Jabali (Sanskrit: ) is a character in the ancient Indian epic Ramayana. A learned Brahmin priest and an advisor of Dasaratha, he unsuccessfully tries to persuade Rama to give up his exile, using rational arguments.
Attempt to persuade Rama[edit]
In Ramayana, Rama abandons his claim to the royal throne and goes on a 14-year exile, in order to help his father keep a promise. Rama considers his decision as his dharma (righteous duty), necessary for his father's honour. In Ayodhya Khanda, Jabali accompanies Bharata to the forest, as part of a group that tries to convince Rama to give up his exile.[1]
Jabali uses nihilist reasoning to dissuade Rama from continuing the exile. He states that those give up artha (material pleasures) for the sake of dharma suffer in this life and meet extinction after their death. Showing further disbelief in the concept of afterlife, he criticizes the shraddha ritual, in which people offer food to their dead ancestors. He calls it a wastage of food, and sarcastically suggests that if food eaten by one person at a given place could nourish another person at another place, shraddha should be conducted for those going on long journeys, so they would not need to eat anything.[1] However, even after listening to the arguments of Jabali and others, Rama refuses to give up his exile and extols the virtues of following the dharma.
Rama's response[edit]
Valmiki's Ramayana contains a section that describe's Rama angrily denouncing Jabali, which includes the following verses:
| Ramayana (2:109:34)[2] | Translation by Ralph T. H. Griffith[3] | Translation by Shyam Ranganathan[4] | Translation by D. H. Rao & K. M. K. Murthy[2] |
|---|---|---|---|
| My father's thoughtless act I chide | I denounce the action mentioned below, of my father, who picked up you as his councilor-priest, a staunch unbeliever, who has not only stayed away from the path of dharma but whose mind is set on a wrong path opposed to the Vedic path, nay who is moving about in this world with such an ideology conforming to the doctrine of Chaarvaaka, who believes only in the world of senses as has been set forth in your foregoing speech. | I accuse the act done by my father in taking you into his service, you with your misleading intelligence, a firm atheist fallen from the true path. (2-109-33) It is an exact state of the case that a mere thought deserves to be punished as it were a thief and know an atheist to be on par with a mere intellectual. Therefore he is the most suspect, and should be punished in the interest of the people. In no case should a wise man consort with an atheist. (2-109-34) |
In these and subsequent verses, Rama becomes so angry that he denounces his own father for keeping Jabali as an adviser.[4] He accuses Jabali of being an atheist, and states that those following the nastika path deserve to be punished. In the subsequent verses, he emphasizes the importance of following the dharma. Jabali then retracts his statements, saying that he was merely arguing like a nihilist to convince Rama to come back, but he is not actually a nihilist.[5] Vashistha supports Jabali, stating that he was speaking in the interest of Rama.[6]
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