The Story of Rama putting an arrow through maramara trees
By
P.R.Ramachander
There was a king called Manibhadra and he had several
sons from his wife Kavika. Seven those
sons learnt evil magic,One day by
their magic they made a big serpent.When
going over Rishya mooka mountains , they saw Agasthya coming that way.They made the snake in to a
circle ,buried it in earth and stood on it as Sala trees,Understanding the
truth , the sage cursed them to stand there
forever as trees.They
realized their mistake and begged the sage
for relief from the curse.He told them when Rama puts in an arrow in all
of them , they would get freedom freom the curse.When Rama came there , he
recognized them and by his thumb
pressed a stone on which the serpent was lying , which made it
straight and Rama put an arrow through
them,
Among all
Ramayanas Kamba Ramayana describes the story of Rama putting an arrow through
the tree well and has dedicated a chapter to it.Read my translation of that
chapter
.Maramara Padalam From Kamba ramayanam
The chapter on Maramara trees.
Translated by
Ramachander
(When requested by Sugreeva to show his
prowess by putting an arrow through
one of the Mara mara trees, Rama by his arrow
pierces all the seven trees. The doubts in the mind of
Sugreeva disappears
In Valmiki Ramayana
as pre request of Sugreeva Rama throws the skeleton of
Dhundhubhi to a distance of ten Yojanas, Sugreeva then wants hi m
to pierce one of the seven Sala and trees
then.)
3865.Sugreeva sweetly lead them saying
“This is the path we have to go,
And showing them the seven Maramara trees
which by their height,
Would make the sky shorter and told him , “If
your arrow goes ,
And pierces one of these trees , the
apprehension in my mind would go”.
3866.When Sugreeva who did not have any
fault in his mind told like this,
Rama the lord of all devas ,
understanding the thought of Sugreeva,
Smiled and took with his very
powerful hands the bow , stringed it,
And went near those trees which cannot
be understood by wisdom.
3867.Those Maramara trees , even if eons change, do not
change themselves ,
And even at the time when the entire world is
destroyed, they would not fall down,
And were looking like the seven
mountains which lift the earth surrounded by seas,
Have come there together and
were standing in a group.
3868.Those great seven Maramaras made
the full moon and the Sun,
To start doing great
penance to cross its top ,
And the Lord Brahma seeing these trees
would say I have seen mountains,
As due to their head , He was not
able to see its leaves
3869. Due to going under the
shade of those great trees, which have spread,
On the sky and all the directions , the
horses of Sun God never felt tired,
And were not sad that they were
running in the same way throughout the day ,
And in spite of thinking we
were not able to find a better reason.
3870.Those seven trees and the stars which
have existed for a long time,
AS well as planets which were high up in the
sky appeared on its sides ,
And looked shining more like the
flowers of these trees and the white moon,
Which had great luster had the black
area inside it possibly because of rubbing with these
trees.
3871.Due to the branches of those
trees which never die growing luxuriantly,
They were suitable to be called as Vedas and
since they were high up in the sky ,
And the swan on which Lord Brahma who
created the universes ride,
Which were in his land along with the
matchless female swan,
Preferred to live on one
side of those trees due to their height.
3872. Due to the fact that even if the
wind blows , its scented flowers,
Its leaves and its fruits
and many others produced by those trees,
Did not fall any where on the
earth but fell in the river Akasa Ganga ,
Of the tumultuous big heavens and reach the
ocean with big tides .
3873.The trees having grown above the top of
the head of Lord Vishnu,
In his form when he measured the entire
world in two steps Could be ,
Called as the tall Lord
Vishnu and they were more in girth
than,
The huge Meru mountain which is
standing in the middle of the earth.
3874.Like the mind of full of enmity
between the son of Charitable Indra,
And his younger brother , each of
those trees were more hard than,
Any other tree within themselves and
their deep roots went inside ,
The white hood
of Adhi Sesha who was lifting the earth in
the middle of clear ocean .
3875.Those trees had grown
up and measured all directions ,
And they were standing with
damage over the passage of time ,
They were being praised by devas
, and taller and stouter than
The Meru mountain which is gone
round by the sun and moon ,
And each of them was equal
to the other and ,
There was several Yojana (8
miles) distance between them.
3876. That faultless Rama after looking at all those
Maramara trees ,
Got a desire to send his pure
long arrow twanged the string of his bow,
Making all the beings in the far off
sky and directions deaf ,
And creating a fear that they have never
felt among the Devas.
3877 When we know that the sound of that twang from
that string spread exactly ,
in a similar way , how can we describe the
problems faced by those who are near?
All the elephants of the eight directions
swooned , all directions were confused ,
And that sound of placing the arrow on
the thing even startled the land of Brahma.
3878.Due the extreme sound raised
by the string of the bow of That Rama ,
Who destroys sin , the devas
doubting that the end of the world has come,
Moved away from the places of their normal
stay and only the brother ,
Who loved him stood near Rama and
if we start telling,
About the state of others like
Sugreeva and Hanuman , they would get bad name.
3879. When Hanuman who is truthful and others
thinking that they want ,
To see the sending of the arrow went
near and joined Rama and when they were,
All praising his mastery in archery ,
Rama the great archer who made all beings as his
slave,
Pulled the strong string of his bow
properly, and sent the arrow from his bow.
3880. That arrow pierced all the seven
Maramara trees and went further into ,
The seven underworlds and since there was no
“seven” afterwards returned,
And even then it would pierce any thing which are
having numer “seven”.
3881. The seven seas, the seven upper worlds
, the seven mountains , seven sages,
The seven horses that draw Sun God , the seven
maids thinking that this arrow,
Would aim everything that is
seven shivered with great scare.
3882.Though they were all scared ,
since they knew that Rama is a soul like friend ,
Of Dharma they all got rid of their
fear and at that time Sugreeva took
The divine feet of Rama wearing heroic anklets and
resembling
The just opened lotus flower on his
head and started telling the
following.
3883.”You are the earth, you are the sky , You are
the other five great elements ,
You are the Lord Brahma on lotus flower , you
are Lord Vishnu holding the wheel,
You are Lord Shiva resembling the red fire , you
had created this world earlier,
And you have come in search of me who is like
a dog to provide help to me.
3884. “Oh king of kings , the good karma that I
did in my last birth has helped me.
By bringing you here and now on everything is easy for
me and nothing is difficult,
I would be the slave to your
devotees who are like mothers “ said the faultless
Sugreeva.
3885. All other monkeys who were suffering
for a long time due to Vali said,
“We were searching for the God of death to
Vali and now we have got him “
And they all drank sweet toddy , forgot themselves and
with joyful shoulders,
Danced and sang
and ran here and there with
great joy.
