Prof.Dr. Satya Vrat Shastri's Thai Ramayana 45, Rama meets Lava and Mankuta

Lava and Mankuta grew up in the hermitage and when they were ten years old, sought permission from their mother and go to the forest. While roaming in the forest Mankuta saw a very tall tree and to test his powers of archery shot an arrow at it. The arrow split the tree into two and the sound of splitting was tumultuous and shook the entire earth. And all living beings, struck with terror ran helter-skelter.

Rama heard the noise in Ayodhya and became uneasy. With an idea of finding out who it could be, he decided to perform an Ashwamedha sacrifice. He let loose the horse and commanded Hanuman to follow along with Bharata and Shatrugna. 

The horse carried a proclamation which threatened punishment to anyone daring to stop the horse or riding it. Gradually the horse came to where Mankuta resided, who attracted by the beauty of the horse went near and saw the proclamation hung on its neck! He took it as an arrogant challenge and wanting to show his mettle, rode the horse happily along with his brother Lava.

 Hanuman ordered him to get off the horse, but Mankuta shot an arrow at him. Hanuman lost his conciousness, recovered and ran after the two boys wanting to kill them. But instead, he was almost killed by the two boys. Having noticed that the monkey wore clothes the boys decided not to kill, but tied him up. Hanuman very ashamed to have lost to mere boys, went to Bharata and Shatrugna seeking help. To their shock and surprise, both were unable to untie him.

Hanuman risking being laughed at by gods who saw him in this state, flew and reached Ayodhya. Rama was amazed and angry when he heard the story and went with him to the forest. He saw the two boys joyfully playing with each other and rebuked them. This angered Mankuta and he challenged Rama  to a duel and hurled a dreadful arrow. Rama too, burning up in anger, shot an arrow!

Surprisingly both arrows missed their targets and fell embracing each other.,.. and more strange, Mankuta's arrow instantly turned into a mass of flowers and adorned the feet of Rama. Seeing this strange sight, Rama asked the boy, 'Whose son are you? You do not look an ordinary person!'  And the boy replied, 'I am the son of Sita and live with her in the holy hermitage of Vajmrga.'

Rama was overwhelmed with joy to discover that he had a son and that Sita was alive. His eyes filled with tears of joy, he embraced his son again and again. On minute observation the resemblance was noticeable and that gave him more joy causing horripilation. 

Lakshmana related to him the whole story of how Sita was not killed and Rama greatly relieved told his brother, 'You have done well, my dear. You are the enhancer of my joy!' and embraced him. Then turned to his son and said, 'O son! I am anxious to see your mother.'

Curious about the name Mankuta, I checked it on the net and was surprised to see the name exists in the US and Israel. A Hebrew name and has obviously traveled!

Raghunath said...

I thought it was Shatrugna who accompanied the sacrificial horse. The rest of the story is running parallel to Valmiki.
Incidentally a lot of Ashwamedha sacrifice must have been done recently to account for the widespread distribution of horse meat in the European countries!