ढोल गवाँर सूद्र पसु नारी। सकल ताड़ना के अधिकारी।।
This is a tryst of the tragedy of the Hindu religion that a most beautiful line of the Ramacharitmanas in the fifth chapter (popularly called Sundarkand) became infamous. The blame is not on the learned poet, but rather on the vested interest of politically motivated fools without a basic understanding of the Hindi language. They assert that the author instructs to beat women, men of lower caste, etc. You will read the sentence's real meaning and poetical beauty in the later part of this blog, but before that, let's judge how much the attributed meaning of the sentence stands!
The complete stanza is
This stanza is not part of a book where religious commandments in a monologue are presented but a play with various characters of specific roles. The Hero of the play (Sri Ram) is angry and about to kill a character (Sagar) who does not heed Him first. When Sagar realizes his mistake, he prays to pardon and presents the above stanza in support of his case.
In case the intent of Sagar was nasty who plays notorious in this context against Sri Ram cannot be attributed to the author. However, the intent of the Sagar was to save himself from the wrath of Sri Ram. When Sagar begs pardon for him, it's ironic that he would request punishment. He saved himself by presenting the statement otherwise capital punishment was assured to him. Moreover, he says, "It's good that You taught me a lesson (प्रभु भल कीन्ही मोहि सिख दीन्ही)", thus the meaning of the word 'ताड़ना' should be seen in this sense.
Sir George Grierson called Tulsidas, the poet of Ramacharitmanas "worthy of the greatest poet of any age". The Hindi poet Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala' commented about Tulsidas "the most fragrant branch of flowers in the garden of the world's poetry, blossoming in the creeper of Hindi". He considered Tulsidas in the Homer, Goethe, Kalidas, Valmiki, and Shakespeare league.
When a poet with such a reputation has written something then it should be understood with due attention. Each line of his poetry contains at least one 'figure of speech' which is called Alankar in Hindi literature which is well defined and categorized. This line of his poetry which is under consideration has Shlesha Alankar (श्लेष अलंकार).
In Shlesh Alankar, a word is used only once with multiple meanings. A well known example is couplet of poet Rahim:
रहिमन पानी राखिए, बिन पानी सब सून।
पानी गये न ऊबरै, मोती, मानुस, चून।।
Here the word ‘पानी’ has three different meanings viz., lustre, respect and water. However, hardly anyone knows that the word ‘पानी’ has any meaning other than water because the use of the word in one sense (water) is so common that the other meanings became obsolete with time. Similarly, ताड़ना has different meanings wherein 'to beat' came into common usage and other meanings became less in usage.
Again Shlesh Alankar is of two types:
1. ‘अभंग श्लेष’ अलंकार
2. ‘सभंग श्लेष’ अलंकार
The above example was of the first type where the single word of multiple meanings is considered unmodified. The second type is where the word is considered in different meanings with some addition or subtraction of letters. For example,
सखर सुकोमल मंजु, दोषरहित दूषन सहित।
Here the word ‘सखर’ means hard and to fetch the other meaning viz., खरदूषण the word is broken as स+खर.
The above example is from the same Ramacharitmanas of the poet Tulsidas. Thus, we could expect more usage in the book.
All the motivated fools with a vested interest agree that the word ताड़ना is used for all five different subjects viz., ढोल, गवाँर, सूद्र, पसु, and नारी. All these five subjects are very different to each other, hence, the reference of the word ताड़ना should mean differently for each subject. This is the obvious case for Shlesh Alankar. But what are the five different meanings of the word ताड़ना? This Hindi word is equivalent to the English phrase to teach (someone) a lesson, which is commonly understood to punish (someone). The other common meaning of the word ताड़ना is to gaze which can be seen in public usage including popular songs. However, the first meaning which suits ढोल is not suitable for other subjects, similarly, the second meaning which suits नारी is not suitable for the rest of the subjects.
So, let's understand the true meaning of the sentence. All spiritual seekers can be divided into four different categories. These four categories are not limited to Hindu culture but encompass all world religions and geographies.
Category-1: The seeker sees himself/herself as a conscious being and the rest of the world is an unconscious stuff which is called nature. This nature provides all sorts of experiences to the seeker (good, bad and divine) and the same nature ultimately provides freedom from all these experiences. In Hindu culture, nature is called Prakriti and the seeker is Purush.
