DEVDUTT PATTANAIK walks us through mythologies replete with stories of internecine rivalry that happen whenever avarice overrides affection
Brothers fight. In the Bible, Cain kills Abel. There is tension between Abraham’s sons, Isaac and Ismael, and Isaac’s sons, Esau and Jacob, and Jacob’s son Joseph and his many brothers over inheritance. In Egyptian mythology, Osiris is killed by his brother Seth and his death avenged by his son, Horus. In Greek mythology, Acrisius and Proetus fight when still in their mother’s womb. Remus is killed by Romulus shortly after the two brothers founded the city of Rome.
The Hindu epics, Ramayana, Srimad Bhagavatam and the Mahabharata are family dramas. These tales are universal acknowledgments of sibling rivalry, something being continuously played out in the media in recent times with brothers allegedly spraying each other with bullets, other siblings forming or joining separate or rival political parties and still others splitting hairs over the inheritance of their father’s great business empire.
Quarrels between brothers or sisters become the stuff of ballads perhaps because we assume that two siblings are not two human beings. Because they shared the same womb, the same home, the same family traditions and same parents, we have expectations of siblings that we do not normally have of two strangers. Somehow, we expect them to be more accepting and accommodative of each other. It’s a bond of blood, and “blood is thicker than water”.
Yet, significantly, families in the great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are not defined by blood. Rama and Lakshmana are half-brothers; they have the same father but different mothers. Of the five Pandava brothers, three have the same mother, Kunti, but none of them have the same father. In the Bhagavatam, foster parents raise Krishna, and his brother, Balabhadra, is actually his half-brother.
What defines a family then is not blood, law or custom, but trust. In a family governed by trust, there are no rules; only love defines all actions, as in the Bhagavatam. In a family with no trust, rules have no role; only power defines all actions, as in the Mahabharata. In between stands the Ramayana where there is love but there are also rules.
Traditionally, more than trust, people value loyalty. We expect our siblings to stand by us, no matter what. Greek epics speak of how Agamemnon got Greek nations to unite and raise an army against Troy whose prince abducted Helen, wife of his brother, Melenaus. On the other side, in Troy, Hector, is celebrated because he resolutely stands by his irresponsible brother, Paris, who gets Helen to elope with him. We admire Kumbhakarna for standing by Ravana, and not Vibhishana, who moves over to the other side.
Loyalty makes us feel secure. But what exactly is loyalty; is it about love or power? Often the elder brother expects younger brothers to be loyal to him. But is that like a pack leader demanding submission of the pack? What makes the elder brother automatically the pack leader in human families? In nature, the older is not necessarily the leader; the strongest is.
We forget that humans are animals first, and only after, they are humans. And in the animal world there is no such thing as sibling love, loyalty or rivalry. Every animal has to compete for resources. And this makes even brothers rivals.
The same thing resurfaces in the human world. Every brother is an individual animal seeking his place in the pack. But then, culture intervenes. With culture comes the notion of property. And the more property one has, the greater is one’s location in the pecking order. Laws determine proprietorship. Laws also determine inheritance. Laws also hope to determine the relationship of older and younger siblings.
In China, Confucius was very clear that the younger ones must always ritually submit to the older, for the sake of social stability and order, and predictability. This meant the human mind had to tame animal instincts, and this is not easy. In the Ramayana, Vali uses brute force to establish his power over Sugriva, denying his brother access to both his kingdom and his wife. He is mocked as an animal, a monkey, who uses might to establish right. Human society frowns on this. We prefer seniority and pecking orders determined by law, not power. Some laws value seniority, some laws value talent.
In the Ramayana, we assume that Rama should be heir because he is the oldest son. But is that right? Is he more worthy? In the Mahabharata, neither Devapi (brother of Shantanu) nor Dhritarashtra (brother of Pandu) are allowed to be kings, despite being the elder, on grounds that they have physical deformities; Devapi had a skin ailment and Dhritarashtra was blind. Is that fair?
The Pecking Order
Once Lakshmana, the loyal brother of Rama, complained to his brother, “I always have to obey you because you are my older brother.” Rama responded thus, “In our next life, you will be the older brother, but you will still agree with me, not out of obligation or loyalty but because you will realise that all my actions are rooted in dharma.” And so Lakshmana was reborn as Balabhadra and Rama was reborn as his younger brother, Krishna who never obeyed Balabhadra, but after his initial irritation, Balabhadra always understood.
Words like dharma, righteousness, justice and fairness do not exist in the animal world. They exist in the human mind. We seek fairness. And that’s where the trouble starts! Who decides what is fair; the oldest among siblings or the younger brother or sister or society? Is it fair to divide wealth equally between all children? Is it fair to exclude daughters from inheritance rights?
Who Is The Favourite?
Often property becomes the surrogate marker of the affection showered by parent on child: the sibling who gets the lion’s share of the property is seen as the favoured one. The other feels rejected and angry. Or parent may give the lion’s share to the less successful one and the other will be angry for being ‘punished’ for being successful. These diverse perspectives tend to fan the flame of anger, rage and escalate to internecine wars.
And the saga of greed, jealousy and race for possession continues….
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