Samudra Appears Before Rāma

In the Sundara Kāṇḍa of the Tulasī Rāmāyana, Bhagavān Rāma comes after Vibhīshaṇa’s śaraṇāgati (taking refuge) and coronation to the last block before Laṅkā: the ocean, a hundred yojanas wide. He prays to Samudra for three days and three nights and gets no answer. In anger he takes up his bow to dry the sea by force. The ocean churns in fear, and Samudra appears before Rāma as a brāhmaṇa with gifts. He then names the way to build a bridge: Nala and Nīla have a vara from a muni that anything they throw into water will float. He also asks Rāma to loose the arrow he has already drawn at the Kirati people on the northern shore of the ocean.

The three days of prayer

After the war council and Vibhīshaṇa’s coronation, Śrī Rāma went to the southern shore of the great ocean. He made a seat of darbha (kuśa grass) on the sand and sat in meditation. He prayed to Samudra, the lord of all rivers, to give his army a way across. He kept up this prayer for three full days and nights without moving and without eating, and the ocean gave no reply. The sea went on in its usual way, with great waves and rough motion, as if it did not care about the prayers of Bhagavān Rāma.

Rāma’s anger: the bow raised

After three days of unanswered prayer, Śrī Rāma lost his calm. He spoke to Lakshmaṇa:

“Sodarā Lakshmaṇa! Bring my bow and arrows. To pray to a fool, to love a crooked heart, to offer hari-bhakti to one ruled by desire (kāmātura) are all equally useless. ‘Śaṭhaṃ prati śāṭhyam’: the crooked must be met with firmness. For this wicked one, only daṇḍanīti (the policy of punishment) is the right way.”

He also spoke these lines, among the most quoted in the Rāmacaritamānas:

Ḍhola gāṃvāra śūdra paśu nārī — ye sakala tāḍanā ke adhikārī

In the account, Samudra himself repeats this line back to Rāma in a striking turn.

Rāma strung his bow with a loud snap that rang in all directions. He drew it back and aimed at the depths of the ocean.

The ocean shakes in fear

When Bhagavān Rāma raised his bow and the string snapped with divine power, the whole ocean was seized with fear. The fish, turtles, crocodiles and all the creatures of the water shook. Samudra’s own heart burned hot with fear. Lakshmaṇa stood amazed, thinking that the end of all worlds was near.

Samudra appears as a brāhmaṇa

Samudra was overcome with fear and could not bear the anger of Bhagavān Rāma. He appeared before Śrī Rāma in the form of a brāhmaṇa, carrying golden vessels filled with navaratnas (nine kinds of gems) as gifts. He bowed at Rāma’s feet and spoke to him with humility and wisdom:

“O best of the Ikshvāku line, Rāma! I am jada (inert). All the five elements, shown forth by your māyā, are inert by nature. So it is right that you punish me for my inertness. And your own words apply here: ‘the drum, the rustic, the śūdra, the animal, the woman: all these are fit to be taught by force.’ I am inert. I deserved the correction you were about to give. But Deva Rāma! I am not punishing you by holding back the way. I am simply what I am by my nature.

“O Prabhu Rāma! You came here to cross me, and you wish the welfare of all creation. If I simply part and let your army through, your power and glory (bala-da) will not shine before the worlds as it should. I propose another way that will make your glory greater, not smaller.

“In your army are two warriors named Nala and Nīla. In their boyhood they were naughty. They used to pick up the śālagrāmas of munis who were meditating and throw them into the water. The munis were tired of their repeated pranks and gave them a śāpa (a curse): ‘O naughty ones! May everything you throw into water float and not sink!’ That śāpa has now become your vara. Let Nala and Nīla direct the building of a bridge. Whatever they throw into me will hold. I will carry it and stay firm under it. In this way your glory as the one whose army built a bridge across the endless ocean will shine for ever. This is the way in which your kīrti (fame) and your power will be best shown.”

The arrow loosed at the Kirati land

Samudra also spoke about the arrow that Rāma had already drawn:

“Prabhu Rāma! The arrow you have aimed must be loosed. A true warrior’s drawn arrow cannot be taken back without a reason. On the northern shore of this ocean live the Kirati people, a forest-dwelling community. Aim the arrow there.”

Rāma accepted Samudra’s request. He loosed the drawn arrow at the Kirati land on the northern shore of the ocean. The land was changed at once. It became a place where no human attackers live for ever, yet it is always full of fruits, flowers and the abundance of every season. The region became a place of natural plenty.

Samudra tells the history of Rāvaṇa

Samudra was pleased that Śrī Rāma had kindly accepted the plan for the bridge. With the respect of one who has received the kṛpā (grace) of Bhagavān Rāma, he told the whole history of Rāvaṇa’s rise: his tapas, his conquests, the varas that made him dangerous, and the full account of his household and family line. Samudra had thus given news that would help the army in its campaign. He asked leave and went back to his own realm.

Building the bridge

Now that the way was found, Rāma commanded the vānara army to start the work under the care of Nala and Nīla. The vast army of vānaras and ṛkshas pulled up mountains, cut down huge trees and carried rocks to the shore. Nala’s hands placed all of it in the ocean. The stones floated and stayed in place, and they made the causeway across the sea.

The origin of the floating stones in two texts

The Tulasī Rāmāyana gives its own account of how Nala and Nīla came to float stones. In the Tulasī account, a muni’s śāpa became a vara, and both Nala and Nīla received the vara together through that one śāpa. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa gives Nala’s gift to his divine parentage, as the son of Viśvakarmā.

Sources

• Tulasī Rāmāyana, Sundara Kāṇḍa
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, named for the account of Nala as the son of Viśvakarmā