RAAVAN-LEELA

(title courtesy - Nautanki Saala)

A pregnant woman once asked her daughter, “What do you wish for - a brother or sister?”. “A brother,” she replied. “Whom do you want him to resemble like?,” inquired her mother. “Like Raavan,” she quipped. “You mustn't speak like that,” she chided her daughter gently. Her daughter innocently, though firmly, asked, “Why not maa? He sacrificed everything- his state, his lineage, his kingdom, his life- just to avenge his sister’s indignity. Every sister today needs a brother like him maa. On the contrary, what will I do of a brother like Ram who abandoned his innocent and devoted pregnant wife, and asked her to undergo an Agnipariksha to prove her chastity”?

These lines have surely questioned my notion about Maryada Purushottama Ram. “Good triumphs over evil” and people proclaim Ram and Raavan to be the perfect epitomes for the respective denominations. I revere people’s sentiments but I beg to differ slightly here in my outlook, for I prefer to look a Rubik cube from every perspective.

No, I am not attempting to advocate Raavan and vilify Ram. (I am a minnow, so can’t even think like that!!)

I just want people to ponder over Raavan’s deeds with an outlook of a brother, who was incessantly instigated by her sister to claim vengeance for her ignominy on Ram and his brother. Any brother across the globe would have done the same for his sister. I guess this is what brothers promise to their sisters during rakshabandhan.

Raavan is considered to be an exemplary scholar and even Ram regarded him a Maha Brahmin.  If his brother Vibhishan had not joined Ram’s army, it would have been difficult for Ram to vanquish him. But as the adage goes, “No one can outrun their destiny”. If Raavan had a fatal flaw, it was undoubtedly his hubris. 

Very few people know that it was Raavan, who performed the rites of a purohit, when Ram constructed the Ram Sethu to lead his monkey brigade to attack Lanka. 

Why no one ever mention the fact that even after keeping Sita in his captivity for days and persuading her to marry him, he did not violate her? Devout followers have their own theories like it was a curse to Raavan, Sita’s purity made her infrangible etc. but he had the advantage of strength. Yet he curbed himself from even touching her and kept her in a comfortable, safe haven with enough maids around.

It’s the fault of the folk tales graduating centuries after centuries depriving people to think from all the perspectives, restricting their scope to empathize with the other party. Though Raavan’s character may seem like a sealed book, there are sufficient positive traits that even Raavan deserves some recuperation.