হলদে সবুজ ওরাংওটাং

Sometimes you gotta find it on your own It's an open book, a road in reverse A brand new hook, forget that curse

Added!

- It's a perfect ending - No. It's a perfect beginning.

jinx with a gem

I wasn’t gonna let @aggressivelyarospec week go by without making some extra aroace Jo content! (I say as if that’s not 90% of my content at this point anyway)

Seeta and Rama

The next (and last that we’ve got so far) chapter is an interlude between the main trio returning to Ayodhya and Seeta being exiled again.

The chapter begins with Ram and Seeta playing dice, surrounded by Seeta’s sakhis. They place a bet where if Rama loses, he’d give his royal ring to Seeta, and if she loses, then she’ll give him a hug in front of her friends.

In the first round, Rama loses, and the sakhis pretty much manhandle him, snatching the ring from his finger and putting it on Seeta’s, while taunting him for losing to a woman. The next round, Seeta loses, and now Rama taunts her friends, reminding them good-naturedly about the bet. So, this time, the sakhis physically lift Seeta in the air and drop her in Rama’s arms.

Kissing her blushing face again and again, Rama offers Seeta a boon. Chandrabati here stops to caution Seeta that her days of happiness are over, and so she must choose her boon carefully.

Seeta slowly whispers to Rama that she misses the forest and would like a vacation there. She misses her pets and the friends she had made in the ashrams there.

Rama kisses Seeta again and promises to send her to the forest the next day with Lakshman. Chandrabati says that, after all, who can defy fate as Seeta has now effectively chosen her own unwarranted punishment.

In the next scene, Seeta lies lazily on her bed, a storyteller entertaining her when Kukuya bursts in and asks her to describe her days in Ravan’s home. Seeta faints at the bare mention of Ravan, but Kukuya refuses to let it go. Finally, Seeta reluctantly confesses that she had only seen a glimpse of Ravan in the ocean when he was taking her away.

Kukuya then makes Seeta draw Ravan’s faces on her hand-fan. Too tired from this effort, Seeta falls asleep, and Kukuya cruelly puts this fan up on her chest and rushes to Rama.

Chnadrabati tells us that Manthara has raised Kukuya to be unrelenting and quarrelsome. Her own husband was driven insane by a medicine she used on him, and she drove the rest of her husband’s family away by building large walls around her home. Now she has pretty much run away from her in-laws’ home (about 4 years after Rama was exiled) and is incensed by the presence of any happily married couple around her.

Then Kukuya rushes to Rama and insults him for being too besotted with Seeta when Kukuya now has ‘proof’ that Seeta is in love with Ravan. Surprisingly, Rama does not even hesitate to believe this, and they both charge towards Seeta’s room like two tigers charging at a terrified deer.

Then, seeing Seeta asleep without a care in the world, with the fan still held where Kukuya had placed it, Rama is furious. His eyes are bloodshot, and blood rushes to his head. He metaphorically breathes fire as he contemplates Kukuya’s words and the sight he just saw. If we go by traditional descriptions of epic poetry, Rama here resembles more a demon than a man.

Chandrabati then comments that this very fire, that Rama, losing all common sense, has allowed Kukuya to light in himself, will burn Seeta alive, and Rama right alongside her. She also then says that this mistake of Rama, the decision that he’s taking completely devoid of any love or sense, will burn Ayodhya too in its flames since Ayodhya’s Lakshmi is now being thrown out of it.

Seeta’s Exile

[From here, I could not find the Bangla version available online, so I’ll be quoting Nabanita Debsen’s translation itself.]

Then, the last part of this poem, Nabanita Debsen assumes might not be composed by Chandrabati, since it moves away from its focus of Seeta and chooses to center the narrative first and foremost.

This chapter opens with a prayer to the river Sarayu, begging her to flow a little slower, and to the dawn to come a little later, for this is the last night of peace Seeta shall know for the rest of her mortal life.

