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Raghu Veera Gadhyam : Uttara KhAndham-- Part 3

From the Bhakti List Archives

V. Sadagopan • January 5, 1997 


Dear BhakthAs of Sri Vijaya Raghavan :

I will cover Gadhyam salutations 79 to 84 in this posting.

GS 73 : pithru vadha kupitha dhara muni vihitha nrupa hanana
kadhana poorva kaala prabhava satha gaNa prathishtApitha 
dhArmika rajavamsa ! Jaya ! jaya !

(Meaning ) : Hail to Thee ! O Raghu Veera  who reestablished 
the righteous royal lineages and grew them hundred fold after they were
decimated by the enraged Parasurama when a king committed the despicable
crime of killing his father, the sage Jamadagni ! Hail to Thee ! 

During the beginning of the TretA yugam , king KaarthaveeryA offended 
Jamadagni , the father of ParasurAmA . The furious sage destroyeed the king 
through a powerful curse. The  sons of the king came to the Aasramam of 
sage Jamadagni , when ParasurAmA was not at  home and killed his father.
When ParasurAmA learnt about  this heinous act of the sons of Karthaveerya , 
he vowed to rid the earth of  the KshatriyAs for 21 generations 
( Trissaptha akshathra imaam kshithim kruthva :  Muni : )
ParasurAmA  used his axe (Parasu ) to cut off the heads of the twenty 
generations of kings. The predecessors of  King DasarathA were unafected .

In the next yugam , RamA was born in the Kshatriya race as the son of King
DasarathA . ParasurAmA confronted the young bridegroom RamA and was 
taught a lesson by RamA , who removed the divine sakthi of ParasurAmA and 
absorbed it in himself. ParasurAmAvatharam is not a PurNa avathAram of 
Sriman NaarayaNA as Rama , KrishNa and other avathArams. 

In this salutation , Swami Desikan pays tribute for Sri Rama for  protecting
the KshtriyA kulam from the rage of the angry ParasurAmA and blessing that kulam

to develop hundred fold during His long dhArmic reign as the emperor of AyodhyA
.

GS 80 : subha charitha ratha Bharatha garvitha garva ghAndharva 
               yootha geetha vijaya ghAthaa satha! Jaya ! jaya !

(Meaning ) : Hail to Thee O Lord  whose glory has been eulogised 
through hundreds of songs by the groups of GandharvAs after their
arrogance was destroyed in the battle field at your request by your brother 
BharathA of most auspicious deeds ! Hail to Thee !

On the banks of river Sindhu , GandharvAs had their kingdom . 
The profession of gandharvAs is to sing the praise of the Gods.
They forgot their customary duties and began to harass the people 
of the land. The uncle of BharathA by the name of YudhAjith journeyed to
Sri Rama's court and appealed to Sri RamA to control the misbehaving
GandharvAs. Sri Rama sent Bharatha to undertake this task . Bharatha 
was mostly involved in performing auspicious deeds in the service of his
elder brother. At the command of his respected brother , he traveleld 
to the land of GandharvAs and soundly defeated them as the deputy of 
emperor Rama and  restored peace. The GandharvAs were thankful 
and sang the praise of Sri Rama through hundreds of songs over the 
victory of RamA's army led by BahrathA . 

GS 81 : saasitha madhusoodha satrugna sevitha ! Jaya ! jaya !

(Meaning ) : Hail to Thee !  O Sri RamachandrA worshipped by 
your heroic brother SatrugnA , who killed LavaNAsuran , the son of Madhu 
at your request ! hail to Thee !

Here Swami Desikan pays tribute to another brother of Sri RamA
for his valour and salutes Sri RamA for Dharma SamrakshNam as a
righteous king . In the kingdom of MathurA was an ogre by the name of 
Madhu. He had a son by the name of LavaNan , who harassed the 
sages doing penance in that kingdom . DevAs were affected too .
The afflicted DevAs appealed to Sri Rama for help in getting rid of 
LavaNA and to reestablish peace and righteousness in the land.
Sri RamA sent his youngest brother SatrugnA on the mission of
destroying the evil LavaNA . SatrugNA with his brother's blessings killed
LavaNA in battle and returned to the side of his beloved brother and 
continued with his dedicated service to Sri RamachandrA .

