December 19, 2020
Another faceoff this time -- between
Vali and Sugriva. The eldest, Vali is blessed with a boon to suck out half or
more of the energy from his opponent. And being exceedingly strong, Vali eventually
gets strung up on himself. The story is well known so I won’t repeat it; but
the character that stands out is the woman in the spotlight: Tara. She
is said to have emerged from the churning of the ocean – sagara madhanam.
This happens between two factions born of the same father: suras (the good
who lack the strength) and their step-folks, asuras (the strong who lack
goodness). Indra, the principal sura, rewards his son, Vali with Tara. This nepotistic
streak extends to him giving his son the aforesaid boon as well.
After beaten to pulp and spared, Sugriva
returns to challenge Vali. Tara persuades her husband to think through what made
his brother come back – what energy did freshly embolden him. She doesn’t hesitate
to praise the opponent, Sugriva -- his sagaciousness despite his cowardice to face
his brother. A wife here becomes a good friend and counsel who provides the
much-needed level-headedness in a heated moment. Of course, Vali looks the
other way and dies. And before he leaves, he advises Sugriva to always listen
to Tara as:
न हि तारामतं किञ्चित्
अन्यथा परिवर्तते
Nothing hardly ever happens different
from what Tara foresees. This is the very thing that Vali didn’t heed to -- strangely,
such wisdom is almost always an afterthought.
Several arguments abound as to if Vali’s
death was dharmic. One claim is for a vanara and so being less of
a human, the dharma is different -- it was totally legit to knock the
money-king down in hiding. Now, what makes him partially human is moot
but Sugriva’s actions, post he becoming the king of Kishkinda provide some
clarity. He is supposed to have married Tara (refer to the side note ahead) and
with newfound opulence, Sugriva gets immersed in lecherous activities. English doesn’t
do justice here but the word used in Sarga 29 is beautiful:
मन्दधर्मार्थसङ्ग्रहम्
Relaxes dharma and artha
and by extension, gets lost in kama. It is this very indulgence that
Tara explains later to Lakshmana, when he flares up at Sugriva’s forgotten promise
to help Rama reach Lanka. Lakshmana is coming towards Sugriva as a ball of fire
and Sugriva hides behind Tara who takes the centerstage. She tells Ramanuja
that after years of leading a miserable life, Sugriva found this new opulence and
is lost in it. And he did this after sending for all vanaras to be
fetched to fight the mighty army of Ravana. Of course, she does praise Lakshmana’s
virtues in this process he is said to have calmed down. Saraga 33:
तस्थावुदासीनतया महात्मा
Udasina has a modern meaning of dullness but
used here to mean calming. Now confrontation with Tara takes away a good amount
of genuine anger and this may be the allegorical meaning of what Vali is said
to be taking away from his opponents. In fact, we can make a segue here into
Thermodynamics if we wish to. Energy flows from a hotter body to colder one and
is not reversible – second law of Thermodynamics. I’ll leave the idea for here now and revisit in a separate post.
Finally, I cannot let go of this anecdote
that crossed my mind. There’s a creative literary process, possibly exclusive to the Telugu language, called AVADHANAM. Anyone (called a prucchudu)
can string words and ask a learned Avadhani to come up with a poem, couplet or any
literary form using these words, off the cuff and almost instantaneously. These
words are often unrelated, sometimes coarse and rarely, are spiced up with
varying meanings. A very famous Avadhani was Karunasri (stage name for
Jandhyala Pappayya Sastry). I better write this is Telugu. Please bear with me –
it may sound very improper but you shall reap.
This was what was given to Karunasri
to finish. Horribly absurd and outright vulgar in its literal meaning. But
Karunasri beautifully twists it to imagine Tara’s plight seeing her husband
down on the battlefield.
She chides Vali that even after pleading him to not to war with Rama and that he would be gloriously defeated, he turned away from her advice. And then seeing that Vali fell (koo langa) to the Ramabanam, the kuranga netra (the one with kuranga (deer or monkey) eyes or Tara) picks him and pets his tail (langoolam). For a monkey, the tail is the most beautiful part that needs to be decked up and maybe the reason, Ravana asks Anajaneya’s tail to be set on fire.
Tara is a standout in this entire
episode for me!
A side note on widow remarriage to bro-in-law or Polyandry
Let me just call it remarriage here. Getting
into these murky waters not to take sides but learning things as it is. Personally,
I’m totally against this. There’s an unusual stress in texts across the world to
progress one’s own clan – be fruitful and multiply. Dharma may allow you
to do it for having children and is thought as Niyoga (for a very
purpose)! But to dissociate lust from this act is not generally possible for common
folks like me.
Manu Smriti is not timeless and
applicable to any situations in any age though. I think it tries to cover as
many human situations and aberrations as possible, to account for what is the
valid way to get through a certain situation. In chapter
9, verse 190, it seems to mention in passing, marrying a sagotra (someone
with the same gotra or near relations in a way and by extension, a
brother-in-law) to beget kids to pass the property of the deceased husband. The
very purpose is to preserve the property -- indicating this remarriage
is essential to avoid litigation and keep the family together.
But an interesting condition is prescribed
here: husband deceased without leaving an issue. Vali, in his last moments
(Sarga 22 of Kishkinda Kanda), supremely praises his wife and asks Sugriva to
seek her counsel in all matters. Now, if this points to him asking his brother
to take his wife or seek her wisdom is moot. In any case, Tara by some accounts
becomes Sugriva’s consort. So Vali is said to have allowed this without issue.
Ages later, a notorious string of episodes happened in England. In 1501, the 15-year-old
Catherine married Arthur, the brother of the future English king, Henry VIII.
Arthur dies in 1502 and later, she preps to marry her brother-in-law, Henry.
Now one scripture (Leviticus) forbade what’s called a Levirate marriage (the
brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow) but other (Deuteronomy
or Moses’ law) allows it again to further the tribe but not driven by any sensual
pleasures. So, an authority like pope steps in, supposedly reconciles and gives
a dispensation to allow the marriage of Catherine and Henry VIII. Of course,
Catherine cares any less and testifies that the marriage with Arthur was never
consummated, so she is free to remarry. The papal sanction is fraught as Henry
VIII was known to be a lecher – so the law shouldn’t have been applied in the first
place. But politics and religion are strange bedfellows.
Now, very sadly, Catherine undergoes six pregnancies but no children survive. Henry, ever a lecher, asks for annulment of the marriage citing the very law of Deuteronomy -- that he turned childless because he married his brother’s wife. Henry gets the divorce by this strange logic and goes onto court other women. Catherine for her entire life, more sadly, refers to herself as the legit wife of the King. From today’s vantage point, it is so very depressing to see how women were subjected in these matters. But again, Tara was quite an astonishing character who just wasn’t level-headed and wise, but also helped defuse so many situations.
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