Rama sends for Lakshman and breaks down in his arms, bemoaning that he had to kill both Ravan and Bali for apparently no fault of theirs, all just for Seeta. Now, Rama wants Lakshman to take Seeta away from him and the civilised society forever so that she ‘cannot do more harm’. Rama also believes that it is Tara and Mandodari’s heartfelt curses that made Seeta apparently turn unfaithful.

Then Lakshman unwillingly takes Seeta to Valmiki’s ashram, and then falls at her feet begging for her forgiveness. Hearing Rama’s order, Seeta stands speechless under a tree like a golden statue.

Then she says sadly to Lakshman that this indeed is her punishment for being happy when thousands of widows in Lanka cursed her for their fate. She also then says that she doesn’t even know who her real parents are, who threw her away even before she was born, so what does it matter now that she is once again without a place that she can call home?

Seeta only asks Lakshman to take care of Urmila and to tell Hanuman not to worry, since she knows that no matter what, she’ll at least always have a home in his heart.

Then Valmiki walks up to her and tells her that from now on, Valmiki is her father and Vasumata is her mother, and Valmiki’s sons and students are her younger brothers.

Sages come to visit Seeta every day, blessing her to be the royal mother one day, knowing that there is no longer any chance that she’ll ever be the queen.

Once the twins, Lav and Kush, are born, Valmiki invites Vashishtha to do all their post-birth rituals, and Vashishtha decides to keep this a secret for now.

The children grow up playing with the ashram animals in the day and returning to sleep in Seeta’s arms at night.

From the day that Seeta left, Ayodhya was plunged into a state of constant disaster. Crops failed, and the city fell to anarchy, and Rama, still suffering the consequence of his decision, was entirely unable to bring back any order, for it was his sins that had dragged his kingdom down.

At this juncture, Vashishtha tells Rama about Seeta and her sons and advises him to bring them back and perform an Ashvamedha yajna, but Rama refuses since ‘he cannot pick up a toy that he has thrown away once’. However, he concedes that he just might take Seeta back if she walks on fire in front of all the citizens of Ayodhya and proves her loyalty to Rama.

Then, by chance. Hanuman, who was away when all this was happening, is captured by Lav and Kush and brought to Seeta, where he hears of Seeta being exiled. This hurts him greatly, and knowing this to be the demise of the Rama that he knew, he chooses to stay on with Seeta only as her oldest son and the twins’ older brother.

Then Rama sent Lakshman to fetch Seeta with the demand that she must cooperate with him and sit with him in the yajna, and that she shall be tested in open court.

When Lakshman comes to fetch Seeta, Lav and Kush sit on either side of her on the chariot while Hanuman sits atop the flagstaff. Together, they walk into Rama’s sabha, Lav and Kush hiding behind the end of Seeta’s saree and Hanuman standing guard at the door.

Rama then orders her to walk into a pyre, and only if she isn’t burnt to ashes can she sit beside him again. Seeta tells him that she isn’t worried about being burnt, but once she enters the fire, she shall not return. Seeta no longer feels anything more than pity for Rama. She comments that Rama looks more tired, his regal robes having lost all lustre. She is, in fact, happy to walk into a lit pyre if Rama thinks that will solve all his problems. She is sad only for her sons, who shall now grow up without a mother.

Rama ordered a pyre of sandalwood to be set up for her. However, no one was willing to light it except Kukuya. When she did, her hair caught fire, and her face was burnt. Even before she fell to the ground screaming, Seeta held her in her arms, and with Vasumata’s blessings, cured the burns on Kukuya’s body.

The citizens exclaim that Rama must not want to burn Seeta since he’s still attracted to her. Angered by this, Rama himself rushes to light the pyre. Seeta then looks once at Rama, and back once at her sons and then she walks into the fire.

