indheevara dhaLa syAmam indhukotinibhaananam |
kandharpa koti lAvaNyam vandEham Raghunandanam ||
We now come to the Sixth and penultimate canto of Adi Kavi Valmiki”s Srimadh RAmAyaNam, which is known as the Yuddha KhAndham(YK). Here, Sri Rama’s avathAra kAryam is executed and his heroism is fully demonstrated. Hence, the Gadhyam of Swami Desikan on the Raghu Veeran comes into full focus. The salutations of Swami Desikan echo here with the battle sounds majestically.
There are a total of 29 salutaions related toYK of Swami Desikan’s Raghuveera Gadhyam.Six of them consist of one or two words. I will reflect on their meanings later. These six salutations for the sake of listing are:
> Veera (50)
> Satya Vratha (51)
> SwAmin (75)
> Raaghava Simha (76), Nishpanna Kruthya (71)
> Aparathidhwandwa Pourusha (61).
Some of the salutaions are very long and are full of alliterations or Onomotopheia. These resonate with the sound and fury of the battle in a majestic fashion and accompany the DankhAra dwani associated with Sri Ramaa’s Kodhandam.
The first half of Yuddha KAndham covers the VibhishaNa SaraNAgathi,Darbha Sayanam, Sethu Bandhanam and the arrival of Sri Rama, LakshmaNA, SugreevA, HanumAn with the army of monkeys and bears at the capital cit yof RaavaNA. Swami Desikan covers these incidents through 8 salutations starting from salutation 48. The first 39 chapters of Srimadh RaamAyaNam covers these incidents.
The second half of YK consists of 89 sargas in SrimadhVaalmiki RaamayaNam. Swami Desikan uses 21 salutations to illustrate RaamA’s heroism saluted earlier by Vaalmiki in his YK.These salutations cover the various battles in which Sri Rama participated, Indrajith’s binding of the Lord and LakshmaNA with Naga Paasam, the service of Garuda to chase away the serpents, RavaNaa’s first battle with Rama and former’s retreat from the battle field, death of RavaNaa at the hands of the victorious Rama,Mandodhari’s lamentation over the loss of her husband, her praise of Rama, the eulogies of the Devaas and Brahmaain recognition of the unparalleled heroism of Rama in the Rama-RaavaNa Yuddham, the resucitation of the monkeys from their death, reunion with Sita, return to Nandigraam in Pushpaka Vimaanam to meet the waiting Bharatha and the glorious pattabhishekam of Sri Rama as Chakravarthi.
VaidehI sahitam suradhrumatalE haimE mahAmantapE
madhyE pushpakamaasanE maNimayE veerAsanE susthitham |
agrE vAchayathi prabhanjanasuthE tatvam munibhya: param
vyAkyAntham Bharathadhibi: parivrutham Ramam bhajE syAmaLam |vAme BhumisuthA purasccha HanumAn pascchaath Sumitraa sutha:
SatrugnO Bharathasccha paarsva dhaLayOrvaayvaadhi kONeshu cha |
Sugreevasccha VibhishaNasccha Yuvaraat Taaraa suthO JaambhavAn
MadhyE NEELA SAROJA KOMALA RUCHIM RAAMAM bhajE syAmaLam ||
Sri Janakee Rama ParabrahmaNE nama:
Sri VaishNava Daasan,
Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan
To be continued…
