Musings on sita's agni-pravEsam#4

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Dear Sri.S.H.Krishnan and other members who are following this thread,

 

It is time for us to commence examining in detail the scene of the

"agni-pravEsam" as depicted in the Valmiki Ramayana.In doing so we must be

willing to flex our imaginations a bit so that the vividness of the

situation comes alive.

 

****** ****** *******

The war in Lanka had ended. It was a misty morning when the sun had not yet

quite risen in the eastern skies. From atop a hillock Rama looked at the

aftermath of the furious battles fought in the past weeks.

 

The killing-fields of Lanka presented themselves to Him in all their gory

detail. Blood flowed in the streets. The earth lay scorched and scarred....

and the torn limbs of soldiers scattered everywhere....Ruined remains of

chariots dotted the landscape like sombre shipwrecks on a deserted

beach.... the reek of rotting flesh --- of dead battle-horses, bears and

elephants --- filled the air.....

 

Everywhere Sri.Rama turned He saw nothing but death, dismemberment and

destruction wrought by His own hands.

 

As he walked through all the mayhem and casualty, the stunned Prince of

Ayodhya heard the painful moaning of the grievously wounded ...and the

dying.The wailing of dead men's mothers and wives rang in His ears,

hounding and following Him everywhere on His post-battle tour of the

island-city.

 

His own dear "vanarA-s" lay dead in the thousands.... unknown, unsung

heroes who'd martyred away their lives for a cause that was really not

their own.....

 

It is reasonable to assume that in those early hours in the aftermath of

the Lanka war Sri.Rama may have been assailed by a momentary but profound

sense of despair not unlike the black mood of depression which, at another

time in another age, overcame Arjuna at the commencement of the Kurukshetra

war. The cruel wages of a war of His own making after all, Sri.Rama

realized, had been dearly paid for by countless innocent families --- both

"vAnarA" and "rAkshasa". Thousands had been bereaved. Thousands more

needlessly dragged into a collossal, monumental tragedy for no real reason

other than that they were the loyal subjects of either Ravana or Sugriva

and hence had had to follow their respective sovereign into a bloody

war.... and unto bloody death.... "theirs not to ask why, theirs but to do

and die"....

 

In those grim, anguished moments, we should imagine, Sri.Rama may well have

soliloquised :

 

"What has this war been really about? To redeem the honour of the IshvAku

House? To save the name of Dasaratha? Or my own? Why, oh why then did this

war have to be fought by these poor "vAnarA" infantry? Why, why indeed, did

these apes and bears, these poor denizens of the forest, have to be used by

me as so much cannon-fodder? This was a war that ought to have been fought

between "rAkshasa" and the citizenry of AyodhyA. The ranks in my army here

ought to have been filled with the hordes of men who followed Bharatha

across the Sarayu into Chitrakoot. Would those my kinsmen from Ayodhya have

set forth to spill blood on my behalf as readily, gladly and as

unquestioningly as these beloved "vAnarA-s" have done?"

 

"If this war had been won with my own clansmen from Saket fighting by my

side it would have earned them the glory of their kingdom and restored for

them the sovereignty of their King and Queen. But what has this victory in

this war now earned for these poor "vAnarA-s"? Nothing....

 

"What have I done? Oh, rue me, what have I done? I have done nothing but

bring death and despair to the countless innocent families of Kishkinda

......all in the name and for the sake of my honour and that of my absent

kinsmen....Oh, what have I done...?".

 

*********** **************

**************

Far away from where Rama stood, and deep in the interior of Lanka, in the

thick woods of the Ashokavana, Sita too awoke to a new day thinking that

the news of her Lord's victory would cheer her withered heart. Strangely,

at precisely the moment when her cup of joy ought to have brimming over,

not unlike Rama she too felt in her heart the numbness of a familiar but

overwhelming sadness. She too knew about the death and destruction that had

been dealt to all Lanka by a war that had been fought for and over her.

 

Many days ago she had had a foreboding of this very moment when a more than

human tragedy would befall Lanka. It filled her with grief that her

premonition had to come true on the same occasion when she won her personal

liberation.

 

"yAdhrshAneeha dhrshyanthE lankAyAma-shubhAni vai I

achirENaiva kAlEna prApsyAmyEva manOraTham II

 

"noonam lanka hathE pApE rAvanE rAksha-sADhamE I

shOsham yAsyathi durDharshAm pramadA viDhava yaThA II

 

"noonam rAkshasa-kanyAnAm rudantInAm gruhE gruhE I

srOshyAmi nachirAdEva duKhArthA-nAmiha Dhvanim II

 

"sAnDhakArA hathadhyOtha hatha-rAkshasa pungavA I

Bhavishyathi pUrI lanka nirdAgDhA rAmasAyakai-hi II "

 

( Valmiki Ramayana -- V . 26, 26-27, 29-30)

 

"This city which is now stricken by so many omens of evil will in a short

time lose her splendour. As a woman reduced to widowhood, so will Lanka be

when her lord Ravana is destroyed. In no time will this city soon hear the

piercing shrieks of grief echoing from every household, for in every house

shall a 'rAkshasa' have gone to battle and failed to return home."

 

We shall continue in the next post.

 

adiyEn dAsAnu-dAsan,

sudarshan