Out of various geographic locations narrated in VālmÄ«ki’s Rāmāyaṇa, Pañcavaá¹­Ä« is the place where the drama of the story takes a profound turn.  Assuming that Rāmāyaṇa is a story, it would appear as though VālmÄ«ki had thought about Pañcavaá¹­Ä« where the story would host the key action.  The natural beauty of the area with the ground water streams feeding GodāvarÄ« river is both peaceful and harmonious.  The tranquil forest still recalls SÄ«tā who walked through its leafy trails, it was SÄ«tā’s homestead in the woods.  The exposure in the open environment invited the assault that became the core of the Rāmāyaṇa story.

After leaving CitrakÅ«á¹­a, Rāma, Laká¹£maṇa and SÄ«tā spent ten years in hopping hermitages in the Daṇḍakāraṇya area.  It is possible that Rāma had been always curious about the monastic living and he enjoyed his visits to the hermits and accepting their hospitality.  The sages respected him as the King DaÅ›aratha’s son and received him cordially.  Through these visits, Rāma learned about the disturbance the Rāká¹£asas were causing to break the tranquility of the forest.  He learned that the Rāká¹£asas were causing undue harm to the innocent sages hounding them away from the area.

As we discussed in the last essay, Daṇḍakāraṇya forests have been the abode of the sages for practicing austerities and meditation. The area was fertile with fruits and roots, and had good water. One could live there for a long period of time without the tensions of urban settlements.  But the Rāká¹£asa tribe had eyed to occupy the land.  Their goal was to drive out the sages and gain full control of the area.  The story could be pre-historic when tribes in the southern part of India were aggressively exercising their power against the northern settlers.

Determined to help the sages, Rāma went deeper in the south to meet the Sage Agastya.  The Sage had been a foe of the Rāká¹£asas.  He blessed Rāma’s intentions.  The Sage gave him a few special weapons for use in the battles. He invited him to stay in his hermitage.  Rāma had other thoughts. He had been observing SÄ«tā’s unhappiness over long years in exile.  He wanted to make her life more comfortable.   He had been thinking to provide SÄ«tā with an independent and private place where she could wander freely and feel at home.  Sage Agastya advised Rama about the woods at Pañcavaá¹­Ä« and gave directions to the location as clearly as he could.

At Pañcavaá¹­Ä« Rāma met his first friend, a vulture named Jaṭāyu who showed up as a god-send. Rāma had the skill of interpreting the vulture’s language.  The bird narrated his family tree to show his ancestry and his relation to King DaÅ›aratha. VālmÄ«ki makes a special effort to create a genealogy of the living objects on earth from an animistic point of view.   In such genealogy all living beings owe their origin to a singular father called Kardama.  Hence every living entity gets related to each other through the chain of a family tree.  Jaṭāyu committed his help in protecting SÄ«tā in Pañcavaá¹­Ä« as an elder friend of the family.

The vulture knew of the Rāká¹£asas’ camp, Janasthana, not too far from Pañcavaá¹­Ä«. Janasthāna was a holy place, but had been occupied by the Rāká¹£asas.  Rāma was not aware of the proximity.  He had already expressed his intention to meet the challenge to confront the Rāká¹£asas.  VālmÄ«ki does not say how the Rāká¹£asas got there, but says that thousands of them were inhabiting the area with orders from their King Rāvaṇa who lived in the island of Laá¹…kā several hundred miles away.  The Rāká¹£asas in Janasthana were ruled by a Rāká¹£asa general, Khara, who was loyal to Rāvaṇa.

Rāma was delighted to reach Pañcavaá¹­Ä«.  He described the site to brother Laká¹£maṇa: “Look, the land is even. It is beautifully covered with flowering trees.  Here is a lake with fragrant lotus flowers as large as the sun! The other lake there is filled with more lotuses.  And there is the river GodāvarÄ«. Its banks are laden with fully blossomed trees.  You see swarms of swans, cranes and the cakravāka birds.  Herds of deer are not too far.  There are beautiful mountains covered with flowers and trees.  The peacocks are joyously dancing in the mountain caves.  Speckled with gold, silver and copper mineral stones, the mountains look like sober elephants seen through a latticed window!” 

Ramayana is an encyclopedia to study botany.  Pañcavaá¹­Ä« boasts many kinds of tropical trees of fruits and flowering bushes. They made it extremely habitable.  Rāma requested Laká¹£maṇa to build a cottage by choosing a location near water.  Laká¹£maṇa dutifully constructed the cottage out of mud, bamboo, cords, reeds and grass.  We also notice Laká¹£maṇa’s lonely lamentation in winter: “Thick fog leads to mid-day warmth that develops into a pleasant day.  Nights are frosty, colder and longer.  Winds from the west make the mornings cold. The farmlands look beautiful with herons and cranes.  Water is cold in winter.  Animals do not touch it though they stand nearby!  The forest looks sleepy. The lotus buds are withered.” It could be a reflection of his own fatigue!

