Ramayana: A Cruise on the Waves of Curses?
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12671077
Author(s): Dr. J. Sareen
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12671077
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Ramayana: A Cruise on the Waves of Curses?
Dr. J. Sareen
Asso. Prof. in English,
Govt College, Hindumalkot, Sri Ganganagar (Rajasthan)
Article History: Submitted-17/05/2024, Revised-19/06/2024, Accepted-21/06/2024, Published-30/06/2024.
Abstract:
In the spiritual and metaphysical realms, words hold profound significance, as
vessels for conveying energies, intentions, and profound insights. The ancient Indian scriptures
gracefully emphasize this profound significance of words, recognizing them as the essence of
wisdom, conduits of spiritual energy, and carriers of timeless truths. It is a strong belief that
words become powerful, mighty, and effective when body, mind, and spirit are synthesized,
akin to the Mantra science. With noble intentions, they have hidden energy of becoming boons
and when agonized, tortured, or angered speak to inflict harm or punishment on someone, it
becomes a curse. Ramayana, the noble and ideal epic in Indian culture, also considered as
national history, uses legions of curses and boons that enrich the beauty, structural unity and
force of the story. Different characters use curses as the combatants use magical weapons called
Astras, capable of destroying planets. The main thrust of this paper will be on how word
potency and verbal purity direct Ram Katha and how curses blended in the structure of the
story make it a tragedy of fate. The place of fate and free will in one’s life is an ongoing
question in literature. This article explores the cursed realms of Ramayana to unravel the
intricate interplay of fate, morality, and divine justice. Can its parallels be drawn with Greek,
Roman, and Elizabethan tragedies? This paper examines how the story is shaped through curses
and how it would have been propelled differently if words were not considered to have the
power to elicit the supernatural. What is the relevance of this concept in the present scenario?
Can the story be considered true, as it goes against the scientific fervour of modern times?
Keywords: curse, supernatural, fate, free will, tragedy, epic.
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Ramayana: A Cruise on the Waves of Curses?
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https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10448030
Narrative techniques developed because a story matters far less than how it’s told.
1. Introduction
In the spiritual and metaphysical fabric of India, words wield immense power, serving as
conduits to transmit energies, articulate intentions, and impart profound insights. Sound and
words are deeply revered. Sound is Brahm, eternal, and a way to connect to the Supreme.
Words are like deities. Speech is personified as Vak, a form of Saraswati, Goddess of wisdom.
It is believed that words become powerful, mighty, and effective when body, mind, and spirit
are synthesized, akin to the Mantra chanting science. With noble intentions, they have hidden
energy of becoming boons and when agonized, tortured, or angered speak to inflict harm or
punishment on someone, it becomes a curse. Such words can destabilize the minds and disrupt
the order and regularity of the world. Sound and speech are interlinked with basic Indian
concepts of Karma/action (all actions and functions of the body and mind including thoughts
and words). It establishes the conditions necessary for the fruition of past actions and
determines the fate of living beings at each birth. In modern times, the concept of Karma is
somewhat explained with near approximation by Emerson in “Compensation” in which he
wrote, “Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect
already blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the fruit in the seed.”
The main thrust of this paper is on how word potency and verbal purity direct Ram
Katha and how curses blended into the structure make it a tragedy of fate and a living epic, an
epitome of model behavior. The idea is to revisit the Ramayana through the eyes of cursed
people and to ponder the question of fate versus free will. A curse is destiny and destiny is the
result of past actions/ Karma. This paper examines how the story is shaped through curses and
how it would have been propelled differently if words were not considered to have the power
to elicit the supernatural. The story of Ramayana takes many twists and turns, owing to the
curses and boons that constitute the warps and woofs of the fabric of the epic. Curse consumes
enormous energy of the person who delivers it but most of the curses come out of extreme
anger or grief. Boons become curses in the case of bad people/asuras. Another angle is that it
is the word- piercing hunting skill of King Dashrath and consequently incurred curse from
Shravan Kumar’s dying parents that a king’s simple story is turned into the saga of Maryada
Purushottam Shri Ram.
