the bow's story - post 3

[Guest guest]

Post 3

Dear srivaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

We saw that due to indhran and naaradhar, there was a fight between siva and

vishNu with two newly made bows. Parasuraamaa continues to tell how he got

vishNu chaapam [vishNu dhanu:] and janaka's ancestors got siva dhanu:

 

[1. Please note in baala kaaNdam sargam 75 slokams 14, 15 talk about brahma

acting as the starter of the fight between siva and vishNu.

2. Here in slokams 16 and 17 the fight reaches crescendo and result is also

achieved.

3. Only thing at whose instance this fight started is missing. Perhaps that gap

is filled in other puraanams - that is what we saw through the swamy mentioned

in earlier post].

 

Now see slOkam -

 

virOdhE thu mahath yudhDham abhavath rOma harshaNam || 1-75-16

sithi kaNtasya vishNO: cha paraspara jaya EshiNO: |

 

virOdhE + thu = in animosity but

mahath + yudhDham + abhavath = fierce war occurred

rOma + harshaNam = hair raising one

sithi + kaNtasya = blue throated sivaa's

vishNO: + cha = of vishNu also

paraspara + jaya + EshiNO: = each other victory aspiring [for himself]

 

meaning: Owing to their animosity, then occurred a fierce and hair-raising war

among siva and vishNu, as each aspired victory for himself.

 

thadhaa thu jrumbhitham saivam dhanu: bheema paraakramam || 1-75-17

hum kaareNa mahaadhEva: sthambhithO atha thrilOchana: |

 

thadhaa + thu = then but

hum + kaareNa = by 'hum', sound [vishNu's war-whooping]

bheema + paraakramam = ruinously overpowering

saivam + dhanu: = siva's, longbow

jrumbhitham = yawned [fatigued, broken]

atha + thrilOchana: + mahaadhEva: = then triple-eyed MahaadhEva;

sthambhitha: = became motionless [frozen]

 

meaning: But, then, with the war-whooping 'hum' Vishnu ruinously overpowered the

longbow of siva and broke it. The triple-eyed god mahaadhEva became motionless.

 

dhEvai: thadhaa samaagamya sa rishi sanghai: sa chaaraNai: || 1-75-18

yaachithou prasamam thathra jagmathu: thou sura uththamou |

 

dhEvai: + thadhaa + samaagamya = by gods then coming together

sa + rishi + sanghai: + sa + chaaraNai: = with sages' assemblages with

chaaraNaas yaachithou = appealed;

prasamam = appeasement

thathra = there [in that matter of wielding authority]

jagmathu: = went into [state of amity]

thou = those two [siva, vishNu];

sura + uththamou = gods, superior among.

 

Meaning: Then came together are the gods, along with the assemblages and

celestial chaaraNaas, and when they appealed for appeasement in the matter of

wielding authority, those two superior gods, siva and vishNu, went into a state

of amity.

 

jrumbhitham thath dhanu: dhrishtvaa saivam vishNu paraakramai: || 1-75-19

adhikam mEnirE vishNum dhEvaa: sa rishi gaNaa: thadhaa |

 

thath + saivam + dhanu: + dhrishtvaa = that sivas's bow on seeing

jrumbhitham = breakage of

vishNu + paraakramai: = by vishNu's mettle

thadhaa + dhEvaa: = then on gods

sa + rishi + gaNaa: = with sage assemblage

vishNum + mEnirE + adhikam = vishNu deemed paramount

 

meaning: On seeing the breakage of sivaa's bow by the mettlesomeness of vishNu,

from then on the gods along with the assemblages of sages, deemed vishNu to be

the paramount.

 

Point: Incidentally this point also comes handy to solve thia anya dhEvathaa

aaraadhna worship. For many a times this point crops up in the lists. Since this

slOkam is in sreemadh raamaayaNam itself, and said by none else than

parasuraama, at least hereafter, I hope doubts if any will be quashed to all.

 

dhanoo rudhra: thu sankrudhDhO vidhEhEshu mahaayasaa: || 1-75-20

dhEvaraathasya raaja rishE: dhadhou hasthE sa saayakam |

 

mahaayasaa: + rudhra: + thu = celebrated rudhra but

sankrudhDha: = with indignantion

dhanoo + sa + saayakam = longbow with arrow

vidhEhEshu = among vidhEha [kings]

raaja + rishE: = to kingly sage

dhEvaraathasya + hasthE + dhadhou = in dhEvaraathaa's hand handed over

 

meaning: But that celebrated rudhra was with indignation. He handed over that

longbow, which is already fitted with unloosened arrow, into the hand of the

sagely vidhEha king, namely dhEevaraatha.

 

Point: Perhaps, dear bhakthaas, you can recollect the following slOkam [covered

in post 1] where janakar, father of seethaa, said "my ancestor, by name

dhEvaraatha, got this bow from siva after the dhaksha yagnam".

