Did Indra Rape Ahalyā?

With the retelecast of Indian Epics, there is a rise in curiosity about amongst the public about Indian Mythological tales. One such case I recently observed was about the incident of Ahalyā. Many people were surprised to see that how can a God do something like that.

Since I have been an ardent reader of the Indian Mythology for a while, so I thought I should present some facts about the Ahalyā episode from the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa and clear some misconceptions about it.

I have witten previously about the Misconceptions prevalent amongst the Public about the Mahābhārata : Misconceptions about Mahābhārata and on Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa Misconceptions about Rāmāyaṇa. If you are intrested , then you may go through them.

Now coming to the Ahalyā episode:
The Bālakāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa is the earliest text to describe Ahalyā’s seduction in detail.

The tale of Ahalyā comes in the sarga 48 &49 of Bālakāṇḍa of the critical edition of Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.

Rāma & Lakṣmaṇa alongwith Viśvāmitra were travelling to Mithilā, Rāma notices a very old abandoned hermitage, so he asks Viśvāmitra about it,then Viśvāmitra tells him that this hermitage once belonged to a great sage, Gautama, where Gautama and his wife, Ahalyā, lived ascetically for numerous years. Then Viśvāmitra tells about Indra and Ahalyā.
Indra becomes enamoured by Ahalyā’s beauty, learns of her husband’s absence and comes to the ashram disguised as Gautama to request sexual intercourse with her, praising her as a shapely and slim-waisted woman.

तस्यान्तरं विदित्वा तु सहस्राक्षः शचीपतिः |
मुनिवेषधरो भूत्वाऽहल्यामिदमब्रवीत् || 1.48.17

On knowing the meantime of Gautama’s availability at hermitage, Indra, the husband of Śacī Devī and the Thousand-eyed god wearing the guise of sage Gautama and becoming such a sage, approached Ahalyā and said this to her.

ऋतुकालं प्रतीक्षन्ते नार्थिनः सुसमाहिते |
संगमं त्वहमिच्छामि त्वया सह सुमध्यमे || 1.48.18

Oh, finely limbed lady, indulgers do not watch out for the time to conceive, as such oh, slender-waisted one, I desire copulation with you.

Vividly: Oh, Ahalyā, Brahmā crafted you so well that all your limbs are symmetrically conjoined, so who in the universe will not yearn to have intercourse with you… and on seeing your slender waist and thickset hips I wish to copulate with you now itself… and let there be no fear of safe period or unsafe period for I do not wish to have any progeny of mine from you…

Ahalyā’s response

मुनिवेषं सहस्राक्षं विज्ञाय रघुनंदन |
मतिं चकार दुर्मेधा देवराजकुतूहलात् || 1.48.19

Oh, Rāma, the legatee of Raghu, though knowing him as the Thousand-eyed Indra in the guise of her husband Gautama, she is inclined to have intercourse ill-advisedly, only to satisfy the impassion of the King of Gods.
Her thinking is: This is none but Indra in the guise of my husband, for my husband never asks me like this nor he violates times… I heard that Indra is seeking me for a long time… and when King of Gods expresses such a desire, it cannot be refused… let him have it.

अथाब्रवीत् सुरश्रेष्ठं कृतार्थेनान्तरात्मना |
कृतार्थास्मि सुरश्रेष्ठ गच्छ शीघ्रमितः प्रभो || 1.48.20
आत्मानं मां च देवेश सर्वदा रक्ष गौतमात् |1.48.21 a

She felt fulfilled in her heart of hearts and then she said this to that best god Indra, ‘I am gratified in complying with your wish, oh, best of gods, get going oh, lord, from here quickly, oh, ruler of gods, always safeguard yourself and me from Sage Gautama.’ Thus, Ahalyā said to Indra.

So, She sees through his disguise, but consents owing to her “curiosity”. According to another interpretation, Ahalyā’s pride in her beauty compels her. Having satiated his lust, Ahalyā requests that Indra, her “lover” and the “best of gods”, flee and protect them from Gautama’s wrath.

So, one thing is clear, as per the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Indra didn’t exactly tricked and rape her, She recognized it was Indra disguised as her husband, Gautama, still she consummated with him. It was Adultery, not rape.

It’s the Purāṇas and the Rāmacaritamānasa, which absolve Ahalyā of all guilt, and completely shifts the blame to Indra, that he tricked her and raped her. Such degredation of Vedic deities is a common feature in all of Purāṇic literature, where the Deities who are primary in the Vedas are depicted as hedonist, intoxicated, jealous. It is probaly done to discourage people of Vedic ritualism and emphasize on the importance of the respective supreme diety of the respective Purāṇa.

