Twelve years Vanavasam and one year Agnaadhavasam

[S.SIVARAMAN]

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In Ramayanam 14 years vanavaasam to Sri Rama was ordered by King Dsarathan in order to grant one of the boons to his Kaikeyi. This is similar to our current practice of AAyuL DhandanNai which is equvalent to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment.
In Mahabharatham 12 years of Vanavaasam and one year Agnaadhavasam is ordered to Pandavas. what could be the significance for this and if they were identified they would be punished by invoking again with the same no. of years of vanavaasam and angnaadhavasam.

 

[sangom]

12 years, according to Indian astrology, constitutes one full round of the planet Jupiter through all the 12 rasis. This is somehow held sacred and observed in "mahamakham", kumbh melas, etc. Though there is no direct evidence in Ramayana, the 14 year vanavaasam was prescribed after some astrological consultation by Kaikeyi.

If a person is missing for more than 12 years, I think he is considered as dead and his funerary rites sre performed by his son.

So, possibly it was not expected that Rama/the Pandavas would return alive after such long vanavaasa!

 

[P.J.]

In Ramayanam 14 years vanavaasam to Sri Rama was ordered by King Dsarathan in order to grant one of the boons to his Kaikeyi. This is similar to our current practice of AAyuL DhandanNai which is equvalent to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment.
In Mahabharatham 12 years of Vanavaasam and one year Agnaadhavasam is ordered to Pandavas. what could be the significance for this and if they were identified they would be punished by invoking again with the same no. of years of vanavaasam and angnaadhavasam.

12 in Hinduism:


12 is important after 108 in Hindu Dharma.

'samvatsaram dvadasa masam ahurh jagatyah pado dvadasaivaksarani
dvadasahah prakrto yajna ukto dvadasadityan kathayantiha viprah'

Ashtavakra said, Twelve months compose the year; twelve letters go to the composition of a foot of the metre called Jagati; twelve are the minor sacrifices; and twelve, according to the learned, is the number of the Adityas.'

Twelve Adityas from Vishnu Purana are:
Amsa, Aryaman, Bhaga, Dhuti, Mitra, Pusan, Sakra, Savitr, Tvastr, Varuna, Visnu and Vivasvat

Twelve Jyotirlingas are mentioned in Shiva Purana, Satarudra Samhita, Chapter 42, Verses 2 to 4.

Twelve most important deities (Brahma, Vishna, Shiva, Krishna, Rama, Hanuman, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh, Skanda and Surya)

Guru (jupiter) takes 12 years time to go around sun. So it takes 12 years to complete 12 twelve zodiac signs.

Maha (great) Kumbha Mela is celebrated at Prayag once in 12 years.

When Jupiter transits in Simha and Makha star occurring in the month when Sun is in Kumbha as per Nirayana System, "Mamangam" is celebrated. This comes once in 12 years. (Kumbakonam and Thirukoshtiyur etc.).

Dwadasa Nama of Lord Vishnu are Keshava, Narayana, Madhava, Govinda, Vishnu, Madhusudhana, Trivikrama, Vamana, Sridhara, Hrishikesha, Padmanabha and Damodhara),

Dwadasa Nama of Goddess Lakshmi are Sriyee, Amruthotbhavaye, Kamalaye, Chandra sodharye, Vishnu patniye, Vaishnavye, Vararohaye, Hari vallabhaye, Saranghaye, Deva devikaye, Sura sundarye, Sri MahaLakshmiye

Vaisnavite wear 12 pundam. After putting Dvadasa Oordhva pundram (Thiruaman) one should chant 12 names of Perumal (Maha Vishnu) and 12 names of Thayar (Maha Lakshmi)

There are 12 Alwars (Vaisnavite saints) who sang Divya Prabandham.

Pandavas had exile for 12 years and unrecognised exile for 12 months!

Both Hindustani and Carnatic music use 12 Swarasthanas in an octave. (sa, ri, Ri, ga, Ga, ma, Ma, pa, dha, Dha, ni and Ni)

Gaj
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[Raghy]

In Ramayanam 14 years vanavaasam to Sri Rama was ordered by King Dsarathan in order to grant one of the boons to his Kaikeyi. This is similar to our current practice of AAyuL DhandanNai which is equvalent to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment.
In Mahabharatham 12 years of Vanavaasam and one year Agnaadhavasam is ordered to Pandavas. what could be the significance for this and if they were identified they would be punished by invoking again with the same no. of years of vanavaasam and angnaadhavasam.

Sri. Sivaraman, Greetings.

I don't think one may consider 'life imprisonment' and 'exile to a forset' as the same and equivalent. In the case of life imprisonment, the inmate's freedom is greatly restricted.

But not so in the case 'exile to the forest'. Rama was 25 years old. He had his brother along with him. Plus he had his loving wife Sita. He had the capacity and ability to form a small or not so small kingdom in dhandakaranya forest. He could have asked Lakshmana to get his wife too. He was required to lead a simple life... he could have done that in style ( reading Aranya kanda, one would think indeed he lead his life in style anyway. My wife after reading Aaranya kanda, keeps asking me for such a life... well, I never made enough money to purchase a tea estate.. if I could, I would have.. seriously I considered 1 acre in Anamalai forest.... who knows? still might do it!). (In my opinion, Kaikeyi made a mess of things. She should have stopped short of asking the kingdom for Bharatha.. in that case Rama would have supported Bharata to rule). Rama had restrictions in his 'exile to forest'.

But Pandavas had no such restrictions. Come on! Five capable youngsters along with Krishna himself to counsel! They could have set up a kingdom in exile with one hand tied behind! After 13 years.. ( I don't know why though. If I were yudhishtra would have fought earlier.. and would not have lost my queen at any cost)... they could have marched with an army to kicked few butts.

I don't know. May be I am displaying wishful thoughts.

Cheers!