Mārīca Episode
This episode from the Āraṇya Kāṇḍa is about Mārīca, a rākshasa who knew exactly what would follow from Rāvaṇa’s plan and was forced to take part in it anyway. It runs from Rāvaṇa’s two visits to Mārīca’s āśrama (hermitage), through Mārīca’s two warnings, his shape as the golden deer, and his death by Rāma’s Brahmāstra (an arrow of Brahmā), to the dying cry in Rāma’s voice. That cry made Lakshmaṇa leave Sītā unguarded, and Rāvaṇa then took her away.
Rāvaṇa’s first visit
Akampana told Rāvaṇa about the destruction at Janasthāna. Rāvaṇa resolved to take Sītā and went to Mārīca’s āśrama on the seashore.
Mārīca was a powerful rākshasa and a master of magic. He was the son of Tāḍakā. Earlier he had fought Rāma at Viśvāmitra’s āśrama, and one of Rāma’s arrows had struck him and thrown him far away. That blow taught him what Rāma’s power was. Since then he had given up the life of a fighting rākshasa and lived simply on the seashore.
Rāvaṇa told Mārīca his plan. Mārīca would take the form of a golden deer and draw Rāma away from Pañcavaṭī. With Rāma gone, Rāvaṇa would carry off Sītā.
Mārīca refused at once and spoke strongly. He told Rāvaṇa what he knew of Rāma from his own experience: how fast and how hard Rāma’s arrows fly, how Rāma cannot be defeated, and how any move against Sītā would end in the death of all the rākshasas. He begged Rāvaṇa to give up the plan. He warned that some enemy was deceiving Rāvaṇa by advising this course, since no friend would ever suggest it. This time Rāvaṇa accepted the warning and went back to Laṅkā.
Rāvaṇa’s second visit
Śūrpaṇakhā stirred up Rāvaṇa at Laṅkā, and he went back to Mārīca. He spoke with new urgency. He told of the destruction of Janasthāna, of Śūrpaṇakhā’s shame, and of his own honour that was at stake. He called Mārīca’s earlier warnings too cautious. Then he made it plain: Mārīca would do as he was told, or Rāvaṇa would kill him himself.
Faced with this, Mārīca thought it through clearly. If he died at Rāvaṇa’s hand, he would die in disgrace and for nothing. If he went and played the deer, Rāma would kill him, and he understood that dying at Rāma’s hand was a kind of liberation. He chose to go. He asked Rāvaṇa only for a moment to get ready.
The golden deer
Mārīca changed himself into a deer of rare beauty. Its body looked made of gold. Its sides were spangled with gems of many colours, with silver spots. Its eyes were like jewels, its hooves were silver, and its voice was as sweet as flowing water.
He appeared near the āśrama at Pañcavaṭī, and Sītā saw him at once. She called Rāma, full of excitement, and asked him to catch the deer alive if he could. Rāma saw the deer and suspected that it was Mārīca. He told Lakshmaṇa so. But he went after the deer because Sītā asked him. He left Lakshmaṇa to guard Sītā.
Death and the dying cry
Mārīca led Rāma on a long chase through the forest. He appeared and vanished, and drew Rāma farther and farther from Pañcavaṭī.
At last Rāma shot him with the Brahmāstra. This was the arrow that Brahmā himself had given to Agastya to give to Rāma. The shot was deadly. As Mārīca died he lost the deer’s form and showed his true body as a rākshasa. With his last breath he carried out the last part of Rāvaṇa’s plan. In a voice that copied Rāma’s perfectly, he cried out: “Hā Sītā! Hā Lakshmaṇa!” It was a cry of distress, made so that those at the āśrama would believe Rāma was in mortal danger.
The effect of the cry
At Pañcavaṭī, Sītā heard what she took to be Rāma crying out in distress. She was seized with fear and begged Lakshmaṇa to go to Rāma’s help at once.
Lakshmaṇa tried to calm her. He said the cry was Mārīca’s trick. He said that no being could harm Rāma, and that his duty was to stay and guard Sītā. But Sītā was weeping and out of her mind with grief. She spoke harsh and wounding words and questioned why Lakshmaṇa was staying. Lakshmaṇa could not bear her sorrow and her accusations, and at last he agreed to go. Before leaving he drew a protective line at the threshold of the āśrama and warned her not to cross it. Then he left.
Now the āśrama was unguarded. Rāvaṇa had been watching and waiting, and he came at once.
The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa
The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa gives special detail at two points in this episode.
Mārīca’s warnings to Rāvaṇa. In the Tulasī account, Mārīca names the deeds of Rāma as proof. He speaks of the killing of Tāḍakā, the guarding of Viśvāmitra’s yajña (fire ritual) against Subāhu, the stringing and breaking of Śiva’s dhanus (bow) at Janaka’s court, and the complete destruction of the force of Khara, Dūshaṇa and Triśiras, which was 14,000 strong. From these deeds Mārīca argues that no ordinary being could have done them, whether among suras, asuras, humans, nāgas or yakshas. Only Bhagavān Rāma himself could have done them. So Rāma is Bhagavān Vishṇu himself, and Mārīca urges Rāvaṇa to drop any enmity with him. Rāvaṇa answers in fury that Mārīca is a coward who makes up excuses.
Mārīca’s devotion within. The most striking addition in the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa is Mārīca’s private thought after he accepts the task. He has been forced, and he reflects: if he must die, let it be at Rāma’s hand. To die at the hand of Bhagavān Rāma is itself a kind of moksha (liberation), one that tapas or jñāna (knowledge) could not give him in this birth as a rākshasa. With this resolve he enters the golden deer’s form. When Rāma’s arrow strikes him and he falls, the ṛshis who see it praise Rāma for giving Mārīca liberation by this very act of killing him. In this account Mārīca is not only a tragic tool. He is a devotee who knowingly chose to surrender through death.
Sources
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 34–35 (Rāvaṇa’s first visit)
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 36 (Mārīca’s warning)
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 37 (Rāvaṇa’s second visit)
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 38–40 (the golden deer)
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 41 (Mārīca’s death)
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 42–44 (the cry and Lakshmaṇa’s leaving)
- Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa