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kshatriya values of conquest and
protection must be defended and
brahmanas shown deference; the use
of violence is called for whenever the
Brahmanical Dharma is in danger and
needs to be protected.
There are some traces, though, of
earlier forms of society, for example
when the king is about to hold the
ashvamedha and other ceremonies he
consults with the elders, both of his
family and others. In the clan society,
typically, elders are always consulted if
any serious decision is to be made or
action taken. The praja, the subjects,
try to hold back Rama, Sita and
Lakshmana from going into exile
despite their knowing there is a royal
order—once again, a remnant of the
old clan society. We are constantly
reminded that arajya, the absence of
kingship, is a state of chaos. The exile
arises out of a crisis of primogeniture;
if primogeniture had been observed
there would have been no crisis
because Rama would automatically
have become the king.
I would like to argue that the society
of the rakshasa in Valmiki’s Ramayana
is a clan-based society and therefore
inherently the enemy of the kingdom
of Ayodhya. (Not all clans are
enemies, though; the Vanaras,
Myth Retold – Romila Thapar
although a clan society, are allies.) In
its organisation and functioning, the
rakshasa society is more like the ganasangha
and conforms little to the
Kautilyan model. Ravana is the chief
who, in a crisis, always consults his
main support who are his kinsmen.
The rakshasas have no territorial
boundaries; they wander freely
everywhere. Access to large forested
areas was of course essential to the
basic occupation of clan societies:
hunting and gathering, pastoralism,
shifting cultivation, and tapping
mineral wealth and forest produce.
Therefore, since the forest was crucial
to their society and their economy,
people encroaching into the forest
were to be resisted. So it was natural
that Rama entering the forest would
be resisted by the forest dwellers, the
rakshasas.
Lanka is described as resplendent but
little is said about the source of this
wealth. One suspects that this is the
poet’s fantasy coming into play. The
fabulous wealth of the city of Lanka is
doubtless an attempt to show that this
was an extraordinary enemy that
Rama was contesting. The rakshasas
do not observe caste, or the rules of
commensality, pollution or marriage,
which are crucial to caste societies,
and they attack Brahmanical rites.
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