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Hinduism

The Ramayana in Sanskrit: Book 1: Chapter 53

Connected to
The Ramayana in Sanskrit: Book 4: Chapter 19 Similar meaning (89%) The Ramayana in Sanskrit: Book 3: Chapter 58 Similar meaning (89%) The Ramayana in Sanskrit: Book 5: Chapter 37 Similar meaning (89%) The Ramayana in Sanskrit: Book 7: Chapter 80 Similar meaning (89%)
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This is a Sanskrit epic passage from the Valmiki Ramayana (Bala Kanda), presented in both Roman transliteration and Devanagari script, narrating a confrontation between the sage Vasishtha and the warrior-king Vishvamitra over the divine wish-fulfilling cow Shabala (Kamadhenu). When Vishvamitra forcibly attempts to seize Shabala, she escapes his soldiers and runs weeping to Vasishtha, asking why he has abandoned her. Vasishtha explains he has not forsaken her but that the king's military power — a full army of cavalry, chariots, and elephants — exceeds his own. Shabala counters with the passage's central theological argument: brahminical (priestly-spiritual) power is inherently superior to kshatriya (warrior) power, and Vasishtha's brahma-tejas (sacred spiritual energy) surpasses any worldly force. At her urging, Vasishtha commands Shabala to deploy that power, whereupon she generates armies of foreign peoples — Pahlavas (Parthians/Persians) from her lowing, then Shakas (Scythians) mixed with Yavanas (Greeks) — who devastate Vishvamitra's forces before he retaliates with divine weapons. The passage is notable for encoding a religio-political argument about the hierarchy of social orders (varnas) through mythological narrative, and for its striking ethnographic detail: the cow's magically conjured armies bear the names of real historical peoples from the northwestern borderlands of ancient India.

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