The Ramayana is a unique symbiosis of the human and the fauna. We have very many references to birds and animals in the Ramayana. Why, the very initiation of the Ramayana is rooted in the cruelty meted out to a bird. The "kraunch vadha", the heartless killing of the (heron like) kraunch bird, begins the great epic!
Then there is Jatayu, the father figure of a bird, who tries to save Seeta from the clutches of Ravana. I think he is the "gridhraraj", that is, the king of vultures (though some versions have him as an eagle). Yet he opposes the vicious act of Ravana trying to abduct Seeta. He fights off the demonic impropriety which costs him his life.
Why, there is even a 'kakbhushundi', a chiranjivi, that is, the eternally living spirit who narrates the Ramayana to Garuda in the form of a crow, it seems.
All of us have loved the small little squirrel who cutely helps Rama build the bridge, pitching in her wee little bit that strengthens the bridge. Most all birds and animals enjoy, in brief, a lovely symbiotic relationship with Rama, thus making him an ideal ruler who is kind and generous with all the forms of life. In this Utopia, Hanumna reflects this bond perfectly. Why, even the Wali story can be explained as the just act necessary to destabilize a usurper.
In this context, the only story difficult to explicate is the Jayant story. He enters the Ramayana as a memory. In the Sunderkand, Seeta is narrating to Hanumana the story of their triune stay near the Chitrakuta.
Rama, it seems, is a little tired one particular day, and sleeps off, resting his head on Seeta's lap. Jayanta comes there in the form of a crow, and disturbs their loving togetherness. Jayanta tries to insult Seeta. He pecks at her breast, while in the Bhakti Panth versions of The Ramayana, he pecks at her feet.
She does not want to disturb the nap Rama is enjoying. While trying to shoo off the nasty bird, she is wounded, and her clothes get dishevelled. Thus Rama wakes up, while Seeta is trying to ward off the bird with a blade of grass.
Rama assigns the blade of grass the power of the brahmastra. It starts chasing the bird who is actually Jayanta, the son of Indra. He tries to hide behind his father (equally lascivious! Like father, like son! Remember the Ahilya story?). But even in the heaven, the brahmastra chases him. Finally, when he falls at Rama's feet, Rama explains that the weapon cannot be taken back, and it hits the bird's eye, blinding him in one eye.
May be, the story can be read as a poetic explanation of a crow's unique vision. I look at it differently though. I think that Jayant stands for all the wicked forces that bother a hapless woman. Significant it is hence that Seeta remembers the story when she is absolutely helpless.
The punishment Jayant is made to suffer is the perfect punishment meted out to anybody who disrespects a woman. I remembered this rather lesser known story because on a 'women empowerment group' was shared a horrifying pic of a naked woman being paraded by men who were all along violating her. It was so horrible I could not even look at it, and deleted it immediately.
Apparently, it is from Manipur. I would not know how far this is true. Wherever it might have been taken, the pic was a terror made more vicious because the men were leering shamelessly. It proved how unsafe women are, especially in violent areas full of insurgencies.
The tragedy of the ancient Jayant myth, now re-visited in the third decade of the twenty first century, is that now there is no brahmastra whatsoever against such crows, be it the Manipuri men as it was reported on the group or be it the rejected, obsessed creep of a besotted fool as in the Pune incidents.
Difficult it is getting by the day for a self respecting woman to live, when the whole stupid world cheers on such cheap fools called 'loving men'! So this use of an old myth to explicate a contemporary cruelty! 'Old bottle, new wine' version as the English phrase goes which would in this context translate as ancient injustices, but no new significations as far as remedies and reparations go!
Pratima@ Discrimination, thy name is patriarchal injustice!
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