When I was in Kolkata, I saw a white fruit being sold and asked what it was. It was the jambu, now commonly known as the white jamun. It is not related and tastes nothing like the jamun but has a delicious flavour of its own. I brought back a tree from the Botanical Gardens nursery and it now grows in my garden.

Once upon a time, India was known as Jambudweep (continent of the jambu fruit). Nowadays, this fruit is almost extinct in India—and the same goes for the Ashoka tree with its thick red and yellow fragrant flowers. In the Buddhist text Mahavamsa, emperor Ashoka’s son Mahinda introduces himself to the Sri Lankan king Devanampivatissa as being from Jambudvipa, the Indian subcontinent.

Jambu brings me to the story of the bears, as the lord of the bears gets his name from this fruit. In the Ramayana, he is called Jambuvant or Jambavan. Some scriptures say he was created by Brahma, some by Vishnu. He was present at the churning of the ocean, which produced the worlds. He is supposed to have circled Vamana (the third incarnation of Vishnu) seven times when the latter was acquiring the three worlds from Mahabali. Jambavan was beating a drum for Vishnu when he was struck by Vamana’s shoulder. The resulting injury limited his future mobility.

From the Ramayana

Interestingly, Jambavan is present in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. In the Ramayana, Jambavan helped Ram find his wife Sita and fight her abductor, Ravan. He is also known as Rikshapati, the lord of the Himalayas incarnated as a bear. The monkey clan of Sugriva lived on Mount Risyamukha and so did Jambavan. Sugriva knew that to help Ram find Sita, he would need all the help he could get, so he sent a messenger to request Jambavan’s aid. Jambavan was known for his excellent leadership skills. He gathered his troops of bears and they made their way to Sugriva’s kingdom to meet the monkeys. There, they assembled their armies and continued their journey toward Lanka. But when they approached the ocean, everyone lost hope, as they realised it would be a 100 league jump to Lanka. 

This was when Jambavan stepped up and looked towards Hanuman. “You’re a strong young monkey and you have many abilities that have not even been tapped. I have faith that you can make the jump to Lanka and bring news about Sita,” explained Jambavan. By this, he made Hanuman aware of his abilities and gave him the confidence to jump toward Lanka and bring back news.

Jambavan had received a boon from Ram that he would have a long life, be handsome, and have the strength of ten million lions. In the battle against the Rakshasas of Lanka, Jambavan showed how aggressive he was. He was ruthless against the demons and showed no mercy when he tore them to

pieces. During a duel with Ravan, the lord of the Rakshas, Jambavan knocked his opponent unconscious who fell in his chariot and had to speedily be driven away by his charioteer. Jambavan also knew about the Himalayan all-curing plant Vishalyakarni and used this information to get Hanuman to bring it to revive an unconscious Laxman.

The fight against Krishna

It is said that he was even tempted to test his strength against the gods. He had a thought, “How I wish to fight with Ram! But I cannot as I am his great devotee and admirer.” Ram divined Jambavan’s thoughts and said, “In my next life, when I descend as Krishna, you will get the opportunity to fight me.” And so it came to pass.

In the Mahabharata, King Satrajit lived near Dvarka, the kingdom of Krishna. He was a great devotee of the sun-god, who gave him the Syamantaka jewel. He installed the jewel in a temple. The Syamantaka jewel was so powerful that it produced a large quantity of gold daily. Satrajit’s younger brother Prasena, in order to display the opulence of the family, took the jewel, put it on his neck and rode on horseback into the forest. He was killed by a lion who took the jewel to its cave. Jambavan heard of this, killed the lion and took the jewel which he gave to his child to play with.

When Satrajit’s younger brother Prasena did not return from the forest with the jewel, an upset Satrajit accused Krishna of stealing the jewel. This rumour spread through Dvarka. Krishna decided to go to the forest to find Prasena and the jewel. He found Prasena dead, followed the trail and saw that it led to Jambavan. Krishna entered Jambavan’s lair and saw the child with the jewel. The child started crying and Jambavan appeared. Jambavan was actually a great devotee of Krishna, but he did not recognise him. He challenged him to a fight and this fight went on for 28 days. At that time, Jambavan was the strongest living entity, but as he tired he realised that his opponent was none other than the reincarnation of Ram. He surrendered.

Krishna immediately placed his hand on Jambavan to alleviate his pain and addressed him as the king of the forest. Jambavan delivered the Syamantaka jewel and brought along his daughter Jambavati, whom he presented to Krishna. Krishna married Jambavati and later Satyabhama, the daughter of Satrajit, who had offered her to him as a token of his apology for the mistrust.

Enslaved, shot, nearly extinct

Jambavan the bear has been witness to nine avatars. Sadly, he will not be there to witness Kalki, the last of the avatars. In the last 100 years, we enslaved him, made him dance for tourists, sold him to China to have his gall bladder extracted, shot him, and took his hair for bracelets. The bear, that beautiful proud animal, is now almost extinct in India. And so are the other two symbols of India’s greatness, the jambu tree and the Ashoka tree.

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