Tāṭakā
Tāṭakā was a yakṣī (a female yakṣa) of great beauty and power. A śāpa (curse) turned her into a rākṣasī, a hideous and fierce being. She lived in the forest near the Siddhāśrama of the ṛṣi Viśvāmitra and made it a place of fear. Rāmacandra slew her on Viśvāmitra’s order. It was the young Rāma’s first important act against the rākṣasas on his journey with Viśvāmitra.
Origin and transformation
Tāṭakā was born a yakṣī, a celestial being of great beauty. She had the strength of a thousand elephants. Brahmā had given this strength as a vara (boon) to her father, the yakṣa Suketu, and she received it from him. She married the yakṣa Sunda, and they had a son named Mārīca.
The change came when Tāṭakā and her family wronged Agastya Maharṣi. In his anger the ṛṣi cursed Sunda to death. He cursed Tāṭakā to become a rākṣasī: hideous in form, a drinker of blood and an eater of men, a force of destruction. Mārīca was also cursed to become a rākṣasa. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 25)
The ruin of Malada and Karūśa
After the change, Tāṭakā settled in the region of Malada and Karūśa, between the Sarayū and the Gaṅgā. Indra had been cleansed there of brahmahatyā (the pāpa of killing a brāhmaṇa), and the land was holy. She turned a rich land into a ruined forest of fear. Under her rule no village could last, no traveller could pass safely, and no yajña could be held. The great munis could not perform yajñas or study the Veda because of her attacks. She killed ṛṣis and stopped all tapas (austerity) in the area. The land became known as the Tāṭakā forest, named after its deadly dweller. She and Mārīca together made the region their own. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 25)
Slain by Rāma
Viśvāmitra led Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa through this forest. He told Rāma the story of Tāṭakā and commanded him to slay her. Rāma held back at first because she was a woman. Viśvāmitra answered that guarding the harmless ṛṣis from a being whose whole life served adharma was itself dharma. A woman who had become a destroyer of dharma could rightly be slain. When a being, of either sex, has become an engine of ruin, the duty of a kṣatriya (warrior) is to remove it. Rāma accepted this advice.
Tāṭakā attacked fiercely. She used boulders and māyā (illusion). She made a storm of stones and darkness, and she rained dust and rocks to hide herself. Rāma found her by the sound of her roar. He used his śabda-vedhi skill, which is striking at a sound instead of at something seen. When she attacked while unseen, he cut off her hands. Then he shot her with an arrow and killed her. At her death the devas rejoiced and showered flowers, and the land that had lain ruined for so long could breathe again. (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 26)
The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa also describes Rāma using the śabda-vedhi vidyā, the skill of hitting a target by sound alone, in this fight. It links this skill to the Balā and Atibalā vidyās that Viśvāmitra had already taught him. (Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa)
Sources
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 25–26
- Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa