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Vali Vadham 24

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Hari Krishnan • December 12, 2002 


A look before the leap 

'Do not think of Rama that way' Vali told Tara.  'He so gladly gave his kingdom to his younger brother just because his stepmother demanded him to do so.  You have to praise him for his qualities.  Instead you are talking ill of him.  'thambiyar alladhu thanakku vEru uyir imbarin iladhu ena eNNi Eyndhavan' He lives on this earth with the sole thought that his younger brothers are his very soul.  His quality is such.  'embiyum yaanum utru edhrindha pOrinil' (when such being the case) in the battle between my brother and me, 'ambu idai thodukkumO aruLin aazhiyaan' Do you think that such a person who is like the very ocean of mercy would shoot his arrow on me?

He cannot live without his brothers because his younger brothers are like his very breath.  When such is the case, how do you think that he would interfere between my brother and me and aim his arrow at me?  He is an ocean of mercy and would not do so.  The reasoning of Vali is moving.  The regard he has for Rama is moving.  

Or it seems to be so.  It is a deceptive argument.  It actually serves to mislead the listener.  In fact Vali himself must have been so charmed with his own words to have been carried away by its seeming strength. You see.  Rama considered his younger brothers as his very own life and he would not live without them.  Agreed.  But what does Vali consider of his younger brother?  He was not even prepared to listen to his younger brother and allow him an opportunity to be heard.  He did not give an opportunity at all for Sugriva to explain under what circumstances he happened to assume the kingship of Kishkindha.  

And he feels that Rama would not (or should not for that matter) intervene between him and his brother while he would batter him, thrash him, and take his wife away for no fault of his.  Where does the common and unifying thread lie between Rama and Vali, on this score?  How and on what basis does Vali expect the sympathy of Rama in this respect?  Vali was cheating himself with all kinds of such deceptive and false notions.  I reserve all the other arguments for a later day.  Let me confine myself with the narration of events for the present.  

In the parallel scene in Valmiki - that is just before the second challenge by Sugriva for a single-combat - Tara goes to the extent of advising Vali to live in peace with Sugriva and install him as the Prince Regent.  Srinivasa Sastriyar observes here thus.  "She advises her husband to make peace with his brother.  'Don't go and punish Sugriva; make peace with him.'  And then she says: 'Appoint him Yuvaraja.'  Apparently therefore he has not been Yuvaraja before, though he had been king himself in the supposed absence of Vali.  He had not been Yuvaraja.  She says for the first time, 'You appoint him Yuvaraja.'  But there is one thing she does not advise him...Tara who was advising her husband might have added, 'Give back to Sugriva Ruma also because he makes a great grievance of it.  The kingdom is one source of vexation to him.  But this Ruma business is also a great trouble.  If you want to pacify Sugriva fully, you must not only install him as Yuvaraja, but you must also restore his wife to him...Why did


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