Jaṭāyu
Jaṭāyu
Jaṭāyu was a great divine eagle (śyena). He was a dear friend of King Daśaratha and a guardian of Rāma’s party in the Daṇḍakāraṇya forest. He belonged to one of the oldest families of divine birds.
When Rāvaṇa carried Sītā away, Jaṭāyu fought him in the sky. He destroyed Rāvaṇa’s horses, chariot, bow, umbrella and charioteer, and cut off his left arms. Then he was badly wounded. He lived long enough to tell Rāma what had happened. Rāma himself performed his last rites, and Jaṭāyu rose to Vishṇuloka.
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa says that by fighting to free Sītā, Jaṭāyu got rid of the bondage of karma, and that Śrī Rāma performed his funeral rites. Śrī Kṛshṇa names him to Uddhava among those who reached his own state through satsaṅga alone.
Lineage
Jaṭāyu was the son of Aruṇa, the divine charioteer of Bhagavān Sūrya. Aruṇa is also called Anūru, which means “without thighs”. This names the form in which Aruṇa was born, coming out of the egg of Vinatā before he was fully formed. Aruṇa was the elder son of Vinatā and Kaśyapa. Garuḍa was the other great son of Vinatā.
Jaṭāyu’s brother was the great eagle Saṃpāti, who later had a part in Rāma’s search for Sītā. His mother was Śyenī. At the time of the Araṇya Kāṇḍa events Jaṭāyu was about sixty thousand years old, and he had lived through the whole earlier age. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 14.
Meeting Rāma at Pañcavaṭī
Rāma and his companions settled at Pañcavaṭī, and Jaṭāyu came to them. He told them who he was and spoke of his lineage. He said that he had been the dearest friend of Mahārāja Daśaratha. He offered to guard Sītā during the years in the forest, above all when Rāma and Lakshmaṇa might be away. Rāma received him with deep, son-like love and honoured him as a father, in the place of Daśaratha. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapter 14)
The battle with Rāvaṇa
Rāvaṇa carried Sītā off and rose into the sky in his pushpaka vimāna (flying chariot). Jaṭāyu heard Sītā’s cries and rose to meet him. He was very old, but he fought with great fierceness and skill. In the fight in the air:
- He killed Rāvaṇa’s horses. Ten were slain.
- He smashed Rāvaṇa’s golden chariot to pieces.
- He killed the sārathi (charioteer).
- He broke Rāvaṇa’s bow.
- He tore down Rāvaṇa’s royal white umbrella.
- He cut off all ten of Rāvaṇa’s left arms.
Rāvaṇa had no weapon and no chariot. He fell to the ground for a moment, and then he got up again. With the sword that was left to him he attacked the old eagle with terrible force. He cut off Jaṭāyu’s wings and hacked at his legs. Jaṭāyu was mortally wounded and fell to the earth of the Daṇḍakāraṇya. Even as he fell, he stayed conscious and able to speak. He held himself alive by the strength of his devotion until Rāma could come. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 45–47)
His last words and death
Rāma and Lakshmaṇa came back from their desperate search and found Jaṭāyu lying on the ground. They knew him at once. Rāma ran to him in great grief, lifted the bloodied head of the great bird, and wept.
With his last strength Jaṭāyu told them the whole story of the abduction. He described Rāvaṇa, with his ten heads, twenty arms, dark body and golden ornaments. He told how Rāvaṇa had seized Sītā by her hair and feet. He also told them the direction in which Rāvaṇa had flown, which was south. This was the first sure sign Rāma had of where Sītā was. Then Jaṭāyu died in Rāma’s arms. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 65–66)
The last rites and the ascent to Vishṇuloka
Rāma would not leave Jaṭāyu’s body to the forest. With his own hands he performed the full antima-saṃskāra (last rites), the rites given to a being of the highest honour:
- He gathered wood and built a funeral pyre.
- He lit the fire and laid Jaṭāyu’s body on it.
- He made piṇḍa (funeral balls of rice and sesame) and offered them with the proper mantras.
- He went down into a nearby river and offered jala-tarpaṇa (water offerings), saying Jaṭāyu’s name in the rite.
Rāma declared that Jaṭāyu had died serving him and defending Sītā. He said Jaṭāyu would reach the same Vishṇuloka that is reached by those who fall in battle for dharma and by those who perform a great yajña (fire ritual). Jaṭāyu rose from the funeral fire in a divine body, shining and made new, and went up to Vishṇuloka. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 67–68)
In the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa
The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, in its Araṇya Kāṇḍa, tells the Jaṭāyu episodes with several details that are not in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.