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2.Ramayana /Ram-Katha
Ramayana is “the march (Ayana) of Rama”, Rama’s journey in search of human values.
Rama’s willingness to suffer and sacrifice for the ideal of ‘Dharma’ and truth still appeals to
every Indian soul and is the reason for the everlasting appeal of the story. It has been imbued
into the country’s culture and has become a composite element of India as a Nation as it’s
difficult to separate religion and culture. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, “The work of Valmiki
has been an agent of almost incalculable power in the molding of the cultural mind of India.”
Accepted as avatars of Lord Visnu and Lord Shiva respectively, Sri Rama and Hanuman are
some of the most beloved among the divinities in Hinduism who worshipped in thousands of
temples all over the world. For many centuries, Valmiki has been known as the Adi Kavi, the
first poet, and his Ramayana is considered by many as the most ancient poem, so famous in the
Indian subcontinent that its storyline is known in nearly every house. The hero of the story,
Prince Ram, son of King Dashrath of Ayodhya, has become an incarnation of God and every
man, woman, and child in India knows the story of Ram and his fight with the demons. One
reason for this tale’s mass popularity is Ram Leela, which is played every year in all of India
especially in North India for nine days. The tenth day is Dussehra, the killing of Ravana. The
greatest festival of the year for Hindus, present at every corner of the globe, Deepawali or
Diwali, is celebrated for the return of Rama from exile after 14 years with wife Sita and brother
Lakshman after killing Ravana.
After the Mahabharata, Valmiki’s Ramayana is the second greatest Sanskrit epic
and it has influenced the philosophy, religion, and culture of India for centuries. It remarkably
influenced later Sanskrit poetry, drama, and literature, and has inspired many poets to write
their versions of the epic, among which some of the most notable are Kalidasa’s Sanskrit
mahakavya “Raghu-vamsa,” written in the 5th century C.E., and Tulasidasa’s “Rama-carita-
manasa,” written in Awadhi in the 16th century, which became so popular in North India. This
epic provides an archetype for all human creative endeavors in India and has been recreated
again and again in various literary genres and various art forms. Ram Katha is the fountain of
thousands of stories and at present, more than three hundred Ramayana exist.
Ramayana is the narration of the struggle of Prince Rama, the true heir to the throne
being the eldest son of King Dashrath who has three wives, to rescue his wife Sita from the
demon king, Ravana, when he is in exile because, young Queen, Kaikeyi, the stepmother has
got her boons fulfilled, asking the throne for her son Bharat, at the time of Rama’s coronation.
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The true origins of the story are debated, but the authorship of the epic as we generally know
it is assigned to the great sage Valmiki. According to a legend, Valmiki was a robber who one
day met a hermit who transformed him. Once upon a time, while the sage Valmiki was
performing austerities on the bank of the river Tamasa, Narada Muni appeared before him and
narrated a summary of the Ramayana, called the “Mula-Ramayana” or the Original Ramayana.
After hearing the Mula Ramayana, the sage Valmiki composed thousands of Sanskrit verses to
elaborately narrate all the incidents in this great epic. We know the incident from Valmiki
himself. The great sage, Valmiki saw the death of a bird when he was about to take a bath in
the holy waters of the Tamasa River in the early dawn. He was shocked by this cruel incident
and his heart melted out of pity. He utters the following verse unknowingly.
“मा िनषाद प्रितķाम्त्वमगम ः शाĵती समाः।
यत्क्रौन्च िमथुनादेकमविधः काममोिहतं।।”
“O hunter! you will never be respected in this world, as you have killed a bird,
which was in passionate love-sports.”
Thus, the pity of the sage was expressed in the form of a curse unknowingly. The
Ramayana was composed after receiving a boon from Brahma, the Epic became “Live” only
by the boons given to Kaikeyi by Dashrath, and has its origin in the curse given by Valmiki to
Nishath. Its origin is pathetic and Ramayana ends due to a curse, though not actually
pronounced, with the disappearance of Sita into the belly of mother-earth and she never unites
with her husband again. Maybe the Curse becomes so important in the structure of the story
because Narada related the story of Narayan to Valmiki. After all, he was cursed and Valmiki’s
birth as an author lies in his curse to Nishath.
3. Curses and Boons as warps and woofs of Ram-Katha
In the Ramayana, the curses and boons are so numerous that, one can say without any
exaggeration, that Ramayana is a story of boons or curses. They are the kingpin of the
structural pattern of the Ramayana. In the beginning Ravana’s story is in great detail that with
meditation and tapasya of many years, Ravana has got boons from Brahma, and these
unlimited boons of limited immortality have turned him into a monster and the reason for God’s
incarnation in human form as Rama. Many curses and bones are blended in Ramayana like
cause and effect. Though Curses and Boons in the Valmiki Ramayana have no independent
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existence, they are inseparably blended with the main story. If they are removed from the Epic,
it is difficult to reconcile or harmonize various threads and links of the story. Though the
devices of boon and curse are as old as humanity, and prevalent in world pieces of literature,
Valmiki employed them skilfully and has thus enriched the beauty-structural unity and force
of the Epic. Famous curse episodes, kings (Dashrath, Ravana, Vali), Devas (Indra, Rambha),
Gods (Brahma), and mortals (Ahalya) are examples of victims of Curse in Ram Katha. These
curses are integrally fabricated in the pattern of Ramayana with constraints of space, only the
curse given by Sharvan’s parents to Dashrath has been dealt with in detail in this paper as it
becomes the basis of the story development. There is a strong axis between curse and boon and
sometimes both curse and boon provide strong support to the beginning to the end and the
important events in the Ramayana. They give a flip to the web or the structure of the story of
the Ramayana. The story of the curse pronounced by Shravan’s parents to King Dashrath was
used as a flashback technique when Dashrath who was grief-stricken by the news of Rama’s
exile, narrated to Kausalya, the incident that took place in his earlier life. The Story goes like
this; There was a boy named, Shravan Kumar. His parents were old and blind and he served
them with full devotion. As their wish, when he was taking them on pilgrimage in the large
baskets attached to a sling, he carried that sling on his shoulders. During the pilgrimage, he
came to Ayodhya. When at night time they were resting in the forest, they asked for water.
Shravan left them to bring water, he went to the nearby flowing Saryu River. King Dashrath
who was a skillful word-piercing hunter, was also present in the forest for hunting. When he
heard the gurgling sound of Shravan’s pot from the river, he shot an arrow at the sound, and
soon he heard the painful groans of Shravan. He hurried to spot, and dying Sarvan Kumar
implored for the water to his parents. When King Dashrath reached there, he kept quiet and
offered water. before taking water Sharvan’s parents asked about his identity, and Dashrath
talked about the incident. The poor blind parents were so full of sorrow that they cursed the
Dashrath that as they were suffering because of their son he would also suffer the separation of
his dear son and would die from the same pain.