Then the pyre cracks in half, the waters of Patala’s river Bhogavati showers down on Seeta, and Vasumata appears, declaring that Rama could live happily with the subjects he so loved to be swayed by, and she is going to take her daughter home.

While Lakshman and Rama lament, Hanuman weeps with Lav and Kush and Chandrabati ends her poem with a lament that what else could Rama expect out of his ill-wrought actions!

The next chapter, uncaring for the usual style of Ramayan adaptations, jumps straight to after the war in Lanka, to Seeta sitting in the palace’s twin-temple surrounded by her sakhis.

From here, the chapter is narrated by Seeta herself, as a traditional Baromashya [twelve-month format], which is also a unique narrative choice found only in Chandrabati’s rendition.

Seeta begins with a lament that happiness has evaded her, even with a loving husband like Rama. She describes how she and her three sisters were only children, still not comfortable out of their mother’s lap, when Janak had vowed to give Seeta unto whoever broke Shiva’s bow. She then recounts how one day in her dream, she had seen Rama appear at her head and mischievously inform her that he was coming to get her. She then recounts how, with bated breath, she had seen as Rama, pretty exactly as she had seen him, had come and fulfilled her father’s vow.

She also tells how her friends had made fun of Rama all night long, calling Seeta a lightning bolt in the arms of a monsoon cloud.

Then, she recounts another dream, which she had seen lying in the arms of Rama, where Rama had sat on the throne of Ayodhya with his three brothers around him, and when she had woken up she had been heartbroken to find Manthara’s plan send them two and Lakshman to the forest instead with her Ram looking, under the weight of the barks around his waist and his newly matted hair, like the autumn moon hidden in storm-clouds.

Then she begins her Baromashya:

In Vaishakh, they entered the forest, Rama now resembling a proper sage.

In Jaishtha, the sun grew harsher, and Rama’s face fell darker. This was when Seeta tripped on a stone, and her feet bled. This was when Rama took her unconscious form in his arms and fanned her until she felt better. This was when, by the river Godavari, in Panchavati, Lakshman built them a hut to stay in, himself choosing to live under a tree.

Seeta is not afraid to divulge the details of the tender times she spent with Rama during this month. She recounts how she wove Rama a garland every day, slept with his arms as her soft pillow, and how the three of them travelled extensively, Seeta herself hanging off of Rama’s neck.

This month was also when she had lain upon Rama’s thighs and then asked him to get her the elusive golden deer. She laments that if she’d known all that trouble was in store for her, she would’ve gone with Rama to catch the deer.

She then told the sakhis of how she had assumed Ravan to be a regular sage and hence fallen at his feet seeking his blessing, and he had taken that chance to take her to Lanka. En route, she had thrown all her ornaments at him, in vain, and then had fainted. When she awoke, she found herself imprisoned in the Asohkvan, trapped amidst Ravan’s chedis.

In Aashadh, as the monsoon clouds rolled in, Seeta says none of them had more tears to shed than Seeta, who was kept alive only by the beautiful Sarama’s consolations.

In Shrabana, Seeta dreamt of Rama and Sugreeva’s meeting.

In Bhadra, a little bird came to see her. No, not a bird but Hanuman! Hanuman gave her Rama’s ring, and that kept her alive a little longer.

In Ashvin, Seeta dreamt of Rama worshipping Durga out of season.

In Kartik, as the days grew shorter, Seeta was but skin and bones, tired from crying all day and night when Saram brought her good news.

In Agrahayana, Seeta received news that the Vanaras had built a bridge over the ocean.

In Pausha, the Vanara army finally surrounded Lanka.

In Magh, Seeta heard of Indrajit’s death and was overjoyed to hear the Rakshasas mourn.

In Phalguna, she saw in her dream that Ravana had finally died along with his entire family.

In Chaitra, finally, Seeta was reunited with her ‘Raghumani’.

This is the only version that pretty much bypasses the main events of Ramayana and never loses sight of Seeta in the course of the war that is waged in her name.

