Wednesday, 28 September 2022
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Crow
In the Sundara Kanda (fifth Book of the epic Ramayana), when Hanuman meets Sita, she narrates an incident that happened in the forest in Chitrakuta. The prince of Ayodhya and avatar of the god Vishnu, Rama is exiled to the forest with his wife Sita (an avatar of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi) and brother Lakshmana. A fatigued Rama was sleeping in the lap of Sita,
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when a crow attacked her. The crow pecks at her twice; once on her breast or between her breasts in some versions. The Ramcharitmanas replaces the breast with feet. In hurry to drive away the crow, she tries to fasten her garments, but ends up loosening them. Rama is awakened and recognizes the crow whose claws were dripping in blood as the son of Indra. An enraged Rama, at the behest of Sita, picks a blade of grass and unleashes the divine weapon Brahmastra out of it on the crow, who flees in fear.
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The crow flies across the universe, but the weapon follows.
Turned back by Indra, Brahma, Shiva and rishis (sages),
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the crow takes refuge in Rama and surrenders to him. The son of Indra requests pardon, but Rama says that the Brahmastra cannot be withdrawn. So, the son of Indra asks it to hit the crow's right eye, and he is left half-blind.
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Besides the Ramayana, Jayant is said to have assumed the form of the crow in some tellings of the Samudra manthan episode. A pot of amrita (elixir of life) emerged from the churning of the ocean by the gods and the demons. The demons seized the pot, but Jayant took it from them in the guise of a crow. Pursued by the demons, he flew for twelve days without rest. He stopped at four locations on earth:
- Prayag (in modern Allahabad),
- Haridwar,
- Ujjain and
- Nashik, where the Kumbha Mela is celebrated every twelve years in remembrance of the incident.