3.1 King’s curse and Queen’s boons
The two boons that Dashrath had given to young queen Kaikeyi had become of
extraordinary importance due to that curse in the Ramayana. Had Kaikeyi not got the boons,
the story of Ramayana would not have been as it is available today. The two boons had a
tremendous force to stir up the events and give a twist to the entire story of Ramayana. Though
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those were boons given to Kaikeyi, they were extremely terrific from the point of view of other
characters. The unlimited boon of limited immortality that Brahma gave to Ravana promotes
and fosters the boon given to Kaikeyi. The killing of Ravana was the main purpose of the
human incarnation of Rama. For that reason, it was necessary to bring Rama and Ravana face
to face. It was not possible in Ayodhya and there was no strong reason to send Rama out of
Ayodhya. Being the eldest among Dashrath’s sons, he was the rightful heir to be coronated as
a crown prince. He had also secured the love and affection of all, even that of Kaikeyi by his
conduct. Therefore, it was not easy to overlook his claim and set him aside. The story required
that Rama should go away from Ayodhya for a long time. Considering the requirement of the
story, the boons of Kaikeyi are arranged very deftly. Sufficient care is taken to avoid the
impression that the boon is suggested at the nick of time or is extraneous. Kaikeyi’s father had
compelled Dashrath to take a pledge, even before his marriage with Kaikeyi that her son would
be the next heir apparent and thus the roots of the boon were further deepened. To provide
some alibi for giving a boon to Kaikeyi. She is described to have helped Dashrath when his life
was in danger on the battlefield. There is nothing unnatural in Dashrath’s giving a boon to
Kaikeyi who had saved his life. She did not accept the boons immediately and kept them
pending with a request that the implementation of the boons would be accepted at a proper
time. She probably had no idea at that time that the boons could be exploited in that manner.
She too was delighted by the news of Rama’s coronation as crown prince and there was no
serious obstacle in the coronation of Rama as planned before. Nobody would have put any
obstacle and so Manthara was used as an instrument to give rise to Kaikeyi’s anger and fan it
further by reminding her of the boons given by Dashrath, thereby giving an unexpected turn to
the main story which would seem to be natural. It was not easy to bring about a change in
Kaikeyi’s mind because she had the same affection for Rama as she had for Bharata. This
momentous task of inflicting punishment on Dashrath for the fulfillment of grief-stricken
Sharvan’s parents’ Curse is carried out by Kaikeyi’s maid Manthara. The amazing fact about
the narrative technique of Rama’s story is that this is just one example. All other curses are
also inflicting harm by invoking the supernatural with their interrelatedness with some boon
and the question of the intervention of fate versus free will enters into the narrative.
4. Ram-Katha as tragedy
Tragedy, as developed in ancient Greece in the hands of Aeschylus, Euripides, and
Sophocles is the spectacle of man at grips with destiny, the strain of the strife too strong for
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mortal beings to handle but essentially establishes profound affirmation of life. Ram Katha
ensuing from The Ramayana, is the best example of tragedy. It is essentially tragic in the
Western sense of the term. It is not simply a tragedy. It is a grand tragedy of a brilliant epoch
consisting of numerous tragedies. The stories of its principal characters illustrate the tragic
rhythm of an action growing from their fatal flaws and ending in their fall and death. They
illustrate various patterns of tragedy developed in the Western tradition of literature and
discussed in learned works on tragedy as a literary form. The Heroic Ideal of the Western Epics
is discernible in The Ramayana, the responsibility for the sufferings of the divine characters of
The Ramayana falls to some extent upon them. Nobody is the maker or destroyer except one’s
Self.
The element of the wonderful, required in Tragedy depends on its chief effects on
the irrational/supernatural. Curses become instrumental in the part supernatural/fate plays in
human life. They are probable impossibilities; sometimes the character is not responsible for
incurring a curse. Does Dashrath accept Kaikeyi’s demands of his free will or is his fate at play?
