War in Ancient India c4.s6.t3.24

c4.s6.t3.24

Instances of forcible abduction are not wanting. One signal instance is that of Rāvaṇa, the Rākṣasa king of Ceylon, carrying away by force and against her will, Sītā, the consort of Rāma, prince of Ayodhyā. This resulted in the great Rāma-Rāvaṇa yuddha in Laṅkā, which ended in the death of Rāvaṇa with all his hosts, and in the triumph of Rāma. We know again of the adultery committed by Vāli, king of Kiṣkindhā, with the wife of his brother Sugrīva, after driving him away by force out of the kingdom. For this Vāli lost his life, for he was killed by Rāma on an earnest appeal from Sugrīva.²⁶ These cases involved a deadly combat where invariably the aggrieved party came out crowned with victory. Be it remembered that these captors belonged to the primitive tribes, who had emerged by the time of the Rāmāyaṇa into a semi-civilised state. We are led to infer that such practices were un-Aryan. It may be noted, as pointed out by Hopkins in the cases of Gāndharva marriages, that caste weds caste.²⁷ The adventures of these gallant people were directed to the confines of the Kṣatriya caste. The girls of other castes, higher or lower, were not interfered with.²⁸ But Hopkins is positively wrong when he states that ‘ even with high caste girls the king is fond of connecting himself without formality ’.²⁹ The burden of proof lies on him who makes such a bold statement. The practice is to marry ‘ down ’ and not ‘ up ’. Whatever this may be, it is important to note that the instinct of sex impelled by passion and emotion led to the capture of girls and also to rape³⁰ which often led to wars in the ancient world, sometimes of great magnitude.