SPECIAL POST:ON THE RAKSHAS, ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY,VOICES FROM THE PAST. DESIGNED & DEVELOPED BY : Sanchari Bhattacharya CLARIFICATION: Now we must see what is the real case of this. From all of this, lets first place Vishrava rishi. With complete faith in Valmiki Ramayan, we can say that indeed Vishrava rishi was the father of Ravana and Kubera, the king of Yakshas. The reason is that in Valmiki Ramayan, we have proper dialogues between Kubera and Vishrava. So certainly Vishrava is one generation before Ravana. But his mother was 16 generations before him. But this is not the case.Let me tell the story which Valmiki Ramayan tells of Vishravas birth from Pulastya - It says that once Pulastya rishi was meditating in his ashrama where Naga, Gandharva girls were playing. Trinavindus daughter was also there. Pulastya rishi had given a curse that whichever girl looks at him will become pregnant. Trinavindus daughter did not know this and became pregnant, as a result Trinavindu gave his daughter to Pulastya himself as a wife. Their son was Vishrava. ( Valmiki Ramayan 7-2)NOTE- Valmiki Ramayan does not give the name of Trinavindus daughter.Now the thing to comprehend is that this Pulastya rishi contemporary to Trinavindu king was a remote descendant of the actual Pulastya rishi and was carrying a common patronymic name Pulastya. This story holds some ground that Pulastya married Trinavindus daughter, but if we see the Valmiki Ramayan confuses the son of this couple to be Vishrava rishi. The reasons are thus-The genealogy of Pulastya is not known much but only the fact that Ravana and Vishrava belonged to Pulastyas family line was known.As also, only one story regarding a Pualstya rishi was known i.e the Trinavindu story which we say earlier.The father of Vishrava rishi was a rishi belonging to the Pulastya family line but confused to be this Pulastya rishi of Trinavindus times.This all resulted in placing Vishrava in Ramayanic times and his father and mother some 16 generation before him. So who was his mother actually if Trinavindus daughter was not his mother?Here comes another confusion of names done by Puranas-Now Vishravas wife was Ilavila from whom Kubera was born. The story of Trinavindus daughter and Pulastya discussed earlier was for Pulastya rishi from whom Vishrava was born. But this story was confused to be of Vishrava himself and the Purans state that Vishrava married the daughter of Trinavindu and Kubera was born to them. This is not correct since this will place Kubera 15 generations earlier to his brother and contemporary Ravana.So we have two contradictions with Valmiki Ramayan saying Pulastya rishi married Trinavindus daughter while the Purans say Vishrava married Trinavindus daughter.So this story was certainly not of Vishrava. But another implication was done by Puranas. If Vishrava married Trinavindus daughter, and Ilavila was Vishravas wife, by implication Ilavila becomes the daughter of Trinavindu !!!!So after all of this confusion let me clearly tell who existed when with respect to Ramayanic era In the earliest times of Swayambhuva Manu, 86 generations before Ramayanic era, existed the original Pulastya Rishi whose wife was Havirbhu.Some 15 generations before Ramayanic era, we have King Trinavindu of Vaishali and a remote descendant of Pulastya, also known as Pulastya. Trinavindu married his unnamed daughter to this Pulastya and their some was also anonymous and not Vishrava.The family line of this anonymous rishi continued till 2 generations before Ramayanic era, we had Vishrava rishi in the line of Pulastya. This Vishrava married Ilavila and begot Kubera who became the king of Yakshas and also married Kaikasi from whom came Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Vibhishan and Shurpanaka. Other wives of Vishrava include Pushpotkata, Raka, Devavarnini,etc Now something about the kingdom of Rakshasas. It is just mentioned that Rakshasas were born from the original Pulastya rishi along with Yakshas. The Rakshasas and Yakshas are mentioned to be quite inter-related along with Gandharvas. The Rakshasa kingdom is mentioned to be in Lanka from the time of Vishrava. He is said to have lived in prosperity in the kingdom of Lanka. There were other Rakshasas present in places like Kerala and other parts of South India. Among them were 3 Rakshasa brothers Malyavan, Mali and Sumali. For the sake of power, Sumali married his daughter Kaikesi to Vishrava from whom Ravana was born. [ Reference- Valmiki Ramayan Uttar Kanda]As mentioned earlier, Vishrava had also married Ilavila from whom Kubera was born. Kubera who was a Yaksha. The Rakshasas are said to be guarding Lanka. But Ravana challenged Kuberas authority and fought a war with him and drove him out of Lanka. Kubera returned to the original place of Yaksha kingdom i.e Himalayas and Ravana started ruling in Lanka.After Ram killed Ravana, he instituted Vibhishana as the king of Lanka.Now someone might think that Rakshasas are some sort of Dravidian people who resided only in South India. But that is not the case since Mahabharat (Vana Parva,89) says that rishi Vishravas ashram was on the banks of river Narmada in India. Plus we must not forget the relations with Yakshas who majorly resided in the Himalayas. Also, the kingdom of Ghatotkacha was said to be between Gangotri and Kailasa (Mahabharat, Vana parva,144). Also, a group of Rakshasas known as Krodhavashas used to guard the kingdom of Yakshas in Himalaya as mentioned in Mahabharata ( Vana Parva 152)The other Rakshas at Ravanas time include Durmukha, Mishrakeshi,Vajramushti, Virupaksha, Suptaghna.Mali,Sumali and Malyavan Rakshas as mentioned earlier, were descendants of Heti and Praheti Rakshas who fought from Vritrasuras side in the Indra-Vritrasura war which happened some 65 generations before Ramayan. The genealogy goes hence- Heti + Praheti--> (Unknown generations)--> Vidyutkesh --> Sukesha--> Mali, Sumali, Malyavan--> Maricha, Subahu,Kaikesi--> Ravana.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 06:35:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015