Can the standpoint of his wife, in trying to fulfill stree dharma be completely justified? How should this story be narrated to kids who will question the unjustified pain that was caused to the wife and the child despite the fact that everything in the end was restored in their favour. Was there any role of harishchandra’s ego that one should be aware of?
We have to understand this story in the background of the Indian mind which lived extreme characters. The Western heroes are restless and aggrandised humans, with more power but at the same human level. Indian heroes go beyond the human and become superheroes by the extreme qualities they portray. Compare, for example Caesar, Napoleon, Alexander and many others with a Harishchandra, Bhishma, Bhagirath or even Dashrath and of course Rama and Sita.
Now when we look at the story of Raja Harishchandra what strikes is his unflinching fidelity to truthfulness, promise, and the willingness to happily renounce and sacrifice anything and everything for observing truthfulness and honesty. The whole lineage of the Ikshwaku kings, Raghu, Harishchandra, Shivi, Dasharath, Rama himself came to establish the highest standards of public probity. Naturally it involved lot of personal sacrifice which the Aryan women willingly did as part of the dharma of the wife and the queen. It would be wrong if she was compelled to make the sacrifice or else if it was the common enforced custom. None of this. Rani Taramati chose to walk away with her husband and bear the consequences as sahadharmini.
Of course by modern pragmatic and utilitarian standards where marraige is a legal contract and love is based on certain conditions, especially from the modern hedonistic way of life where personal pleasure and material comfort counts first, the story of Raja Harishchandra and Taramati may seem outdated and unreal. But another way of looking at it is that such is the stuff that has gone into the foundations of Bharat. The teaching is that Truth is a hard and difficult conquest and its path is paved with sacrifice and renunciation. It is not for the selfish or the weak-hearted as the Upanishad would put it.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