 

dhEvaraatha ithi khyaathO nimE: jyEshtO mahee pathi: |

nyaasO ayam thasya bhagavan hasthE dhaththO mahaathmanaa || 1-66-8

[for meaning refer post 1]

 

Point: Here you may also ask why you are saying so much on this bow. For there

is an interesting side story, which says seethaa as a six year old just pushed

this siva's bow like a play thing. When reported king janakar became surprised

that she is so mystically powerful and must have an equally powerful or better

husband.

 

This story is again quoted from the same site referred in post 2. Of course I

heard from other sources that padhma puranam has slokams, which gives the

following content. Sorry, I am not able to quote the slOkams.

 

Quote--

Devarata got Shiva's bow and he kept it in the palace as a worshippable object.

In this way it was coming down in the family, and this Janaka we are dealing

with was also worshipping the bow. He did not have any children, so they

suggested to him to do a hola-yajna. You take a plough and draw a line around

the palace. When you move the plough, it will get stuck in the mud, and every

time it gets stuck you have to donate gold to the priests. And every movement

you make it will get stuck, so you have to give gold. When all the Brahmins are

satisfied, you move it again and when it gets stuck you have to get more gold.

In this way you are giving a lot of charity and you are getting a lot of

blessings so you will get children.

 

So Janaka was doing this, moving the plough and giving gold. In one place it got

stuck, and after giving all the gold, still the plough would not move on. "There

must be some big rock there," everybody said, so they dug and found a box. And

inside the box was a baby, a female baby, and she looked just like Laksmi. She

was known as Janaki, the daughter of Janaka, and she grew up in the palace.

 

She was six years old. Janaka had a brother, and he had three daughters. So

these four daughters were running around and playing at the palace. Once they

made a stick with a hook on it to take some flowers from the trees. So Janaki

was trying to get it, but somehow or other there was a mystic tree there, and

whenever she reached up, it grew more. Somebody was in that tree. So Janaki

could not get it and she was the only daughter of the emperor, so she was very

frustrated. "I want to get it, and I know what I will use to get it." She ran

into the puja room, and in there was this big bow inside a box. She opened the

box and took the bow in her hands, and then she walked outside with the bow.

When the soldiers saw her they all swooned. Three hundred people were supposed

to push the cart, and this little girl was holding the bow. Whoever was able to

stay conscious ran to Janaka and said, "Do you know what's happening? Your

little girl is holding Lord Shiva's bow!"

 

"Send this man to the doctor," Janaka said. "There's something wrong with his

head."

 

Then another lady came and said, "Yes, yes, it's true! And if you want to see it

come quickly.""What's wrong with these people?" Janaka said. Then he called his

doctor. "Supply 1000 lemons to the palace. And put at least 500 lemons on these

people's heads, to cool them down." And then Janaka's minister came running and

said, "No, it is no joke. I just saw it myself."

 

This time Janaka said, "It must be true," so he came running, and the last thing

he saw was Janaki lifting the bow into the box. Then she came towards Janaka as

if she had done nothing. When questioned by Janaka, she innocently said that she

had performed no great task. But Janaka had seen it happen, and he went to his

ministers and said, "My daughter must be haunted by some big brahma-rakshasa

ghost, more powerful than Lord Shiva. Otherwise how is it possible that she is

able to lift it?" So then the ministers thought over it and said, "Janaka, we

think that your daughter is Maha-laksmi. From all the symptoms of her bodily

features, we can understand that she is none other than Laksmi. And if she is

Laksmi, then naturally her Lord is Narayana. Now your problem is, how are you

going to get Narayana to marry her? There is no Narayana here."

 

Then Janaka came up with an idea. He said, "Anyone who can take this bow and

string it will marry my daughter." All the ministers laughed. They said, "In

this way your daughter is going to remain unmarried. Because who on this earth

has the strength to do this?"

 

Janaka said, "Narayana obviously knows that Lakshmi is here. He is not going to

leave her unmarried. She is not going to take some woman sannyasa or anything.

No. Narayana must come here." So everyone was shocked. They were saying, "What

is this man doing? This is as good as saying, `No-one can marry my daughter." -

unquote.

 

The author of www.valimikiramayan.net <http://www.valimikiramayan.net> site also

gives a comment as follows for slOkam 18 and 19 in sargam 66 of baala kaaNdam.

 

This bow of Shiva will be transported on a wheeled casket-cart with eight wheels

and drawn by five thousand robust persons. This is narrated in next chapter. 'It

is drawn by drawn by five hundred bulls...' aananda raamayana says so. In other

versions of Ramayana, it is said that many people will pull that casket-cart, as

one or two persons cannot haul it. Once, when Seetha was playing with other

girls, their flowery ball of girl's rugby goes under this cart. None of her

girlfriends is dare enough to near this bow-casket-cart, since it is a

reverential casket-cart. But Seetha goes there and pushes that casket-cart aside

with her left hand, as though it is a garland, and retrieves that flower ball.

This capability of Seetha in easy handling of Shiva's bow, becomes a bane to

her, when one among the wives of sapta rishi 'Seven Sages...' issues a curse to

Seetha, saying that 'Seetha will be separated from her husband for some time, of

course, for the good of people...' So says the tradition.

 

We will continue the "bow's story" in next post as again the length is growing

more.

 

Dhasan

 

Vasudevan m.g.