Land of Lime

Yesterday, I should have added this following story on the first Mahamastakabhisheka.

It is said that Chavundaraya commissioned the Bahubali image carved to fulfill his mother’s desire. Afterwards, he became very proud of his accomplishment, at having such a monumental statue created. So at the first ritual head bath, after a great deal of water and milk had been poured on the statue, even the upper body and navel area wasn’t wet, let alone the entire body. When Chavundarya began wondering, Jain goddess Kushmandinidevi came in the guise of an old woman, carrying milk in Gullekayi, a vegetable which is in the form of a small bowl. An unrepentant Chavundaraya made caustic and derogatory remarks against her, when she asked to be allowed to perform the rutal; but when the old woman poured milk from her bowl, not only the entire statue was covered with milk, but the overflow reached the bottom of the Indragiri hill.

Apparently, Chavundaraya became a modest and egoless person after witnessing this miracle. I am not sure whether that lesson has been learnt by us, the enthusiastic pourers of milk and honey, sandal paste and ghee. As I wrote yesterday, what Bahubali stands for is a question that needs a proper response.

From Chavundaraya, let us make our transition to Satya Hariscandra, someone known for his commitment not only to truth, modesty and dignified bearing.

This will be Satya Hariscandra week. I need to write a conference paper on Hariscandra and want to share my notes with you all. My twin goals will be to write about Raghavanka’s Hariscandra Kavya and review Rajkumar’s film, Satya Hariscandra, as part of the Sundays with Dr. Rajkumar series. It would help to have the background of the first major kavya (epic poem) in any language on Hariscandra, to see how it influenced Kannada literary imagination, before we turn to the film. Today let me write about the antecedents of Hariscandra story in Sanskrit narratives.

Recently, I did two postings on Raghavanka’s differences with Harihara on the purpose of literature. In contrast to Harihara’s exclusive focus on Siva and men of Siva, Raghavanka has a slogan: Hara is truth and truth is Hara. It is that message which he wants to convey through Hariscandra Kavya.

Interestingly enough, but not surprisingly, three different Hariscandra narratives are known to us from Vedic, epic and puranic accounts. The first account found mainly in Aitareya Brahmana but also in Samkhyayana Srautasutra and Vedartha Dipika, relates to Hariscandra’s quest for a son, whom he obtains after promising Varuna that he would sacrifice him. After Rohita was born, he pleaded one excuse after another, postponing the sacrifice. Upon learning his father’s promise, Rohita left home and as per Indra’s advice, wandered for many years in the forest until he bought a replacement in the form of Sunashepa, the son of Ajigarta to be sacrificed instead of him. Sunashepa is saved by sage Visvamitra, who adopts him and calls him Devarata. In this version, Hariscandra comes across as a flawed character, who in fact doesn’t keep his promise to Varuna; instead, he is looking for an easy way out.

The epics, Mahabharata in particular, remember Hariscandra as a king who performed Rajasuya sacrifice.

A second account focuses on Hariscandra’s ancestors, primarily his father Satyavrata Trisanku, who as a young man had been thrown out of the kingdom by his father for having stolen a young woman, who was about to marry. While he was in exile, he protected and supported sage Visvamitra’s family, as the latter was performing penance. Once, when he couldn’t find any food, Satyavrata killed Vasista’s cow and fed all his dependents. Vasista cursed him to become an untouchable and he came to be known as Trisanku for the three sins he had committed. Trisanku wanted to go to heaven with his own body, which was facilitated by Visvamitra; when the gods wouldn’t allow him inside heaven, Visvamitra created a separate heaven for him. While aspects of this story will be relevant for our discussion later on, please note that Hariscandra has no role to play in these narratives. The only relevant information here is that Trisanku is Hariscandra’s father. Both these stories deserve a detailed analysis, which I shall add to my to do list.

Our primary concern here is with the third narrative, which describes the travails of Hariscandra, as he seeks to hold on to his commitment to truth. Many versions of this story appear briefly in the Devi Bhagavata Purana, Markandeya Purana and in two Sanskrit plays.Tomorrow, I will consider outlines of the story in these Sanskrit sources and discuss how Raghavanka differs from them.