There are a bunch of coincidences that don’t directly have anything to do with the curse, such
as young queen, Kaikey helping Dashrath in the war, his promise, and Manthra’s instigation at
the coronation of Rama. Is his shooting the arrow on Sharwan, mistaking it as a deer’s sound,
a cruel twist of fate, predetermined by a supernatural power because Lord Vishnu was cursed
by sage Bhrigu and Narad? Are the boons that have made Ravana arrogant and the consequent
curses heaped on him the reason for Lord Vishnu being cursed? The role of fate versus free
will in one’s life becomes debatable. Besides Indian commentators like Prof.Baldeo
Upadhyaya and G.K.Bhat think that no tragedy has ever been written in Sanskrit drama. The
very concept of tragedy is alien to Indian philosophy according to them, as an unhappy ending
of human life is never conceived in Hindu philosophy. Life is, of course, a continuous process
of birth and death, till it attains salvation. Death is only a temporary phase in the continuous
life of man. Moreover, the prevalent belief is that God is just and impartial, and hence good
will ultimately prosper and evil be destroyed. If a man suffers, he suffers on account of his
misdeeds or sins in his previous life. Suffering is a means to the test of man’s character and his
integrity. There is nothing disastrous in it. Thus, in the Indian context, it is an epic poem, a tool
for teaching proper behavior through the examples of Rama and Sita. Ramayana it’s not a
tragedy but an epic that uses Karun Ras (Karuna=Empathy) which ultimately results in
enjoyment. This enjoyment results in the catharsis of the turbulent emotions. According to
Angus Ross, a discussion of the nature of the narrative and the mode of narration can carry us
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to the heart of the “meaning” of a work of fiction (qt. Ramana 156). Valmiki‘s Ramayana was
written in a frame narrative, the narrative style (which Shakespeare used for Macbeth) where
Narad narrates the whole story in the beginning, and the question arises when the beginning,
middle, and is already known, why 24000 shlokas have been written in seven Sargas. The
reason is that this epic is not written in a didactic style but is in the Kanta smit style of the
Sanskrit language. He neither praises Rama nor does he speak ill of Ravana’s character. He
issues no certificates to them. He only wrote what they did, what they had spoken and what
were the consequences of their actions. There are many incidents in the Ramayana where after
getting the boons, the person becomes degenerate and then gets punished and comes back to
his senses, like Ravan and Bali.
It is up to readers to decide whom to imitate and how to end the life story. Valmiki,
the poet has used the narrative as a potent vehicle for transmitting important philosophical,
ethical, and cultural ideas. In the first Katha by Valmiki Ram is a human being with divine
qualities, over time, he becomes the incarnation of the God Vishnu. Ram Katha has been
imbued into the culture of society. Rama is perceived as a divine ruler.
After Valmiki’s Ramayana, this story has developed through the ages, several
incidents are termed as interpolations, sometimes the one incident has many versions, and over
time, many characters, and incidents have been interpreted differently. The greatest example
is the Goswami Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas which has become more popular than Valmiki
and later on the 300 versions of Ramayana and where and till now it is being written from
various angles from the point of view of various characters. It tells that reader-response theory
is working and the most interesting and exciting story is being told repeatedly.
5. Ram-Katha as an epic
The way curses and blessings regulate the main actions; lends an epic grandeur to
essentially tragic. As Mahapatra stresses in “Epic and Romance”, epic is finally a tale of
tragedy against the ultimate backdrop of destiny. But the larger context, themes, and cultural
significance established this poem as an epic. Aristotle’s statement that epic poetry has a great
special capacity for enlarging its dimensions, is seen concretized in The Ramayana, where
Valmiki has effectively comprehended almost all the aspects of life. Universally acclaimed and
accepted as the first among Sanskrit poets, Valmiki was the first to discover a metrical
expression of epic dimension and vision to match the emotional ecstasy of the story of Rama.
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That way it is difficult to find a parallel of it in the literature of the Western world. Homer, in
Iliad, covers only a part of the war of Troy which lasted for ten years. He aimed at thematic
unity, artistically acceptable magnitude, and beauty of form free from superfluities. Milton,
the great English Epic poet, narrates the aim behind writing his epic poem, The Paradise Lost
as “To Justify God’s ways to Man”. Valmiki, unlike Homer and Milton, aims at the cosmic
majesty of God pervading and transcending our universe: Obviously, it includes our terrestrial
stream with its petty socio-political and psychological conflicts and the “comprehensive
essence” of a culture at the apex of its progress i.e. “The eternal tragedy of Man- the pain of
separation from the dearer and the nearer ones.” Thereby it exhibits in addition the features of
tragedy and epic. Beyond the physical conflict lies the greater conflict i.e. a war between man
and his conscience.” According to the Bible, existence on this earth is the result of a curse.