The meeting at Pañcavaṭī
Jaṭāyu met Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa at their newly built parṇaśālā (leaf hut) at Pañcavaṭī. He was received as a father, the dear friend of Daśaratha who had now become the guardian of Rāma.
The battle in the sky
In the Tulasī account Jaṭāyu first called out to Rāvaṇa and warned him: “You ten-headed one! The fire of Dāśarathi’s anger will burn you and your whole family to ash. Let Sītā go and return home safely!”
Rāvaṇa paid no attention. Then Jaṭāyu attacked with all his strength. With his claws he knocked Rāvaṇa’s crown to the ground. With his beak he tore the hair from Rāvaṇa’s head. With his wings he broke the chariot to pieces, killed the horses and the charioteer, broke the bow and destroyed the umbrella. Jaṭāyu hurt Rāvaṇa so badly that the rākshasa king fell unconscious.
The Tulasī account adds a detail that is not in Vālmīki. While Rāvaṇa lay senseless, Jaṭāyu took the chāyā-Sītā (the shadow-form of Sītā), set her safely under a tree, and only then went back to the fight. Rāvaṇa woke in rage and cut off both of Jaṭāyu’s wings with his sharp sword. The great bird fell to earth, calling “Rāma! Rāma!”
Liberation in the four-armed form
The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa also tells the form that Jaṭāyu took at moksha (liberation). Rāma performed the full antima-saṃskāra and declared that Jaṭāyu would reach the highest loka. Jaṭāyu then rose from the funeral pyre in the four-armed form of Vaikuṇṭha-sārūpya, the four-armed form of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself. Rāma’s own hands had performed the rites for him.
Per Agni Purāṇa
The Agni Purāṇa tells the Rāmāyaṇa in brief. When Rāma had gone after the golden deer and Lakshmaṇa, urged by Sītā, had followed him, Rāvaṇa struck down Jaṭāyu and carried Sītā off. Rāvaṇa’s body had been torn by Jaṭāyu; he seated Jānakī on his lap, took her to Laṅkā and kept her in the Aśoka grove. Searching for Sītā, Rāma came upon Jaṭāyu. Jaṭāyu saw Rāma, told him, “Rāvaṇa has carried off Sītā,” and gave up his life. Rāma performed his last rites (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 7).
Later, when the month given for the search had passed and the vānaras, sitting on the Vindhya mountain, had still not found Sītā, they said to one another: “All of us are going to die in vain. Blessed (dhanya) indeed is that Jaṭāyu, who was slain by Rāvaṇa in battle and gave up his life for Sītā’s sake.” Sampāti heard them, gave up his thought of devouring them, and said: “That Jaṭāyu is my brother. He flew with me toward the orb of the sun. I shielded him from the sun’s heat and he fell to the earth, and my wings, up in the sky, were burned. By hearing the account of Rāma, my wings have grown again.” Then he told them that he saw Jānakī in the Aśoka grove in Laṅkā, on Trikūṭa mountain in the salt ocean, a hundred yojanas across (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 8).
Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa
Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit the account of Śrī Rāma in brief. When Rāvaṇa, lowest of the rākshasas, carried off Sītā Devī in the forest while Rāma and Lakshmaṇa were away, Jaṭāyu fought for her freeing, and by that very karma he got rid of the bondage of karma. Śrī Rāma, whose feet Brahmā and Śiva worship, performed the funeral rites for Jaṭāyu, and then killed Kabandha (Skandha 9, Chapter 10).
Jaṭāyu’s pursuit of Rāvaṇa is remembered elsewhere in the Purāṇa too. Maitreya Maharshi tells Vidura that when Indra carried off the horse of Pṛthu‘s yajña, Pṛthu’s son, urged on by Atri Maharshi, ran swiftly after Indra as he hurried away along the sky, “as Jaṭāyu chased Rāvaṇa” (Skandha 4, Chapter 19).
Śrī Kṛshṇa names Jaṭāyu to Uddhava among the beings who, in every yuga, attained his state (pada) through satsaṅga alone, without study of the Vedas, service of mahātmās, vratas or tapas: Vṛtra, Prahlāda, Vṛshaparvan, Bali, Bāṇa, Maya, Vibhīshaṇa, Sugrīva, Hanumān, Jāmbavān, Gajendra, Jaṭāyu, Tulādhāra, Dharmavyādha, Kubjā, the gopīs of Gokula and the wives of the brāhmaṇas performing yajña (Skandha 11, Chapter 12).
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 19; Skandha 9, Chapter 10; Skandha 11, Chapter 12
Sources
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa, Chapters 14–15, 45–48 and 65–68
- Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Araṇya Kāṇḍa
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 7–8
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 19; Skandha 9, Chapter 10; Skandha 11, Chapter 12