The current location of Pañcavaá¹­Ä« near Nasik is in Maharastra state of India.  It could fit the description that VālmÄ«ki provides though some people think that the location could be more towards central India.  However, to interpret VālmÄ«ki’s description as pure historical facts might be incorrect.  VālmÄ«ki uses poetic imagination in his narration of events.  He does create mythical characters to embellish the story.  But the cottage in the current Pañcavaá¹­Ä« location and the assumed walks of SÄ«tā in those forest trails do give a sense of authenticity to VālmÄ«ki’s description.  One can surmise that the natural setting can stay pristine if protected from over use.

It is in Pañcavaá¹­Ä«, the Rāká¹£asa damsel SÅ«rpaṇakhā showed up and solicited Rāma.  Rāma diverted her to Laká¹£maṇa.  Noticing that SÄ«tā was an obstacle to her solicitation, SÅ«rpaṇakhā tried to hurt Sita.  At this point Laká¹£maṇa intervened and cut off SÅ«rpaṇakhā’s nose and ears with his sword.  Enraged, SÅ«rpaṇakhā called on the local Rāká¹£asa battalions to fight Rāma.  They all perished being killed by Rāma’s arrows.  The Rāká¹£asa general Khara himself was killed.  Eventually the news reached Rāvaṇa.  SÅ«rpaṇakhā described SÄ«tā’s beauty to him entreating him to get the latter for his wife. Rāvaṇa’s evil instincts were kindled.  He planned with another Rāká¹£asa called MārÄ«ca to kidnap SÄ«tā.  This becomes the dramatic turn of the story.

The wooded Pañcavaá¹­Ä« consisted of five large banyan trees with hundreds of their shoots reaching ground to create an impression of perfect illusion of light and shade.  A man cloaked in deerskin as a deer can easily move around the maze to create a pure magical perception.  Marica cloaked himself in a beautiful deer skin and ambled around near Rama’s cottage. SÄ«tā was pleasantly amazed and begged Rama to get the “deer” for her.  Laká¹£maṇa could sense the error but could not dissuade Rāma from going after the “deer”.

Rāma pursued the “deer”and after a long chase shot an arrow that injured the deer badly. It was then that he discovered that the deer was really Marica, the Rāká¹£asa.While dying he called out “SÄ«tā” and “Laká¹£maṇa” in Rama’s voice.  SÄ«tā fell into the trap, and forced Laká¹£maṇa to go to rescue Rāma from danger.   In those brief moments of Laká¹£maṇa’s absence Sita was kidnapped by Rāvaṇa, who had been hiding nearby. Rāvaṇa’s plot worked through the illusions of Pañcavaá¹­Ä«.

While this part of the story could be historically reconstructed, Rāvaṇa’s journey in an aerial vehicle (Pushpaka Vimana) would appear as a mystery and fantasy.  While the Vedas talk about aerial chariots for transporting gods in the sky, VālmÄ«ki’s aerial vehicle is described as a physical object. It was propelled by animals, galloping over the tree line.  It was low-flying, and the technology for such a vehicle is beyond the current discoveries in modern science.  If it is fancy, VālmÄ«ki should be credited as the first science fiction writer of repute in the ancient world.

The next part of the story in Pañcavaá¹­Ä« is the fight between the vulture Jaṭāyu and the Rāká¹£asa king Rāvaṇa.  The lightness of the vehicle is suggested since it broke down when attacked by the wings of the bird. Rāvaṇa finally succeeded in lopping off the wings of Jaṭāyu. He repaired the aerial vehicle and flew off through his powers of magic, a skill that some of the Rāká¹£asas had.

Pañcavaá¹­Ä« gets a sense of animation when a distraught Rāma madly wanders asking every tree to reveal the whereabouts of SÄ«tā.  “My SÄ«tā loved Kadamba flowers!  O’ Kadamba, have you seen my SÄ«tā? O Arjuna! my SÄ«tā loved your flowers!  Please tell if she is alive or not!”  “O’ AÅ›oka! Can you reduce my pain? Where is my SÄ«tā?” When the trees did not respond he asks his question to the animals: “O’ Deer! Have you seen my fawn-eyed SÄ«tā?” “O’ Elephant! Please tell me if you saw my SÄ«tā”.  Rāma is bewildered with the silence of the forest.  He had assumed the life in the forest through SÄ«tā’s presence!

Jaṭāyu had been lying around injured waiting to convey the news of SÄ«tā’s abduction to Rāma.  After communicating to Rama that SÄ«tā was flown away by the Rāká¹£asaKing Rāvaṇa, Jaṭāyu breathed his last.  Laká¹£maṇa arranged a funeral pyre.  Rāma cremated Jaṭāyu with the dignity that he would accord to his own father. Jaṭāyu’s ashes have made the forests of Pañcavaá¹­Ä« a holy abode for the faith-seekers.

Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa proceeded further in search of Sītā.

Let Sai bless all.

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