Re: [INDOLOGY] saśarīra

Tue Dec 17 19:52:37 UTC 2019

Dear Aaron et al.,

What is equally interesting as the question of who is able to enter the heavenly worlds in their own bodies and how they are able to do so, is the question of those who try to do so and fail.  You mention Yudhiṣṭhira and his purported sinlessness. But then there are his four younger brothers and Draupadī who fail in their attempts because of offenses that seem quite minor compared with some of the other things they have done in the course of the epic story. One of these which gets little notice in the text, its commentaries and epic scholarship is the Pāṇḍava’s calculated and heartless murder of a niṣāda woman and her  five sons to cover their escape from the lacquer house. This, of course bears on the epic ideology of social class and status, an issue that is highly relevant to the question of saśarīra entry into heaven.

Other notable  failures in this attempt are, of course the two you mention, Triśaṅku and Śambūka. These figures both attempt to employ a powerful means to accomplish this goal, the enormous power acquired through asceticism. In the first case it is the tapobala of Viṣvāmitra and in the second, the in-progress asceticism of Śambūka himself. Both episodes appear to indicate that the attempts of these two figures would have been successful had they not been abruptly thwarted, in the first case by Indra and in the second through execution at the hands of Rāma. In both cases the reason the aspiring ascetics are prevented from achieving their goal is their social status. In the case of Triśaṅku, Indra objects to  the entry of a lowly Caṇḍāla, one cursed to suffer in that state through his act of gurvaparādha, into the pure, heavenly worlds. In the case of Śaṃbūka, his crime is not so much his tapas, per se, as the fact that, as the text and its copious commentaries on this episode indicate, as a śūdra in what is generally agreed to be the Tretāyuga, he is a tapasvin avant la lettre, as it were. For a discussion of the question of who is permitted to perform tapas in which yuga, see the notes to the Śambūka episode in my and Dr Sally Sutherland Goldman’s 2017 Princeton Univerity Press translation of the Uttarakāṇḍa.

Interestingly, although neither Vālmīki nor his commentators waste any more pity on what they regard as a rogue śūdra than the Mahābhārata commentators do on the hapless Niṣāda family, later poets of the Rāmacarita make efforts to rehabilitate them, so to say. 

Thus Kālidāsa, in his Raghuvaṃśa, observes that through his death at Rāma’s hands the śudra attained an even higher heavenly world than he could have attained through his unauthorized penances.
kṛtadaṇḍaḥ svayaṃ rājñā lebhe śūdraḥ satāṃ gatim /

		tapasā duścareṇāpi na svamārgavilaṅghinā // RV 15.53

Then, too, famously, Bhavabhūti thoroughly rehabilitates the executed Śambūka in the second act of his Uttararāmacarita by showing him to be transfigured into a heavenly being as a result of his decapitation by Rāma and one, moreover who is given some of the most beautiful descriptive verses in the play. So perhaps in the long run it's worth the effort. no matter the obstacles, to shoot for saśarīrasvargārohaṇa.

iti viramāmi vistarāt. . .

(except to thank Christophe for sharing his excellent and interesting article on Triśaṅku.)

Best wishes to all for the holiday season.

Bob Goldman

Catherine and William L. Magistretti Distinguished Professor in South and Southeast Asian Studies
Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies MC # 2540
The University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-2540
Tel: 510-642-4089
Fax: 510-642-2409

