Dear fellow nettors!
Sri Syamala Rao raising his scimitar in defense of the courtesans of the
lecherous indra's court is more amusing than Sri Vissavajjhala Prabhakar's
original post that has elevated taara, the wife of dEvaguru bRhaspati to the
ridiculous heights of a 'feminist.'( An explosive feminist, in deed!)
First of all taaraaSaSaankaM, the play that was referred to in these groups
is 'blasphemy,'(ha!ha!) for those who ceremoniously believe in the sanctitiy of
the puraNic narrations. Sympathising with the believers' point of view, for
the time being, I think that banning taaraaSaaSaankaM was a commendable thing!
What? you might scream and say I have gone bonkers!!
Not at all. Please read on!
The story of taara and caMdra as it appears in the brahmavaivarta puraaNa
clearly 'proves' caMdra as the culprit and a wife-napper. Although,
wife-napping and wife-swapping, incest, matricide and patricide were quite
common in the stories from the sacred books of yore!
Once upon a time ( how I love a story that starts like that!) the seers
Saunaka et al asked the wise sage soota to narrate the story of taara,
bRhaspati and caMdra. He does it. Here it is in a nutshell, as it was
rendered in the brahmavaivarta puraaNa.
On one lovely day, bRhaspati's wife taara went alone to bathe in the
jaahnavee river. She must be humming 'jalakaalaaTalalO...' or some such
thing also as usual with these dEvataaMganaas. She was clever and very
beautiful. And, caMdra lusted her for a very long time. Now, he had the
opportunity and asked her to go to bed with him. She ignores him. In the
archaic useage it is said: ' aame aatanini tRNeekariMce!' He forcibly takes
her to pratishTaanapura. He was 'enjoying' her. She gave birth to a son
named budha!
The guru bRhaspati was worried. His dear wife did not return from her bath!
He sent his students in search of his beloved wife. They searched all over and
found out that caMdra had stolen her! They came back and told ' hEy
guruvaryaa! We heard that caMdra deceived and took away your wife.' Some
how, indra comes to know of it, takes bRhaspati to brahma, who shrugs his
shoulders in vain. He accompanies them to kailaasa and tells to Siva about
the plight of poor bRhaspati. Siva smiles and says it was all due to
bRhaspati's 'poorva janma kRitaM paapaM,' and 'praarabdhaM.' This is the
clincher, folks! Are you ready? It appears that bRhaspati in his past life
went to bed with his older brother's wife, and she was nine months pregnant
at that time! It was sickening, isn't it? But, we should not say it aloud!!
It is about the dEvataas!! Any way, this fellow Siva teaches bRhaspati the
sreekRshNa maMtra ( or some such peculiar magic spell, I think) and reveals
to him that caMdra and taara were staying at Sukra's home. He also tells him
to chant the maMtra such that kRshNa (a god of great moral character, I
suppose!) will bring taara home safely (You can bet on that!). After saying
this, Siva disappears!
brahma, the grandfather of Sukra goes to Sukra's place and tells him of the
suffering of bRhaspati. Sukra convinces caMdra to give back taara to
bRhaspati, and the poor caMdra says okee dokee. Now, brahma blesses taara
with a boon and decrees that she should be deemed innocent(as if some one is
taking this case to the small causes court!) and plants a curse on caMdra for
stealing the guru's wife. The curse on caMdra is the 'kaLaMka,'which appears
on caMdra like a little 'hare!' ( I think, by george, you all got it!) From
that day, caMdra was also known as 'SaSadhara.'
Now I concede! If this story stands, taara was not a common concubine of
the iMdra's court! But, she was not by any stretch of imagination a
'feminist.' either. She was at the worst a victim of the then phallocentric
society! Well!! since then, society has not changed much, though!
But, raMbha, mEnaka, tilOttama et al, the courtesans of iMdra's amaraavati
kingdom, were always sent by iMdra to aaryaavarta to mess up the penances
of the sages, to distract powerful kings etc. Boy, they messed up these
poor sages so badly, they had to store their semen in earthenware pots, and
of course, potted baby boys(no girls, please!) were born!
No! I do not hate these characters. On the contrary,I pity their portrayal
by men in the puraaNaas and the prabhaMdhaas. Do not tell me that these tomes
should be considered as 'apaurushEyaas!' Such was the respect shown to women
in these washed up books that some of us admire and adore!!
Please do not try to tell me uurvaSi and puroorava's story. There are at
least eight different sources, starting with the Satapatha braahmaNa, the
rigvEda (10th maMDala), kathaa saritsaagara, vishNu puraaNa, the
mahaabhaarata, and ending with kaaLidaasa's vikramOrvaseeyaM! I have a
fairly decent idea of the different versions of the story!
As mentioned, oorvaSi did not threaten to leave puroorava if he steps aside
from the path of dharma, as was alleged! Certainly not in the Satapatha
brahmaNa version. In this version, the gaMdharvas devise a very clever way to
get her back to amaraavati because she has 'dwelt' among mortal men too long! A
sort of a happy ending is found in kaaLidaasa's play. Of course, it was in
tune with his other plays where the courtesans and kings (except the
maaLavikaagnimitraM)play the lead roles and finally a happy ending! These
changes reflect the differences between the vEdic periods and the Gupta
period! I can try to explain story in terms of sociology and anthropology.
But, do we care?
It was said that there was some astronomical explanation to taaraaSaSaaMkaM.
Probably it was in reference to the story in brahma puraaNa, where the 27
nakshtras (aSwani, bharaNi, etc.) who were the children of diti and how they
were married off with caMdra by daksha. Even here, I do not see any
astronomical or astrological mumbo-jumbo in it. I can narrate that story too,
but not now. Unless someone proves the astronomical implication in it, I have
to say it's a big bluff, and I do not want to be snowed down!
It was polite to ask me to read saavitri by aurobindo. I can not. Aurobindo's
english is so archaic and french-slanted, I do not want to strain myself
with such a punishment! I tried to read parts of a thesis on saavitri and was
thoroughly confused with the diction! It was made unnatuarally tough to read!
Erudition is onething; escaping into convoluted english in the name of
erudition is unpardonable! It is worse than telling people that the books of
yester years are not meant for ordinry people like me!
It is one's prerogative to remain silent on 'feminism.' After all, it is a
free country! What I can not swallow is condescension and sermonization; be
it about ancient literature, medieval literature or modern literature!
Apologies for the long post. May be it's time for blokes like me to resign
from telusa group, I do not know!
Best Regards.
-- Venkateswara Rao Veluri