Episode 24 – Promises made, hearts broken

This week, we’re back into the Ramayana. We’ll talk about two events King Dasharath was involved in that had a big impact on Ram’s life. We’ll see why it’s a good idea to wear a protective orange vest when walking in a hunting zone. We’ll also see that if you are making unconditional promises to someone, you should be careful to see who else is listening in on your conversation.

The character this week is a wolf, who is excellent at tracking down stolen cows. And who taught humans that cows can be a good source of milk and butter!

So we’re back again in the Ramayana. Appropriately so, since this Thursday we’ll be celebrating Ramanavami, which is Ram’s birthday.

We’ll cover two events, both of which happened to Ram’s father King Dasharath. These happened much before Ram was born but greatly influenced his life.

Chronologically they happen before Episode 7 “Kingdom by Horse”, but they fit in right after Episode 16 “Six…teen flags”, you know to avoid spoilers and stuff.

The first incident in Dasharath’s life was on the battlefield. Dasharath was accompanied by Kaikeyi, to whom he had recently been married. And by that I mean they hadn’t even had the chance to remove the “Just Married” sticker from their chariot. And they weren’t really sitting together as a couple on their honeymoon would. Instead the bride was driving the chariot!

Now, all this was by design. Kaikeyi was a princess who’d grown up with lots of chariots and horses in her playtime. She’d outperform her 7 brothers pretty much all the time. So naturally when Dasharath announced that he’d to go on a work trip traveling by horse-drawn chariot, she naturally was eager to jump into the saddle and go along. And it’s a fortunate thing for Dasharath and Ram that she did.

Because it turned out Dasharath wasn’t winning this battle. His army was pretty quickly overwhelmed by the rain of arrows from the enemy. One of the arrows even hit Dasharath.

And that was *before* the chariot axle broke. Kaikeyi, the horse whisperer, whispered a command to the horses, and they instantly obeyed her speeding up and dodging enemy chariots. With the chariot on auto-pilot, Kaikeyi leaned out the side and used her hand as an axle replacement. Ordinarily, that would have had quite a gruesome outcome but during her childhood, a visiting Rishi had granted Kaikeyi’s wish of having a hand as hard as “diamond”.

Kinda like Colossus from the X-Men comics and movies, but just her hand not her whole body.

Kaikeyi escaped with Dasharath back to his palace. She nursed him back to health.

When he did recover – his first reaction was one of thanks. Kaikeyi had saved his life and nursed him back to health. Surely, that deserved something.

“I am going to make two very unconditional promises right now. Ask for anything, Kaikeyi. It shall be yours”

“Geez. You make it sound like saving your life and nursing you back to health are on par. Saving your life should count for more than just taking care of you while you got better. I hope you’re not making promises like those to your Doctors and nurses!”

“Uh. Too late I already spoke the words, I’m honor-bound now” Dasharath said.

“Okay fine. If you insist. I’ll redeem my first wish right now, I wish for a 100 more unconditional promises!”

“Oh… ah” mumbled Dasharath shuffling his feet

She said “Okay then. Just make me the Queen of the land. Abdicate in my favor”

“Oh… but” started Dasharath.

“LOL! Relax, I’m just pulling your leg. You can keep the administrative work yourself. I’m happy to live in the palace and ride chariots now and then”

Dasharath breathed a sigh of relief. He did write her a couple of IOUs though.

Only one other person knew about the promises. And that was Mantara. She was Kaikeyi’s nurse back from when Kaikeyi was born. She had an agenda of her own.

Kaikeyi kept the IOUs in her safe. And there they lay, forgotten for decades.

That’s the first incident. Those IOUs may seem harmless right now, but they’re a bit like Chekhov’s gun. They’re going to appear on the scene at a later date to a much more dramatic effect, effectively as catalysts for the rest of the Ramayana.

The second incident happened in a forest near Ayodhya.

Shravan was just a regular boy who lived in a village nearby. He was the sole breadwinner in his family. His parents were both old and blind. Shravan was utterly devoted to them and would take care of their slightest wish. 

When his parents sensed that they had not long to live, they decided that it was about time for them to go on a road trip. A pleasure trip isn’t what they had in mind. They believed that a trip to all the holy sites around the country would purify them in preparation for the afterlife.

When they mentioned this to Shravan, he was more than happy to take them on the trip. Quite literally, as it happens. Shravan’s parents couldn’t walk, and Shravan could not afford a cart. So he did the next best thing. He made a shoulder sling for himself with a woven basket at each end. He helped his mom and dad into a basket each and carried them. As I’m sure you can imagine. It was hard work in the hot Indian summer. But Shravan kept going and pretty soon they entered the forest. His parents had both gone thirsty then and asked Shravan for some water. Seeing as Shravan had been carrying two adults, he hadn’t the capacity to also carry water for the journey. He would have to find water here. 

“That shouldn’t be hard” he thought. “The Sarayu river is quite near and I can even hear it”. He asked his parents to hold on. It didn’t make sense to carry them to the river and back again. Instead he’d go quickly and fetch water for them.

His parents waited but it was going to be a long wait.

Shravan made his way through the forest to the river. Of course he was thirsty from all the heavy lifting. He stopped to drink water himself.

Meanwhile, in the forest Dasharath was hunting. Dasharath had the ability to fire an arrow by sound. He didn’t have to see the target, he could simply hear it and hit it. Just like Ram did in Episode 16.

That’s what he did. As he scanned the area around him, he suddenly heard a deer or something drinking from the river. Was it reckless to fire an arrow at a target he couldn’t see? Maybe. But then he could collect the deer and go back home in time for lunch. He fired the arrow without thinking too much. And he was sure it hit the target because there was a sound. Unfortunately, it was not the sound of a deer. Dasharath rushed to the river to discover his arrow had exactly hit the source. Perfect marksmanship. But, it wasn’t a deer. It was Shravan. Dasharath quickly held the boy and tried to see what he could do to make him better. “Medic” he screamed, but it was too late. It was a mortal wound, there was no hope for Shravan now. Dasharath asked the dying boy if there was anything he could do for him.

“Yes” gasped Shravan, pointing into the woods. “My parents over there are thirsty. Please take them some water” and that’s the last thing he ever said. Dying, his last thoughts had still been focused on his parents’ comfort.

Dasharath was extremely remorseful. He’d committed a huge crime. His job as King was to protect his people. And yet, he was responsible for the death of this subject of his. How was he going to face the parents of this boy he’d just killed?

He had to do his duty though. He collected some water from the river and took it to Shravan’s parents. The parents though blind could instantly sense that something was wrong. Shravan had taken far too long. And these weren’t his footsteps they were hearing.

Dasharath delivered the bad news right away and was honest with them about his role in the boy’s tragic death. He’d killed their boy accidentally. The parents were both devastated.

Dasharath tried to console them and offer them the water again, but they weren’t having it.

What was the point of water when they’d lost the one person who cared about them. There was no point in going on from then on, they had nothing to look forward to.

They did one thing though. They cursed Dasharath. He would be separated from his son, and he would die longing for him.

Still remorseful for his action, Dasharath did what he could to help them. But Shravan’s parents did not survive very long without their son.

Dasharath thought of the curse for long after. He certainly regretted his actions, but as he had no sons at the time, he could not help but wonder that the curse would not really apply to him.

Little did he know….

That’s all I have for now.

Notes

Kaikeyi has a big role to play in what happens next.

In one version of the Shravan story, Shravan’s mother is related to Dasharath. But that narrative doesn’t really work with the rest of the story.

The road trip that Shravan’s parents wanted to go on – its really a thing. It’s practiced to this day. There are lots of those sites that people go to.
Here’s a list
And here’s a map

The Character of the Week

The character this week is a wolf, who is excellent at tracking down stolen cows. And who taught humans that cows can be a good source of milk and butter!

Sarama is a wolf, or maybe a dog. Thousands of years ago, there wasn’t much to distinguish between the two anyway. Sarama was the mother of all dogs. She was the royal dog/wolf of heaven. So when some demons stole the divine cows, she was called into action to track down the cows, since as everyone knows dogs and wolves have a keen sense of smell. She tracked the cows by the smell of their milk. Why the demons bothered to milk the cows as they were transporting them wasn’t very clear. But this helped Sarama track down the cows.

She quickly led Indra, the King of the gods to the cave where the demons were hidden. Indra made quick work of the demons and the cows were restored.
The fact that Sarama followed the scent of the cows’ milk is supposed to have inspired humans to try consuming cow’s milk. And just like that, the dairy industry was born!

That’s it for this week. 

Next Week

Next week we’ll cover a couple of tales from the life of yet another Ramayana character. And that is Hanuman. Hanuman is the equivalent of Superman. He’s got extraordinary powers with a more interesting origin story than his Kryptonian comic book equivalent. And yet, he helps others selflessly at great risk to himself.

The character next week is a person from the same court of Emperor Akbar and Birbal, but who sometimes got the better of both of them! Surprised? Tune in next week to find out

I’ll see you next week!