Shedding the Mortal Coil
Unusual Death of the Embodied Divinities in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70042/eroth/1003258Keywords:
Unnatural Death, Avatar, Ramayana, Mahabharata, MortalityAbstract
Intriguing means of death are employed by the poets of the two mytho-epics, mainly Ramayana and Mahabharata for the avatars such as Sita (avatar of Lakshmi) along with the three brothers of Rama, who were part incarnations of Vishnu mainly, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna in Ramayana. These great personalities were said to be born to change the destiny of the earth and restore faith and dharma. Despite being central characters of these epics, the death of all these avatars is not natural or accidental. Their role in the narrative is brought to an end in an unusual manner, resulting from a curse or self-inflicted harm/death/ accident or departure. All the avatars are described as returning to their original heavenly abodes using varied and peculiar methods of death. The poets Valmiki and Vyasa of Ramayana and Mahabharata respectively also used certain curses, boons or vows to create the narratives of these deaths. An analysis of the discourse behind the impact of the mortal ending of embodied immortal beings in the mytho-epic narrative is undertaken in the paper.
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