Page 13 - Seniorstoday November 2021 Issue

underpinnings of cultures and customs. their place stood Dharmaraj, the King of
A screengrab from the Mohey ad
Daan could variously mean sacrifice,
donation, charity, giving away a part of
oneself, selflessness, etc. The ultimate daan
is giving away a part of oneself. Let me share
some ‘kathas’ anecdotally to understand the
true meaning of daan.
King Shibi was a descendant of King
Bharata and was known for his wisdom,
care for his subjects, justice and honouring
his commitments. It so happened that one
day whilst relaxing in his terrace, a dove,
chased by an eagle, landed on his lap and
sought his protection from the eagle. Given
his proclivity to protect whoever came to
him, Shibi promised to protect it. The eagle
followed soon after and asked Shibi to hand
over the dove to him so that he can sate his
hunger. Faced with a dilemma, Shibi offered
some meat from the kitchen, but the eagle
insisted on the return of the dove to him. As
a way out, the eagle agreed to accept Shibi’s
flesh of an equal weight as the dove. As he
was wont to keep his word, Shibi happily
agreed and started cutting of his flesh from
his right thigh bit by bit. But no matter
how much flesh he cut away and put on the
scale, the pan with the dove always weighed
more. His entire right side of the body was
cut away, but it was still not enough. To
ensure that he kept his word to the eagle
too, and not just the dove, he started cutting
flesh from his left side too. At this moment,
the dove and the eagle vanished and, in
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #29 | NOVEMBER 2021
Righteousness and Indra, the King of the
Heavens. They showered blessings and
boons on Shibi as he had passed the ultimate
test of upholding Dharma.
Another anecdote is that of King Mahabali,
the ruler of the three worlds, who offered his
own head to the brahmin boy, Vamana (one
of the avataar of Lord Vishnu) as the third
step to fulfil his promise of allowing Vamana
to take away whatever land in his kingdom
he could with his three steps. On getting
the grant of the three steps from Mahabali,
Vamana transformed himself into his
universal form of Vishwaroopa and with one
step covered the entire world (Mrityulok)
and with the second step covered the heaven
(Swargalok). There was no place left for the
third step. That’s when Mahabali offered
his own head. After this, Vishnu restored
the earth and heaven to the gods and sent
Mahabali to rule the nether world.
When a father gives away his kanya’s
(daughter’s) hand in marriage to the groom,
he is actually parting with a part of his heart,
a part of himself. He is doing the ultimate
sacrifice. That is the true meaning and
context of the term ‘kanyadaan’. The heart-
rending pathos of kanyadaan and bidaai is
vindicated and captured beautifully in the
Neel Kamal film song, ‘babul ki duayen leti
jaa, jaa tujko sukhi sansar mile’, penned
by Sahir Ludhianvi, sung by Mohammed
Rafi and music scored by Ravi. Anyone
who knows the song or heard the song
would not have had twisted the meaning
of ‘kanyadaan’ to cater to the misplaced
‘wokeism’ of today, as was done by Mohey in
the ad.
The article would be incomplete without
an overarching holistic perspective on the
marriage function itself. Most readers,
Hindus particularly, would be aware
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