakS.Divine_Yet_Human_Epics.2014.
4. Hearkening to Kuśa and Lava and to Nala: Poetic Monarchs on the Ideal of Dharma in the Hindu Epics
Kuśa and Lava as a Rhapsode Away from Ayodhyā
Kuśa and Lava’s Rhapsodic Recitation: A Prolepsis of Rāma’s Unhindered Dharma
nirāmayo arogaś ca durbhikṣabhayavarjitaḥ ||
na putramaraṇaṃ kecid drakṣyanti puruṣāḥ kvacit |
nāryaś cāvidhavā nityaṃ bhaviṣyanti pativratāḥ ||
na vātajaṃ bhayaṃ kiṃcin nāpsu mañjanti jantavaḥ |
na cāgnijaṃ bhayaṃ kiṃcid yathā kṛtayuge tathā ||
aśvamedhaśatair iṣṭvā tathā bahusuvarṇakaiḥ |
gavāṃ koṭyayutaṃ dattvā vidvadbhyo vidhipūrvakam ||
rājavaṃśāñ śataguṇān sthāpayiṣyati rāghavaḥ |
cāturvarṇyaṃ ca loke ’smin sve sve dharme niyokṣyati ||
daśavarṣasahasrāṇi daśavarṣaśatāni ca |
rāmo rājyam upāsitvā brahmalokaṃ gamiṣyati ||
They have no diseases nor disabilities, and have no famine to fear.
Men never are faced with the deaths of their sons,
and women, who never are widowed, remain true to their husbands.
As in the Winning Age, neither wind nor fire poses any danger,
nor are drowned creatures found floating on floodwaters.
Once he also has sponsored hundreds of horse sacrifices at which gold keeps heaping up,
and has given crores upon crores of cows to the knowledgeable (as custom requires),
Raghu’s scion will start hundreds of royal lineages
and will turn each of the four classes toward its respective duties in this world.
After he has reigned for eleven thousand years, [7]
Rāma will go to Brahmā’s world.
śatāśvamedhān ājahre sadaśvān bhūridakṣiṇān ||
ājānulambibāhuś ca mahāskandhaḥ pratāpavān |
lakṣmaṇānucaro rāmaḥ pṛthivīm anvapālayat ||
na paryadevan vidhavā na ca vyālakṛtaṃ bhayam |
na vyādhijaṃ bhayaṃ vāpi rāme rājyaṃ praśāsati ||
nirdasyur abhaval loko nānarthaḥ kaṃcid aspṛśat |
na ca sma vṛddhā bālānāṃ pretakāryāṇi kurvate ||
sarvaṃ muditam evāsīt sarvo dharmaparo ’bhavat |
rāmam evānupaśyanto nābhyahiṃsan parasparam ||
āsan varṣasahasrāṇi tathā putrasahasriṇaḥ |
nirāmayā viśokāś ca rāme rājyaṃ praśāsati ||
nityapuṣpā nityaphalās taravaḥ skandhavistṛtāḥ |
kālavarṣī ca parjanyaḥ sukhasparśaś ca mārutaḥ ||
svakarmasu pravartante tuṣṭāḥ svair eva karmabhiḥ |
āsan prajā dharmaparā rāme śāsati nānṛtāḥ ||
sarve lakṣaṇasampannāḥ sarve dharmaparāyaṇāḥ |
daśa varṣasahasrāṇi rāmo rājyam akārayat ||
sponsored hundreds of horse sacrifices featuring the best horses and abundances of gifts.
With the aid of [his half-brother] Lakṣmaṇa, powerful Rāma—whose arms extended all the way to his knees and whose shoulders were strong—
protected the earth.
No widows wailed, and neither predators
nor diseases posed a danger, while Rāma ruled his realm.
There were no robbers in the world, adversity did not impinge on anyone,
and old men never performed the funeral rites of youths.
There was all manner of happiness, and everyone was focused on doing right.
They, training their sights right on Rāma, did not hurt one another.
They each lived for a thousand years and had a thousand children,
but had neither diseases nor distress, while Rāma ruled his realm.
The trees always were flowering and fruitful as they extended their branches,
the rain god sent down showers at the right times, and the touch of the wind god was pleasant.
The people, who were satisfied with the very occupations in which they respectively engaged,
were focused on doing right and told the truth while Rāma ruled.
They all showed signs of success and were devoted to right-doing.
And, for ten thousand years, Rāma ruled.
This passage, which is from Vālmīki’s version of the Rāmāyaṇa, seems to revise Nārada’s prophecy by suggesting that the period of Rāma’s reign does not equal, but actually excels, the kṛtayuga (the Winning Age). The fact that his subjects live to be a thousand years old suggests that these people fare better than people who are alive during the kṛtayuga, who live to the age of four hundred (Mānavadharmaśāstra 1.83).
hṛṣṭapuṣṭajanākīrṇaṃ puraṃ janapadas tathā ||
nākāle mriyate kaścin na vyādhiḥ prāṇināṃ tadā |
nādharmaś cābhavat kaścid rāme rājyaṃ praśāsati ||
Happy, well-nourished people crowded the city and the country.
