vali vadha

Vali(also bali)

the Vali was king of kishkindha, a son of indra and the elder brother of sugreev.

He was famous for the boon that he had received, according to which anyone who came before him lost half his/her strength to Vali, thereby making Vali invulnerable to any enemy. Once Ravana called Vali for a fight when vali was doing his regular shiva puja. He took Ravana in his tail and took around all worlds. Humbled, Ravana called for a truce.

Vali had been known as a good and pious vanar-king, but had been too outraged to listen to his brother Sugriva after his brother had sealed the entrance to a cave in which Vali was fighting a rakshas . Sugriva had mistaken the blood flowing out of the cave to be his brother's, blocked the entrance to the cave with a boulder and left for Kishkindha, assuming that his brother was dead. When Vali had emerged victorious over the rakshasa, he had found that the entrance to the cave was blocked (not a problem for his strength), and had then discovered Sugriva ruling in his place.

An enraged Vali also learned that Sugriva had married his "widowed" wife. Sugriva tried to explain the situation to Vali, but Vali would not listen. Vali banished Sugriva from the kingdom, and held the latter's wife captive in his own palace. Sugriva fled into the forest, where he met and formed an alliance with Rama. Rama had been travelling the length of India in search of his kidnapped wife, Sita. Sugriva asked Rama's help in return for his help in defeating Ravana and rescuing Sita. The two hatched a plan to topple Vali from the throne. Sugriva challenged Vali to a fight. When Vali sallied forth to meet the challenge, Rama emerged from the forest to shoot and kill him with an arrow. Thus, Sugriva was able to recapture the kingdom and to lead the monkey army in the service of Rama.

Rama's slaying of Vali is considered as perhaps the only wrong commited by Rama in his life. Vali was not aware of the fact that the fight between sugreeva and Vali was a trap. And killing of Vali questions Rama's righteousness. It is said that Vali was reborn as the hunter jara and avenged his death by killing Lord Krishna with an arrow in the Dwapara Yuga.

Rama meets Sugreeva:-
Sugreeva was very scared of Baali and he was full of doubts that Rama can kill him. He told him many unbelievable stories of power of Baali. as a proof he showed Rama a hole in a saal tree which Baali had made in one shot. Rama shows his power now. Rama penetrate seven trees of saal in a row with one arrow. Not just that after crossing the trees the arrow made a strike on a huge rock and made it into pieces. Sugreeva was happy and said, O Rama you are great.

How Vali was killed
Sugreeva fought with Baali actually beaten up by Baali. Rama could not recognize which one is Baali and which one is Sugreeva. It may be true with physical appearance. But, the easiest guess is the person who is beaten up is Sugreeva. Rama does not want rely on guess work. One can also assume that he gave one chance to Baali to save his life. It is evident from other incidents that Rama always gave chance to his rival to save his life. Maarich and even Ravana each were killed by him in third attempt. They got two chances to save themselves. So he sends Sugreeva second time to Baali. It was clear to caution Baali. Baali's wife Tara asked Baali not to go out.

Questions raised by Vali

Now Rama faced the injured Baali. Rama could have killed him completely with one arrow or he may have even shot another arrow to avoid facing Baali. But no, he choses to keep him alive for some time so that he can ask questions which he was ready to answer. So now come the great questions raised by Baali and the great answers by Rama.

1. The first question of Baali, what was my crime?
2. Evenif I did some crime (with my brother) what is your right to kill me.
3. The third was he simply disapproved the way Rama killed him. He said, I was fighting with some other person and was not careful enough when you shot me

Rama's answers

Here are Rama's reply, as per Valmiki Ramayana,

1. He said that your crime was keeping relation with your younger brother's wife even when he was alive. The younger brother should be treated like a son. Even if he did a mistake you should forgive him, specially when he is promising to respect you for whole life.
2. About his authority he said he has permission from the King Bharat to spread righteousness and punish evils.
3. The third argument he quotes how great kings did hunting of deers in the past. In fact, Baali in principle can also be kept in the category of deers and a hunting king does not care whether the deer was careful or not.

Baali was satisfied with his answers and even apologised for raising the questions. Sugreeva was made king and son of Baali, Angada, another great hero of Ramayana was made yuvraj (the future king). Let us remind that angada was the most devoted fighter of Rama's army. He even took the message of Rama to Ravana even when it was full of risk of life.

thanks rajnish for the info !!! 😛

really it's true tht sugreev married tara wen he misunderstood bali to b dead???? 😕 ,i don't think so tht sugreev married tara

The Vaali-vadha episode has some very deep meaning attached to it. Ram doesn't kill Vaali just becoz Vaali had abused Sugriv's wife Ruma but because he had allowed crimes to take place in his kingdom.

Vaali while questioning Ram's authority of killing him says that" Had Ram approached Vaali, he could have got Maithili/Sita in one day"?
Now when he says this, it clearly shows he's saying this as a last minute repentances which he would not have done at all if he were alive and alright.
and secondly the question comes is that 'why didn't he stop Ravan when he was carrying away Sita?? Ravan carries away Sita passing through Vaali's kingdom-Kiskindha, thus Ravan had violated the code of 'air-raiding' other kingdoms over which he did not have authority specially when Ravan was defeated by Vaali in a fair combat. Vali is well aware of the fact about who is Sita and that she was being abducted by Ravan. Why doesn't he stop Ravan when he is carrying away Sita, why should he wait for Ram to ask him for help?? Wasn't he the sovereign ruler of Kishkindha?? Wasn't that his prime duty to stop a crime specially when he was aware of this? That is one of the main reason why Ram punishes him because Vaali had allowed a crime to happen when it could have been stopped.

Next thing is that, How was Sugriv to get justice?? Who would give him that??Vali had mis-used his powers. He being a protector of hs people and of his brother Sugriv, what will happen of the victims if the protector them self abuse their own dependants? We have been seeing that from ages a common man is a victim to its ruler/gov't ,in such cases how is justice to be obtained and from whom-this was the same case of Sugriv and therefore Ram had to intervene even though he did not have any direct enmity with Vali and thus killed him in an indirect manner.

Originally posted by: sita11

thanks rajnish for the info !!! 😛

really it's true tht sugreev married tara wen he misunderstood bali to b dead???? 😕 ,i don't think so tht sugreev married tara

Sugreev does marry Taramati-wife of Vaali out of mis-understanding when Vaali was away and also he marries her after Vaali dies. It was a custom among Vanars, not just that even ancient vedic people followed this custom of marrying a widowed girl to her brother -in-law.

when sugreev married tara out of mis-understanding & bali came back then again tara started living wid bali & broke all her relations wid sugreev ,very confusing 😕

By mis-understanding I meant : Taramati marries Sugriv thinking that Vaali is dead, so does Sugriv think and everybody in Kishkindha . But Vaali abuses Ruma -wife of Sugriv and claims her his wife even when Sugreev was alive, that was Vali's crime.

Let us according to the culture of that time. In those days, the life of an unmarried widow was very very tough. Therefore, it was good for Tara that Sugreev married her. When Vali returned, then Tara went back to Vali. It was perfectly all right with Sugreev because he married Tara not because of any selfishness but for Tara's good. When Vali came back, then Tara was happy to be with Vali.