GS 82 : Kusa Lava parigruheetha kula gaathaa visesha ! Jaya ! jaya !

(Meaning ) : Hail to Thee O Lord who is affiliated with the Sri Sookthis 
of  your illustrious vamsam learnt and sung  by Your sons Kusa and Lava ! 

Swami Desikan salutes Sage Valmiki for composing Srimadh 
RamAyaNam and for instructing the twin sons of RamA to sing 
the 24,000 slokas contained in the 500 cantos of the seven KhAndams.
The properly instructed sons of SitA and RamA sang in front of Sri RamA
the divine story of their father to the accompaniment of lute . They
sang the verses set in chandas and beats of time (TaaLam ) .
Sri Rama was thrilled to hear that superhuman (Ghandharvaa)
music with  perfect layam and Taalam The asembled expertaudience 
in Sri RamA's court for the performance of Asvamedha
Yaagam were also thrilled . Valmiki describes the sweet singing 
of Kusa and Lava this way in the 94th chapter of Uttara KhAndham :

" susrAva tath taaLa layOpapannam sargAnvitham 
susvara sabdha yuktham "

Sri RamA honored  the two bards with a gift of 18,000 gold
coins each . They refused to accept  stating that money is of
no use to them in the asramam of Sage Valmiki and returned there . 
Rama learnt form the songs that Kusa and LavA were his own sons born 
in the Asramam of Valmiki . Sri Rama pined for his wife and  
wanted to reunite with Her . He sent sages to Valniki's asramam 
to bring her back to his side .

GS 83 : vidhivasa pariNamadhamara bhaNithi kavivara rachitha
nija charitha nibhandhana nisamana nirvrutha ! Jaya ! jaya !

(Meaning ) : Hail to Thee  O Lord , who delighted in hearing the 
story of your glories eulogized in Srimadh RamAyaNam composed 
by Sage Valmiki , whose  words due to the divine blessings of Brahma 
and Sarasvathi transformed themselves into appropriate sanskrit slokaas 
adorned with the right meter and meaning automatically ! Hail to Thee ! 

One day , Sage Valmiki went for his ritual bath to the river. 
There , he witnessed the cruel sight of a hunter killing one 
of the pair of the love-stricken birds with an arrow. He heard 
the heart-rending wailings of the female bird left behind . 
Sage Valmiki started to curse the hunter over this act of 
wanton cruelty and was amazed to find that his curse came out
of his mouth as a Sanskrit slokam with an impeccable rhyme and metre . 
That incident led to the birth of Srimadh RamAyaNam as the 
Adhi Kaavyam and this was sung by Lava and KusA in the Asvamedha 
Mantapam of Sri RamachandrA .  

GS 84 : Sarva jana sammaanitha ! Jaya ! Jaya ! 

(Meaning ) : Hail to Thee  O Lord , who was eulogized by 
all those assembled in your Asvamedha Yaaga Mantapm
after hearing your divine story sung by your own twin sons ! 

Sage valmiki describes in the 94th canto the assembly of people in
Sri RamA's court . He says that there were specailists in the recital
of PurANAs ( PourANikAs ) , experts in the field of the meaning of words
(Sabdha VidhAAs ) , authorities in the appreciation of the intricacies 
of music , knowers of the relation between the syllables of the stanzas 
and  those  with proficiency in metres , experts in  Jyothisha Saastram and the 
performance of sacred rites , logicians , vedic pandits , knowers of 
Dahrma sutrAs and skilled ones in Bharatha Naatyam. All of that 
august assembly heard with rapture the Sri Sookthi of Sage Valmiki
sung brilliantly by the twin sons of SitA Raman in the Asvametha Mantapam .
They saluted Rama afterwards for his glorious deeds celebrated by the 
divine slokAs of Srimadh RaamAyaNam .. 

Sri Ramachandra srithapaarijAtha : Samastha KalyANa guNAbhirAma : I
SitAmukhAmbhOruhachancharEkO nirantharam MangaLam aatanOthu II

Oppiliappan Koil VaradAchAri Sadagopan