The Ramayana (98 page)

Rama called Shatrughna to sit beside him, on his throne. Embracing his brother, kissing him as he used to when they were children, Rama gave him a glittering astra, like a band of sun. The sabha gasped when Rama materialized the blinding arrow in his hands out of thin air. Shatrughna shivered as he received the golden thing, and the moment it lay in his palms, it vanished from sight.

Shatrughna breathed, “What is it, Rama?”

Rama said, “You will kill Lavana with this astra. This is the astra with which Vishnu killed Madhu and Kaitabha of old, upon the primordial sea. It was after Vishnu killed those Asuras that he created the worlds and the creatures in them.

“But Lavana has Siva's boon and his trisula. The demon keeps the trisula in his palace. Shatrughna, as long as Lavana wields Siva's trident, he is invincible. So be sure you challenge him outside his city and kill him with this astra. Take an army with you; take our singers and dancers to entertain you. Take gold to pay all those who go with you, so they are never discontented; they must leave their families and homes to go with you to war. But when you go to kill Lavana, be sure you go alone. Go in stealth, Shatrughna, and ambush the Asura, because there is no other way in which he can be killed.”

Rama grew thoughtful, as if he looked deep into his spirit to see the future. He said, “Wait until summer passes before you attack Lavana; his time to die is during the rains. Take your army now to the banks of the Jahnavi. Cross the Ganga and wait in the good munis' asramas for the rains to come. Only then, go alone to kill Lavana.”

Shatrughna gathered an army of four thousand horses, two thousand chariots, a hundred of the greatest elephants in Ayodhya, and countless foot soldiers. He collected the bravest kshatriya chieftains to lead his army, and sent them ahead with the rishis to the Ganga.

This done, he went to Kausalya, Sumitra, and Kaikeyi, and took their blessings. Tearfully, he prostrated himself before Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata, and Vasishta, also. Once more he fell at Rama's feet, and Rama raised him up and embraced him. A month after his army had gone to make camp in the wilds, Shatrughna set out from Ayodhya to kill the Asura Lavana and to establish a kingdom for himself, so he could protect the holy country of the Ganga and the Yamuna, and the sages who lived in tapasya in those lands and were the support of all the world.

 

32. In Valmiki's asrama

When he had ridden for two days, Shatrughna arrived at Valmiki's asrama on the banks of the Tamasa. He prostrated himself before the muni and said, “I am Rama's brother Shatrughna, my lord, and I would spend the night here with you, if you let me. Tomorrow I will ride west again. I have come on a dire mission.”

Valmiki said, smiling, “Welcome. This asrama is your own, O prince of Raghu.”

And the rishi's disciples brought padya and arghya for Shatrughna. When his feet were washed and he had tasted the madhurparka they offered him, and eaten some of the fruit and roots, he sat on a darbhasana beside Valmiki.

Shatrughna asked the muni, “As I approached your asrama from the east, my lord, I saw a yagnashala for a great sacrifice. Whose is it, Swami?”

Valmiki did not reply for a moment, and his eyes were bright with the memory Shatrughna's question had evoked. Then, slowly, the muni said, “Once, in the House of Ikshvaku there was an ancestor of yours called Sudasa. He had a son called Virasaha, a pious and bold kshatriya. One day, when he was hardly more than a boy, Virasaha went hunting in the forest and saw the strangest thing.

“Two rakshasas had assumed the forms of two lions, and they were devouring every living creature in the vana. Bones and half-eaten remains were strewn everywhere under the sorrowing trees, amidst splashes of blood. But the rakshasas were not satisfied; their carnage continued unabated.

“In rage, Virasaha stalked the demons and killed one of them with an astra of fire, so he became a pile of ashes. The young prince ran feverishly at the mound and scattered the ashes with his foot. Just then, he heard a dreadful, heartbroken howl behind him. Turning, he saw the second rakshasa: a lion no longer, but reverted to his own evil form.

“The creature's jowls still dripped the blood of a hundred beasts he had killed; but also, his fierce eyes streamed tears for his dead companion. In agony the rakshasa screamed at the shocked Virasaha, ‘You have killed my brother, who never harmed you. I will have revenge on you one day, Kshatriya!'

“And before Virasaha could raise his bow, the demon vanished. Virasaha never forgot the absolute grief he heard in that rakshasa's voice and saw in his terrible eyes.

“Virasaha went back to Ayodhya. The years passed and the prince's father Sudasa died. Virasaha became king of the Ikshvakus. Like all the kshatriyas of your august line, Shatrughna, Virasaha, too, was a king of dharma. Like all his mighty sires before him, he also performed an aswamedha yagna, which lasted years and was as majestic as a yagna of the Devas.

“Vasishta was the ritvik at King Virasaha's yagna, and it was as the sacrifice drew near its end that the rakshasa, whose brother a young prince had once killed in the forest, took his revenge. The rakshasa possessed Vasishta himself, and spoke in that muni's voice to Virasaha.

“‘When the yagna is over, offer me some fine flesh to eat. Don't hesitate, do as I tell you.'

“Virasaha said to his best cooks, ‘Prepare the best dishes you know, with freshly slaughtered, succulent meat. Offer them to Guru Vasishta.'

“But his chief cook hesitated. The rakshasa entered that cook's spirit, and he prepared an aromatic dish of human flesh and brought it to the king. Virasaha and his queen, Madayanti, themselves brought that dish to Vasishta, who sat with his eyes shut, in dhyana, waiting for the ritual offering of food that would formally bring the yagna to its conclusion.

“Vasishta sniffed the air. He opened his eyes and saw the king and queen proffering the golden salver on which steaming human flesh was piled. The muni's eyes turned red, and he said in deadly quiet, ‘Since this is the offering of food you have brought to me, O Virasaha, be sure you eat it yourselves, you and your queen. Let this be your daily meat from now.'

“He took the dish from the king's hands and flung it on the ground. At which, Virasaha flew into a rage and was about to curse his kulaguru in return, when Queen Madayanti clutched at his hand in which he had scooped up some holy water to throw into Vasishta's face. The king had chanted a potent mantra over the water.

“‘He is our guru!' cried the queen. ‘He is like God to us; you cannot curse him.'

“With a moan, Virasaha sprinkled that cursed water over his own feet, and in a flash his feet turned every color under the sun! From then, he was called Kalmasapada: he whose feet were of many hues. Virasaha and Madayanti fell at Vasishta's feet and told the rishi how he himself had asked to be served with flesh.

“Vasishta pondered this for a moment, and he saw a rakshasa had caused the mischief. The mahamuni said, ‘I cannot withdraw my curse. But it will last for just twelve years, and when the twelve years are over, you will remember nothing of them.'

“He laid his palm on the king's head and his queen's. And so it happened, Shatrughna. The yagnashala you see was Virasaha's.”

Shatrughna spent the night in Valmiki's asrama. It was on the same night that, in a nearby hermitage, Sita gave birth to brilliant twin sons: Rama's sons. At midnight, some of Valmiki's sishyas woke their master with the news.

With a rushlight, the muni hurried through the darkness to the yoginis' asrama where Sita lived. The message the munis' wives had sent to Valmiki was to come at once and chant mantras over the precious children, to keep them safe from bhutas and rakshasas, and every evil spirit that might be lurking in the forest. And to make the sign of the sacred yantras over them, so they would always be protected.

Valmiki arrived breathless at Sita's hut of labor, and how his face lit up when he saw the two perfectly formed infants who lay beside her. He sensed unseen and ominous presences crowding that spare dwelling. Valmiki took up a handful of kusa grass and passed it over the children—the upper half of the blades, called Lava, over the child who had been born a few moments before his twin, and the lower, called Kusa, over the second child.

Chanting ancient and powerful mantras of protection, Valmiki said, “I name these princes, Rama's sons, Lava and Kusa.”

The older yoginis of the asrama received the sacred grass from the rishi, and they too stroked the infants with them in blessing. Meanwhile, Shatrughna heard the news in Valmiki's asrama and he arrived at the sannyasinis' hermitage. He took the splendid children, his nephews, the heirs to the throne of Ayodhya, in his arms, and wept for joy and deep sorrow. He only gazed mutely at the tired, radiant Sita, and could not say a word to her.

Thus Rama's sons were born in the wilderness, in an asrama of yoginis, and they would grow up in the care of the Rishi Valmiki. Shatrughna remained in Valmiki's hermitage until the full moon of the month of Sravana, when the monsoon ended. The next day, at crack of dawn, he bathed in the Tamasa, still as a lake, took the dust from the rishi's feet, and set out west for the banks of the Yamuna and the asramas of the munis who had come to Ayodhya to ask Rama to kill the Asura Lavana.