The Brāhmaṇa texts give hints to a relationship between Ahalyā and Indra, where Indra is referred to as “lover of Ahalyā”. The Kathāsaritsāgara is one of the few later texts that mirror the Bālakāṇḍa’s Ahalyā, who makes a conscious decision to accept Indra’s advances. However, in this text Indra arrives undisguised.

The Curse of Ahalyā

The popular version is that, Ahalyā was cursed to turn into stone and then millenia later Rāma came and touched the stone with his foot, thus liberating her. Now lets see what the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa says about the curse.

तथा शप्त्वा च वै शक्रं भार्यामपि च शप्तवान् |
इह वर्षसहस्राणि बहूनि निवसिष्यसि ||1.48.29
वायुभक्षा निराहारा तप्यन्ती भस्मशायिनी |
अदृश्या सर्वभूतानामाश्रमेऽस्मिन् निवत्स्यसि || 1.48.30

On cursing Indra thus the sage cursed even his wife saying, ‘you shall tarry here for many thousands of years to come without food and consuming air alone, and unseen by all beings you shall live on in this hermitage while contritely recumbent in dust.’

यदा त्वेतद्वनं घोरं रामो दशरथात्मजः |
आगमिष्यति दुर्धर्षस्तदा पूता भविष्यसि || 1.48.31

When that unassailable son of Daśaratha, namely Rāma, arrives at this squalid forest, for it will be henceforth rendered so along with you, then you will be purified.

So as per the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, the curse was she would remain invisible to all beings for thousands of years, fast by subsisting only on air, suffer and sleep in ashes and be tormented by guilt. Nevertheless, he assures her that her sin will be expiated once she extends her hospitality to Rāma, who will visit the hermitage.

ददर्श च महाभागां तपसा द्योतितप्रभाम् |
लोकैरपि समागम्य दुर्निरीक्ष्यां सुरासुरैः || 1.49.13
प्रयत्नान्निर्मितां धात्रा दिव्यां मायामयीमिव |
धूमेनाभिपरीताङ्गीं दीप्तामग्निशिखामिव || 1.49.14
सतुषारावृतां साभ्रां पूर्णचन्द्रप्रभामिव |
मध्येऽम्भसो दुराधर्षां दीप्तां सूर्यप्रभामिव || 1.49.15

She whose splendour is brightened by her ascesis, at whom it is impossible to raise an eye for a stare either for gods, or for demons, or for the worldly beings on coming close to her, whom the Creator has contrived with careful contemplation as an angelic and a completely phantasmal entity, who is like the befogged and beclouded moonshine of a full moon as she is hitherto enshrouded by the dried up leaves and dust, who is like an unwatchable sunshine mirrored in and glowing from the midst of water, for she is hitherto in the midst of denounce, and whose limbs are like the tongues of a flaring fire around which fumes are cloaking, as she is hitherto practising an utmost ascesis subsisting on air alone, which ascesis alone made her like a flaring Ritual Fir, and Rāma has seen such a highly glorious Ahalyā.

सा हि गौतमवाक्येन दुर्निरीक्ष्या बभूव ह |
त्रयाणामपि लोकानां यावद्रामस्य दर्शनम् |1.49.16

Ahalyā is indeed indiscernible to all the three worlds by the very word of Gautama until the manifestation of Rāma.

शापस्यान्तमुपागम्य तेषां दर्शनमागता ||
राघवौ तु ततस्तस्याः पादौ जगृहतुर्मुदा | 1.49,17

On reaching the end of curse she came into the view of Rāghavas, and they too gladly touched her feet in reverence.

So Ahalyā was unseeable to all. except Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa.

स्मरन्ती गौतमवचः प्रतिजग्राह सा च तौ ||
पाद्यमर्घ्यं तथातिथ्यं चकार सुसमाहिता |
प्रतिजग्राह काकुत्स्थो विधिदृष्टेन कर्मणा || 1.49.18

Reminiscing Gautama’s words Ahalyā received those two, and self-consciously offered water for feet and hand washing, and like that she also offered guestship customarily and dutifully, and Rāma of Kākutstha on his part acquiesced her hospitality.

गौतमोऽपि महातेजा अहल्यासहितः सुखी |
रामं संपूज्य विधिवत्तपस्तेपे महातपाः || 1.49.21

Even that great-resplendent Gautama is heartened when he reunited with Ahalya after a long, long a time, and that sage customarily reverenced Rama for actualising his solemn utterance, and that great-ascetic Gautama continued his ascesis together with Ahalya.

Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa touched her feet, thus liberating her from the curse. No mention of any stone.

This Ahalyā episode demonstrates the Poetic capabilities of Vālmīki. The TV serial directors have missed out on the show which the Ādi Kavi Vālmīki gives through his own words. The appearance of Ahalyā to Rāma. The way Rāma approaches Ahalyā and due to which she suddenly appears is truly remarkable.