Another bit of black anti-rakshas PR?

[Jo]

This proves that Valmiki invented the shish-kabob. 

Joanna K.
US


-----Original Message-----
From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Artur Karp
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2011 1:28 AM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Another bit of black anti-rakshas PR?

Dear List,

In Ram. III, 2 there appears a hideous rakshas, Viradha. Described as a monstrosity, he is garbed in animal skins, splattered with blood and marrow.

Now, in III, 2.7 he is shown as carrying on an iron spear dead
animals: three lions, four tigers, two wolves and ten [spotted] antilopes (plus a huge elephant's head):

trīn siṃhāṃś caturo vyāghrān dvau vṛkau pṛṣatān daśa

The numbers of these animals seem to form a sequence,  3-4-2-10.
Considering that Viradha (who, surprisingly, presents himself as a defender of ashramic values)  is compared twice to "the one who ends [the world]", antaka:

III, 2.6: trāsanaṃ sarvabhūtānāṃ vyāditāsyam ivāntakam III, 2.9: abhyadhāvat susaṃkruddhaḥ prajāḥ kāla ivāntakaḥ .
shouldn't we see in the sequence a deliberate, satirical distortion of the numbers 4-3-2-0 of the kali-yuga's 432 000 and the catur-yuga's 4
320 000 years?

Artur Karp
Poland