Sages

Śabarī

Ascetic disciple of the sage Mataṅga. The famous tasted berries are not in Vālmīki. She offers fruits she has gathered.

Araṇya Kāṇḍa sarga 74Vālmīki (primary text)In the text

Illustrated portrait of Śabarī, Ascetic disciple of the sage Mataṅga — Illustration

Kabandha directs Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa to Śabarī, and she shows them the groves of Mataṅga's hermitage. Then she asks to leave the world in their sight. Vālmīki calls her a śramaṇī. Her scene is brief, but later devotional literature tells it at much greater length and adds details the text does not have.

Primary text: Śrīmad Vālmīkīya Rāmāyaṇa, Gita Press, Gorakhpur. Later traditions and living-tradition associations are labelled as such. Return to the Rāmāyaṇa World.