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2 - Śambūka’s Earliest Death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2024

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Summary

Near the end of the Rāmāyaṇa, Rāma returns to Ayodhyā to be installed as king after fourteen years of exile to the forest. His reign brings with it a long-awaited era of peace and prosperity. However, that peace is eventually disturbed when a Brahmin father brings the body of his dead son to the palace gates. The Brahmin questions how such a thing can happen, going so far as to accuse Rāma of failing to live up to his kingly responsibilities. Rāma becomes distressed and calls a meeting of his closest advisors. One among them, Nārada, explains to Rāma that when society loses sight of dharma as the ages progress, the birth-based system of societal segregation—the cāturvarṇya or system of four varṇas—begins to break down. By the time of the final age, known as the Kali Yuga, the lowest of these varṇas, the Śūdras, will begin to do the work of Brahmins, the highest of the varṇas. Nārada specifies that only in the Kali Yuga will a Śūdra be able to practice very intense austerities (tapas). Before that time, practicing of tapas is a crime for a Śūdra. Indeed, Nārada identifies the cause of the Brahmin boy's death as being a Śūdra engaged in tapas on the outskirts of Rāma's kingdom. He tells Rāma to survey his kingdom and rid it of all wrongdoing, including this errant Śūdra. Rāma obliges and, after traveling throughout his kingdom, finds an ascetic hanging upside down from a tree on a mountainside in the southern reaches of the Ayodhyā kingdom

Then, going near to the man engaged in difficult tapas, Rāma said these words to him—“You are virtuous, O Great Ascetic.

“Of which birth are you, O Resolute Ascetic? I am asking you out of curiosity. I am Rāma, the son of Dasá ratha.

“What objective do you desire from practicing such difficult tapas? I wish to hear, O Ascetic.

“Are you a Brahmin? Prosperity be to you. Or are you an unconquerable Ksạ triya? Or are you a Vaisýa? Or if you are a Śūdra, tell me so truthfully.” (VR 7.66.14–17)

He heard the words of Rāma—resolute in his action—and, with his head still hanging down, he said this—

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Śambūka and the Rāmāyaṇa Tradition
A History of Motifs and Motives in South Asia
, pp. 21 - 56
Publisher: Anthem Press
Print publication year: 2023

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