UNIQUE BOWS USED IN RAMAYANA

The bow of lord Shiva, kept with the ancestors of king Janak of Mithila was unique among them. When Ram and Laxman went to Mithila with seer Viswamitra, they desired to see the great bow.’King Janak asked his ministers to make arrangements to bring that powerful bow. The great heavenly bow was placed in an eight - wheeled huge iron chest. Some five thousand tall and well built men could propel it to the place where Saint Vishamitra was sitting with Ram and Laxmana.’(1)

Janak told to Ram and Laxman, introducing them to that bow:

 ‘This has been ever worshipped by the Jankas. Many great warrior kings, famous for their unparallel strength, could not move it even a little from it’s place in past times. No Gods, Asuras and Gandharvas could string it. How can poor human beings could be able to bend and string it and place an arrow and vibrate its string to operate it?’(2)

 ‘With the permission of king Janak and great seer Vishvamitra, Ram seized the bow at the middle and lifted it sportingly and set the string to the bow. But as he pulled the string   up to his ear, it broke from the middle producing   thunderous voice as if mountains cracked. A violent earthquake followed it. All present there, excepting the seer Vishamitra, king Janak and two brothers, Ram and Laxman, toppled down.’(3)

 Thunderous sound of breaking of the bow was so strong that it was heard by residence of other lokas. Great warrior -saint Parasuram rushed to Mithila hearing that sound.  He saw the great bow broken from the middle. He could not believe that some one on the earth could lift the bow, tie it’s string to it and can make it operational by stretching it’s string up to his ears and break it. It was an impossible deed. In order to measure the ocean deep strength of Ram, he gave his own great bow to him to tie its string with it. Ram did it with in no time.

The bow of Prasuram was also one of the rarest possible bows of its time. In ‘Mhabharat’ Bhishma described the bow of Parashuram, ‘as huge as a palm tree which created mountain – tearing sound when operated.’(5)

What really was the bow of Shiva which was so heavy that thousands of bravest men could not even move it a little from it’s place? It cannot be only a bow. Was it fixed and mobile weapon- launchers for the ATOMIC ARROWS of its time? A description of arrow operated by Ram at the time of waiting near the ocean with his army, makes it clear that atomic arrows were already invented and operated at rare occasions, by rarest possible warriors, who were specially skilled in it, in those wars.

Valmiki has described the strong vibration created from the tightened string tied to the bow of Ram, causing great fear and disturbance among living and non livings, in these words:

‘When Ram could not find any means to make a path through the ocean to reach to Lanka with his whole army, he decided to do so by drying the ocean. In order to do this ‘he fixed Brahmadand charged with Brahmaastra on the string of his great bow and stretched it with full force for its final operation. This created so much fear all over that heaven and earth started shaking with its mountains and rivers. Lakes and rivers agitated. Sun and moon changed their way. The ocean, with the mass of its water and waves surged beyond its confines to the extent of about eight miles.  Finally on the request of the ocean he turned the direction of his arrow and released it, causing a huge part of ocean turned into a desert.’(5) The deserts of Bikaner and Marwar of modern Rajasthan are believed to be the same. An ATOMIC ARROW can only produce such terribly horrifying effect and destruction.