{ Anand Sagar's Ramayan AT #4 } - Page 35

Originally posted by: shalini28

hello girlss

Originally posted by: JanakiRaghunath

Swagatham Swagatham Shaliniji.🤗😆

Originally posted by: shalini28

dhanyavad jankiji

Originally posted by: JanakiRaghunath

Sukhi bhava, sahodari.😎

Originally posted by: shalini28

ok ok I give up😆 coz I am not so strong hindi yaar.😆

Originally posted by: JanakiRaghunath

Neither am I honey, I'm not even a hindi person. I'm telugu.🤣

Btw, we were talking in sanskrit, not hindi.😉

Originally posted by: JanakiRaghunath

Thanks a lot Krishna, both for liking the sig and for the retweet.🤗 Btw, how far have you gotten in Ramayan?😉

Originally posted by: Krishni51

Others...

1)Why Sumant was driving the chariot...He was the Minister I think!

Anyways no prob. even Krishna did that for Arjuna... I actually don't know why Sumant was shown driving the chariot...maybe someone else can answer this! But he was a pretty loyal minister and maybe wanted to serve the King personally. I don't know.

2)They showed Sage Vasishta refering to 'son' not chidren...pitty! That's because Dashrath was not childless. He was literally desiring a son only because he had no heirs after him. He had a daughter with Queen Kaushalya long before Ram or his brothers were born. That daughter, Shanta Devi, was given in adoption to Dashrath's friend, Maharishi Romapad. Here is the story as per wikipedia. I know wikipedia is generally not a reliable source, but it tells the story of Shanta Devi accurately so I'm posting it here.

Shanta is a character in the Ramayana. She was the daughter of Dasharatha and Kausalya, adopted by the couple Rompad and Vershini.^[1] Shanta was a wife of Rishyasringa.^[1] The descendants of Shanta and Rishyasringa are Sengar Rajputs who are called the only Rishivanshi rajputs.

[edit] Life

Shanta was a daughter of Maharajah Dasharatha and Kausalya, but was adopted by the king (rajah) of Angadesh, Raja Rompad, and her aunt Vershini, an elder sister of Kausalya. Vershini had no children, and, when at Ayodhya, Vershini jokingly asked for offspring. Dasharatha agreed to allow the adoption of his daughter. However, the word of Raghukul was binding, and Shanta became the princess of Angadesh.

Shanta was educated in Vedas, Art and Craft, and was considered to have been very beautiful. One day, while her uncle, the king Rompad, was busy in conversation with Shanta, a Brahmin came to ask for help in cultivation in the days of the monsoon. Rompad did not pay attention to the Brahmin's plight. This irritated and enraged the Brahmin, who left the kingdom. Indradev, the god of rain, was unable to bear the insult of his devotee, so there was little rainfall during the monsoon season. The Rajah called Rishyasringa to perform yagya, he agreed to perform yagya and during the recitation of it, it rained heavily. The public rejoiced and there were festivals in Angadesh. To pay honour to their saviour, Dashratha, along with Kausalya, Vershini, and Rompad, decided to give the hand of Shanta to Rishyasringa.

As Dashratha had no children after Shanta, he wanted a son to continue his legacy and to enrich his royal dynasty. He called Rishyasringa to perform a putra kameshthi yagya to beget progeny, and as the consequence of the said yagya were born: Rama, Bharata, and the twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna.^[2]

This is why Vasishta was referring to 'son' and not 'children'. Dashrath had a daughter already but needed an heir to carry on his name after he died. So the putra kameshti yagna was done to beget a son.

Doubts...

Janaki or anyone here...I will be glad if you answer my doubts...

1)Does Putrakameshti refer only to boys or male child?????? Not necessarily...it can be performed for female children too. I think in the Mahabharat, King Drupada performs this yagna for both a son and daughter. He wanted a son to kill Dronacharya and a daughter to be able to give in marriage to Arjuna. So this yagna can be done for either gender, but the parents must make up their mind which gender they want.

2)If so why didn't King Janaka perform it????????? I don't know why Janaka didn't perform it, but I think at that point in time the Kingdom of Mithila was suffering from famine, so he did a yagna to appease the rain God. Sita was found when ploughing the Earth for that yagna. You will see this story later on in episode 5, and it explains the birth of Sita very well.

3)If boys only can succeed the vansa then why didn't King Janaka pray for sons?? I don't think Janaka really cared whether he had sons or daughters. He was a King but a saint in mind. It's written in Devi Bhagawatham that King Janaka was a great yogi and felt his life become blessed after raising Sita as his child. He had no ambitions or desire to have heirs for his kingdom. Also, King Janaka had a brother called Kushadwaja and Kushadwaja may have had sons. This fact is written in no source but this Ramayan shows that Kushadwaja had two sons after Mandavi and Shrutakirti. If that is true than those sons could have inherited Mithila, so it was not necessary for Janaka to have sons after his daughters.

4)Why did King Dasharath marry 3 women???????If that was for the sake of children then how silly!!!!!!It is something one sided...Don't they know that there is role of man in child birth,I mean problem can be on either side...so how can they change the wife for the reason of childlessness?????? We must remember that back in those days, people may or may not have known that childlessless can be the consequence of either partner. Generally the woman was expected to be fertile and if she had no children, it was blamed on her. The real reason that Dashrath had no children before the yagna was that he was cursed as a prince to become infertile. Also, polygamy was a popular practice in those times before Shri Ram instilled the ideal of eka patnivrata. Having more than one wife was not looked down upon and was even encouraged by society since having more than one wife would give a King more heirs.

5)Weren't the rishis and Tapasvis who had great vision of everything in this universe aware of this truth???If they know why didn't they advise them regarding that???????? The rishis knew everything, but they never tampered with fate. They knew when was the right time for King Dashrath to have sons. Although they knew everything that would happen in the future, they advised him only when the time was right. Shri Ram could not be born too soon. If he was born even before Ravan, that would change the whole course of the Ramayana, wouldn't it?😆

See though Dashrath did that way ultimately these women gave birth to children without his role !!!😊 I guess you can say that, but the putra kameshti yagna was performed both by Dashrath and Kaushalya, so credit for the rite goes to both. Also, some sources say that this payas was divine and the Queens produced children without the physical 'help' of Dashrath, whereas other sources say that this payas made the Queens fertile so that when their husband came to them, they were able to conceive despite their old age.😳