Rāmanāthapura Land Grant
Chapter 18 of the Rājya Khaṇḍa of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa tells how Bhagavān Rāma gave the city of Brahmapur, later called Rāmanāthapura, to its brāhmaṇas. The grant was cut on a stone tablet, and Hanumān pressed Rāma’s royal seal into it with his weight. The chapter also holds a prophecy of a corrupt king who will challenge the grant, and of how Hanumān will save the stone from a lake. It tells of the setting up of the Udārarāghava Śivaliṅga and the making of the Hṛttāpaśamana tīrtha (holy bathing place). The text says the stone with its writing is buried in Rāmanāthapura to this day.
The petition of the brāhmaṇas
Brāhmaṇas from Brahmapur, a city in the south, heard that Bhagavān Rāma gave whatever a brāhmaṇa asked. They set out for Ayodhyā. They wanted to ask for their own city and the lands around it, as a lasting holding for brāhmaṇas. They arrived while Rāma was eating at the house of a Gandharvarāja (a gandharva king who was his friend).
The messengers of the Gandharvarāja told Rāma that the brāhmaṇas had come. Rāma got up from the table at once and went out to meet them. He offered them seats, had them brought inside, and asked them to bathe before sitting down to the meal. The brāhmaṇas talked among themselves about whether to make their request before or after the meal. Some thought it would be rude to ask before eating. Others thought no better moment would come. Rāma heard them talking and laughed. He said: “I know you have come for a kingdom. You did not need to come yourselves. Even a word from your disciples would have been enough for me to grant your wish.” (Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Rājya Khaṇḍa, Chapter 18)
The stone inscription
Rāma called Lakshmaṇa and asked him to bring stone workers. Lakshmaṇa called the stone-cutters at once. They brought a fine stone from the Gaṇḍakī river, nine cubits long and as wide. The craftsmen cut the deed of grant on it in clear letters:
“I, the son of the solar dynasty, the ruler of the seven dvīpas, Rājā Rāma born in the Tretā Yuga, gladly give the kingdom of Brahmapur to the brāhmaṇas. As long as the sun shines in the sky, as long as the Rāma-kathā is heard, as long as the wind blows, may this gift last. All future rulers in all future ages are asked, each one, by Rāmachandra to honour this gift.”
While the stone was being made ready, the brāhmaṇas had been given fruit. They urged Rāma to eat first and have the writing done afterward. Rāma answered with his teaching on how urgent dāna (giving) is:
“One must eat even if one gives up a hundred other tasks. One must bathe even if one gives up a thousand. One must give dāna even if one gives up a hundred thousand. One must perform Śiva-pūjā even if one gives up a crore. The obstacles to dāna number a hundred crore. So a king must give without delay, at the very moment the wish to give arises.”
(Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Rājya Khaṇḍa, Chapter 18)
Hanumān’s seal
When the writing was done, Rāma called Hanumān. He asked him to stamp the royal seal (Rāmamudrā) on the stone. Hanumān put his full weight on the stone. The seal, with the letters “Rājārāma,” was pressed clearly and for ever into the rock. This made the grant final.
Rāma then gave dāna as the dakshiṇā (gift) that goes with the grant: gold equal to the weight of the stone. He had Hanumān carry the stone to Brahmapur with the brāhmaṇas by vimāna (flying vehicle). He also wrote a letter to Kambukantha, the king of Kāñchī, asking him to help and protect the brāhmaṇas always. (Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Rājya Khaṇḍa, Chapter 18)
The prophecy of a future danger
Rāmadāsa then tells Vishṇudāsa what he sees of the future through jñāna-dṛshṭi (sight of knowledge).
In a later age a corrupt king will rise and challenge the brāhmaṇas’ ownership of the land. He will demand to see the first deed of grant, and he will threaten to take away everything they have gathered. The brāhmaṇas will be afraid. They will hide the stone in a lake (tāṭāka) to keep it safe, but they will not be able to get it back. The water of the lake will prove endless, even when the embankment is broken.
At this hard moment, when the brāhmaṇas are about to take their own lives by drowning, Hanumān will come out of his own stone image in the local temple. He will appear in his ancient form, huge, grey-haired, long-armed and terrible. He will comfort the brāhmaṇas and take the stone out of the lake. He will appear before the evil king and show him the Rāmamudrā writing. Then he will punish the king on the same lakeside where the brāhmaṇas had gathered. All the king’s messengers who came to seize the brāhmaṇas will also be beaten with Hanumān’s tail.
Hanumān will then tell the brāhmaṇas to set up the stone in an underground chamber (guhā). He will say to them: “No one will ever take this kingdom from you again.” He will go back into the stone image, and the brāhmaṇas will set up the stone in its underground chamber as he said. (Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Rājya Khaṇḍa, Chapter 18)
The Udārarāghava Liṅga and the tīrtha
To keep alive the memory of Rāma’s generosity and of Hanumān’s rescue, Hanumān will set up a Śivaliṅga at the place. It will be named Udārarāghava, “the generous Rāghava,” as a lasting witness to Rāma’s supreme dāna-dharma (duty of giving).
The lake where the stone was hidden will become a tīrtha called Hṛttāpaśamana, “the remover of the burning pain of the heart.” It will have this name because the brāhmaṇas’ deadly pain (hṛttāpa) was taken away there by Hanumān’s grace. The text says that those who bathe in this lake will be freed from the three kinds of tāpa (suffering): daiha, daivika and mānasika, that is, of the body, of the devas, and of the mind. (Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Rājya Khaṇḍa, Chapter 18)
Sources
- Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Rājya Khaṇḍa, Chapter 18