In this episode, we’re doing a story about a crow that is really a supernatural being in disguise. And that is Jayant, the son of Indra – the King of the Devas. We recently met Jayant a few episodes ago on the episode about Garuda where he swooped in for the grand finale helping to rescue a pot of amrit or nectar of immortality. Some of you wanted to hear a story about Indra’s son. And so here we are. We’ll do a story from the Ramayana! And separately we’ll also see one possible explanation for the origin of the Kumbh Mela. And that has something to do with the pot of Amrit as well.
Some Ramayana context
I’ll start off by giving you a bit of background on the Ramayana.
Ram was the crown prince of the kingdom of Ayodhya. But he was forced into exile, along with his brother Laxman, and wife Sita. The trio lived in forests and stuff. They managed to fight off one danger after another. Until one day Ravana, the King of Lanka kidnapped Sita. He took her away to Lanka while Ram and Lakshman were distracted.
The brothers searched for Sita but without much success until they met Hanuman. Hanuman is a Vaanar or a monkey, and with some amazing superpowers. He crossed the Ocean to Lanka by flying across it. The super-vaanar found Sita in Ravana’s palace garden.
That wasn’t the entire story and that wasn’t the full context, but that should be sufficient for today’s story to make sense. I do recommend that you check out the previous Ramayana episodes on the show though. Check out the links in the show notes for that.
Sita recounts a story to Hanuman
This story occurs before Sita’s abduction, but it is actually recalled by Sita to Hanuman. They were in Ravana’s palace garden where Hanuman had sneaked in the quiet of the night.
They were past the introductions, and they had exchanged jewelry – rama’s ring for sita’s earring, that way each could be sure that Hanuman had met the other. Sita had also refused to ride back to Ram on Hanuman’s back. She said that was a little bit like sneaking out the back door. She wanted Ram to come in through the front door and take her back with her honor and pride intact.
Hanuman was about to take off, but then Sita stopped him. Wait, Hanuman. I should tell you a story that is known only to Ram and myself. Only then can he be sure that you met the real me.
Hanuman was taken aback. “But I have your earring!”
Oh pfft, that 24k gold earring with inlaid rubies and the “hey ram” inscription could belong to any Princess who shopped at the Royal Ayodhya Jewelry Bazaar. Or I could just be Ravana’s queen in disguise who has stolen this from Sita.
I have to admit, Hanuman said, your “Missing” poster isn’t an exact likeness. I mean your left eyebrow on the poster is about a 10th of an inch longer.
I have a much better idea, Sita suggested. How about I tell you a story. A story of a picnic. Only Ram and I know about it.
Happier days
Hanuman wanted to say that he had places to be, he had trees to uproot, a city to burn down. But he decided to wait and hear out Sita.
It was a happier time in their lives. It was just Ram, Lakshman and Sita in the Chitrakoot forest. Oh yes, there were about a thousand Rakshas and Asuras, but none of them were really frightening. Ram and Lakshman had no trouble with any of them. So far. Ravana would arrive on the scene later, but for now all was good.
The ideal picnic spot in Chitrakoot
It was a nice pleasant day when Sita woke up and looked out of the window. The skies were clear, birds were singing, in Disney style, a pair of Deer, a couple of rabbits and a couple of sparrows were prancing and singing on lush green grass. The weather was perfect for the idea she had. She had been checking her calendar 3 times a day waiting for this day. And now it was finally here.
Guess what day it is, she asked Ram and Lakshman.
I smell porridge, so it must be Tuesday. Mumbled Lakshman.
But Ram too knew exactly what Sita had in mind. It was the midpoint of their 14 year exile. It was exactly 7 years since they had left Ayodhya. Which meant they had only 7 more years before they went back.
There was a lot of patting each other on the back and congratulations, and I knew we could do it and so on. But there was one more decision. They needed to celebrate. So Ram and Lakshman would be taking the day off from Asura extermination. Sita suggested a picnic, and the brothers loved the idea! They packed a whole bunch of sandwiches in a nice picnic basket.
Lakshman said he even knew exactly the spot. And when they got there, Ram and Sita could see why Lakshman had chosen it. There was a clear stream, the water was bouncing over colorful pebbles. There was a little waterfall nearby and the current position of the Sun meant there was a beautiful rainbow. Oh look, Sita said, pointing towards many trees full of ripe fruits.
In short everything was perfect. Well, on second thoughts, it was only close to perfect. It turns out they had forgotten to bring along a couple of things. They had no weapons with them, and they had forgotten the picnic basket. The weapons didn’t matter, Ram thought. They had done several perimeter sweeps of this area before. If any Asuras visited here, they should have detected those.
Lakshman was positive that he had definitely brought along the picnic basket. He couldn’t have misplaced it, he thought. Aloud he said Maybe it was the pesky bear that Ranger Singh warned about when we were entering Jellystone National Park.
Jellystone, what is that? Ram asked.
It’s what I call this place. Lakshman replied. Jellystone National Park. The water is so cool and the pebbles are so soft, they almost feel squishy. So I thought Jellystone is a good name.
