Romantic Nuptial Knot - Swayamvar Or Gandharva Vivaha

Romantic Nuptial Knot - Swayamvar  Or   Gandharva Vivaha

                                         

                           

When we are in the month of International Woman’s Day, my heart goes out to dedicate one more post  to the woman’s lib or liberation of woman as I am increasingly realizes  that I am not a male chauvinist pig.  At the time of arranged marriages mostly decided by the parents, we can discuss woman’s role in choosing the bridegroom from the yester years’ prevalent customs in Sanskrit literature such as “Swayamvar” and “Gandharva Vivaha”.    An opportunity to decide life’s most crucial selection by the femme fatale and the prince charming volunteering as a suitor.

Sita Swayamvar

      King Janaka was the ruler of Videha.  Janaka was not only a brave King but was also very well-versed in Shastras and Vedas.  One day while a field was being ploughed in the presence of the King, he found a female child in deep furrow dug by the plough.  Janaka and his wife Sunayana were overjoyed by this discovery and adopted the little baby girl as their own.  The child was named as Sita, meaning ‘furrow’ in Sanskrit.  Thus, Sita is considered to be the daughter of Bhumi Devi (Mother Earth) since she was born or found in the earth.

Sita grew up to become an unparalleled beauty and charm and possessed the greatest of womanly virtues.  When Sita became of marriageable age, the King decided to have a “Swayamvara” which included a contest.  The King was in possession of an immensely heavy bow, presented to him by the God Shiva.  Whoever could wield the bow and string it, could marry Sita.

After the protection of Vishwamitra’s sacred ritual, on their way back to Ayodhya, Ram and Lakshmana traveled to Mithila, the capital of Videha.  Accompanied by Vishwamitra, they attended Sita’s “Swayamvara”.  Rama successfully broke Shiva’s bow as he picked it up and was examining the tautness of its bowstring. It must be noted here that the other contestants could not even move the bow a bit.  The young prince’s strength and courage perplexed all the attendees.  And with the breaking of the bow, Janaka proposed Sita to Rama in marriage.  Thus,  Sita and Rama’s Swayamvar happened.

The  Curse  of  Ahalya

A poetry tit bit by famous Mallu Poet, Vayalar Rama Varma.  This poet and lyricist influenced the writer to a greater extent from my teens  and was mersmerised by his ability to convert  synonyms or adjectives  tantalizingly  and alluringly beautiful.

“Sita Devi swayamvaram chaidhoru

Thretha yugathile sreeraman

Kaal viral kondunnu thottappol pandu

Kattile kalloru mohiniyaay.”

The Sreeram of Treta  Yug

Who married Sita in swayamvar

When touched a stone with his toe,

 in the forest, it turned an Apsara,

the celestial nymph.

Ahalya, in Hindu mythology is the wife of sage Gautama Maharishi. Ahalya is the most beautiful woman in the entire universe.  Lord Indra was fascinated by the beauty of Ahalya and comes to her home disguised as her husband sage Gautama Maharishi and enjoys sex with her. They were caught red-handed by the sage and an enraged saint Gautama Maharishi cursed both Indra and Ahalya.  Due to the curse she turned to become a stone.  Finally, when Lord Rama’s feet brushed against the stone while he was travelling through the forest site, and Ahalya was freed from the curse and turned from the stone into the beautiful maiden once again.

NALA  DAMAYANTHI   -  An  Epic  Love Story – (Swayamvar)


Another epic love story of Swayamvar is that of Nala and Damayanthi. 

Damayanthi was a princess of Vidharbha Kingdom, who was well known for her beauty and grace that even the Gods could not stop from admiring her.  Damayanthi is the beautiful daughter of King Bhima.  King Bhima arranged swayamvar of Damayanthi where many princes were gathered from whom Damayanthi could choose her husband.  Damayanthi heard about the enviable life of  Prince Nala and has fallen in love with him.  She sends a swan as messenger to Nala to attend her swayamvar.  Nala was attracted by her beauty and grace and knew even gods were to be present there to marry her.  Nala accepts Damayanthi’s invitation and reaches for the Swayamwar.  The contest for the suitors were to hit a moving fish’s eye hanged in a height.

