Anaraṇya Śāpa

Anaraṇya was a great and righteous king of the Ikshvāku line. Rāvaṇa came to his kingdom while he was conquering the earth. Anaraṇya would not give in. He fought Rāvaṇa even though the fight could not be won. As he lay dying, he spoke a solemn śāpa (a curse): a son of the Ikshvāku line would kill Rāvaṇa and wipe out his whole clan. Rāma, born in the Ikshvāku line, did exactly this.

Rāvaṇa’s campaign of conquest

Rāvaṇa received Brahmā’s vara (a boon) and took Laṅkā. He then set out to conquer the earth, one king after another. Each king was told to submit or be destroyed. One of the kings he came to was Anaraṇya, a great and good ruler of the ancient Ikshvāku line, the line of the sun, from which Rāma himself would later be born. This is in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 24.

The challenge

Rāvaṇa came to Anaraṇya’s kingdom with his army of rākshasas and demanded that he submit. Anaraṇya was a kshatriya of the highest tradition, and he refused. The dharma of a kshatriya king is to defend his kingdom and his people, even against great odds. To submit without a fight would be to betray his line, his duty and his honour.

Anaraṇya called up his forces and fought Rāvaṇa. The contest was unequal from the start. Rāvaṇa had Brahmā’s vara, twenty arms, ten heads, and divine weapons gathered through tapas. Anaraṇya’s army and his own great strength were no match for this. This is in the Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 24.

The defeat

Rāvaṇa destroyed Anaraṇya’s forces and beat the king himself in single combat. Anaraṇya fell from his chariot, mortally wounded. Rāvaṇa stood over him, victorious, facing a dying king who would not beg for mercy. This is in the Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 24.

The dying śāpa

With his last breath Anaraṇya looked at Rāvaṇa and spoke a solemn śāpa:

“You have beaten me by force. But hear this. A son of my line, the great Ikshvāku line, will rise up and kill you. He will destroy you and all your bāndhavas (clan, allies and relatives) utterly. Your clan will be wiped out because of this defeat of a righteous king.”

Having spoken, Anaraṇya died. This is in the Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 24.

Fulfilment

The śāpa was fulfilled in the Rāmāyaṇa itself. Rāma was born into the Ikshvāku line, through the kings of Ayodhyā. He killed Rāvaṇa in single combat and, in the great war, destroyed almost the whole rākshasa clan of Laṅkā. Anaraṇya spoke his dying words on a battlefield, ages before Rāma was born.

The Uttara Kāṇḍa also gives the śāpa of Vedavatī and the śāpa of Nalakūbara on Rāvaṇa, together with this one.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Uttara Kāṇḍa, Chapter 24