A crow hops by
But the missing pic-a-nic basket made no difference. There were more than enough fruit trees. It was actually better than eating bread sandwiches. They had their fill of the fruits. They swam in the water. And finally they lay down on the grass, sprawled out in the afternoon sun. It had been a perfect day!
But when things are going perfect, that’s when fate decides to intervene. It intervened this time in the form of a Crow. But it wasn’t just an ordinary bird, like those sitting in the trees and singing melodiously. This was no ordinary Crow. This was Jayant.
It hopped on the ground and got closer and closer to the sleeping Ram and Sita. You could see that the Crow had its pick of toes to pick on.
Ouch!
It picked one of Sita’s. I’m not a crow. If I was, I might have understood why Sita’s toes seemed more attractive to peck at than Ram’s. But that’s precisely what the crow did. Sita let out a loud cry when the crow’s sharp beak pierced her little toe.
Lakshman was off in the distance, swimming near the loud waterfall. He heard nothing, but Ram sprang up in alarm. He’d been having a dream. A nightmare really except this was during the day. In his nightmare, he dreamt that a 10 headed villain was carrying Sita off, and Sita was screaming for him. Ram’s first thought when he woke up was a tiny bit of relief that Sita wasn’t being carried off by a 10 headed evil guy. Imagine that, who has 10 heads anyway? No wonder it was a dream.
Ram intervenes
But his relief was immediately replaced by concern. He had definitely heard a scream. He looked around swiftly and saw Sita lying down nearby clutching her toe, which was bleeding. A crow was nearby. It didn’t take a Sherlock Holmes level investigative genius to tell what had happened here. The Crow’s sharp beak was dripping with blood. And Sita was in pain. The crow had crossed a line here.
Ram reached for his bow and arrows and then suddenly realized that it wasn’t there. Of course they had forgotten to bring it along on the picnic!
The Brahmastra
The Crow meanwhile was crowing about how he had quite a story to tell his children and his grandchildren in the years to come.
Ram quickly picked up a blade of grass. At which the Crow laughed. What are you going to do with that blade of grass? Give me indigestion?
But Ram was an avatar of Vishnu. If the Crow thought Ram needed actual physical weapons on his person all the time it was badly mistaken.
Because all Ram did was chant something quickly under his breath. Immediately the blade of grass changed into a Brahmastra. At this point, if you’re not familiar with what a Brahmastra is, let me clarify. An astra is a projectile weapon, like an Arrow. A Brahmastra is a special kind of projectile weapon that has extreme superpowers. Think of it as a missile that is capable of destroying everything, potentially even the entire Universe. Once it locks on a target, it will pursue the target across space and time and escape is impossible except if the person launching it decides to do something about it.
No prizes for guessing who created this incredibly destructive weapon. Who else but my dad, Brahma the creator of the Universe? That should not be a surprise given Brahma also did other things like granting superpowers to Ravana and several other Asuras.
The Crow pursued
The brahmastra chased the Crow. Finally realizing the danger it was in, the Crow shot up into the air. But the Brahmastra was right behind. The supernatural crow flew far and wide and then high up into space, but the supernatural weapon was always close behind.
The Crow flew past Mars, past Phaeton, past Jupiter. The Brahmastra followed closely. In the sudden turn of things, a part of the Brahmastra brushed a little bit against the planet Phaeton, which led to it breaking into millions of pieces. And that is why, people, today you have an asteroid belt in that spot instead of a planet.
Anyway, the Crow could not think of a place to go. And it couldn’t go any faster. Soon it was going to run into Einstein’s special relativity law.
Back to Ram
Just then the Crow remembered Episode 171 of this show where something similar happened to Durvasa when he was pursued by Vishnu’s weapon. And Ram was an avatar of Vishnu, so that must mean that the weapon could be called off if he begged for forgiveness.
The crow flew straight towards Ram without any kind of slowdown.
Ram forgives
Ram meanwhile had finished bandaging Sita’s foot. Luckily it’ll heal just fine in a couple of weeks, he told her. Just then the Crow appeared on the scene.
The Crow asked for help.
Someone coming to Ram for forgiveness, is sure to get said forgiveness. But the Brahmastra? It was too late to revoke it. It was going to hit the Crow exactly where he had aimed it – in the Crow’s eye. But the best Ram could do under the circumstances is to limit the blast radius so to speak. But it would affect all crows, not just Jayant.
So the Brahmastra did hit the crow in the eye, but the Crow survived. It did have a bit of an impact though. The crow was blind in one eye. That is why, when a Crow looks at you or anything else, you’ll see it’s doing that with just one eye.
I thought you said only Ram and you know about it. What about Jayant? Hanuman asked.
Sita thought about this but not being able to counter this, she said, wow look at the time. It’s almost time for me to sit under the mango tree and continue to pine away for Ram.
Jayant helps during the Sagar Manthan
The Kumbha Mela is a pretty major pilgrimage and festival in India. It is celebrated in 4 locations and in a cycle of about 12 years. Why specifically just 4 locations? That has something to do with the Sagar Manthan or the churning of the ocean.
