Ramayana

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How Poetry was Born from Hindu Dharma

There is no tonal variation in poetry as there is in Vedic mantras. The

unaccented poetic stanza corresponding to the accented Vedic mantra owes its

origin to Valmiki, but its discovery was not the result of any conscious effort

on his part.

 

One day Valmiki happened to see a pair of kraunca birds sporting perched on the

branch of a tree. Soon one of the birds fell to the arrow of a hunter. The sage

felt pity and compassion but these soon gave way to anger. He cursed the hunter,

the words coming from him spontaneously:"O hunter, you killed a kraunca bird

sporting happily with its mate. May you not have everlasting happiness".

 

Manisada pratistham tvam

 

Agamah sasvatih samah

 

Yat krauncamithunadekam

 

Avadih kamamohitam

 

Unpremeditatedly, out of his compassion for the birds, Valmiki cursed the

hunter. But, at once, he regretted it. "Why did I curse the hunter so? " When he

was brooding thus, a remarkable truth dawned on him. Was he not a sage with

divine vision? He realised that the very words of his curse had the garb of a

poetic stanza in the Anustubh metre. That the words had come from his lips,

without his being aware of them himself (in the same way as he had, without his

knowing, felt compassion and anger in succession), caused him amazement.

 

It occured to him that the stanza he had unconscioussly composed had another

meaning. The words aimed at the hunter were also words addressed to Mahavisnu.

How? "O consort of Laksmi, you will win eternal fame by having slain one of a

couple who was deluded by desire. " Ravana and his wife Mandodari are the couple

referred to here and ravana was deluded by his evil desire for Sita. Sri Rama

won everlasting fame by slaying him. Without his being aware of it, the words

came to Valmiki as poetry. Realising it all to be the will of Isvara, the sage

composed the Ramayana in the same metre.

 

The "sloka" (without the Vedic tonal variation) was born in this manner. Valmiki

was filled with joy that he had come upon the sloka as a medium that facilitated

the expression of the highest of thoughts in a form that made it easy to

remember like the Vedas themselves.

 

Prose is not easily retained in memory, not so poetry composed in metrical form.

That is why in ancient times everything was put down in verse. Prose developed

[in any significant sense] only after the advent of the printing press after

which books began to be produced in large numbers for ready reference, obviating

the need to memorise everything.

 

However it be, in conveying an idea or a mesage (or in imparting information)

poetry has greater beauty and greater power. The Ramayana was the first poetical

work, hence its name "Adikavya". We recieved the gift of the birth of various

metrical forms used in the hymns to various deities, in the Puranas and in other

poetical works.