CONTROVERSIAL EPISODES OF RAMAYANA: THE SLAYING OF SHMABHUKA

 

shambhuka©Wikimedia commons

Shri Ram has always been a divine figure who is remembered for his flawless demeanour and rightful decisions while handling various situations. His methodology of conserving the status of Dharma during Treta Yuga had always fascinated a large section of Indians especially Hindus.

As I had already mentioned in my previous blogs that humans are hypercritical. We have always attracted to the flaws of a person rather than the good deeds that person conducted for the greater good of society. Similarly, certain Anti-Hindu elements tried to instil hate for Shri Ram in the minds of Shudras and Dalits by revealing this specific episode of Ramayana. This incident isn’t much popular among contemporary Hindus and is known by a few sections of the Hindu population.

The story I am going to Debunk in this blog will be the ‘unjustifiable slaying of Shambhuka’.

STORY: This incident happened during the later period of Shri Rama’s regime when an unanticipated event happened in Ayodhya. A Brahmin lost his young son due to some unidentifiable cause and he rushed to the king’s court seeking justice for his dead son.

Remember back in Ram Rajya the residents of Ayodhya had the innate capabilities to survive for a longer period. So this sudden demise of a young kid was completely unexpected during Rama’s regime.

Lord Rama straightaway organized a meeting with the royal ministers and Sages discussing the sudden death of a young boy and was trying to find a probable cause behind it. Suddenly, Narada appeared from nowhere and revealed that a Shudra is performing severe austerities which is against the rule of penance in treat yuga. He also revealed that the shudra is performing this penance with wrong intentions. Due to his penance, the kid lost his life.

The rule of Penance state that the Brahmin can perform austerities during Satya yuga. Brahmin and Kshatriya can perform austerities in treta Yuga. Brahmin, Kshatriya, and Vaishya can perform austerities in Dwapar Yuga. Ultimately in Kaliyuga, all the four varnas (including Shudras) can also perform austerities.

On hearing the words of Narada, Shri Ram promptly went off for searching the person who was performing severe austerities. Expectedly he found a person who was performing Ugratapasya by hanging upside down from a tree.

Shri Ram approached him and ask him about his caste and the proper reason behind his Ugratapasya(severe penance) to which that person revealed that he is a shudra named Shambhuka who is performing severe penance for the sake of conquering the lower heavens. In other words, he wanted to conquer the world of Gods.

On hearing his words Shri Ram straightaway slash off his head without giving any warning.

Shambhuka©Wikipedia

Let’s analyze this event impartially:

1)     Strong reasons to consider this episode as an interpolation or addition in the later period.

a)     Back in treta Yuga there was a shudra Tapasvi named Shabri who gave half-eaten berries to Lord Ram during his exile. She was a Shudra yet she became a tapasvi. Isn’t it sharply contradicts the statement of Narada that a Shudra can’t do Tapasya back in Treta yuga? It surely does refute.

b)     Shri Ram was not the kind of person who discriminated against people based on his/her caste. He instead befriended persons like Nishad Raj (tribal chief) took care of Shri Ram during his initial days of exile. On the other hand, Shri Ram ate the half-eaten berries given by Shabri (a shudra tapasvi). This event serves to be an example of profound love between God and the devotee irrespective of the caste.

The above-mentioned reasons are enough to disapprove the actuality of this ‘controversial’ episode of Ramayana. So it isn’t wrong to consider the Shambhuka episode as later addition in the holy epic of Ramayana.

shambhuka©Quora

The plausible side of the story:

One who carefully reads through this story will understand the reason behind Shambhuka’s death.  In this specific episode, lord Ram didn’t kill Shambhuka out of discrimination. He killed him for his vile intentions.

Think about a normal person performing Tapasya for the sake of acquiring a position among the Devas. Doesn’t it sound like a dangerous act that can badly affect the cosmos?

In various editions of Ramayana, it is mentioned that Shambhuka wanted to conquer the world of gods (Read Ramayana by Bibek Debroy).

So we can clearly say that Shri Ram Killed Shambhuka just because of his vile intentions not out of discrimination.

The problem with Hindus is their lack of Interest and knowledge related to their religion due to which they start to believe in the Anti-Hindu propaganda usually propagated by the intellectual and Atheist society of the world for converting the believers into non-believers.

Another problem that I found to be true is that Hindus can be easily manipulated to an extent that they will start to believe in the half baked stories propagated by Anti-Hindu elements. As a Hindu, it’s our responsibility to educate the ignorant masses about the glorious history of Hinduism and its rich culture.  

Jai Shree Ram.