No one died before his time, no being was diseased,
nor was there any unrighteousness, while Rāma ruled his realm.
In fact, the dharma of his realm can be considered the fruit of Sītā’s earthing. In the Rāmāyaṇa, she is associated with Śrī, the divinity who personifies prosperity [9] —an association that aids in explaining the aforementioned persistence of Sītā’s iconic presence at Rāma’s munificent royal rituals. Given that the goddess Śrī is cast in the Mahābhārata (Mahābhārata 12.8.3–5, 12.94.12) as “a kind of consort of a good king,” [10] the Rāmāyaṇa sequence of Sītā’s Rāma-incited sepulture and Ayodhyā’s ensuing enrichment likely symbolizes the infusion of resources into a land that is ruled righteously. Moreover, Śrī favors Rāma even at the end of his reign, when she takes his side on his way to heaven.
Nala as a Bard in Ayodhyā and Vidarbha
sāyaṃ sāyaṃ sadā cemaṃ ślokam ekaṃ jagāda ha ||
kva nu sā kṣutpipāsārtā śrāntā śete tapasvinī |
smarantī tasya mandasya kaṃ vā sādyopatiṣṭhati ||
evaṃ bruvantaṃ rājānaṃ niśāyāṃ jīvalo ’bravīt |
kām enāṃ śocase nityaṃ śrotum icchāmi bāhuka ||
tam uvāca nalo rājā mandaprajñasya kasyacit |
āsīd bahumatā nārī tasyā dṛḍhataraṃ ca saḥ ||
sa vai kenacid arthena tayā mando vyayujyata |
viprayuktaś ca mandātmā bhramaty asukhapīḍitaḥ ||
dahyamānaḥ sa śokena divārātram atandritaḥ |
niśākāle smaraṃs tasyāḥ ślokam ekaṃ sma gāyati ||
sa vai bhraman mahīṃ sarvāṃ kvacid āsādya kiṃcana |
vasaty anarhas tadduḥkhaṃ bhūya evānusaṃsmaran ||
sā tu taṃ puruṣaṃ nārī kṛcchre ’py anugatā vane |
tyaktā tenālpapuṇyena duṣkaraṃ yadi jīvati ||
ekā bālānabhijñā ca mārgāṇām atathocitā |
kṣutpipāsāparītā ca duṣkaraṃ yadi jīvati ||
śvāpadācarite nityaṃ vane mahati dāruṇe |
tyaktā tenālpapuṇyena mandaprajñena māriṣa ||
ity evaṃ naiṣadho rājā damayantīm anusmaran |
ajñātavāsam avasad rājñas tasya niveśane ||
and, every evening, he always recited this one verse:
“Where, in the world, is that wretched, weary woman going to bed, hungry and thirsty,
with that dolt on her mind? And whom is she serving now?”
One night, as the king was saying this, Jīvala [Bāhuka’s other assistant] said:
“Who is that woman whom you always are lamenting? I want to hear about her, Bāhuka.”
King Nala replied: “Some half-wit
had a woman of whom he thought highly, and she had an even higher opinion of him.
Something separated that dunce from her,
and, in his deprivation, that dullard is wandering around, gripped by grief,
being burned by sorrow day and night, without respite.
At night, he remembers her and sings his single verse.
That man wandered the world over, found something somewhere,
and is living there unworthily, remembering his anguish over her more and more.
That woman went after that man—even into the frightful forest—
but, having been abandoned by that man of little merit, she hardly can be alive.
Alone, young, not knowing her way around, unaccustomed to and undeserving of all of this,
and seized by hunger and thirst—she hardly can be alive.
That man of little merit, that half-wit, abandoned her
in the huge, horrid forest, where predators always are on the prowl, my friend.”
This is how the king of Niṣadha remembered Damayantī
as he hid in that [other] king’s home.
There are two ways in which to interpret this tale that Nala tells while he is in Ayodhyā. This city is the central site of the power struggle portrayed in the Rāmāyaṇa, and the story of its hero, Rāma, is retold in a shorter form in the Mahābhārata, when Yudhiṣṭhira asks whether any man has been more unfortunate than he (Mahābhārata 3.258–275, 3.257.10). This eliciting question echoes the one that Yudhiṣṭhira has used to induce the narration of Nala’s story, but allows for the sharing of a tale of even greater pathos—for Yudhiṣṭhira here asks to hear not of any king in straits direr than his own, but of any man so afflicted. This very man, Rāma, suffers two great losses. First, although he is older than his three half-brothers, and thus is his father’s heir, Rāma is displaced from Ayodhyā’s throne before he has even a chance to ascend it, because his stepmother Kaikeyī schemes successfully to have her son, Bharata, supersede him (Mahābhārata 3.261.24–27). She has Rāma exiled to the forest, where he sustains his second loss, when Rāvaṇa kidnaps Sītā (Mahābhārata 3.262.40).
utsṛjya vipine suptām anuraktāṃ priyāṃ priya ||
sā vai yathā samādiṣṭā tatrāste tvatpratīkṣiṇī |
dahyamānā bhṛśaṃ bālā vastrārdhenābhisaṃvṛtā ||
tasyā rudantyāḥ satataṃ tena śokena pārthiva |
prasādaṃ kuru vai vīra prativākyaṃ dadasva ca ||
now that you have left your beloved wife asleep in the forest, my love?
