THATAKA'S STORY

The woman I speak of was the daughter of Suketha, a
yaksha, a demigod of great valour, might, and purity. She
was beautiful and full of wild energy. When she grew up she
was married to a chieftain named Sunda. Two sons were born to them—Mareecha and Subahu—who were endowed
with enormous supernatural powers in addition to physical
strength; and in their conceit and exuberance they laid waste
their surroundings. Their father, delighted at their pranks and
infected by their mood, joined in their activities. He pulled out
ancient trees by their roots and flung them about, and he
slaughtered all creatures that came his way. This
depredation came to the notice of the great savant Agasthya
(the diminutive saint who once, when certain demoniac
beings hid themselves at the bottom of the sea and Indra
appealed for his help to track them, had sipped off the
waters of the ocean). Agasthya had his hermitage in this
forest, and when he noticed the destruction around, he
cursed the perpetrator of this deed and Sunda fell dead. When his wife learnt of his death, she and her sons stormed
in, roaring revenge on the saint. He met their challenge by
cursing them. “Since you are destroyers of life, may you
become asuras and dwell in the nether worlds.” (Till now they
had been demigods. Now they were degraded to
demonhood.) The three at once underwent a transformation;
their features and stature became forbidding, and their
natures changed to match. The sons left to seek the
company of superdemons. The mother was left alone and
lives on here, breathing fire and wishing everything ill.
Nothing flourishes here; only heat and sand remain. She is a
scorcher. She carries a trident with spikes; a cobra entwined
on her arm is her armlet. The name of this fearsome creature is Thataka. Just as the presence of a little loba (meanness)
dries up and disfigures a whole human personality, so does
the presence of this monster turn into desert a region which
was once fertile. In her restlessness she constantly harasses
the hermits at their prayers; she gobbles up anything that
moves and sends it down her entrails.
Touching the bow slung on his shoulder, Rama asked,
“Where is she to be found?”
Before Viswamithra could answer, she arrived, the ground
rocking under her feet and a storm preceding her. She
loomed over them with her eyes spitting fire, her fangs
bared, her lips parted revealing a cavernous mouth; and her
brows twitching in rage. She raised her trident and roared,
“In this my kingdom, I have crushed out the minutest womb of
life and you have been sent down so that I may not remain
hungry.”
Rama hesitated; for all her evil, she was still a woman.
How could he kill her? Reading his thoughts, Viswamithra
said, “You shall not consider her a woman at all. Such a
monster must receive no consideration. Her strength,
ruthlessness, appearance, rule her out of that category.
Formerly God Vishnu himself killed Kyathi, the wife of Brigu,
who harboured the asuras fleeing his wrath, when she
refused to yield them. Mandorai, a woman bent upon
destroying all the worlds, was vanquished by Indra and he earned the gratitude of humanity. These are but two
instances. A woman of demoniac tendencies loses all
consideration to be treated as a woman. This Thataka is
more dreadful than Yama, the god of death, who takes a life
only when the time is ripe. But this monster, at the very scent
of a living creature, craves to kill and eat. Do not picture her
as a woman at all. You must rid this world of her. It is your
duty.”
Rama said, “Iwill carry out your wish.”
Thataka threw her three-pronged spear at Rama. As it
came flaming, Rama strung his bow and sent an arrow which
broke it into fragments. Next she raised a hail of stones
under which to crush her adversaries. Rama sent up his
arrows, which shielded them from the attack. Finally Rama’s
arrow pierced her throat and ended her career; thereby also
inaugurating Rama’s life’s mission of destroying evil and
demonry in this world. The gods assembled in the sky and
expressed their joy and relief and enjoined Viswamithra,
“Oh, adept and master of weapons, impart without any
reserve all your knowledge and powers to this lad. He is a
saviour.” Viswamithra obeyed this injunction and taught
Rama all the esoteric techniques in weaponry. Thereafter the
presiding deities of various weapons, asthras, appeared
before Rama submissively and declared, “Now we are
yours; command us night or day.”
When they reached a mist-covered wood on a mountain,
Viswamithra told another story.