The Nala won the competition but when Damayanthi to make her choice it appeared that there are five Nala’s to choose from.  Damayanthi identified the real Nala as the other four were gods and their eyelid did not bat.  Thus, the Swayamvar of Nala Damayanthi happened.


The famous Mallu Poet Vayalar Rama Varma  sang -

“Chumbikkan oru shalabhamundenile

Youvvanam surabhilamaagu, Poovinu

Youvvanam surablhilamaagu.”

To make the youth meaningful,

The flower must have a butterfly

To feast its honey.

Though the “Swayamvar” was arranged by the father of the bride with a contest to win for the suitors, the “Gandharva Vivaha” was one of the eight classical types of Hindu marriages, wherein the man and woman are mutually attracted to each other and marriage takes place without family and witnesses.  In “Gandharva Vivaha” the girl chose her husband.

 The eight types of marriage in Hinduism –

• Brahma marriage 
• Daiva marriage 
• Arsha marriage
• Prajapatya marriage  ·        
• Gandharva marriage  
• Asura marriage 
• Rakshasa marriage
• Paisacha marriage

Polygamy and Bigamy were prevalent in ancient Indian mythology like Draupati or Panchali having five husbands at a time and King  Dasaratha had 50,000 wives and Lord Krishna 10008 wives.

The epitome of virility and a celebrated manhood, you can guess the sexually potent genre and their machismo.  Sex is a joyful art presented to humans by god.

You can see in the nature various animals, birds and living beings procreates and copulates with their mates in the abundant splendor.   They primarily exists for the service and benefit of humans.

ABHIJNANASAKUNTALAM  -  A  GANDHARVA VIVAHA

 

The marriage of Dushyant and Sakuntala was a historically celebrated example of  “Gandharva Vivaha.”

The famous mallu poet Vayalar sang  about Sankuntala -

 “Pranaya lekhanam engine ezhuthanam

Muni kumarikayallo njan verumoru

Munikumarigayallo.”

“I do not know how to write a love letter, as I dwell in a hermitage.”

He further wrote –

“Swarnaththamarayithalil orangum

Kannvathapovana kanyake

Aarude anuragamalliga nee

Aarude swayamvara kanyaka nee…”

That hermitage virgin who sleeps

In the golden lotus petal

Oh!  Whose beautiful love bud you are,

Whose Swayamvar suitor you are.

The Recognition of Shakuntala written by the greatest of the ancient Indian playwright Kalidasa from the 5^th century offers a classic introduction to Indian theater and aesthetics.  A king encounters a lovely maiden by chance, and the course of their passionate love sweeps the audience from a forest hermitage to a dazzling palace to ethereal celestial realms.  Abhijanasakuntalam is the first Indian play ever to be translated into western languages.  It is for the very first time translated in English language by Sir William Jones in the year 1789. Later on, there were at least 46 translations of this play by Kalidasa in 12 different European languages.

The beautiful and innocent hermitage maiden Sakuntala in the company of her friends plays with deer and other pet animals and birds in the forest.  

Sakuntala's is a great story of  love and romance.

Long ago there was a powerful sage named Vishwamitra who lived a life of austerities, was drawn in a meditation.  The gods feared that he will even outshine them, Lord Indra sends one of his most gorgeous heavenly damsels Menaka to earth to disturb his devotions.  The first seduction game in the history of human race and Menaka succeeds in seducing Vishwamitra and a beautiful daughter is born to them. Infuriated at the loss of his chastity Vishwamitra turned down Menaka and her daughter.  Knowing that she cannot take her child to heaven, Menaka abandons the new born infant in the forest.

As fate would have it, Sage Kanava happened to pass by the forest and sees the baby girl surrounded by Shakunta birds.  He names her Sakuntala meaning one who fed by Sankunta bird.  Sakuntala grew up as a young beautiful maiden like her mother Menaka.  One day King Dushyant after a deer hunt happens to pass by Sage Kanava’s hermitage and meets Sakuntala.  Dushyant instantly falls for Sakuntala and they were both attracted to each other. They secretly wed in the ceremony of “Gandharva Vivaha” with only mother nature as witness and enters into blissful matrimony.

