Tāṭakā Vadha

Tāṭakā was a rākshasī who ruined the land between the Sarayū and the Gaṅgā. Rāma slew her at the command of the ṛshi Viśvāmitra, on the way to Viśvāmitra’s āśrama (hermitage). It was the first time the young prince fought in battle.

Tāṭakā’s family and the curse

Tāṭakā was not born a rākshasī. She was first a yakshī, a powerful, beautiful and auspicious being, the daughter of the yaksha Suketu. Suketu had done great tapas (austerity) to win a daughter of great strength, and Tāṭakā was born with the strength of a thousand elephants. She was beautiful. She married the yaksha Sunda, and they had a son named Mārīca.

She became a rākshasī through a curse. Tāṭakā and her husband Sunda had wronged the ṛshi Agastya. Agastya’s curse fell on Sunda, and he died. The curse said that Tāṭakā herself would become a rākshasī, ugly, man-eating and destructive. It also fell on Mārīca, who became a rākshasa of great power. So a being who had been noble by nature became one of the worst destroyers of dharma.

The Tāṭakā forest

After the curse, Tāṭakā made her home in the region between the Sarayū and the Gaṅgā. This had once been a rich and fertile land called Malada and Karūsha, made holy by Indra’s purification from brahmahatyā (the sin of killing a brāhmaṇa). While she lived there, the land became the Tāṭakā forest. It was a place of ruin where no village could last, no traveller could pass safely, and no yajña (fire ritual) could be done. Tāṭakā and Mārīca together terrorised the whole region and made it unfit to live in.

Viśvāmitra’s command and Rāma’s doubt

Viśvāmitra led Rāma and Lakshmaṇa through this forest on the way to his āśrama. He told them the story of Tāṭakā and commanded Rāma to slay her. Rāma at first hesitated. He did not want to kill a woman, because his upbringing had taught him a deep reluctance to harm women. He told Viśvāmitra so.

Viśvāmitra answered him from the dharma-śāstra. A kshatriya’s dharma is to protect the innocent and to destroy those who destroy. When a being, man or woman, has become a source of great destruction and has broken all order, the kshatriya’s dharma calls for action whatever the being’s sex. Viśvāmitra gave examples of women who were slain by Indra and other great devas when they had become agents of adharma. Rāma was convinced by this and accepted the command.

The battle and the slaying

Tāṭakā heard Rāma and Lakshmaṇa in her forest and attacked in fury. She threw boulders and tore up trees. She used māyā (illusion) to hide herself and strike from hiding. She rained down rocks and clouds of dust. The fight was fierce.

Rāma first showed his śabda-vedhi vidyā, the skill of hitting exactly at a sound in total darkness, hearing and aiming at what cannot be seen. With this skill he shot off Tāṭakā’s hands. She kept on attacking with illusion, and Rāma pierced her with a deadly arrow. Tāṭakā fell.

Viśvāmitra and all the ṛshis who had gathered rejoiced. The devas showered flowers from the sky. The land seemed to breathe again, freed from the weight of a presence that had held it in ruin for generations.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 25 (Tāṭakā’s family, the curse, the Tāṭakā forest)
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 26 (Viśvāmitra’s command, the battle and the slaying)