Seven days and nights Shatrughna journeyed, until he saw the Yamuna before him, wide as a small sea. Chyvana and the incomparable Bhargava welcomed him, they and their rishis of the sublime gifts of the spirit.

 

33. The killing of Mandhata

When Shatrughna had rested and eaten, after his long journey, he sat talking with Chyvana Muni, pure as agni. Shatrughna asked, “Brahmana, can you tell me about Lavana, his trisula and his strength? I must know as much as I can about him, before I go to kill him for you.”

Chyvana said, “Let me tell you a small story about an ancestor of yours. Mandhata was, like you, a scion of the House of Ikshvaku. He was Yuvanasva's son, and there was no king on earth as mighty as Mandhata of old.

“He ruled all this world, and one day he decided he would like to conquer Devaloka and rule Indra's kingdom as well. He gathered his army of kshatriyas, each of whom was hardly less than a Deva, and set out for Amravati. Such was Mandhata's renown that Indra quailed to hear he was coming. Indra appeared before the awesome king and said, ‘Mandhata, your lordship of the earth is hardly secure, that you have come to take my kingdom from me.'

“The noble Mandhata was puzzled. ‘I am king of all the earth. Who disputes my sovereignty over the world of men?'

“The thousand-eyed Lord of the Devas replied, ‘Madhu's son Lavana is not your subject, Mandhata. He does not obey you.'

“Mandhata's face burned with shame. He hung his head and, without a word, turned back to the earth with his legions, now to conquer Lavana. Mandhata sent a messenger to the Asura. He sent a haughty kshatriya, with instructions to speak roughly to Madhu's son, to frighten him.

“Lavana listened for a while to what the king's messenger had to say, then calmly seized the warrior and ate him. Mandhata surrounded the Asura with his legions and attacked him from every side, covering him in a night of arrows. But the Asura raised the trisula, which Siva had given his father, and it shone like a sun in the darkness.

“The solid banks of arrows from Mandhata's bowmen were made ashes by flames from the burning trident. Lavana cast his trisula at the encircling army, and it went among them like the fire in which the worlds are consumed, when time ends. In moments, just whispering mounds of ashes remained where the Ikshvaku king, Mandhata, lord of the earth, and his vast, invincible forces had stood.

“The trident flew back into Lavana's hand, and his laughter filled the spaces of the earth and the sky.”

Shatrughna looked stricken. Chyvana smiled, and gently took the prince's hand. “Shatrughna, Mandhata sought to kill Lavana for his own glory, for undisputed kingdom. You have come at our bidding, and not out of any ambition. Rama has blessed you; you will not fail. Only remember you must not fight him when he wields his trident, and tomorrow Lavana will die.”

That rishi spoke with such quiet conviction that Shatrughna smiled.

The night passed quickly, and Shatrughna rose with the sun. He bathed in the deep-flowing river, took the rishis' blessings, and, with his bow in his hand and his quiver strapped firmly to his back, Rama's brother crossed the Yamuna.

*   *   *

Meanwhile, in the marvelous city that the Asura Madhu had once built, his son Lavana rose with an unaccustomed hunger roiling him. The Asura wondered at this, for he had eaten well the previous night. He did not, of course, dream that this was the final pang of hunger of his very life, death's greed.

His belly on fire, Lavana rose, took up a great cudgel, and strode out of his palace. He made for the forest in the heart of which his dark city was built. Every living creature in that jungle heard Lavana's footfalls and fled from his approach. But not all of them escaped him. Soon, a small glade in the forest began to fill with corpses. Lavana hunted without favor for species; and a mound of leopard and tiger, peafowl, deer, rabbit, boar, bison, and even elephant, grew in that glade, and its grass was stained crimson.

As he hunted Lavana ate, and blood leaked down his huge body from the beasts he devoured, often hardly chewing on their varied flesh, but only swallowing them with a perfunctory bite or two. However, today's raging hunger would not leave him; it burned his insides with irresistible compulsion.

Lavana slaughtered a thousand animals and birds. He stuffed their carcasses into a large net he had brought with him, and, by noon, dragged them along jungle trails toward his city. As he approached the gates he saw a lean, powerful kshatriya waiting for him. Lavana blinked; it seemed to him the young warrior was swathed in a pulsing light and the bow in his hand was like an arc of the sun.