Category-2: The seeker sees himself/herself as a divine being as glorified as God Himself however feels bounded to the law of karma whereas the benevolent God is free from all laws. The seeker wants to get rid of this bondage. In Hindu culture, the benevolent God is called Shiv or Pashupatinath and the seeker is His pashu.
Category-3: The seeker sees himself/herself as an insignificant being and there is no comparison of his/her trivial existence to the supreme and sovereign God. The seeker can only serve and love God that is the solace of his/her heart. In Hindu culture, the supreme and sovereign God is called Vishnu, Ram or Krishna and the seeker is His das (servant).
Category-4: The seeker sees himself/herself of limited knowledge that develops with education. With more knowledge, he/she can solve problems and transcend limitations. The seeker is ignorant and to get knowledge, its mining is performed with great effort. For the greatest problem of life, the greatest mine of knowledge is required i.e., the Vedas. Such seekers are in all religions and in the field of science, however, there is no alternative to the Vedas in any culture or science.
The above-mentioned four categories of spiritual paths/seekers are referred to by saint Tulsidas as नारी, पसु, सूद्र and गवाँर, respectively. They refer to four different spiritual paths sought by a seeker and ढोल refers to the non-spiritual worldly path. Swami Vivekananda in his opening statement of the Chicago Address, said:
Sisters and Brothers of America,
…..I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: ‘As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.’
There he quoted Shiva-Mahimn Stotra:
The Shiva-Mahimn Stotra states four different spiritual paths viz., the path of Vedas (त्रयी), the path of Samkhya-Yogis (सांख्यं योगः), the path of Pashupatas (पशुपतिमतं) and the path of Vaishnavas (वैष्णवमिति).
Now, compare 'ढोल गवाँर सूद्र पसु नारी' to 'त्रयी सांख्यं योगः पशुपतिमतं वैष्णवमिति'. In Samkhya-yoga, there is a Purusha and a Prakriti wherein the Prakriti is considered as a Nari (woman) for the sake of analogy. The Purusha is able to see (being conscious) but can't act and the Prakriti can act but can't see (being unconscious). The two get together and fulfil each other. Eventually, the Purusha gets deluded by the experiences and when looking through the experiences provided by the Prakriti then gets salvation. Thus, for the Samkhya-yogis ताड़ना means to look and examine the nature of Prakriti (नारी).
In the Pashupata system, the Jiva is Pashu (bounded) and the Shiva is the Pashupati (Lord of all Jivas). The bond to the action is slashed in order to get liberated. Thus, for the Pashupatas ताड़ना means to break the bond of Jiva (पसु).
In the Vaishnav System, the Jiva is trivial (सूद्र) and the Vishnu is God par excellence. The problem is the Jiva has forgotten Him and when His name is called with devotion, the Lord grants His abode. The holy name of Vishnu makes the person तरन-तारन whereby the Jiva is saved and able to save others. Thus, for the Vashnavas ताड़ना is the modified form of तारना means to save. This modification of the word is allowed in poetry aiming at the figure of speech especially when the word and its modification sound alike. Ramacharitmanas is filled with numerous examples such as दूषण is modified to दूषन (can be referred to in the above Shlesh Alankar example), शंकर is modified to संकर.
In the Vaidik path, the transition is from ignorance to knowledge (तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय). The Vedas itself means knowledge and the Jiva is ignorant (गवाँर). The Vedas save a person like the holy water of the Ganga (Ganges) with the knowledge of here and hereafter. Saint Tulsidas in one of his songs devoted to Sri Ram's feet states about the holy water of Ganga as त्रिभुवन तारण/तारन आई. Some texts write तारण some others write तारन. Whatever might be the spelling, it's certain that Mother Ganga didn't come on Earth to beat someone but rather to save all. Thus for the person of the Vaidik path ताड़ना means to save the ignorant (गवाँर).
In case a person is not spiritual and follows a worldly path then he/she is doomed. For such a person there is no hope and the material of sense enjoyment he/she seeks exploits (प्रताड़ना) him/her badly. This worldly person is called ढोल because he/she is not indulged in saving oneself from the scorching heat of the world. Thus for the worldly person, ताड़ना is changed to प्रताड़ना to highlight his/her pity condition. This is an example of ‘सभंग श्लेष’ अलंकार by great saint Tulsidas. What a poetical elegance with a great message!
