page_title: Tara (Ramayana)
section_title: Tara's lamentation
hierarchical_section_title: Tara (Ramayana) / Death of Vali / Tara's lamentation
caption_attribution_description: English: "The Death of Valin and Tara's Discourse Page from a dispersed series of the Ramayana Made in Himchal Pradesh, India or Jammu and Kashmir, India c. 1720 Artist/maker unknown, India, Himachal Pradesh or Jammu and Kashmir Opaque watercolor, gold, and silver-colored paint on paper 8 1/4 x 12 1/8 inches (21 x 30.8 cm) 2004-149-30 Alvin O. Bellak Collection, 2004 Label This scene from the Ramayana series is the climax of the struggle for rule of the monkey kingdom. Rama confronts Sugriva's brother, Valin, the legitimate king of the monkeys, and kills him. This painting depicts the moment after the fight when Valin lies dying in the arms of his wife Tara. Their son Angada grasps his father's feet and Hanuman, the monkey general, kneels nearby. Sugriva, now mourning his brother and feeling intense guilt at his role in the death, stands to the side. He talks with Rama and Lakshmana, who wear leaf garments to show they still live in forest exile. The long text on the reverse of the page recounts Tara's lament that Rama, born to uphold world order, has sinned against it in his unjust murder of her husband."
context_page_description: In the Hindu epic Ramayana, Tara is the Queen of Kishkindha and wife of the monkey King Vali. After being widowed, she becomes the Queen of Sugriva, Vali's brother.
  Tara is described as the daughter of the monkey physician Sushena in the Ramayana, and in later sources, as an apsara who rises from the churning of the milky ocean. She marries Vali and bears him a son named Angada. After Vali is presumed dead in a battle with a demon, his brother Sugriva becomes king and appropriates Tara; however, Vali returns and regains Tara and exiles his brother, accusing him of treachery.
  When Sugriva challenges Vali to a duel, Tara wisely advises Vali not to accept because of the former's alliance with Rama—the hero of the Ramayana and an avatar of the god Vishnu—but Vali does not heed her, and dies from Rama's arrow, shot at the behest of Sugriva. The Ramayana and its later adaptations emphasize Tara's lamentation. While in most vernacular versions, Tara casts a curse on Rama by the power of her chastity, in some versions, Rama enlightens Tara.
  Sugriva returns to the throne, but spends his time carousing and fails to act on his promise to assist Rama in recovering his kidnapped wife, Sita.
context_section_description: In the Bala Kanda Book of the Ramayana, where the whole work is summarized, the lamentation of Tara is mentioned as a significant event.
  Ignoring Tara's sound advice, Vali engages in combat with Sugriva. While fighting, Rama shoots an arrow at Vali from behind, fatally wounding him. The news of Vali's death reaches Tara; she rushes to him with Angada. She sees monkeys running in terror on the way. They advise her to go back to the palace and consecrate Angada as the king. Tara refuses and says that she needs to see her husband first, leading them back to Vali. Embracing the dying Vali, Tara laments his death while reproaching Sugriva and Rama. Tara accepts Vali's death as punishment for seizing Ruma and exiling Sugriva.
  In North Indian manuscripts of the Ramayana, some interpolations elaborate Tara's lament. Tara mentions the hardships of widowhood and prefers death to it. She blames Rama for unjustly killing Vali and tells him that if they had forged an alliance, Vali could have helped him recover Sita. Tara invokes the power of her chastity and curses Rama so that he will soon lose Sita after he regains her. She declares that Sita will return to the earth. The curse also appears in the North-western Indian manuscripts. In several vernacular adaptations of the Ramayana like the Oriya Vilanka Ramayana by Sarala Dasa, Tara's curse is reiterated. Apart from the usual curse to Rama of his separation from Sita, in the Bengali Krittivasi Ramayana, Tara additionally curses Rama that in his next birth, he will be killed by Vali. The Mahanataka and the Ananda Ramayana narrate that Vali is reborn as the hunter who kills Krishna, Rama's next birth.
  
  Hanuman consoles Tara, telling her to look towards the future of her son, Angada. Hanuman suggests that Angada be consecrated as king, compensating her loss but Tara declares that since his uncle Sugriva is alive, it is inadvisable. With his last breath, Vali confesses his folly of abandoning Sugriva and urges Angada and Tara to support Sugriva. He declares that: 
  "Tara is ... thoroughly knowledgeable about deciding subtle matters and about various portents. Whatever she says is right should be done without doubt, for nothing Tara believes turns out to be otherwise."
  Vali requests Rama to take care that Tara is not insulted and advises Sugriva to unquestioningly follow her advice.
  Vali dies in the embraces of Tara, who mourns his death in a painful and rebuking speech. According to Lefeber, Tara's lament has been significantly expanded, if not added completely, over the centuries. In South Indian manuscripts, some later interpolations elaborate Tara's lament, in which Tara asks Rama to kill her and lead her to Vali. Rama consoles Tara, saying that she should accept the preordained destiny. Rama guarantees her that her rights and those of Angada will be protected and that she will enjoy "continued comfort". He tells her that a wife of a hero should not hold personal sorrow.
  In the Adhyatma Ramayana, while Tara wails over the death of Vali, Rama preaches to her, saying that the body is ephemeral, while only the soul is eternal; he tells her she should not grieve over the decay of Vali's body. Tara questions him asking "if the body is destructible, why does one feel pleasure and pain". Rama informs her that due to ahamkara (egoism) the mind is chained in bondage to desires. He declares that Tara will remain untouched by karma and be emancipated from the bondage of life. Having heard his sermon, and because she had been devoted to him in a previous birth, Tara thus becomes free of egoism and undergoes self-realization. This discourse of Rama also appears in Tulsidas's Ramacharitamanasa, but it is curtailed to just two verses and is possibly borrowed from the former text. Rama says that the body is perishable, but the soul is immortal and listening to this, the enlightened Tara bows to Rama and gains the boon of supreme devotion.
  A Ramayana version portrays her as trying to stabilize the kingdom after Vali's death in her arms. She declares that "With his last breath, King Vali begs you, his
caption: Tara (right), depicted as a human, wailing with dying Vali in her arms
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