 Rama – Dasaratha and Rama
Abnormal woman, abnormal step
Even as Rama was contemplating his first move, Tataka hurled her terrible Sulam –trident – on him.
‘kOla vil kaal kunitthal kaNdilar,’ sings an enthralled Kamban. ‘None could see as to when he bent his bow.’ Even before anyone could see the bow bending, an arrow was shot that turned the trident to pieces. And, next. The woman was undaunted. She started playing her conjuring tricks.
ud dhunvaanaa rajo ghoram taaTakaa raaghavau ubhau |
rajo meghena mahataa muhuurtam saa vyamohayat ||
(Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kanda, Canto 26, Sloka 15)
‘She baffled the brothers for about an hour –
muhuurtam – by raising a massive cloud of dust.’ That did not stop there. She moved on next to rain a stream of rocks on the three – Rama, Lakshmana and the sage. Now, Rama’s action has to be based on the duty that he owes to his own self – self-defence – letting his brother defend himself, and on his responsibility of protecting the sage, who despite his enormous power, would not step out in defence or in offence. “Then falling back on conjuring tricks, she covered the two scions of Raghu with a tremendous shower of rocks,” says Valmiki. (Ibid, Sloka 16)
‘kallin maariyaik kai vagutthaaL,’ says Kamban. She created a rain of rocks with her hands.
‘avai villin maariyin vIran vilakkinaan,’ and Rama parried the rain of rocks with a shower of arrows. I should say that at this point Kamban has almost echoed the voice of Valmiki, who says,
“shilaa varSam mahat tasyaaH shara varSeNa raaghavaH” Rama stopped the shower of rocks with the shower of his arrows.
Okay. She hurled her trident, which was rendered to pieces. Then she created a cloud of dust, and from that cloud of dust followed a rain of rocks. Did Rama kill her now? Did he take that step of putting an end to her offensive once for all now? No. He severed her hands. Here is what Valmiki says. “Parrying the copious shower of rocks sent down by her with a (counter-) shower of shafts, Sri Rama cut off her arms with arrows (even) as she came running towards him.” (Ibid, Sloka 17) The severing of arms did not stop her. One is inevitably reminded of Rama’s battle with Kumbakarna here. (See: A battle beyond compare
Part I and
Part II). Though this is a short narrative, we will go into details later, in this study of Rama. Nonetheless, this does remind one of the battle with Kumbakarna, who surged on and on with increased vigour, even as he was losing his limbs one by one.
Tataka pressed forward after her arms were cut-off and could not be stopped. Lakshmana for his part acted in his own way. “Then out of anger Lakshmana (son of Sumitra, the second wife of Dasaratha) deprived her of her ears and the tip of her nose while she was roaring close by, exhausted with her arms severed.” (Ibid, Sloka 18) She could not be stopped even at that moment. She went invisible with her maya, or power for conjuring tricks and continued her showering of rocks.
‘Enough of your milder forms of restraint. She can’t be stopped with this,’ advised Viswamitra.
‘alam te ghRiNayaa raama paapaa eSaa duSTa chaariNii’ Enough. Be done with your compassion. This is a woman of sinister and malevolent behaviour.’
‘yajna vighna karii yaxii puraa vardheta maayayaa’. She causes hindrance to rituals and sacrifices. She would gain more power, in a short time (since nightfall is fast approaching).’ (Ibid, Sloka 21)
Having tried all milder forms of stopping this demoness, Rama then decided to kill her. He showed his special skill of hitting a target not visible to the eye. The ogress was covered with a network of arrows. Embedded with countless arrows, she continued her attack on the trio. And then Rama selected one of his sharpest and swiftest of arrows and shot her.
‘kallaap pullOrkku nallOr sonna poruL enap pOyitru andrE!’
sings Kamban. The arrow penetrated her, flew out of her back and fell far beyond. The arrow did not stay in her, just as the good counsel given by elders to the uneducated ruffians, which do not stay in their hearts. Just enter their ears and slip out of their hearts. The arrow went through her and flew out of her from the other side.
When she fell, Kamban observes,
‘thalagaL thOrum mudiyudai arakkarkku annaaL mundhi uRpaadham aaga,’ portending the impending disaster to the demon king with a crown on each (of his ten) heads,
‘padiyidai atru vIzndha vetri am padhakai otthaaL,’ she fell down like the standard – flag of victory – flying magnificently on the chariot of Ravana. She signified the impending fall of Ravana, when she fell like the flag on his chariot. ‘With the fall of the grandmother of Ravana, the battle with the demons has begun,’ Kamban implies. Yes. It did.
One has to see that Rama was left with no choice but to kill her, as she could not be stopped with milder forms of punishment, as it happened in the cases of Sürpanakhä and Ayomukhi. And that this incident cannot be measured with the same scale that one uses for normal circumstances. He exhausted all less drastic ways of punishment before he decided on killing
Tataka.
That is one of the typical cases which point to the amount of thought and restraint that Rama observes before taking a drastic action. This can be seen throughout, till the killing of Ravana.
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