Valmiki is a bandit in his early life. One
day, one of his victims asks him
whether his family will also share the
sins he is committing, and when
Valmiki finds out that they will not, he
has a change of heart. He sits down in a
secluded place and begins to do japa
(recitation), but his heart is so black-
ened by his sins that the only words he
can say are “mara mara” (“death,
death”). After a long time the syllables
become reversed, and by reciting
“Rama Rama” he expiates his former
sins. This recitation is so long that a
colony of white ants (in Sanskrit,
named “valmika”) builds a hill over
him, and when he emerges from this he
is given the name Valmiki.
After his emergence, Valmiki builds
an ashramon the banks of the Tamasa
River and lives a quiet life. He gives shel-
ter to Sitaafter she has been exiled from
Ayodhyaby her husband, Rama, and
also cares for her sons, Lavaand Kusha.
One day when Valmiki is walking by the
Tamasa River, he sees a hunter shoot a
pair of courting Krauncha birds, and in
his intense anger, his rebuke to the
hunter comes out in verse; according
to legend, this is the first poem ever
composed. After this first verse
composition, the god Brahmaappears,
and at Brahma’s encouragement Valmiki
composes the Ramayana.Valmiki Jayanti
Festival celebrated on the full moon
in the lunar month of Ashvin
(September–October). This day is con-
sidered to be the birthday of the poet
Valmiki, who according to tradition is
the author of the Ramayana, the earlier
of the two Sanskritepics.Vamachara
(“left-hand practice”) In the secret, ritu-
ally based religious practice known as
tantra, this term denotes a type of
tantric practice that makes ritual use of
forbidden substances, such as the Five
Forbidden Things (panchamakara), or
promotes behavior that the orthodox
would consider scandalous or objec-
tionable. When seen in a tantric context,
the use of such normally forbidden sub-
stances is not mere license, but a power-
ful ritual tool. One of the most pervasive
tantric assumptions is the ultimate
unity of everything that exists. From a
tantric perspective, to affirm that the
entire universe is one principle—often,
conceived as the activity of a particular
deity—means that the adept must reject
all concepts based on dualistic thinking.
The “Five Forbidden Things” provide a
ritual means for breaking down duality
because in this ritual the adept breaks
societal norms forbidding consumption
of intoxicants, nonvegetarian food, and
illicit sexuality, in a conscious effort to
sacralize what is normally forbidden.
Within the tantric tradition itself there is
a long-standing debate about the pro-
priety of such acts, and whereas the
vamachara practice uses these elements
in their actual forms, in the dakshi-
nachara(“right-hand”) practice, other
items are substituted for the forbidden
ones. This distinction between “right”
and “left” hand also reveals the perva-
sive polarity between right and left inValmiki Jayanti
The god Vishnu’s Vamana avatar, a dwarf.
Vishnu takes this form to release the universe
from the control of the demon Bali.