Valmiki Jayanti To Be Celebrated Today
Posted on 04. Oct, 2009 by Abhishek S Jain in News.
Today, October 4th is celebrated as the birth anniversary of Maharishi Valmiki and this festival is popularly known as Pargat Diwas in northern India.
We wish our readers A very happy Valmiki Jayanti.
Usually it’s celebrated on the full moon day (Purnima) in the Hindi month of Ashwin which falls in September or October.
Maharashi Valmiki is also knows as the Adikavi which means he was the first poet ever in Indian history!
He’s the author of “The Great Indian Epic : Ramayana“.
The above image shows the first Shloka which was written in Samskrit language by Valmiki, which means
“Oh! Ill-fated Hunter, by which reason you have killed one male bird of the couple,
When it is in its lustful passion, thereby you will get an ever-lasting reputation for ages to come”
History of Valmiki and how he got his name
Valmiki in Devanagari means ‘Ant-hill‘, he was born in 400 BC in northern India. Valmiki’s real name was Ratnakara. His father was Prachetasa, a sage. Before composing this epic, Valmiki was a robber by profession. Later with the teachings of Narada Rushi he became a Rushi and wrote the epic.
Once when was very young, he was lost in a forest while playing, though his parents searched for him they couldn’t find him. His parents thought that he might have been eaten up by the wild animals, but the boy was alive and was bought up by a hunter and his wife. As time went on he became an expert in hunting and was married to a girl from another hunter family. He had children, when his family started growing he found it very difficult to look after the family and took up robbing as his profession.
One day Ratnakara saw Narada Rushi passing nearby and tried to attack him, but Narada wasn’t frightened and told him that he had only a Veena to give. By hearing this Ratnakara’s cruel mind melted with kindness, Narada Maharishi told him that robbing and killing animals was sin and asked him to give up the job, he also advised him to go and ask his family whether robbing was a sinful job or not?. Ratnakara thought that Narada was trying to escape from him by sending him to his parents, therefore he tied Narada to a tree and went to his parents.
Rantnakara asked his father whether his job was sinful or not, his father told him that he wasn’t happy of his professions and that he was ashamed of robbery. He then went to his mother, wife and children who all gave the same answer. After realizning his profession was a sin, he rushed to Narada & untied him and peladed for forgiveness. Narada though him the RAMA RAMA mantra and asked him to chant it under a tree until he returns.
Ratnakara chanted the mantra continuously amidst heavy rains, heat, cold and stood against every nature’s disaster. He was in such deep penance that he didn’t even knew that an Ant-hill grew all over his body. After several years Narada came to Valmeeka (The Anti hill)and blessed him to become a Maharishi. Ratnakara came out of Valmeeka and that’s why he is called Valmiki.
On Pargat Diwas or Valmiki Jayanti, Valmiki is worshipped and his portraits are taken out in processions called Shobha Yatra through the main streets of the Balmiki locality. Nagar Kirtans (street devotional singing) take place during Pargat Diwas and special langars are prepared in the ashram.
To read more about Valmiki and Ramayana visit Valmiki Ramayana.
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