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22
VIJAY PANDUA
SAMBODHI
inmate of the hermitage, which is resented by other disciples. The sage Matanga, at the time of his departure to the other world, asks Śabarī to remain in the hermitage as Rāma is going to visit the ashram for sure.
Sabari continues to wait for Rāma. Meanwhile, one night while cleaning the hermitage she accidentally touches an ascetic who thinks himself polluted by her touch and severely reprimands Sabarī. But when the ascetic reaches the lake for morning ablution, the water of the lake is turned into blood with full of insects. The ascetic believes Sabarī to be the cause of this calamity.
Sabarī gathers fruits, tastes them and sweetest of them are kept aside for Rāma, and continues to wait for Rāma to arrive.
One day Rāma arrives inquiring of everybody, 'Where is Sabarī? My eyes pine for her. He comes to the hermitage, Sabarī prostrates at his feet, and offers the selected fruits which he savours.
The sages were worried about the polluted lake. Rāma asks them to bow down to Śabari and at her touch the lake again becomes pure.
This is the account of Priyadas. This account has gained a wide currency and has become a folk-lore.
In these accounts it is emphasized that Sabarī first tasted the bers and then she kept the choicest out of them for Rāma. And Rāma is almost ecstatic while eating.
This is also apparent in the full-fledged story of Sabari as depicted in the special issue on devotees of Kalyāna magazine, i.e. Bhakta Caritranka. But in this story the narrator, discusses some details according to his world.
In the footnote to this episode, the narrator argues that Sabarī was not actually a low-caste woman. Simply her name was Sabari. Secondly, he argues that it is not true that Rāma ate the defiled (56) fruits by Sabarī as Maryādā Purusottama Rāma would not commit such an inappropriate thing. Tasting the fruits means, according to the narrator, the fruits of the trees thereby deciding which trees have the sweet fruits and not offering those defiled fruits.
Now these arguments are again rebutted by one commentator Anjaninandan Sharan on Mānas. Sharan argues that ordinarily it would not be proper for Rāma to eat the defiled fruits. But here Rāma was not an ordinary mortal. He was God and God always yearn for the love of a bhakta-devotee, and
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