AlannahHudspeth at 11:14, 10 October 2025

2025-10-10T11:14:48Z

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{{Infobox character
| name = Jabali
| series = [[Ramayana]]
| creator = [[Valmiki]]
| alias = Javali
| noinfo = yes
| gender = Male
| occupation = Priest, Dasharatha's advisor
}}{{Short description|Character in the Hindu epic Ramayana}}
{{other uses|Jaabaali}}

'''Jabali''' ({{Langx|sa|जाबालि|translit=Jābāli}}) is a character in the ancient Indian epic [[Ramayana]]. A learned [[Brahmin]] priest and an advisor of King [[Dasharatha]], he unsuccessfully tries to persuade [[Rama]] to give up his exile, using rational arguments.

== Attempt to persuade Rama ==

In Ramayana, Rama abandons his claim to the royal throne and goes on a 14-year [[exile]], in order to fulfill his father's promise. Rama considers his decision as his ''[[dharma]]'' (righteous duty), necessary for his father's honour. In ''Ayodhya Khanda'', Jabali accompanies [[Bharata (Ramayana)|Bharata]] to the forest, as part of a group that tries to convince Rama to give up his exile and return.<ref name="Jayanta2007"/>

Jabali uses [[nihilism|nihilistic]] and [[atheism|atheistic]] reasoning to dissuade Rama from continuing the exile. He states that those give up ''[[artha]]'' (material pleasures) for the sake of ''dharma'' suffer in this life and meet [[Eternal oblivion|extinction]] after their death. Showing further disbelief in the concept of [[afterlife]], he criticizes the ''[[Śrāddha|shraddha]]'' ritual, in which people offer food to their dead ancestors. He calls it a wastage of food, and sarcastically suggests that if food eaten by one person at a given place could nourish another person at another place, ''shraddha'' should be conducted for those going on long journeys, so they would not need to eat anything.<ref name="Jayanta2007">{{cite book |author=Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya |title=Class and Religion in Ancient India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UDEaE4Jf78sC&pg=PA211 |year=2007 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=978-1-84331-727-2 |pages=210–211 }}</ref> However, even after listening to the arguments of Jabali and others, Rama refuses to give up his exile. He instead extols the virtues of following the ''dharma''.

== Rama's response ==

[[Valmiki]]'s Ramayana contains a section that describes Rama angrily denouncing Jabali, which includes the following verses:

{| class="wikitable"
!style="width: 25%" | [[Ramayana]] (2:109:34)<ref name="Valmiki_2_109">{{cite web |url=http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga109/ayodhya_109_frame.htm |title=Book II: Ayodhya Kanda - Book Of Ayodhya, Chapter [Sarga] 109 |work=Valmiki's Ramayana |author=Valmiki |others=Translated by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao & K. M. K. Murthy }}</ref>
!style="width: 25%" | Translation by [[Ralph T. H. Griffith]]<ref name="Ralph_CIX"/>
!style="width: 25%" | Translation by [[Shyam Ranganathan]]<ref name="Shyam2007"/>
!style="width: 25%" | Translation by D. H. Rao & K. M. K. Murthy<ref name="Valmiki_2_109"/>
|-
|<poem>निन्दाम्यहं कर्म पितुः कृतं त ।
द्यस्त्वामगृह्णाद्विषमस्थबुद्धिम् ।
बुद्ध्यानयैवंविधया चरन्तं ।
सुनास्तिकं धर्मपथादपेतम् ।। (2-109-33)

यथा हि चोरः स तथा हि बुद्ध |
स्तथागतं नास्तिकमत्र विध्हि |
तस्माद्धि यः शङ्क्यतमः प्रजानाम् |
न नास्ति केनाभिमुखो बुधः स्यात् (2-109-34)</poem>
|<poem>My father's thoughtless act I chide
That gave thee honoured place,
Whose soul, from virtue turned aside,
Is faithless, dark, and base.

We rank the Buddhist with the thief,
And all the impious crew
Who share his sinful disbelief,
And hate the right and true.
Hence never should wise kings who seek
To rule their people well,
Admit, before their face to speak,
The cursed infidel. (2-109-34)
</poem>
|<poem>I denounce the action mentioned below, of my father, who picked up you as his councilor-priest, a staunch unbeliever, who has not only stayed away from the path of dharma but whose mind is set on a wrong path opposed to the Vedic path, nay who is moving about in this world with such an ideology conforming to the doctrine of [[Charvaka|Chaarvaaka]], who believes only in the world of senses as has been set forth in your foregoing speech.