Chandrabati ends this chapter lamenting the sorrows that plague Seeta, and which now plague Chandrabati herself.

Chandrabati is the oldest woman poet of Bengal (not counting Khana, given her domain was primarily astrology and agriculture) that we’ve found so far. Her life, if the biographer Nayaan Chand Ghosh is to be believed, is quite tumultuous (thanks @callonpeevesie for getting me a scan of your version). The man she loved in her childhood, the one who was also chosen happily by her father, leaves her on the morning of their wedding. He then marries a Muslim woman, which renders any possibility of reconciliation impossible in their polarised, 16th-century society.

Even as her father starts looking for alternate husbands for her, Chandrabati refuses to try again and instead decides to spend her life in worship of Shiva. Her father then gives her the goal of rewriting the Ramayan in Bangla. This Ramayan is the defining work of Chandrabati (even though her works Shundori Molua and Dashyu Kenaram are more widely known in the literary mainstream).

This version of Ramayan is meant for the women who surrounded Chandrabati, and it intentionally moves away from the blood and gore of the original (and even Krittibas’ Bangla adaptation), to tackle emotions closer to home for these women.

Unfortunately, only an incomplete version has reached us, though, as per Nabanita Debsen’s research, the lost verses might still reside hidden in the women’s songs in the Mymensingha and Kishoreganj (Chandrabati’s village) areas of Bangladesh.

An incomplete version of Chandrabati’s Ramayan is recorded in Dinesh Chandra Sen’s Mymensingha Geetika (who argues that the work is incomplete due to Chandrabati’s untimely demise), and a slightly longer version is found in Kshitish Chandra Maulik’s Pracheen Purbabanga Geetika. Nabanita Debsen is the only person so far to have translated the available material into English.

Legend goes that her lover returns later, spurned by the other woman. Now ostracised by the Hindu society, he wishes to only see Chandrabati one last time before disappearing forever. Chandrabati considers meeting him once to find closure, but her father forbids her from seeing him again. So, she locks herself in her Shiva temple while the man bangs on the door all night, begging her to even look at him from afar once.

Morning come, Chandrabati dejectedly goes to her beloved river Phuleshwari to fetch water and sees her former lover’s corpse floating by. The grief and the guilt break her, and it is believed that she did not live much longer after this. She died of a broken heart, leaving her Ramayan incomplete.

Ravan and Seeta

Chandrabati’s Ramayan begins with the story of Seeta’s birth.

Ravan’s palace is straight out of a Bangla fairy tale, with rooms that need a thousand doors, with gold-laden doors with silver locks. Therein lie the beautiful Rakshasa women, leisurely sipping on the gods’ amrita.

Then one day, Ravan decides to conquer the entire world, and so he goes to war. Heaven and Hell submit to him without a fight, and he forces the forest-dwelling sages to give him blood from their chests. This chest he collects in a pot and gives to Mandodari to keep, telling her that it’s a deadly poison for the gods he intends to kill.

Chandrabati then tells us how Ravan has taken Chandra’s lustre to put on his crown, he’s taken Surya’s unkind rays to make them the fire in his twenty eyes. Kuber is now his treasurer, and the Rudras have become the fairies that watch over him in his sleep. The Adityas hold umbrellas over his head, and Vayu fans him day and night. Varun washes his feet, and Yama is a guard outside his room. Indra, the king of the gods, Ravan has put to work cutting grass for his horses in the stable. The Gandharva women Ravan has abducted are now forced to serve him, while Mandodari spends her nights crying on the floor.

Dejected, Mandodari decides to consume the poison Ravan had entrusted to her before. Instead of dying, however, she falls pregnant and eventually gives birth to an egg.

Ravan finds out, and after the royal astrologer predicts that the child from this egg will bring about Lanka’s destruction, he orders that the egg be smashed or burned. Mandodari, already smarting from Ravan’s continued neglect, is furious. She begs Ravan so that no one may kill her child. If they are so afraid, she says, then they should just lock the egg in a box and throw it in the ocean.

