Read Parts 1, 2, 3

Agni Mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain) is regarded by some as Karnad’s finest work. Based on a little-known episode in the Mahabharata, this play makes a complete disaster of the original.

Because the story of Yavakrida is pretty lengthy, I’ve decided to split the entry into two parts. The first part–this entry–will narrate the entire story of Yavakrida while the next will examine Karnad’s version of it.

YAVAKRIDA

Yavakrida’s story is one of the several stories that different sages narrated to the Pandavas during their exile(-cum-pilgrimage). Yavakrida was the son of sage Bharadwaja, a close friend of another sage named Raibhya. Raibhya had two sons, Paravasu and Arvavasu. While Bharadwaja was renowned for his humble, and self-effacing nature, Raibhya was more famed as a scholar invited to royal courts. Raibhya’s sons had their share of fame, courtesy their father as well as their own learning.

Yavakrida grew up nurturing a strong jealousy towards Raibhya’s sons. He didn’t share the knowledge-is-its-own-reward outlook of his father. In his quest to gain fame equal to or surpassing his rivals, Yavakrida sought to know the secret of the Vedas directly, that is, without the guidance of a Guru much against his father’s wishes and dread. It is significant to mention sage Bharadwaja’s cautionary words to his son; it is a highly pragmatic, and insightful piece of advice: The Gods grant boons to fatuous people who persistently practise penances, as intoxicants are sold to fools for money. The consequence is a loss of self-control, which leads to the warping of the mind and disaster. It is thus not merely enough to ask a boon: a wise man knows what boon to ask, and/or whether his penance is worth the object he seeks to attain through it. In this, Yavakrida resembles the Rakshasas who performed severe penances but asked for petty boons, which boomeranged on them.

Yavakrida performed penance for long years. Indra, knowing his foolish desire tried his best to persuade Yavakrida from this disastrous quest. Yavakrida however, did not yield. In a last bid, he began to cut off his limbs and offered them to the fire (Agni) so he could obtain the desired boon. Indra relented and granted him the secret knowledge of the Vedas.

Drunk with arrogance, Yavakrida molested Paravasu’s wife when she was strolling alone in the garden near the hermitage of Raibhya. When Raibhya learnt of this, he was seized with implacable anger. He plucked a hair from his head and offered it to the fire reciting a mantra. At once, a maiden, as beautiful as his daughter-in-law, emerged from the sacrificial fire. The sage plucked another strand of his hair and offered it as oblation. A terrible fiend rose from the fire. Raibhya commanded the two to kill Yavakrida.

Both arrived at the place where Yavakrida was performing the morning rites. The female spirit went near him and began to allure him. When his guard was lowered, she teasingly took his water-jug (Kamandalu), and began to run slowly. The fiend appeared suddenly from nowhere with an uplifted spear.

Yavakrida stood up in fear. He knew his mantras would not have any impact unless he cleansed himself with water, he looked for his water-jug. When he realized what had happened, he rushed to a pond nearby for water but the pond had dried up. He darted towards his father’s hermitage for refuge. However, the half-blind man who was guarding the hermitage stopped him as be could not recognise Yavakrida who, distorted with mortal fear, sought to force his way in. Meanwhile, the fiend’s spear had found its mark.

When Bharadwaja found his son’s corpse, he understood that it was because of his son’s disrespect for Raibhya as well as his shortcut method of learning the Vedas. Yet, fatherly love manifested itself as a curse: May Raibhya who caused my son’s death, himself be killed by one of his own sons! When his anger subsided, Bharadwaja realized that he had lost even his friend, Raibhya. Out of remorse, he entered the funeral pyre.

THE AFTERMATH

King Brihadyumna, Raibhya’s disciple once requested the sage to send his sons to officiate a mega-sacrifice he had undertaken. Accordingly, the brothers went to the king’s capital. After several days into the sacrifice, Paravasu left for his hermitage to visit his wife. As he neared the hermitage post-twilight, he spotted an antelope straggling wildly. At once, Paravasu killed it and later to his grief, discovered that it was his father who had worn the skin of an antelope on his body. The dim light had deceived Paravasu. He hurriedly performed Raibhya’s last rites, then reached Arvavasu and told him about the mishap. He requested the younger sibling to perform the rites on his behalf and to not inform anybody else about the accident so as not to hinder the sacrifice.

Arvavasu accordingly performed Raibhya’s last rites, and returned to assist his brother. However, the sin of killing a virtuous sage had tainted Paravasu’s character since a sin cannot be washed off by proxy expiation. He proclaimed loudly that Arvavasu had no right to enter the sacrificial hall because he had killed a Rishi. The assemblage believed Paravasu and denied entry to Arvavasu.

Angry and dejected, Arvavasu undertook intense austerties and pleased the Gods. When the Gods asked him to choose a boon, Arvavasu, whose austerity had uplifted him from base passions asked for the lives of his father, Bharadwaja, and Yavakrida, and for his brother’s pardon. The Gods acceded.

These episodes underline the important distinction between knowledge and virtue. Knowledge, which is merely lot of undigested information, in itself doesn’t instill virtue. It is the difference between knowing/talking about virtue and living it. Yavakrida’s life illustrates the former, while Arvavasu’s conduct epitomises virtue.