The Sagar manthan was an experiment at the cosmic scale! We’ve covered it in great detail in Episode 51, 52, and 53. But the summary if you missed those episodes is that the Devas and the Asuras worked together to produce Amrit or the nectar of immortality from the Ocean of milk. But first a lot of challenges had to be overcome. Including a very poisonous substance. Luckily Shiva the Lord of Death helped with that particular challenge.
A grab for the Amrit
But when all the problems were overcome, and the Amrit emerged from the Ocean of Milk everyone made a grab for it. Now you have probably heard about Mohini, Vishnu’s avatar, and how she tricked the Asuras so only the Devas got the Amrit. But before Mohini’s intervention the Asuras had actually grabbed the entire pot. That’s when Jayant, the son of Indra, the King of the Devas swooped down in crow form and carried the pot off. This was not the only time Jayant had done this. If you heard the recent episode on Garuda, you’ll remember a similar incident where Jayant sneaked the Amrit from the clutches of the Nagas.
The Asuras did not give up. They pursued Jayant.
Accidentally spilled
In the quick turns and other aerial maneuvers that Jayant had to take to avoid the Asuras, a little bit of Amrit may have spilled and landed on the ground. This happened in precisely 4 places – Haridwar, Nashik, Ujjain and Prayag. And that is why those sites now very famously host the Kumbha mela.
That’s all for now
Some notes on the show
I should point out that in the original story, the Crow is not directly identified as Jayant, just that he’s a son of Indra. But we know from other contexts that Jayant was the son of Indra, so it wasn’t hard to put 2 and 2 together to make 5.
The main activity that attendees participate in in the Kumbha mela is that they dip themselves in the holy waters at those 4 locations. Each of those places is next to one or more rivers. People believe that they can wash away their sins. It’s strictly a spiritual cleansing only. If you know about the toxic levels of pollutants dumped in our rivers, you’ll see why it is too much to expect a physical cleansing as well.
The Brahmastra is an unusual weapon. I know some people like to make the analogy with nuclear weapons. But that analogy would not be fair to the Brahmastra which is a lot smarter, more powerful and capable of very precise targeting. Let’s just say it’s not possible to explain it with 2022 technology. Practically all of the appearances of the Brahmastra are in the Ramayana or the Mahabharata. Rama himself uses the Brahmastra a few more times.
In the Mahabharata, I had something to do with the Brahmastra. It was one of the only times that two opposing Brahmastras were launched against each other. Let’s just say that I stopped it, or rather slowed it down while I brokered a deal between the two warring parties. There was also a Brahmastra involved in Episode 15 Rishi vs Rishi Un-Civil War
Crows, in Indian mythology, are thought to be a messenger bridging the gap between the living and the dead. That leads to some interesting traditions, including one particularly in Maharashtra where, during cremations, crows are offered food. If they peck at it, it means the recently departed person has, shall we say, moved on in the afterlife.
Valmiki was the author of the Ramayana. We covered his origin story in Episode 6 – Fish Highwayman
The Ramayana kicks off in Episode 7 – Kingdom by Horse. Episode 15 – Rishi vs Rishi: Un-civil war! and Episode 16 – Six….teen Flags are about Rama and Laxman’s encounter with Vishwamitra
A flashback to Dasharath’s past is in Episode 24 – Promises made, hearts broken
Ram, Laxman, and Sita begin their exile in Episode 30 – Banished! and continue it in Episode 41 – Forest Life and Episode 64 – The First Kidnapping of Sita
They encounter Shoorpanakha in Episode 78 – Ramayana – An Indecent Proposal
We have also covered three episodes that aren’t part of the main storyline but feature some central Ramayana characters:
Hanuman’s origin story is in Episode 25 – Up, Up, and Away!
Episode 55 – Saturnine is about an encounter between Shani and Ravana.
Episode 81 – Ramayana – Wolverine Claws is the origin story of Ravana and Shoorpanakha.
And Episode 92 – Ramayana – Shanta is the story of Ram and Laxman’s sister – Shanta.
Episode 101 – Ramayana – A Wild Stag Chase explained how Ravana engineered a diversion so he could abduct Sita. In Episode 112 Ram and Laxman got their first hint of what had happened to Sita and also were told that Sugriva could help them
In Episode 118, Ram and Laxman learned more about Sugriva and Vali’s rivalry before finally meeting Hanuman and ensuring Sugriva’s victory in Episode 125 – Ramayana – Sugriva and Vali. Hanuman met Sampati in Episode 132 and then crossed the ocean in Episode 142 and infiltrated Lanka in Episode 156 and burned it down in Episode 168.
Vali was the character of the Week in Episode 21. And Jambavan in Episode 2.
Jatayu and Sampaati’s story is in the Character of the Week section of Episode 11.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’re going to do a folk tale from Bihar. It features a Prince who is an expert at stealing all kinds of valuables, horses, jewelry but especially the heart of a princess.