> On Dec 16, 2019, at 6:23 PM, Aaron Sherraden <aaron.sherraden at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Thank you very much for all these helpful responses -- I have a few great new paths to explore and look forward to hearing about any more that this list may conjure up.  
> 
> My mistake with regards to the role of tapas in the Triśaṅku story -- it was, of course, Viśvāmitra whose tapas caused a bit of a stir, not Triśaṅku's.  Many thanks to Dr. Goldman for steering the list in the right direction.
> 
> All the best,
> Aaron
> 
> 
> On Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 3:56 PM Robert Goldman <rpg at berkeley.edu <mailto:rpg at berkeley.edu>> wrote:
> Of course, technically, Triśaṅku does not seek to enter the heavenly world(s) through tapas, but rather by having a sacrifice performed on his behalf for this purpose. Thus he first approaches Vasiṣṭha, then Vasiṣṭha’s sons and finally, in his cursed form, Viśvāmitra. Then there are also various accounts of mortals who are able to travel to heaven in their earthly  bodies on a temporary basis, such as Arjuna at Mbh. 3.43 ff.  and Dilīpa at Raghuvaṃśa 1. 75 ff. etc. 
> 
> Dr. R. P.  Goldman
> Catherine and William L. Magistretti Distinguished Professor in South and Southeast Asian Studies
> Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies MC # 2540
> The University of California at Berkeley
> Berkeley, CA 94720-2540
> Tel: 510-642-4089
> Fax: 510-642-2409
> 
>> On Dec 16, 2019, at 12:18 PM, Uskokov, Aleksandar via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Aaron,
>> 
>> Perhaps not relevant directly, but you could look at Sabara's commentary on Mimamsa-sutra 1.1.5, where a statement from the Brahmanas that the ritualist attains heaven in his own body along with the ritual implements is discussed.
>> 
>> Best
>> Aleksandar
>> 
>> Get Outlook for Android <https://aka.ms/ghei36>
>> From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info <mailto:indology-bounces at list.indology.info>> on behalf of Tieken, H.J.H. via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>
>> Sent: Monday, December 16, 2019 3:14:20 PM
>> To: Aaron Sherraden <aaron.sherraden at gmail.com <mailto:aaron.sherraden at gmail.com>>; indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info> <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>
>> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] saśarīra
>>  
>> Dear Aaron,
>> 
>> In my article "The Mahābhārata after the Great Battle", WZKS XLVIII (2004, app. 2005) I deal with Yudhiṣṭhira, who is the only one of the Pāṇḍavas to arrive in heaven with his body because he is without sin (see p. 36).
>> I think (but am not certain) you may find a pdf of this article on my website.
>> Herman
>> 
>> Herman Tieken
>> Stationsweg 58
>> 2515 BP Den Haag
>> The Netherlands
>> 00 31 (0)70 2208127
>> website: hermantieken.com <https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhermantieken.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Caleksandar.uskokov%40yale.edu%7Cee60bf69e010414a78b508d78264a472%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637121241080760263&sdata=gROJpArTon5Tlj%2B2oIe7DAd4owcSPDGnjL9TOqwyDdU%3D&reserved=0>
>> Van: INDOLOGY [indology-bounces at list.indology.info <mailto:indology-bounces at list.indology.info>] namens Aaron Sherraden via INDOLOGY [indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>]
>> Verzonden: maandag 16 december 2019 21:02
>> Aan: indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>
>> Onderwerp: [INDOLOGY] saśarīra
>> 
>> Dear list members,
>> 
>> I am wondering about appearances of the word "saśarīra" and/or "svaśarīra" in various contexts.  I have encountered saśarīra/svaśarīra in the episodes of Triśaṅku and Śambūka from the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, but would be curious to know of other places where these or similar concepts show up.  In both of these episodes, the goal of Triśaṅku and Śambūka is to enter some sort of heavenly realm or divine form (variously referred to as divam, gatim, svargam, devatvam etc.) with their body.  Also in these episodes, Triśaṅku and Śambūka have gone rogue to engage in tapas as a way of achieving this goal.  
>> 
>> An example from each of the Rāmāyaṇa episodes:
>> 
>> guruśāpakṛtaṃ rūpaṃ yad idaṃ tvayi vartate |
>> anena saha rūpeṇa saśarīro gamiṣyasi || VR 1.58.4 (Triśaṅku episode)
>> 
>> śūdrayonyāṃ prasūto 'smi tapa ugraṃ samāsthitaḥ |
>> devatvaṃ prārthaye rāma saśarīro mahāyaśaḥ || VR 7.67.2 (Śambūka episode)
>> 
>> I am especially curious about the use of "saśarīra" in similar ways, but I am open to any use of the term from the literature at large.
>> 
>> With thanks in advance,
>> Aaron
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