After few days King Dushyant comes to know about the unrest in his kingdom and head towards his country after presenting a signet ring to Sakuntala and promises to send an envoy to take her to the palace.

One day Sage Durvasav, infamous for his mercurial anger, stops by the hut for hospitality.  Lost in her romantic love thoughts Sakuntala fails to acknowledge his presence.  This infuriates the temperamental sage and he censures Sakuntala, cursing that the one whom she is thinking about will forget her.  Sakuntala begs for mercy and explains her situation.  On the plea of Sakuntala and her friends, the sage relents and says that if the King sees any significant souvenir that he gave her, he will remember everything.

After the months of waiting, when she fails to hear anything from the King, Sage Kanava arranges a visit by Sakuntala to the royal court of King Dushyant.  On her way, she stops to drink water from a lake and she loses her ring in the water and was swallowed by a fish.  She reaches the royal palace, but Dushyant fails to recognize her because of the curse.  A dejected Sakuntala returns to the forest.  After sometime an angler finds the ring in the stomach of a fish.  He immediately takes it to the King, who on seeing the ring recalls everything and rushes to bring Sakuntala to his palace from the hermitage.  Later, Sakuntala gives birth to a son and they named him Bharat after whom India got her name Bharat.

NJAN  GANDHARVAN

Njan Gandharvan   OR  “I am Gandharva “  is a 1991 Malayalam fantasy romance film.   The film depicts the life of Gandharvas and a beautiful young girl who falls for the Gandharva and their romantic fantasy love story directed by the renowned Malayalam Film Director, Late Padmarajan.  The Film has won many awards.

   













An interlude of romance takes place in “Gandharva Vivaha” which signifies the pre-marital enjoyment of romance in the offing in such a wedlock.  The Gandharvan seduce the beautiful young virgin girl of the earth and breed the seeds of romance in her.

God created man and also woman as his partner.  They loved and shared tender feelings and penetratingly infused soaking in deeper breath into each other.   In “Gandharva Vivaha” the girl rests the right to choose her husband.

Gandharvas are the subjects of Devalok (Heaven).  They sing songs to entertain the Gods and serve Amrut, an intoxicating beverage to the Gods of Indra sadas.  When a Gandharva commit a sin, he is cursed by the Gods and send to earth as punishment for a certain period.  A journey from heaven to hell.  After landing on the earth they seduce the most beautiful virgin girls and marries them in secret.  However, Gandharva can go back to heaven as soon as he is freed from the curse.

It is said that marriages take place in heaven.  In this case, the Gandharva from the heaven comes down to earth in search of his partner and secretly marries his chosen beautiful nymphet.

My pick of Romantic Hero of Hindi films is Rajesh Khanna and Romantic Director, the late Yash Chopra. The onscreen chemistry of Hrithik Roshan and Aishwaray Rai Bachchan is fantastic.

However, there is a role reversal in Sir Thomas More’s Utopia.  In Utopia, the bridegroom enter the boudoir of the bride and takes a view of her sleeping beauty without a twine on her body.  Thus, satisfied with a close look he makes up his mind for marriage.  Though this may seem primitive, and unrealistic such an exposure was envisaged by Sir Thomas More for bridal selection.

In the current context, all that is required is an ability to judge and make a selection foreseeing the unbreakable fortress of marriage.  The mutual attraction and desire to enter into a wedlock within the acceptable norms of the society with an assured financial security is seen as welcome sign.  The marriage with parental guidance seems to be the most befitting one for endurance. 

However, a couple with renewed vigor and steam passionately engaged in beautiful love can have an enviable marital bliss which lasts forever and requires lesser sacrifices and adjustments from both the partners as they are deeply in love for a prolonged period.

The romance conquers all alike in “Swayamvar”  and  “Gandharva Vivaha”