Tara was the wife of Vali, the king of Kishkindha , the country of Vanaras (monkeys). Tara was the daughter of Sushena, a physician in the country of Kishkindha. She had a son called Angada.
Category: Purana (Page 10 of 12)
Atri and Anusuya
॥ ॐ इत्येकाक्षरं ब्रह्म । घृनणमिति द्वे ॥
After shuffling a very small part of this universe, there remained only one thing and it was called as Brahma and denoted by a single letter OM(ॐ). It has converted itself as two and was called as sun. It has a meaning as surplus also. Then Brahma desired to have ten Manasa putras, so the ten sons were born first in this universe. They are:
- Atri
- Angiras
- Prachetas
- Brighu
- Pulaha
- Narada
- Marichi
- Vasishta
- Pulastya
- Daksha (or Prajapati)
Then, Sun alone was with earth and later Mars, Mercuty, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn have been created. Later, after churning the milky ocean, Rahu and Ketu were also added to the planets group. Then, Shiva had half consumed the venom of the serpent and required a cooling facility over his head. Brahma agreed to provide it at the earliest. Then Brahma entrusted that work to Atri Muni.
The names of Rivers, Forests and Temples available in the story of Ramayana randomly exist all over India. Sometimes there are two places claiming the same common name. Some of the remains like granite architecture, temples’ flag posts or remainders of wells are mementos, as tokens for memorizing the names of the particular Ramayana incidents. In olden days, the names were assigned in Sanskrit, in Ramayana. After the changing of rulers of some of the localities of the country, the names of the Rivers or forests also changed, due to vested interests of the rulers. The names of Places and Mountains has been listed separately and already posted in the previous article. Some of the interesting names of Rivers, forests and Temples are presented here, mainly mythological, as found in original and related incidents of Ramayana:
Shanthi Mantra verses, like the ones shown at the end of the article Lava Kusha, have been recited by the holy sages and learned persons when the kings advanced during the peaceful processions.
वसिष्टो वामदेवस्च जाबालिस्च दृढव्रतः । अग्रतः प्रययुः सर्वे मन्त्रिणो मंत्रपूजिताः ॥
In Ramayana, KHARA, DOOSHANA and KUMBHAKARNA are demons. The area north of Lanka and south of Kosala in India was the free moving zone of demons. The main forest area called Dandakaranya was occupied by the fierce demons and Dooshana was ruling the forest kingdom. He was the close relative of Ravana. His mother was Raka and his brother was Khara and they were born as twins. Janasthana was the capital of Dandakaranya. It was having road access, south up to River Godavary and north up to River Ganga. Dooshana had a chariot of large size and it was driven by eight horses. His country had good military arrangements and he was to take care of the North side of Lanka which was ruled by Ravana.
The Mountains and places available in the epic Ramayana are spread all over India. Sometimes, there are two claims for the same name of places. Some of the remains like granite architecture, temples are mementos for memorizing the names of the particular Ramayana incidents or important characters. In olden days, the names have been assigned in Sanskrit, in Ramayana. After the change of rulers of the localities, the names of the places also change due to various reasons. The names of Mountains and Places are mythological, some of them found in Ramayana are given as below:
Ramayana depicts the lives of many holy learned persons and they are called Maharshis, Rishis or Munis. India is referred as Bharata Khanda and the peninsular region is called as Indian sub-continent or Bharata Varsha. Various countries had their own independent rulers and in those times of Emperor Rama’s ruling era, the official language was Sanskrit and it was also a link language between countries. In north India, Valmiki Maharshi lived and used his own local language but he has written Ramayana in Sanskrit and taught it to his students. In Lanka also, Sanskrit was the official language but they used a different language while communicating locally. Agastya Muni lived near Tamraparni Mountain of Lanka and history says he used Tamil for local communication but was an expert in Sanskrit. Then, Lanka was considered as the geographic center of the earth for the purposes of calculation in astronomy. People had the knowledge of North Pole and referred earth as Bhoo Mandala, which means one can go circumscribing around the earth.
In Ramayana, Lava and Kusha are the twin children of Rama. Sita is the mother of these children. After returning from Lanka, Rama had ordered to banish Sita and sent her into forest and these two children were born in the hermit’s cottage built on the bank of Tamsa River. This hermit belonged to Valmiki Maharshi.
Vishwamitra Rishi in Ramayana appears as a great store house of knowledge. His contributions make the epic crazy. Ramayana was purposefully written to prove and show the true style of life worthy to be followed by all human beings in the current and the forthcoming generations.
Meghanada was the son of Mandodari and Ravana. In Ramayana, he could be seen as a loving and devoting elder son of the demon Ravana and he has been widely populated as Indrajit for his past achievements. He had a younger brother Aksha, whom his mother called as Akshayakumara.
