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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00031 Jun 2003

 
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How Poetry was Born from Hindu Dharma
There is no tonal variation in poetry as there is in Vedic mantras. The 
unaccented poetic stanza corresponding to the accented Vedic mantra owes its 
origin to Valmiki, but its discovery was not the result of any conscious effort 
on his part. 

One day Valmiki happened to see a pair of kraunca birds sporting perched on the 
branch of a tree. Soon one of the birds fell to the arrow of a hunter. The sage 
felt pity and compassion but these soon gave way to anger. He cursed the 
hunter, the words coming from him spontaneously:"O hunter, you killed a kraunca 
bird sporting happily with its mate. May you not have everlasting happiness". 

Manisada pratistham tvam

Agamah sasvatih samah

Yat krauncamithunadekam

Avadih kamamohitam

Unpremeditatedly, out of his compassion for the birds, Valmiki cursed the 
hunter. But, at once, he regretted it. "Why did I curse the hunter so? " When 
he was brooding thus, a remarkable truth dawned on him. Was he not a sage with 
divine vision? He realised that the very words of his curse had the garb of a 
poetic stanza in the Anustubh metre. That the words had come from his lips, 
without his being aware of them himself (in the same way as he had, without his 
knowing, felt compassion and anger in succession), caused him amazement. 

It occured to him that the stanza he had unconscioussly composed had another 
meaning. The words aimed at the hunter were also words addressed to Mahavisnu. 
How? "O consort of Laksmi, you will win eternal fame by having slain one of a 
couple who was deluded by desire. " Ravana and his wife Mandodari are the 
couple referred to here and ravana was deluded by his evil desire for Sita. Sri 
Rama won everlasting fame by slaying him. Without his being aware of it, the 
words came to Valmiki as poetry. Realising it all to be the will of Isvara, the 
sage composed the Ramayana in the same metre. 

The "sloka" (without the Vedic tonal variation) was born in this manner. 
Valmiki was filled with joy that he had come upon the sloka as a medium that 
facilitated the expression of the highest of thoughts in a form that made it 
easy to remember like the Vedas themselves. 

Prose is not easily retained in memory, not so poetry composed in metrical 
form. That is why in ancient times everything was put down in verse. Prose 
developed [in any significant sense] only after the advent of the printing 
press after which books began to be produced in large numbers for ready 
reference, obviating the need to memorise everything. 

However it be, in conveying an idea or a mesage (or in imparting information) 
poetry has greater beauty and greater power. The Ramayana was the first 
poetical work, hence its name "Adikavya". We recieved the gift of the birth of 
various metrical forms used in the hymns to various deities, in the Puranas and 
in other poetical works. 


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