Ṛshi Rakshaṇa Pratigñā
The Ṛshi Rakshaṇa Pratigñā is Rāma’s vow to protect the ṛshis. In the Āraṇya Kāṇḍa the assembled ṛshis of the Daṇḍakāraṇya bring the bones and remains of ascetics killed by rākshasas before Rāma and ask for his protection. Rāma is deeply moved. He takes a solemn vow to destroy every rākshasa in the Daṇḍakāraṇya and to free the ṛshis from their terror. The vow gave his whole stay in the forest its purpose. It was fulfilled when Khara’s army of 14,000 was destroyed at Janasthāna.
The ṛshis’ appeal
This came after Śarabhaṅga rose to Brahmaloka. The ṛshis of the Daṇḍakāraṇya gathered before Rāma. They were a great gathering of ṛshis of every age and lineage, who had done tapas (austerity) in this holy forest for generations. But the rākshasas who filled the forest had broken their tapas again and again and destroyed their bodies. They had suffered greatly.
So that Rāma could not overlook how they suffered, the ṛshis showed him heaps of bones. These were the remains of thousands of ascetics whom the rākshasas had killed and eaten. They were the ṛshis’ own brothers and fellow tapasvins, killed in the very āśramas where they had given their lives to dharma and tapas. The sight of these bones charged the rākshasas in the forest more strongly than any words could.
This is in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 6.
Rāma’s vow
Rāma was deeply moved. The sight of the remains of the slain ṛshis, and the waste of so much tapas and so many pure lives, stirred both grief and a deep sense of kshatriya-dharma (the duty of a warrior) in him.
He made a solemn pratigñā (vow): he would kill every rākshasa in the Daṇḍakāraṇya, and he would free the ṛshis from this terror. He did not make the vow lightly or in a passing moment of feeling. It was a considered undertaking, a kshatriya’s declaration of his purpose in the forest.
This is in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 6.
The vow fulfilled
The vow was fulfilled chiefly in the great battle at Janasthāna. There Rāma alone destroyed Khara’s army of 14,000 rākshasas in three ghaṭikās (a short span of time). Khara, Dūshaṇa, Triśiras and the whole rākshasa force of Janasthāna were destroyed. The main danger to the ṛshis of the Daṇḍakāraṇya was gone.
The bones shown to Rāma at the start of his years in the forest were answered by this act. Rāma had kept his word.
Sītā’s counsel on the limits of the vow
Soon after, Sītā spoke to Rāma about his vow. She warned of the kāma-vyasana (fault born of desire) called kāraṇa-hīna-prāṇi-hiṃsā, which is killing without just cause.
She made a difference between two things. One was the righteous killing of rākshasas who were truly violent and were harming ascetics. The other was the risk that violence might become a habit in the forest, so that a warrior who is always armed begins to look for enemies instead of answering only real wrongs. She did not ask him to give up the vow. She asked him to keep the intention behind each act pure.
This is in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 9–10.
In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa
The Araṇya Kāṇḍa of the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa has the same episode. The assembled ṛshis of the Daṇḍakāraṇya showed Rāma the heaped bones of their slain brothers. The rākshasas had killed the tapasvins with special cruelty. The sight of the remains filled Rāma with righteous anger and deep compassion together.
Rāma raised his hand in solemn vow before the ṛshis. His vow, as the Tulasī Araṇya Kāṇḍa tells it, is:
“O ṛshi-prāvaro! I will destroy the rākshasas from this earth without remainder. Do not be afraid.”
Rāma then travelled through the forest from āśrama to āśrama. He met the ascetics scattered through the Daṇḍakāraṇya, gave them courage and comfort, and went on. In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa too, the vow was fulfilled when Khara’s army of 14,000 was destroyed at Janasthāna.
Sources
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 6
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Āraṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 9–10
- Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa