Ramayana of Valmiki and Kamban-Kishkindha kanda-4.Rama promises to kill Vali

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4.Rama promises to kill Vali.

 

Sugreeva

entreated Rama to help him who is afraid of Vali and retrested to Rsyamooka

mountain. Rama promised to help him and to kill Vali.Valmiki remarks that the

left eye of Ravana, Vali and Seetha throbbed at the time when Rama said this.

Left eye throbbing for a woman portends good luck while it is vice versa for a

man.

 

Kamban

describes the promise of friendship by Rama as follows:

 

mattrini

uRaippadhennE vaanidai maNnil ninnai

 

chethravar

ennaicchethraar: theeyarE enilum unnodu

 

uttravar

enakkum uttraar, un kiLai enadhu, en kaadhal

 

suttram

un suttram:neene innuyirtthuNaivan enRaan

 

This

means,

"

What more need be said? Your enemies on heaven and earth are my enemies and

your friends, even if wicked are my friends, your relatives are my relatives

and my dear wife is related to you dear wife is related to you and you are my

dearest friend."

 

Sugreeva

told Rama about seeing Seetha when she was carried away by Ravana, crying

piteously calling Rama and Lakshmana by name and that she dropped down her jewels tied in her upper garment seeing Sugreeva on

the hill. Sugreeva then brought them and showed it to Rama who was in grief seeing them and tearfully told Lakshmana to

see them. The reply by Lakshmana is the famous oft-quoted sloka-

 

naahaam jaanaami keyoore naaham

jaanaami kundale

 

noopure thu abhijaanaami nithyam

paadhaabhivandhanaath

"I

do not recognize her armlets nor her ear rings. But I do recognize her anklets

due to my falling at her feet everyday."

 

These

words are poignant because it brings to the mind both the devotion of Lakshmana

to Seetha as his own mother, as told by his mother Sumithra, maam vidDhi janakaathmajaam, "know

Seetha as myself," and also the unkind words Seetha uttered to him to make him

go to Rama.

 

But

Seetha had no ill will towards him and spoke thus only to make him go, as

otherwise he would not have budged an inch away from her. Both Rama and Seetha,

being incarnations of the Lord and His consort, were acting their part to

fulfil the avatharakarya and it was

essential for Ravana to carry her off in order to bring his destruction. Ravana could not have carried

Seetha against her wish. She could have burned him in an instant as she herself

remarked later in Sundarakanda. All this was by divine will.

 

But

nevertheless even the Lord and the divine mother had to obey the law of karma

even though they do not have any karma. The law of karma is that one should

experience the result of one's deed. The Lord was cursed by Narada once that He

would be separated from His consort and the Lord took it in true spirit and

played the part of the separated husband in ramavathara. Similarly Seetha opted to enter the fire after Rama rebuked her

in Yuddhakanda, as a result of her wrong done to Lakshmana.

 

Rama

asked Sugreeva to tell him the identity of the demon who carried away Seetha

but Sugreeva said he did not know anything about him but he would definitely

help Rama to retrieve Seetha.

 

Then Sugreeva started telling Rama about his own

plight. Vali, elder brother of Sugreeva and the king of monkeys, fought against a demon called

Mayavi the son of Dhundhubhi, who was already killed by Vali. Sugreeva went to

help his brother. When Vali entered into a cave chasing Mayavi he told Sugreeva

to wait outside. But after waiting for one year, , not seeing Vali come out and

seeing blood flowing out Sugreeva feared that Vali was killed and closing the

entrance of the cave returned to Kishkindha where he was crowned as king by the

people who believed that Vali was dead.

 

But

after that Vali returned and got angry with Sugrreva who, he thought, had deliberately

closed the entrance of the cave so that he can be the king. Even though

Sugreeva fell at his feet and asked forgiveness Vali confiscated his wife and

drove him away. Sugreeva roamed around everywhere out of fear from Vali and

finally came to the Rsyamooka mountain where Vali could not come. Dhundhubhi

was a mighty demon and the whole world including the devas were afraid of him

He was looking for a fitting opponent to fight with and all the devas like

Varuna and Indra told him that they were not his equals and directed him to

Vali. Dhundhubhi went to fight with Vali who killed him and threw his carcass

one yojana away and it fell within the region of the asrama of Mathanga rshi,

who got angry and cursed Vali that if he sets his foot in rsyamooka his head

will break into thousand pieces. That was the reason Sugrreva took shelter in

rsyamooka.

 

Sugreeva

described the power of Vali who used to go to all the four oceans for his

sandhyavandhana everyday. Sugreeva pointed out seven saal trees and said Vali

used to agitate each one in turn and expressed his fear whether vali could be

killed by Rama and said that if Rama could pierce one of the seven trees with his

arrow and if Rama could kick the skeleton of Dhundhubhi , who was in the form

of a buffalo and make it fall at two hundred bow length, it would instill

confidence in him that Rama could kill Vali. He said that he did not intend to

test Rama or to insult him but his fear of

Vali was so great that he wanted to make sure.

 

Rama

only smiled and said that he would certainly create confidence for Sugreeva in

his ability and kicked the skeleton of Dhundhubhi with his big toe and made it

fall 10 yojanas away and pierced the seven trees with a single arrow. Then Rama

told the overjoyed Sugreeva to go and call Vali to fight.