Daṇḍakāraṇya Origin

Daṇḍakāraṇya is the great forest through which Bhagavān Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa wandered in their exile. Chapter 17 of the Rājya Khaṇḍa of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa tells how it began, through the account of Candravadanā and King Daṇḍa. Daṇḍa, a king of the Ikshvāku line in ancient times, violated Candravadanā, the daughter of a great ṛshi. The ṛshi cursed him. His kingdom and the lands around it became a barren wilderness, and that wilderness was called Daṇḍakāraṇya, the forest of Daṇḍa’s punishment.

Candravadanā

Candravadanā means “the moon-faced one”. She was a woman of rare beauty. In the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa she is the daughter of Bhṛgu, or of Śukra. The text names her among the most praised women of her age, for her beauty and her purity.

Her family was a great line of ṛshis, and this is the key fact of her story. Her person was holy through the power of her father’s tapas (austerity) and his standing.

Daṇḍa Rāja

Daṇḍa Rāja was a king of the Ikshvāku line. This is the same Solar line from which Bhagavān Rāma was born. He ruled a rich kingdom in the region that would later become Daṇḍakāraṇya. His wrong was that he violated Candravadanā. She had gone to her father’s āśrama (hermitage), or she was under the protection of the ṛshi’s household.

This was an act of violence against a brahmin’s daughter. It was the worst kind of adharma that a kshatriya king could commit. A kshatriya must protect, and a brahmin must guide. Daṇḍa turned the power of a king into force against someone who could not defend herself.

The curse and what followed

Bhṛgu, or Śukra, learned that Candravadanā had been violated. He spoke a terrible curse on Daṇḍa, on his kingdom and on his people. The curse turned the whole land, once green and full of people, into a desolate wilderness. The trees withered. The people died or ran away. The land became an āraṇya (forest) over a very large region.

This cursed land came to be called Daṇḍakāraṇya, the araṇya (forest) of Daṇḍa’s punishment. The word daṇḍa is both the king’s name and the word for punishment, the rod of justice.

In the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa the ancient curse leads to the Daṇḍakāraṇya that Bhagavān Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa crossed in their fourteen years of exile. This great tapobhūmi (land of tapas) of the ṛshis, where Bhagavān Rāma met ṛshis and rākshasas alike, came into being from this ancient act of adharma and its divine answer.

The forest in the Rāma narrative

Daṇḍakāraṇya began in a curse. But over thousands of years it became a holy forest. Great ṛshis lived in it, among them Agastya, Śarabhaṅga, Sutīkshṇa and Atri, and many others. They chose its quiet for their tapas. The curse that emptied it of ordinary human homes made it a place of great spiritual power.

In Daṇḍakāraṇya Bhagavān Rāma fought and killed the rākshasas Virādha, Khara, Dūshaṇa and Triśiras. Śūrpaṇakhā made her plans here. Sītā was carried off by Rāvaṇa from Pañchavaṭī, which lies within Daṇḍakāraṇya. The frame of the Rājya Khaṇḍa is also set here: Rāmadāsa tells the account to Vishṇudāsa in this ancient forest, born of a curse and made holy by ṛshis.

Sources

• Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Rājya Khaṇḍa, Chapter 17