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The Story of Ashtavakra (Part 5)
In the previous article, we saw that the verbal duel between Ashtavakra and Bandi had reached the number six, starting from one. Bandi then started extolling qualities of the number seven. Bandi said, “There are Seven domestic animals, Seven animals of the forest; in a complete yagna the rishis use Seven kinds of verses, there are Seven ways of showing respect, and the Veena has Seven strings.”
Ashtavakra replied, “The coir fibre has Eight strands which give rise to innumerable shapes, in the gods there are Eight Vasus. The pillar used in all yagnas has Eight corners, and there is an animal in the forest that has Eight legs.”
Bandi countered, “There are Nine kinds of mantras used to call our ancestors (pitrus), there are Nine theories about creation, the Brihati verse has Nine letters, and the numerals are from one to Nine.”
To this Ashtavakra said, “There are Ten different directions, counting a hundred Ten times is a thousand, a mother keeps the child in her womb for ten months. The supreme truth can be explained in Ten different ways, it can also be countered in Ten different ways and it can be mastered in Ten ways.”
Bandi argued, “All living things have Eleven senses (five senses, two hands, two feet, speech and the mind) through which they can experience in Eleven different ways; with each of these organs are born Eleven weaknesses, and among the god there are Eleven Rudras.”
Ashtavakra said, “In a year there are Twelve months, the verse called Jagati has Twelve letters, the Yagna called Prakrut lasts for Twelve days, the rays of the sun are of Twelve types and are called the Adityas.”
Bandi proceeded, “Of all the dates Thirteenth is the best, the earth is made of Thirteen islands…” At this point Bandi faltered, he had to stop to think, so Ashtavakra finished his line by saying, “there are Thirteen kinds of yagnas that remove human weaknesses and the highest of all the verses is called Atichanda, which has Thirteen letters.”
There was a sudden silence in the court of King Janaka; no one could believe that the great Bandi had been defeated in a verbal contest, that too by a twelve year old. Bandi himself was totally crestfallen. Then all at once the courtroom erupted and every one shouted praises of Ashtavakra. All the Brahmins in the room came and paid their respects to the young child.
Ashtavakra addressed Janaka, “O king, this Bandi has previously defeated many very learned Brahmins and then tied them up and drowned them in the river. Today he should be given the same punishment so have him tied up quickly and thrown in the river.”
Bandi said, “O king, Varuna, the lord of the river, started a great yagna twelve years ago. By having the Brahmins drowned I had sent them there to help him. As the yagna is over, all those Brahmins will return shortly. It is now my turn to go into the river to meet the lord Varuna who is also my father. But before I go let me do pooja and pay my respects to this wonderful boy who has defeated me.”