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Continued
from yesterdays instalment
 Ravana approaches Marīcä for the first time. As we have seen elaborately in our study of Marīcä, he had become a reformed soul by now. This son of Tataka, who had always accompanied Ravana in all his ventures - that are described in the Uttara Kanda - turned a hermit after having escaped from the arrows of Rama in the Aranya Kanda, when he attempted to attack Rama, assuming the form of a deer.
'I need your help,' Ravana tells Marīcä. "Khara and others (the soldiers guarding my frontiers) have been killed, O dear friend, by Rama of unwearied action; (nay) the entire (colony of) Janasthana which was (hitherto) incapable of being destroyed, has been exterminated in an encounter. Lend your co-operation to me as such in abducting his wife." (Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kanda, Canto XXXI, Sloka 40)
What Ravana implies to tell Marīcä here is that he wants to take revenge on the humans that played havoc in his army and destroyed a whole army of his led by his brothers. The above statement does not sound like the words of a person struck by the arrows of Cupid. The Sloka lacks force. He does not seem to be suffering the pangs of love that he is shown going through later. As Right Hon'ble Srinivasa Sastriyar observes, "At that time his mind itself was wavering." Ravana was not too sure about what he wanted. He thought that abducting Sita was a way of punishing Rama but was not bent upon getting her.
Marīcä was taken by surprise. 'Which enemy of yours put this idea into your head?' he asked Ravana. 'What do you think of Rama, my dear boy?' Though Ravana addresses Marīcä as 'dear friend' in the above Sloka, he is actually the maternal uncle of Ravana. I bear testimony to the force of his arrows. I was thrown to this distance when he guarded the sacrificial fires of Viswamitra. And once again, when I saw him enter the forest with his brother and wife on exile, my anger raised its hood in my heart and I tried to attack him in the form of a deer, along with two of my friends. My friends were killed by his arrows and I managed to escape from that spot. I have been leading the life of a hermit now. Look at me and learn from my experience. If a person can turn a fourteen thousand strong army led by none other than Khara, Dusana and Trisira, single-handed in a matter of one hour, Ravana, you should understand that you are playing with fire, if you persist on this venture,' Marīcä advised him.
 "It is not advisable (for you), O king of ogres, to jump into the subterranean fire forming the most dreadful mouth of the fathomless ocean in the form of Rama, which is infested with alligators in the form of his bow, whose bottom contains mire in the form of the might of his arms, which is rough with waves in the form arrows and which contains water in the form of a fierce battle. Be please, O lord of Lanka and ruler of ogres! Remain gratified and return safely to Lanka. Always revel in the midst of your own wives and let Rama revel with his (own) wife in the woods." (Ibid, Sloka 48 and 49)
Ravana returned to Lanka on that occasion, without saying a word, a word in protest or threatening Marīcä to carry out his order. This is something very strange for a person like Ravana to listen to words of wisdom and go back in silence. We cannot see Ravana in such a mood anywhere else in the entire epic.
But Sri VVS Aiyar is of a different opinion, as far as this incident is concerned. Sri VVS Aiyar, it may be remembered was a close friend of poet Subramania Bharati and one who had mastered more than fifteen languages and had studied the best of literature of each language in its original
form.
More follows...
Published on 6th
August 2002
Hari Krishnan
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