Ramayana Simplified: Part 5: Rama kills Thadaka

King Dasharatha sends his 2 sons Rama and Lakshmana along with Maharishi Vishwamitra. The three of them set out. After walking for some time, Maharishi Vishwamitra taught them two important skills namely ‘Bala' and ‘Athibala’. This was to help them to fight the asuras. Rama started feeling as if he got some great strength. That day, the three of them stayed on the banks of the river Sarayu. They saw an ashram at a distance. Rama was curious to know more about the ashram and asked about it to Vishwamitra. Vishwamitra explained that it was the ashram of Kamadeva before he was fired through the third eye of Lord Siva. They slept at the banks of the river Sarayu that night.

Maharishi Vishwamitra woke up before Brahmamuhoortha (time which starts 1.5 hours before sunrise and ends at 48 minutes before sunrise). Maharishi wakes up the 2 young princes by quoting the popular lines:

Kousalya supraja Rama poorva sandhya pravarthathe

Uthishta narashaarthoola karthavyam daivamanvitham

Oh, dear son of Kousalya!, oh great man!, the day has started, please wake up to perform the tasks (or the kartavya) that you are intended to perform.

Maharishi Vishwamitra gives an introduction to Thadaka

They started their travel for the day and reached the place where the river Sarayu meets the river Ganga. There, they saw a wild and dark forest where they were able to hear the sound of all kinds of wild animals. Maharishi Vishwamitra explained about the place in detail:

There was a brahmin named Vratha. He turned to an asura which he was not supposed to be as he was a brahmin. A brahmin is a person who is supposed to have more of sattva guna and is supposed to spread positivity and knowledge to people. Lord Indra once had to kill this brahmin turned asura. A person can become a brahmin if he has some important qualities. To bring in these qualities, they have a specific routine, food habits, etc. As mentioned previously, brahmins are supposed to spread positivity and knowledge through their qualities, so when a brahmin gets killed, the killer gets a curse called ‘Brahmahatya sapa’. Here Lord Indra gets brahmahatya sapa and to get rid of this curse, he was bathed by some monks/munis. This water fell all over that dark and wild forest.

This place is currently occupied by Thadaka and her son Maareecha, they were continuously killing innocent people there to occupy the place. Maharishi Vishwamitra also added that they were disturbing the yaga that Maharishi Vishwamitra and other munis were conducting. So, Maharishi said that Rama has to make sure that he was killing them to avoid their menace. Rama asks Vishwamitra if he can kill a woman. (Thadaka was a woman). Maharishi said that she was going against the dharma and it was the duty of the king/prince to kill those kinds of people, irrespective of man or woman.

More about Thadaka

Rama asked more about Thadaka. Maharishi explains that Thadaka was the daughter of a yaksha named Sukethu. She was gifted the power of 1000 elephants by Lord Brahma. She married another yaksha called Sundan and they had a child called Maareecha. She tried to kill Maharishi Agasthya and the Maharishi cursed her. Due to the curse, she became a deadly beast killing all kinds of innocent people.

Killing of Thadaka

When Thadaka comes to the spot, Rama sends powerful arrows against her and she shouts and roars like a lion and runs. When she faces Rama, she tries to attack him by throwing sand on his face. She also tries to kill Rama by throwing big rocks. Rama breaks these rocks into pieces by throwing a special type of astra or arrow that moves in the direction of the sound. She became angrier and jumps against Rama. Rama kills her through his powerful astra. After killing Thadaka, Maharishi Vishwamitra and other rishis continue setting up their yaga under the security of Rama and Lakshmana. Thadaka’s son Maareecha and another asura Subahu come there to disturb the yaga. Rama and Lakshmana kill both the asuras through their strength and their skills in archery.

Few Insights…

• We see how respectfully Maharishi Vishwamitra wakes up the young prince Rama. Some parents have a tendency to use harsh words to wake up their kids. We must remember that the parents can spoil the kid’s entire day by using harsh words to wake them up. The child is waking up from a state of ‘swapnaloka’ or a state of dreams to ‘jagratha’ or alertness. So the words we are using to wake up a child must be respectful and motivating.
• We also observe that Rama is asking Maharishi Vishwamitra if he can kill Thadaka since she is a woman. We can see from that, how much respect Rama is giving for women. This question arises since Thadaka is a woman and since Rama respects the entire class of women. According to Hindu philosophy, Brahmahatya (killing of a Brahmin, here we are not talking about brahmins by caste or brahmins by birth, we are referring to a brahmin based on his ideal qualities, an ideal brahmin is one who has a pure and well-balanced mind or more of sattva guna, he is always in search of knowledge and giving knowledge to the external world. The ideal characteristics of a brahmin are explained in Bhagavad geetha through chathur varnya.), Gohatya (killing of cows), Sthreehatya (killing of women) are considered to be major sins or papas.
• Does this mean women can be excused if they involve in any kind of adharma/activities which are not supposed to be done?

No, when we see the other side of the previous point, Maharishi Vishwamitra advises killing Thadaka as she is against Dharma in spite of the fact that she is a woman.

So, to summarize, the Hindu philosophy has always taught us to respect women, but those who are involved in adharma are punished, irrespective of their gender.