 Rama – Dasaratha and Rama
A race destined to fight demons – I
Like the beginning of every other genealogy, the one that is associated with the race of Ikswäku is also surrounded by mystery and mysticism, if not myth. ‘Ikswäku was born even as Vaivaswata Manu sneezed,’ says the Bhagavata. “From the nostrils of Vaivaswata Manu, even while he was sneezing, sprang up a son (called) Ikswäku.” (Srimad Bhagavata, Book Nine, Discourse 6, Sloka 4) This is a common factor governing all the faiths. Every other race commences with what may be termed as something mythical or mystical. Recall how Adam was created ‘in His likeness’ and how Eve was created from his bones. If creation started, it has to start from somewhere; and definitely not in the way in which living beings started multiplying from the second generation. You do not know how the first life form – or human beings in this case – came into existence and, if so, you should have some strange, inexplicable, indecipherable cause that triggered the first life form in the world. And we have one here, like every other belief or faith. Ikswäku was born even as Vaivaswata Manu sneezed.
Ikswäku had a hundred sons, Vikuksi, Nimi and Dandaka being the eldest of the lot. Twenty-five of these hundred sons became the rulers of the land lying between the Vindhya and Himalaya region. Nimi, under the curse of sage Vasistha, lost his life, at the commencement of a sacrifice that he performed without the Guru, when Vasistha was perforce to leave for another sacrifice conducted by Indra. Nimi declined it when the gods offered to bring his body back to life. He was therefore blessed to reside in the body of any created being. “Bereft of a body, may you reside at will in the eyes of embodied souls,” they said and “(in this way) Nimi took up his abode in the body of all the Jivas) being indicated by the opening and closing of eyes.” (Ibid, Discourse 13, Sloka 11) It is, therefore, that the kingdom established by a king who lived outside his body, is known by the name
vi-deha (or ‘no body’). He was one among those who stood by the celestials when the ocean of milk was churned for the sake of nectar. Nimi’s son was the first of Janakas. Our Janaka, the father of Sita, whose full name is Siradhwaja Janaka, comes about twenty generations later.
Of the sons of Ikswäku, Vikuksi (who later came to be known as Sasada – or the consumer of the meat of a hare) had a son by name Puranjaya. He was such a powerful king that the celestials enlisted his support in the destruction of demons. Puranjaya desired to have a proper ‘mount’ for himself, in the battle against the demons. It was then that Indra assumed the form of a gigantic bull. Puranjaya wiped off all the demons, seated on the hump of the ‘bull’. And that’s how he came to be known by the title Kakutstha and Indravaha. Indravaha means ‘a person who had Indra for his mount’. The name kakutstha stands for the hump of a bull, where Puranjaya took his seat in his battle against the demons. And that’s how Rama is also called by the name, Kakutstha, inheriting the title of one of his ancestors.
This is followed by a very long and impressive list of names in the family of Ikswäkus. Mandhätä, Sagara (meaning, ‘one born with poison’) by whose sons were dug the oceans and hence are to this day known by the name
‘sägarä’) Bhagirata, one whose super-human efforts brought the Ganges to the earth. The list is long. I have not included many known and impressive names.
All these emperors ruled their country with Ayodhya as their capital. And, therefore, this sets aside the view that Dasaratha and his ancestors were kings of Kasi. (See:
A look before the
leap) That might perhaps be the idea enshrined in the Buddha Jataka Tales, which the respected Professor, A S Gnanasambandan, quotes and expresses with a kind of reservation, not so authoritatively. Going according to our tradition, the emperors of Surya Vamsa ruled a vast tract of land with Ayodhya as their capital. The very name a-yodhya, or ‘the country that cannot be warred against,’ suggests the prowess of the chain of its rulers.
Now, let’s turn our attention to Kausalya, whose name suggests that she was the daughter of the king of Kosala. If Dasaratha – and his ancestors – were the rulers of Kosala, with Ayodhya as their capital, how was it that Kausalya was the daughter of the king of Kosala, and how come these two got married! Neither Valmiki nor Kamban has an answer. Or even the remotest of suggestions, at least as far as I have come across. Once again, we are left to seek the answer from other ‘closer’ sources.
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