Rama Setu In Kurukshetra by Ramadhari Singh Dinkar

Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' (September 23, 1908 - April 24, 1974) was a nationalistic Hindi poet, who is considered as one of the most important modern Hindi poets. He emerged as a rebellious voice with his nationalist poetry in pre-Independence days, exuding veer rasa, and naturally he has been hailed as a "Rashtrakavi" ("National poet") in the same class as Subramanyam Bharati or Maithili Sharan Gupt.

He called himself a "Bad Gandhian", because although a follower of Gandhi he did not support the extreme application of ahimsa as a state policy, instead he considered proper use of force as a policy of acheiving larger ahimsa for the soceity.

Kurukshetra - a classical epic he wrote in 1946 - presents this debate and reflection. The plot of this classic is post-Mahabharata-war dialogue between Yudhishthira the Eldest Pandava and his grand sire Bheeshma Pitamaha upon his bed of arrows. In a way, Kurukshetra is a modern narrative of Shanti and Anushasan Parva of Mahabharata.

In this epic, at one place Sri Dinakar has Bheeshma mention the Setu Bandhana.

Hearing the arguments of Yudhishthira about the merits of peace and demerits of war, Bheeshma laughs and responds:

tyaaga, tapa, bhikshaa? bahut hoon jaanataa mai bhee, magar,
tyaaga, tapa, bhikshaa viraagi yogiyon ke dharma hain;
yaaki unaki neeti, jinake haath me shaayak nahee;
yaa mrishaa paashanDa yah us kaapurush balheen kaa -
jo sadaa bhayabheet rahata yuddha se, yeh sochakar
glaanimay jeevan bahut achchha, maraNa achchaa nahee

{tyaga, tapa, bhiksha - I know about these enough and more, but:

leave these for the dharma of virakta yogis alone,

or for those probably who hold not the duty-rod of the statesmen,

or these could be useful techniques for the cowards afraid of war -

who consider living an insultful life better than dying a graceful death}

===

kaanan me dekh asthi-punja muni-pungavo ka
daitya-vadha ka kiya praNa jab rama ne
"mati-bhrashta maanavo ke shodha ka upaaya ek
shastra hee hai?" poochhaa tha komal-manaa-vaam ne
"nahee priye, sudhar manushya sakata hai tap,
tyaag se bhee," uttar diyaa tha ghana-shyam ne,
"tapa kaa kintu, vasha chalataa nahee sadaiv,
patit-samooh kee ku-vrittiyo ke saamane"

{Beholding the mountains of bones of the sages in the forest

when Lord Rama took a vow to exterminate off all the daitya-s,

His tender left (Seeta) had thus asked: can there be -

no peaceful way of bringing these evil-minded to proper path?

Yes Darling, had replied the dark one, man can of course change himself

through tapa and tyaag, but when faced with such tendencies of sin-fallen as these

even the policy of tapa does not always yield the right results}

==

teen divas tak pantha maangate, raghupati sindhu-kinaare,
baithe padhate rahe chhanda, anunaya ke pyaare pyaare
uttar me jab ek naad bhee, uthaa nahee saagar se,
uthi adheer dhadhak paurush-kee, aag rama ke tana se,
sindhu deh dhar 'trahi-trahi', karata aa giraa sharaN me,
charaN pooj daasataa grahaN kee, bandhaa moodha, bandhan me


{for three days, on the sindhu shores, Raghupati kept singing -

the humble paeans to Sagara and begging for a crossway

In response not even a wave came forward.

And that is when flames of manhood and rage started emitting from Rama

that immediately appeared ocean-god, crying for mercy, and praying at his feet

taking Rama's shelter, the idiot then bound itself in Setu-bandhan}