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| Vali, king of Kishkindha |
Vali is the mighty vanara king of Kishkindha region. ‘Vaa’
means ‘other’ in Sanskrit and ‘nara’ is ‘human’. Vanara is thus ‘other human’.
Also ‘Van’ means forest, thus the other meaning is that of the forest dweller. Hanuman,
the great disciple of Rama was from the same tribe.
Riksharaja was the king of Kishkindha. One day he went to
take a bath in a forbidden pond, and when he came out he had a female form. This
form was very beautiful. Indra and Surya were passing by, fell in love. From
Indra, Vali was born and with Surya, his younger brother Sugreeve was born. Later
Riksharaja turned back to his original form.
Vali was the elder and stronger. He is said to have
possessed the strength of 70,000 elephants. Sugreeve was always by his side as
his lieutenant. Vali with his strength also became arrogant. He would pick up
duels and enjoyed defeating his opponents.
During the saagar mantha, the churning of the oceans, the gods' needed additional hands. Vali joined with Indra. During the churning,
fourteen treasures came out of the ocean. One was an apsara by the name of Tara, who Vali accepted as his wife. They had a
son Angada.
Vali had received a boon from Brahma, according to which
anyone who fought with him would lose half of their strength to Vali. Vali was
already very strong and this made him invincible to any enemy. When Ravana, the rakshasa
king of Lanka, heard of this he wanted to check personally and defeat Vali.
Ravana approached Vali from the behind when he was taking his bath for his
prayers. Vali sensed him, and tied Ravana up with his tail, put his head under
his armpit in a strong grip. Ravana used all his might to release himself but
could do nothing. With Ravana’s head trapped in his armpit, Vali leaped into
the air and did all his usual work, taking him around. Ravana was exhausted, could not bear the insult. Ravana offered his friendship, and Vali set him free.
One day a rakshasa named Dundubhi, took the form of an
enormous bull and challenged Vali to fight him to prove who was strongest. Vali was
furious with rage and darted off to the courtyard. They fought head to head,
and ultimately Vali snapped Dundubhi’s neck. The corpse was picked by the
hooves, spun round and round in the air and flung away. It fell in Rishiyamooka
mountains where Sage Matanga had his hermitage and doing a yagna. Seeing the
corpse and blood the sage got furious and cursed that whoever had desecrated
his hermitage will have their head explode if he ever put a step on this
mountain. Indra appeared and informed of this curse to his son and alerted him
never to step in there.
Soon after, Mayaavi, son of Dundubhi came to challenge Vali.
He appeared larger and more powerful.
The ministers advised the army to take care of the rakshasa, but Vali
ignored their advice and charged ahead. The duel started, and even after Vali
got half of his opponent’s strength, there were no results. The duel went on
for days and nights. Eventually, the rakshasa started to fatigue and realized he
would be shown no mercy. With trickery, he took an opportunity, kicked sand in
Vali’s eyes and ran for his life. The rakshasa took refuge in a cave and Vali
followed him. Before entering, he asked Sugreeve to not enter the cave and
manage the work of the kingdom until he returns. Days turned into months, but Vali
did not return.
Sugreeve and Angada took turns to guard the mouth of the cave, and they deployed sentry. Sugreeve started taking care of the
administration of the kingdom in his brother’s absence. But after more than two
years, one morning when Sugreeve was visiting the mouth of the cave, he saw red
blood flow out of the mouth. Sugreeve yelled Vali’s name out and there was no
response. There was no way to know if that was of Vali or that of Mayaavi.
Thinking that Vali might have been killed, and Mayaavi may emerge to claim
Kishkindha as his trophy, the ministers advised that the mouth of the cave be
sealed. They put giant boulders in the mouth and put a permanent sentry there.
After many days, there were rumbling sound by the cave and
boulders blocking the mouth of the cave came flying. From the cave emerged
Vali, filled with rage. He directly came to the court and found Sugreeve with
his family, Tara, Angada and his ministers in the court. Everyone was surprised
to see the King return, and Sugreeve stood up with an open arm to welcome him.
Vali charged on his brother yelling betrayal, and that for the crown his
brother locked him in the underworld. Sugreeve tried to explain himself but
Vali was in no mood to listen. He was attacked mercilessly and had to flee for
his life. With Hanuman, his assistant, at his side Sugreeve took refuge in Rishiyamooka
mountain knowing that Vali is cursed by Matanga and will not chase him till
there. With Sugreeve in exile, Vali forcefully took on his brother’s wife as his
other queen.
After many years, one day, Hanuman found Rama and Lakshmana
wandering in the forest looking for Seetha. He brings them to Sugreeve who was
in his exile. Rama and Sugreeva discovered that they could benefit each other.
If Sugreeve was made the king of Kishkindha, they, in turn, would help find
Seetha. Vali had to be killed.
Sugreeve doubted if Rama could be a match to Vali. To prove
his prowess, Rama had to take his bow to shoot a single arrow making holes in 7
teak trees. Gaining Sugreeva’s trust as a friend, he asked Sugreeve to bring
Vali out of Kishkindha for the duel as Rama could not enter a city during his
exile. The plan was that the brothers will fight and Rama who would be hiding
behind a tree, would take his bow to shoot the elder brother.
Sugreeve called out Vali to a nearby open field for a duel,
which was accepted. They started the fight but there was a big dilemma. Both the
brothers were identical twins and had similar physical feature, Rama could not take
an aim least he shot the wrong one. Sugreeve was no match for Vali and soon had
to desert and flee for his life. The next day Sugreeve
again challenged Vali, this time wearing a garland of wildflowers. Vali was
winning the fight and at the very decisive moment, Rama came out of his hiding
and shot a deadly arrow to the chest of the king of Kishkindha.
With Vali gravely injured in his death, his wife Tara and
son Angada and all his ministers came near him. Vali questioned Rama what was
his crime that he deserved to be killed. Why make his wife a widow and steal
his throne? Even if he was unfair to his brother, he had not caused any harm to
Rama. If finding Seetha was the reason, why he was killed? Rama could have
directly come to him for help and friendship. He would have defeated Ravana
himself and brought back Seetha. To
these, Rama explained, though Sugreeve was the weaker brother, he built his
friendship with him as he found him honest and completely loyal to his kingdom.
As the elder brother, he should have loved his younger brother like his own son.
He did not take the throne of Kishkindha by greed but as a duty. He did not
intentionally block Vali and had an honest concern which as a King Vali
should have listened to. He reminded that Vali took his brother’s wife as his
queen, even though her husband was alive in exile. And he was cruel to his
subjects. His death was destined in the hands of Rama, and he was hunted just
like a king would hunt a deer. Vali was satisfied with the explanation. He joined
his hands and asked for forgiveness. He called out for his son and told him to
help Rama.
After Vali’s death, Sugreeve was reinstated as the king of Kishkindha.
He married Tara and made her his chief queen. This was as per the social norm
of that time when a vanara could marry the widow of his brother and provide
security. Angada was declared the prince and played an important role as a commander of the vanara army that marched to Lanka.
Karma does not even spare the gods. Rama who was an avatar of lord
Vishnu was reborn as Krishna during the time of Mahabharata. Vali was
reincarnated as Jara, a hunter. Shri Krishna was
killed by an arrow from Jara who thought him to be a deer and struck his feet
by an arrow. This is the cycle of karma.
Disclaimer: This retelling of the story of Vali is based on my interpretation of multiple versions of Ramayana stories I have heard and read.
Disclaimer: This retelling of the story of Vali is based on my interpretation of multiple versions of Ramayana stories I have heard and read.