Originally posted by: sashashyam
My dear Saumya,
Here I go again. It is becoming like a ping pong match!
I agree completely with you when you say that a knowledgeable, cohesive and educative discussion is quite rare, especially these days when the focus is very often on the externals rather than the internals. So when I say that I am delighted to have discovered you, so to speak, it is a major understatement. And there is always so much to learn. We have a saying in Tamil - I do not know if you know the language - Kartratu kallalavu, kartraathatu malaialavu. What one has learnt is like a pebble (stone), what one has not learnt is like a mountain. So I am always on the lookout for those from whom I can learn something.
Your explanation for the origin of the puranas is impeccable, and the Panchatantra would also fit, in a somewhat diluted fashion, into the same pattern. My Sanskrit is rudimentary, but my mother is a Sanskrit scholar, and I doubt if even she was able to go into the full depth of the original philosophical treatises of Hinduism.
I also understand your interpretation of the reason for which even the Lord at times stoops to adharma, but I cannot accept it It still riles me, the argument that one can deal with an adharmi be adopting adharma. I do not agree with that - whether it is Lord Rama and Vali, or Narayan and Jalandhar - for that makes one no different from the adharmi. Nor did Mahatma Gandhi, who always insisted that the means were as important as the ends.
Narayan should have been able to think of some other way to tackle Jalandhar, instead of ruining Vrinda completely by deceit. Just think of how she would have felt when the truth dawned on her that it was her lifelong aaraadhya Narayan who had done this to her. Even more than what had happened to her, the fact that He had done it would have been awful to take. No wonder she killed herself.
I had never thought of weight being given to the origin and inherited sanskaars of each of the panchakanyas, when considering their relative merits. It is a very striking argument, and I must discuss it with my mother, who will be greatly interested in it.
As for curses, where would our mythology be without them, and the grand champions of the art, like Rishi Durvasa? It is the curse option, preferably safely ensconced in another long gone yuga, that solves most present puzzles: Dasharatha being cursed to suffer putraviyogam when he is dying. Mahadev being cursed that he would have to cut off the head of his own son,the list is endless!đ
Coming to Sita and her origins, you would be interested in two unusual takes on her that I ran into, about 25 years apart,
The latest version of the Ramayana, which is being telecast for the past 10 months, once a week, on Sundays, on Zee TV and Doordarshan (far preferable of you can get it, as it is pop up free). In it, curiously enough, they failed to follow the aiteeham about Sita being found in a furrow that Janaka was ploughing - for as you would of course know, seena means to plough, whence her name Sita. She was probably found during a puja for a good harvest; when it must have been thought auspicious for the king to plough the first furrow. But they skipped her babyhood altogether, and even her lifting the Shiva dhanush was mentioned only in the conversations.
In Thailand, where they have a slightly modified version of the Ramayana called the Ramakien, they also have this ceremonial first ploughing, but it is not by His Majesty King Bhumibol, though he presides over the ceremony. The actual ploughing is done by the Agriculture Minister, and he goes three times round the perimeter of the field behind two bullocks. Then, the bullocks are led to a place where there are 7 large bowls filled each with a different grain, and allowed to eat whatever they prefer. Depending on which grain/grains the bullocks choose, the royal priests, who are all originally from India, make a prediction about the coming harvest. They invite the diplomatic corps to attend this function, and I used to go regularly; it was fun.
I have also, as a junior diplomat. watched a 10 night performance of the Ramakien in 1982, as part of the 200th anniversary celebrations for Bangkok. Their decor was fabulous and the vanar sena was fantastic.
There is something even more interesting, but from India this time. I do not know where in India you are originally from, but if it was Tamil Nadu, you might have at least heard of this. Anyway, there was a very famous play called Lankeswaran, of course with Ravana as the central figure, produced and acted in by a noted Tamil theatre personality called Manohar. This was over 50 years ago, and I saw the play when I was schooling in Chennai (then Madras). Ravana was shown as a very great scholar, which he was. And, hold your breath, Sita was his daughter, from whom he had to be separated because of, what else, a curse. So he puts the baby Sita in a gold box, travels underground, and places the box in the field where Janaka later finds her. The whole of the Sita apaharan was thus, in this radically different version, an attempt by Ravana to get his daughter back with him.
The play was hugely successful, so much so that for the rest of his long theatrical innings, he was always known as Lankeswaran Manohar. I wonder if such a totally different take on the Ramayana would go down as well today. People are much quicker these days to react to any real or imagined slight to their traditional beliefs.
I am sure Valmiki's Sita, and also the Sita of the Kamba Ramayanam in Tamil, would both have been stronger than this present one. I have grown to love the Parvati in DKDM, but then Parvati, and her various avatars as the Nava Durga, are all powerful and at time ferocious. It is only she, from the feminine trinity, who is worshipped as Shakti, and ranked not only at par but at times even above Shiva. Just like our matriarchs at home in the old days. I very often used the example of Shakti when speaking to Western audiences, who are grounded in the Adam's rib concept, and it always went down very well with the ladies!đ
The second unusual take on the Ramayana was in the Philippines, where I was the Indian Ambassador about 20 years ago, in my first such assignment. Now the Philippines is a staunchly Roman Catholic country (over 90%) and most of what is left, in the southern island of Mindanao, is Muslim. So one would not have expected to find yet another version of the Ramayana there. But there is one, which has come up to the main island of Luzon from the south, in fact all the way from Indonesia up thru Mindanao.
This version is called the Radiya Mangandari, and I have watched it as a play in Tagalog, the Filipino language of the masses, like Pali in ancient India, for over 3 hours, with an interpreter. It was fascinating, Have you read Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Golden Compass? If not, well, there is, in this trilogy, the concept of a daemon, a kind of alter ego, for every human,and this can take the form of an animal, like an otter or a silver fox or a snake. The same concept is used in the Radiya Mangandari. What Ravana does there is to capture Rama's daemon, and shut it up in a bottle. Deprived of his alter ego, the noble Rama becomes a common, garden variety of brutal conqueror, having lost all sense of dharma. It is Sita, shown throughout as a very strong woman, who rescues Rama's alter ego and sets it free to rejoin him, thus also restoring him to his original self. Very curious and very hatke, and so, when they wanted to take it to India, I had to gently dissuade them, as I was very unsure of the popular reaction to the way Rama was shown for a good part of the play. I felt sorry about that, but all things considered, it was the sensibleonly thing to do.
My personal favouriteis the feisty and fiery Draupadi, the sakhi of Lord Krishna, who could hold her own against any man and often did so. The 1988 Mahabharata had a splendid Draupadi in Rupa Ganguly. Bengali women have that special fire in them. I could not watch the 1986 Ramayana, but I did not like what I saw later of Deepika Chikliya as Sita. This Sita is not quite up to par, being a watering pot for a good bit of the time.
There is going to be yet another version of the Mahabharatha on Star Plus fairly soon, though the second one, by Ekta Kapoor, which was noteworthy only for the Greek style, flowing costumes and little else, the acting being execrable (I abandoned it after a month) crashed and burned about 2 years ago. Some people are gluttons for punishment! Let use see what this one is like. They need to get their casting just right, as in DKDM and the Rama, Lakshmana and Ravana in the new Ramayana. Especially Draupadi and Lord Krishna.
I will of course visit your FB page for your miniatures, and will revert. I am also sending you a PM with my personal e-mail id, so that, if it is all right with you, we can shift to that. I promise not to write such loo,,ong epistles to you every day!đ
Most affectionately yours,
Shyamala
appreciate your interest in mytho!!
Bindi
Udne Ki Aasha
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