That young woman covered with half of a garment—she sits waiting for you there as she was ordered to,
being tormented too much.
To that woman constantly crying with that sorrow, king,
be gracious and give your reply, hero.
On the second occasion, in Vidarbha, Damayantī sends a woman named Keśinī to make a similar request of Bāhuka, with almost the same words that Damayantī asked Parṇāda to utter (Mahābhārata 3.72.1–4):
utsṛjya vipine suptām anuraktāṃ priyāṃ priya ||
sā vai yathā samādiṣṭā tatrāste tvatpratīkṣiṇī |
dahyamānā divārātraṃ vastrārdhenābhisaṃvṛtā ||
tasyā rudantyāḥ satataṃ tena duḥkhena pārthiva |
prasādaṃ kuru vai vīra prativākyaṃ prayaccha ca ||
now that you have left your beloved wife asleep in the forest, my love?
Covered with half of a garment, she sits waiting for you there as she was ordered to,
being tormented day and night.
To that woman constantly crying with that sorrow, king,
be gracious and give your reply, hero.
Yet Keśinī changes Parṇāda’s message in three places, replacing the phrase bhṛśaṃ bālā (too much, the young woman) in Mahābhārata 3.67.10 with divārātraṃ (day and night) in Mahābhārata 3.72.19, and substituting for śokena (with sorrow) and dadasva (give) in Mahābhārata 3.67.11 their respective synonyms, duḥkhena and prayaccha, in Mahābhārata 3.72.20.
ātmānam ātmanā satyo jitasvargā na saṃśayaḥ | / ||
rahitā bhartṛbhiś caiva na krudhyanti kadācana || / |
These virtuous women win heaven, no doubt about it.
They never get angry, even though they have been forsaken by their lords.
From this point, however, Bāhuka tailors his poems to their contexts. To Parṇāda, Bhīma’s envoy, Bāhuka declares:
yat sā tena parityaktā tatra na kroddhum arhati ||
prāṇayātrāṃ pariprepsoḥ śakunair hṛtavāsasaḥ |
ādhibhir dahyamānasya śyāmā na kroddhum arhati ||
satkṛtāsatkṛtā vāpi patiṃ dṛṣṭvā tathāgatam |
bhraṣṭarājyaṃ śriyā hīnaṃ śyāmā na kroddhum arhati ||
then she ought not to get angry.
A beautiful woman ought not to get angry with a sustenance seeker whose garment has been snatched by birds
and who is being tormented by his thoughts.
Well treated or not, a beautiful woman ought not to get angry after seeing her lord in such a state—
deprived of his kingdom and wanting for wealth.
But Bāhuka implores Keśinī, Damayantī’s confidante:
prāṇayātrāṃ pariprepsoḥ śakunair hṛtavāsasaḥ |
ādhibhir dahyamānasya śyāmā na kroddhum arhati ||
satkṛtāsatkṛtā vāpi patiṃ dṛṣṭvā tathāgatam |
bhraṣṭarājyaṃ śriyā hīnaṃ kṣudhitaṃ vyasanāplutam ||
A beautiful woman ought not to get angry with a sustenance seeker whose garment has been snatched by birds
and who is being tormented by his thoughts,
once she, well treated or not, has seen her lord in such a state—
deprived of his kingdom, wanting for wealth, hungry, and overwhelmed by vice.
- are not attributed to a divine source;
- each consist of a mere fragment instead of an expansive, embedding whole;
- are anonymous, naming neither hero nor heroine; and
- take on a plaintive, rather than celebratory, tone.
Nala’s Bardic Compositions:Prolepses of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Hindered Dharma
śatrūṇāṃ kṣapaṇāc caiva svakarmaniratāḥ prajāḥ ||
balīnāṃ samyag ādānād dharmataś cānuśāsanāt |
nikāmavarṣī parjanyaḥ sphīto janapado ’bhavat ||
sarvārambhāḥ supravṛttā gorakṣaṃ karṣaṇaṃ vaṇik |
viśeṣāt sarvam evaitat saṃjajñe rājakarmaṇaḥ ||
and his destruction of his enemies, his subjects were devoted to their own occupations.
As a consequence of accurate tax collection and lawful rule,
it rained as much as everyone wanted and the country throve.
All undertakings went smoothly—especially cow-tending, agriculture, and commerce.
All this arose from the king’s activity, in particular.
At the end of the war, Yudhiṣṭhira rules the whole world, but it is in a sorry state of near depopulation. By Yudhiṣṭhira’s own reckoning, 1,660,020,000 men have died in the fighting, while only 24,165 men have survived (Mahābhārata 11.26.9–10). If a man is judged by the kingdom he keeps, then—by the end of the epic—Yudhiṣṭhira’s reputation is diminished rather than enhanced.
Footnotes