Wanderings of a pilgrim in search of the picturesque, Volume 2 (of 2)

by Fanny Parkes Parlby

6. PARASHU-RĀMA.

The epithet parashu, distinguishingly prefixed to the name of this Rāma, means a battle-axe. Among the avataras of Vishnŭ are recorded three favoured personages, in whom the deity became incarnate, all named Rāma,—Parashu-Rāma, Bala-Rāma, and Rāma-Chandra, and who are all famed as great warriors, and as youths of perfect beauty. Parashu-Rāma was born near Agra; his parents were Jamadagni, whose name appears as one of the Rishis, and Runeka. Jamadagni, in his pious retirement, was entrusted by Indra with one of the fourteen gems of the ocean, the wonderful boon-granting cow, Kam-dhenū or Surabhi; and on one occasion he regaled the Raja Diruj, who was on a hunting party, in so magnificent a manner as to excite his astonishment, until he learned the secret of the inestimable animal possessed by his host. Impelled by avarice, the cow was demanded from the holy Brahmān; and, on refusal, he attempted to carry her away by force, but the celestial cow, rushing on the Raja’s troops, gored and trampled the greatest part of them, put the rest to flight, and then, before them all, flew up triumphantly to heaven. The enraged tyrant immediately marched another army to the spot, and Kam-dhenū being no longer on earth to defend the hermit, the holy man was massacred, and his hut razed to the ground. Runeka, collecting together from the ruins whatever was combustible, piled it in a heap, on which she placed her husband’s mangled body; then, ascending it herself, set fire to it, and was consumed to ashes. The prayers and imprecations of a satī are never uttered in vain: ere she mounted the funeral pile, to strengthen the potency of her imprecations on the Raja, she performed also the ceremony of Naramedha, or the sacrifice of a man; thereby rendering her solicitation to the avenging deities absolutely irresistible.

Kam-dhenū, on her journey to Paradise, stopped to inform Parashu-Rāma, who was under the care of Mahadēo, of the cruel conduct of the Raja to his parents; to whose aid he immediately flew, but arrived only time enough to view the smoking embers of the funeral pile. The tears rushed down his lovely face, and he swore by the waters of the Ganges that he would never rest until he had exterminated the whole race of the Khettris, the raja-tribe of India. Armed with the invincible energy of an incarnate god, he commenced his career of vengeance by seeking and putting to death, with his single arm, the tyrant, with all the forces that surrounded him; he then marched from province to province, every where exerting the unerring bow Dhanuk, and devoted the whole of the military race of Khettri to death. After a life spent in mighty and holy deeds, Rāma gave his whole property in alms, and retired to the Kokan, where he is said to be still living on the Malabar coast.

I have an illuminated picture of this avatar representing a single combat between Parashu-Rāma and the tyrant Diruj: the Raja is represented with twenty-two arms, three of which, having been cut off by Rāma, have fallen to the ground, the remaining nineteen he is brandishing about. In the upper part of the picture is represented the cell of the hermit, in front of which Jamadagni lies dead, and the holy cow with golden horns and golden wings is flying through the clouds.

7. RĀMA-CHANDRA.

Rāma-Chandra, son of Dasarathu, and conqueror of Lankā or Ceylon, was the seventh avatar; when the deity descended for the purpose of destroying Rāvana, who having obtained (for his devotion) a promise from Brahma that he should not suffer death by any of the usual means, was become the tyrant and pest of mankind. The Devatās came in the shape of monkeys, as Rāvana had gained no promise of safety from them; hence, Hanumāna was Rāma’s general. Rāma-Chandra’s mother’s name was Kaushalyā. His younger brother, Bharata, was son of Kekayī, who was the cause of Rāma’s going to the desert to perform devotions on the banks of the Pampa-nadī, insisting that her son should reign the fourteen years that Rāma employed in the devotion. It was while performing his devotion (or during his stay in the forests) in company with Lakshmana (his brother by Sumitrā) that, while he was absent hunting, Rāvana appeared as a beggar, and enticed away Sītā, which gave rise to the war detailed in the Rāmayana. Sītā was daughter of Rājā Janaka, who had promised to give her to any person who could bend a certain bow, which was done by Rāma-Chandra. When in the forest, he drew a circle round Sītā, and forbad her to go beyond it, and left Lakshmana to take care of her; but Lakshmana hearing some noise which alarmed him for his brother, left her to seek him: then it was that Rāvana appeared, and enticed her out of the circle (gandī), and carried her off in his flying chariot. In the air Rāvana was opposed by the bird Jatāgu, whose wings he cut and escaped. Rāma-Chandra reigned in Awadh (Ayodhyā) before Christ 1600.

[Vol. I. page 108], contains an account of the Ram Leela Festival, and of Hŭnoomān and his army of monkeys, most important personages in the history of Rāma-Chandra; the grief of the warrior when roaming the world in search of the beloved Sītā is described [Vol. I. page 342]. As the offspring of Shivŭ, Hŭnoomān is sometimes represented five-headed. Sītā is described as “endued with youth, beauty, sweetness, goodness, and prudence; an inseparable attendant on her lord, as the light on the moon; the beloved spouse of Rāma, dear as his own soul, formed by the illusion of the deva; amiable, adorned with every charm.” She is also a favourite in descriptive poetry, and is held forth as an example of conjugal affection.

I have an illuminated picture of Sītā, Rām, and Hŭnoomān. The happy pair are seated on a couch of silver and velvet, while Hŭnoomān, on the ground before them, is gravely employed shampooing one foot of the god; behind them stands an attendant, waving a chaunrī of peacock’s feathers over their heads.

8. BALA-RĀMA.

Bala-Rāma, although a warrior, may, from his attributes, be esteemed a benefactor of mankind; for he bears a plough, and a pestle for beating rice; and he has epithets derived from the names of these implements, viz.: Halayudha, plough-armed; and Masali, as bearing a musal or rice-beater. His name, Bala, means strength, and he is sometimes seen with the skin of a lion over his shoulders. A full account of the three Ramas is given in the Rāmayana, a great epic poem, so highly venerated that the fourth class of Hindūs, the Sudra, is not permitted to read it. At the end of the first section, a promise is made of great benefit to any individual of the first three tribes who shall duly read that sacred poem:—“A Brahman, in reading it, acquires learning and eloquence; a Kshettria will become a monarch; a Vaisya will obtain vast commercial profits; and a Sudra, hearing it, will become great.”