And, so they do.

Cradled by the waves, this box reaches the shores of Mithila, where the honest fisherman Madhab catches it in his net. He takes it to his wife, Sata, who goes around the city selling the fish that her husband catches. They both have nothing to their name, but they still welcome the box.

Sata puts it up on a jackfruit-wood seat and draws protective signs on the box with vermilion. Chandrabati comments that by Manasa’s grace, Sata and Madhab have brought home Lakshmi herself, and now she will take care of them.

Soon after, miraculously, everything looks up in Sata and Madhab’s life. Now they have a cow in their shed, and grains in their kitchen. Madhab doesn’t have to spend all day fishing, and Sata can wear ‘Ram-Lakshman bangles’ (anachronistic, but sweet).

Then one night, Sata dreams that a sweet little child crawls out of the box, throws her arms around Sata and calls her mother. The child then tells that King Janak and his wife are to be her parents and that she wants to go to them now.

Waking up, Sata is heartbroken, but she takes the little box and goes to the queen.

The two women share a tender moment as Sata hands over the magical box to the queen and, in tears, refuses all the wealth the queen offers but leaves with but one request: if indeed a girl ever comes out of the box, may the queen name her Seeta after this mother that she never saw.

Eventually, as predicted, a girl is born from the egg, and Janak’s wife names her Seeta.

Rama's Birth

Then, the next chapter in this section deals with the birth of Rama.

This too deviates from Valmiki’s original, though not as much. Here, Dasharath, all his yajnas having gone to waste, attempts to kill himself by locking himself in the palace twin-temple, but is stopped by a strange sage that appears out of nowhere and gives him a magical mango to give to his wives.

Dasharath gives this mango to Kaushalya, who divides it into three parts and shares it with Kaikeyi and Sumitra.

Only Manthara is unhappy and advises Kaikeyi to request the king to get her the seed of the mango, which they were about to discard. In secret, then Manthara grounds it up and feeds that to Kaikeyi.

Once the queens fall pregnant, Chandrabati does not simply skip to the siblings’ birth and instead lingers on the three queens. She mentions how the chachis and the tais (aunts) in the palace come together to give these three a baby shower. The three queens are also seen choosing to sleep on the floor, discarding their rich beds and snacking on terracotta, as was noted as a traditional sign of pregnancy in Bengal (also a sign of iron deficiency, which I guess does happen in pregnancies, but don’t quote me on that).

Rama’s birth is received with great pomp and happiness not only by the royal family but also by the entire kingdom as they happily fly cotton flags atop their houses and take to the streets to dance and sing alongside the royal performers.

They also celebrate his birth with caution, in a uniquely Bengali style, worshipping the goddesses Mangalchandi, Subachani, Banadurga, Darai Dakini, Shitala-Shashthi, Manasa and Neta Dhopani, all for the safety of the baby Rama.

It is very interesting to me that it is in fact the citizens of Ayodhya who, on the auspicious day of Shashthi (6th day), name the child ‘Rama’, Vashishtha only choosing to repeat the people’s mandate.

Dasharath then excitedly calls a royal astrologer who has only good things to say about the future valour and feats of Rama. The astrologer, however, keeps to himself the indications that this child is going to grow up, go to the forest and become the reason for the reigning king’s death.

Then, one by one, the other three brothers are born to the other queens, after which Kaikeyi falls pregnant again after having consumed the mango seed. This time, she gives birth to a girl who brings with her all kinds of ill omens, and Manthara names this child Kukuya. It is unclear if Chandrabati here borrowed from some other little-known version of Ramayana, or if this is an original character she creates, but her version now is pretty much the only one where we find this character.

Chandrabati ends the chapter bowing at the feet of Rama’s mother, Kaushalya.