The Three Arrows of Rama

​The 27th Chapter of the I book of the Rāmāyana narrates that after Rāma had killed the ogress Tatak̄a, on the morrow the sage Visvamitra gave Rāma the following divine weapons and instructed him in the way of using them. The weapons are :

I. The discs (จักร) of Daṇḍa, Dharma, Kāla, Vishṇu and Indra.

II. The nooses (ปาศ) of Dharma, Kāla and Varuṇa

III. The thunderbolts (อศนิ) “wet” and “dry”

IV. Two spears

V. Two clubs

VI. A Sword

VII.

The two Treatises on archery contained in the Agni Purāṇa and Sāraṅgadhara Paddhati respectively do not say anything about these astras, not even in a historical way. The only recourse therefore is to gather what bits one can from the huge and unindexed volumes of mythology alone.

1) An Astra may be defined as a weapon imbued with the energy and characteristics of some deity or super human person after whom it is named.

​2) Generally an astra is in the form of an arrow. But this is not a necessary condition. Anything, even a blade of grass, may be used as the medium and soon as the prescribed spells had been pronounced, even that blade of grass will be transformed into a deadly weapon. The Mahābhārata provides two such instances. One day the Kuru princes were playing in the open when their ball fell into a deep well. Drona who had come to the city of Hastināpura in search of pupils and chanced to be near the play-ground, offered to recover the ball. Pronouncing some formulae he threw a few blades of grass into the well. The first blade of grass stuck to the ball. The second blade stuck to the first and the third to the second and so on till at last they formed a line with which the ball was pulled up.

The Sauptika parva of the Mahābhārata furnishes the second example. Aśvatthama the son of Drona, was a partisan of Duryodhana. He avenged the death of his chief by murdering the sons of the Pāndavas when they were asleep ane then fled into the forest. Soon he was pursued and found out. Thereupon he transformed a blade of grass that lay nearby into the Brahmāstra and charged it with the destruction of all male members of the Pāṇḍava family, even such as were still in the womb.

A third instance is found in chapter 38 of the IV book of the Rāmāyaṇa. once when Rama was asleep, Kākāsura the son of Indra, pecked at Sitā in his thirst for blood. The enraged Rāma converted a blade of grass into the Brahmāstra and threw it at the asura.

3) The last two instances illustrate another idea about the astras, namely, an astra differs from the common place weapons in that it is not like them mere dead matter absolutely depending for its aim and force on the hand that discharges. It would seem the astra acts as something animate, an intelligent being commissioned with a task, relentlessly pursuing its victim anywhere and everywhere and yet can be stayed or recalled by the person who discharged it.

4) The astras are considered relatively strong or weak according to the powers of their respective deities. Thus the Agni (fire) astra will be nullified by the Varuna (water) astra, the naga astra by the Garuda astra and so on.

As regards the three arrows of the Siamese Rāmāyana, the พรมมาศ and อัคคนิวาต will be readily identified with the Brahma astra the 5 th. and Āgneya astra the 8 th in the list given on the first page of this note. พลายวาต can certainly be no other than the Vāyavyastra the 9 th.

​When discharged the Agni astra emits volumes of fire and the Vāyavya astra generates strong gusts of wind.

Although the list mentions Brahma and Brahma Śira seperately, I venture to believe that both of them are one and the same. Besides the references enumerated already, sections 135 and 158 of the Ādi parva and sections 12 to 15 of the Sauptika parva of the Mahābhārata have a little to say about the Brahma astra.

It is born of the energy of Brahma, a weapon that nullifies all other weapons but is itself nullified by none else. It is a weapon that should be used only against a super human foe and never against a human foe even when one is extreme danger, For, if it be not fairly spent up in contending with the enemy, its superabundant energy might turn loose upon the world and do infinite harm to all. Rāvana (ทศกัณฏ) is a classical example of one on whom the Brahmastra was properly employed. Unlike the other astras, when the Brahma astra is once discharged it is impossible to withdraw it unless one happens to be a person who has a very pure soul. And even then the weapon cannot be frustrated, it must have its toll no matter however small. For instance when. Kākāsura had sought refuge everywhere without avail and at last came back to Rama himself for protection, his life was spared but one of his eyes had to be surrendered to the weapon.