Adam and Eve suffer because they fall short of the ideal, the ideal of Christianity. Shakespeare
writes in Julius Caesar: “Men at some times are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus,
is not our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlying.” Shakespeare’s heroes have their tragic
flaws which bring about their ultimate ruin. The character of Rama, through the incarnation of
God Vishnu, never tries to surpass human boundaries, becomes prey to human folly, and
human pain, and yet rises to perfection. He is at his best an Ideal hero within the human
limitations of mind, body, and soul, who suffers like a common man and yet at times, rises to
divine status. Most of the other characters in Ramayana have their drawbacks that make them
convincing as human characters and lend credibility to the narrative itself. Thus, the Ancient
Indian epic, The Ramayana is written “To justify Man’s ways to God.
Matthew Arnold describes literature as a “criticism of life”. The ancient epic
Ramayana written centuries before the beginning of the classical period is the criticism of life.
It is a massive recordation ensuring the nation’s hoary and still living tradition that is the
nectarine clue connecting the present with the past and the future, beyond the religious treatise,
only as a mythological religious tale of the incarnations of Gods and Goddesses, where human
action becomes negligible. when we notice its narrative technique, it establishes a critical
attitude toward life that was there in the great work of Valmiki centuries ago.
To deal with it only as a tragedy will be to narrow down its scope. There are many
coincidences in this epic like when Ram is sent to exile., his younger brothers Bharat and
Shatrughan are not present at the scene and the spontaneous reaction of Bharat is not available
at the moment when the throne is being asked for him. It is strange that Seeta’s father, Janak,
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is not invited to the coronation ceremony. the rest of the world can be surprised to read that
there is a Kop Bhavan in the palace where the royal people can show their anger and displeasure
and might hinge on their whims or selfish interests like Ram’s stepmother Keikey does.
Perhaps, this is the first epic in world literature where such a place has been shown.
The Spiritual aspect dominates life on the Indian subcontinent. The events of
Ramayana show a very high level of interaction and understanding between the animals and
human beings of that time. Mountains are responding to Rama’s quest for the Sita, and talking
birds, sea, and animals, all show that human beings are in complete harmony with nature. It’s
important to note how nature and all the four elements of existence coexist; the sea animals,
trees, and birds are all inculcated in the story, written many thousand years ago by the poet
Valmiki. Ramayana is an epic adventure having all the elements of a great story, a supernatural
tale of love, wisdom separation, war, pain, morality , and ultimately justice. It is written in such
a style that Valmiki is a character in this so it becomes itihas/history. When a reader response
theory is applied to it then interpolations and later additions take Katha in line with myths. To
conclude this discussion in the present scenario, in India, the position is such that this Katha
has gone beyond the boundaries of written and oral and it has become a live Epic. Presenting
an ideal for a family like Maryada Purushottam Shriram and a model nation like Ram Rajya,
going itself into the cultural veins of the country and the issue of the construction of Rama
Mandir influences the politics of the country a lot.
5. Conclusion
This great Indian epic that can’t be categorized as History or Myth, is not only a great
religious treatise but is a true criticism of life and human nature with such depth and subtlety
that it was, is, and would never be seen in any work of art in the world literature. When we
notice the narrative technique of Ramayana, we have to treat Valmiki not only as a seer but as
a poet who has tried to reflect the life of his times not only as it is, but as it should be or ought
to be and the whole story not the predestined drama of fate, the characters of this great epic as
human beings with all its limitations what Aristotle calls Hamartia. The objective reading of
the Ramayana supports the doctrine of character as destiny. Therefore one finds the words of
a prominent critic McCollom, applicable to the Ramayana that tragedy is a monument to the
freedom of human choice. As a literary work, it has been said to combine “the inner bliss of
Vedic literature with the outer richness of delightfully profound storytelling. Valmiki’s
Ramayana is the most authoritative version of India’s epic classical tale of eternal love and
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wisdom centering on the warrior Prince Hero lord Ramchandra who left its mark on the
consciousness of man with the truths that are at present today as they were thousands of years
ago.
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