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About Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan
Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan (16 March 1929 – 13 July 1993) was an Indian poet and scholar of Indian literature who wrote in both English and Kannada. Ramanujan was a poet, scholar, professor, philologist, folklorist, translator, and playwright. His academic research ranged across five languages: English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit.
He published works on both classical and modern variants of this literature and argued strongly for giving local, non-standard dialects their due. Though he wrote widely and in a number of genres, Ramanujan’s poems are remembered as enigmatic works of startling originality, sophistication and moving artistry. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award posthumously in 1999 for The Collected Poems.
The theme of The Heavenly Parasol
Nobility and kindness always wins in life-
The heavenly parasol is one of the Rajatarangini Kashmiri tales. The moral from the story is nobility and kindness always wins in life. It starts with swayamwara of Megavahana in Pragjyotisha and also receiving the parasol. Then Megavahana becomes the king of Kashmir with his great deeds and valour.
The great kindness and nobility of the king were beautifully portrayed when he was ready to sacrifice his own life to save the innocent’s life from the barbarian.
This act of kindness pleased lord Varuna, who later helped him in crossing the ocean. Although lord Varuna took the parasol with him, the king continued to receive the protection in a divine manner because of his kindness and nobility.
Summary of The Heavenly Parasol
Amritaprabha was the princess of Pragjyotisha. She was a beautiful young lady. When she attained the age of marriage, the king arranged a swayamvara. She was free to choose her husband. Many suitors, who had heard of her great beauty, came to Pragjyotisha to marry her. Meghavahana, the prince of Kashmir, also came there.
Amritaprabha entered the court hall, had a look at all the suitors and then put the garland around Meghavahana’s neck. He became very happy. Meghavahana and Amritaprabha moved towards the king to take his blessings. The priest cried out in surprise saying that the parasol of Varuna had cast his shadow over the prince.
The king also noticed it and said to Meghavahana that the gods favoured him . Meghavahana saw by his side, a beautiful, dazzling, white parasol with exquisite decorations that was casting its shadow over him. The king explained that it was the parasol of Varuna, the god of the seas, and it cast its shadow only on a sovereign of the whole world.
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The king was sure that the destiny of Meghavahana was to become great and famous. Meghavahana was happy with the good omens. He returned home with Amritaprabha and the heavenly parasol. The then ruler of Kashmir had taken to a life of prayer and neglected the affairs of the kingdom. The ministers requested Meghavahana to become their king for he was brave, famous and good natured.
Meghavahana accepted their offer and became the king. Meghavahana passed a law against the killing of living beings in his kingdom. His ambition was to conquer other kingdoms and impose that law on them also. He set out to fulfil his ambition. Once, he was resting near the sea in the shade of palm groves, with his army.
He thought of conquering the island of Lanka and teach the demons the peaceful ways of life. But, he did not know how to cross1 the sea with his army. All of a sudden he heard a cry in the air and a call which said even under the rule of Meghavahana, he was being killed. It seemed to come from a wood nearby. Meghavahana was agitated.
He ran towards the wood. Meghavahana came near a Durga temple and saw some sort of human sacrifice in progress on the steps of the temple. He found a man pleading for mercy and a barbarian standing over him with a raised sword. Meghavahana ordered him to stop. The barbarian recognised the king and fell at his feet. And he said that he was the leader of the barbarians and his son had fallen prey to a deadly disease and was on his death bed.
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Meghavahana wanted to kill the man and appease the gods to save his son. He also said, if his son died, the rest of his group would give up their lives. Meghavahana felt sorry for the boy. The barbarian said that the man was wandering about alone and friendless in the forest. According to the barbarian, the life of the victim was insignificant when compared to the lives of his son and troop members.
Meghavahana looked at the terrified man and made his decision. He told the barbarian that he would save his son as well as the victim. He asked the barbarian to kill him and offer his body in sacrifice to the goddess. The barbarian could not believe his ears. He told Meghavahana that he was the king and his life should be protected at all times.
He requested the king to kill the victim as his life was of no value. Meghavahana insisted on being killed to save the lives of the victim and the barbarian’s son. The barbarian hung his head and kept quiet. Meghavahana decided to kill himself. He drew his sword and was about to strike himself with it. Then someone held back his hand.
God Varuna appeared before him. God Varuna praised Meghavahana for his nobility of mind and compassion. He said that he had created that illusion to test Meghavahana. God Varuna said that he had come to reclaim his parasol, which King Bhauma carried away, the father of Meghavahana’s father-in-law.
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The parasol had the powers to suppress the calamities in his land. Meghavahana bowed to god Varuna and returned the parasol to him. He requested god Varuna to help him cross the seas and conquer the island of Lanka. God Varuna granted him the boon and promised to pull away the water whenever Meghavahana wanted.
The next day, Meghavahana rode into the sea on his horse. The sea water parted and Meghavahana was able to reach Lanka with his army. He befriended Vibhishana, the king of Lanka, and everything ended peacefully. When Meghavahana returned home, Amritaprabha found the parasol missing. She asked him about it. Meghavahana told her that it was not his at any time, but its owner’s blessings would guide him through his life.
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