Prof.Dr.Satya Vrat Shastri's Thai Ramayana 03 Rama's Birth

Dasharatha is distressed that even though he has virtuous wives, Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi,  he has no sons! He plans to perform son-securing sacrifice with the help of sage Kalaikoti. The sage goes to Kailas to take Shiva into confidence. The times are bad with the three worlds being tortured and terrified by the vilest of demons. The demons have gone beyond control due to the boons they obtained from Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha.

The sage desirous of the welfare of the world approaches Shiva and suggests that if Narayana were to be urged to take birth as a son of Dasharatha, the worlds could be protected. Shiva agrees and summons Narayana, the master of gods. Narayana arrives and agrees, but wants his Conch, Disc and Mace along with Sesha and Lakshmi to go with him in human form. Shiva concurs and Narayana leaves.

Mahesha then speaks to the sage, 'O sage, return to Ayodhya, perform the sacrifice. A divine person, shining and adorned with celestial ornaments will appear with four balls of rice in his hand. At that very moment, some person rushing from the south will snatch away half of the balls. With the remaining two balls, O sage, feed the wives of the king, so that they, possessed of handsome limbs become pregnant. They would give birth to four sons, sharp witted and handsome and the world will certainly be blessed.'

 Everything happens in the manner lord Shiva had commanded. His words can never be otherwise. Narayana himself takes birth from Kausalya as Rama, golden in color and the object of poems, and the disc from the womb of Kaikeyi as Bharata, red in color, and very much devoted to the lotus-like feet of Rama, his brother. Then Sesha and the conch together, take birth from the womb of Sumitra as Lakshmana, yellow in color. And from the very womb of Sumitra the mace is born as Shatrugna, reddish brown in color and dear to his brothers. Thus, Narayana the last resort of the world, descends on the earth, along with his weapons in the form of  his brothers.

The story is concise and plausible for an epic and a mythology. I had never heard of sage Kalaikoti, and saw no details about him in the web! However I found his name in a matrimonial column; caste:Karuneegar, Subcaste: seer karunigar, gothra: kalaikoti maharishi gothr. The groom seems to be a nice fellow! 'I am slim and very straight forward person, i am very adjustable char., i like my family very much, i dont have any bad habits like smoking, drinks.' . He is looking for a working girl from the same caste and horoscopes should match! I wish him all the luck!

I am also getting used to kings in epics needing help in expanding their clan. It is not that all khsatriyas needed it, but those who are written about surely needed help. In this case it was a sacrifice specially designed to get sons. I guess it made it easier for the supreme god Narayana to make a normal entry into the human world! Anyway, it is the women who bear the burden! In case of Rama, his mother eats a ball of rice, a divine gift, and becomes pregnanat.

According to Bhagavata Purana, Krishna was born without a sexual union, but by divine "mental transmission" from the mind of Vasudeva into the womb of Devaki.(wikipedia).  Gods did not appear out of nowhere or did they emerge from a fire the way Draupadi or her brother Dhristadhyumna did! They went through the whole process of birth and death.