It is a well-known fact that a follower of Buddha deserves to be punished precisely as a thief [because such a heretic robs people of their faith in a Vedically moral universe]; and know a ''nastika'' to be on a par with a Buddhist.
</poem>
|I accuse the act done by my father in taking you into his service, you with your misleading intelligence, a firm atheist fallen from the true path. (2-109-33)

It is an exact state of the case that a mere thought deserves to be punished as it were a thief and know an atheist to be on par with a mere intellectual. Therefore, he is the most suspect, and should be punished in the interest of the people. In no case should a wise man consort with an atheist. (2-109-34)
|}

In these and subsequent verses, Rama becomes so angry that he denounces his own father for keeping Jabali as an adviser.<ref name="Shyam2007">{{cite book |author=Shyam Ranganathan |title=Ethics and the History of Indian Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x89I_zEGPhkC&pg=PA97 |date=1 January 2007 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-3193-3 |pages=97}}</ref> He accuses Jabali of being an [[atheist]], and states that those following the [[nastika]] path deserve to be punished. In the subsequent verses, he emphasizes the importance of following the ''dharma''. Jabali then retracts his statements, saying that he was merely arguing like a nihilist to convince Rama to come back, but he is not actually a nihilist.<ref name="John1862"/> [[Vashistha]] supports Jabali, stating that he was speaking in the interest of Rama.<ref name="Rajendra2009">{{cite book |author=Rajendra Prasad |title=A Historical-developmental Study of Classical Indian Philosophy of Morals |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1gtxVmUr1ygC&pg=PA74 |year=2009 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |isbn=978-81-8069-595-7 |page=74 }}</ref>
Where as some other versions of ramayana suggest that he was a supporter of maharishi jabali. and was always trying to gain the knowledge of renouncing worldly pleasures by just leaving them

== Interpolation ==

The verses depicting Rama's anger are considered a [[interpolation (manuscripts)|later insertion]] in Valimiki's original text. Every [[canto]] of Ramayana ends with one long [[shloka]] written in a different [[metre (poetry)|metre]], compared to the other verses. However, the version of the canto containing these verses contains six long shlokas in a different metre. The dialogue between Rama and Jabali is finished in the first shloka, in which Rama is not depicted as annoyed. However, the next few shlokas re-open the dialogue abruptly, and the tone of the conversation contradicts the tone of the earlier dialogue.<ref name="MMKunte1880">{{cite book |author=Mahadev Moreshwar Kunte |title=The Vicissitudes of Âryan Civilization in India: An Essay, which Treats of the History of the Vedic and Buddhistic Polities, Explaining Their Origin, Prosperity, and Decline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YzIQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA449 |year=1880 |publisher=printed at the Oriental Printing Press by N. W. Ghumre |pages=449 }}</ref> In his translation, Griffith calls these lines "manifestly spurious" and cautions that these need to be "regarded with suspicion". [[August Wilhelm Schlegel]], who translated Ramayana to German (1829), also called these lines fake, and later regretted having included them in his translation.<ref name="Ralph_CIX">{{cite book |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry187.htm#fr_388 |title=The Rámáyan of Válmíki |chapter=Book II: Canto CIX.: The Praises of Truth |author=Valmiki |author-link=Valmiki |others=Translated by [[Ralph T. H. Griffith]] }}</ref><ref name="John1862">{{cite journal |title=Verses from the Sarva-Darśana-Sangraha, the Vishnu Purāna, and the Rāmāyana, Illustrating the Tenets of the Chārvākas, or Indian Materialists, with Some Remarks on Freedom of Speculation in Ancient India |author=John Muir |author-link=John Muir (indologist) |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2d4sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA307 |year=1862 |volume=19 |publisher=Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society |pages=299–314}}</ref>

According to [[Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya]], Rama's outburst against Jabali in these verses is an example of "[[Brahmanical Hinduism|Brahmanical]] counteroffensive against all anti-[[Vedas|Vedic]] ideals and movements".<ref name="Jayanta2007"/>{{rp|173}} Although Rama appears to identify Jabali's views as [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], Jabali's arguments reflect the [[Lokayata|Charvaka]] school of thought.<ref name="Jayanta2007"/>{{rp|116}}<ref>{{cite book |title=The Indian Year Book of International Affairs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=asweAAAAMAAJ |year=1963 |publisher= Indian Study Group of International Affairs, University of Madras |page=458 }}</ref> [[William Theodore de Bary]] calls Jabali's speech a parody of Buddhist [[scepticism]] and [[antinomianism]].<ref name="Bary2009">{{cite book |author=William Theodore De Bary |title=Nobility and Civility: Asian Ideals of Leadership and the Common Good |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTDjQtM5IcIC&pg=PA27 |date=30 June 2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03067-1 |pages=27}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Characters in the Ramayana]]

Jabali - Revision history

AlannahHudspeth at 11:14, 10 October 2025