Jamwant is one of the most prominent characters of the Ramayana. Although he is not counted among the Sapta-Chiranjeevis, but he was also a Chiranjeevi who attained Nirvana in Dwaparayuga. His age is considered more than the other seven Chiranjeevis. There are different stories about his birth as well.
According to a legend, once when Brahma ji was engrossed in penance, he yawned and from that the first riksha (bear) was born. Being born from his yawning, he was named Jamwant. According to the Vishnu Purana, when the demons named Madhu and Kaitabh were born from Brahma, then Jamwant was born from the sweat of Brahma. It is also described that when Shri Hari was fighting with Madhu and Kaitabh, Jamwant was clapping happily. In the end, when Sri Hari killed both the demons, Jamwant was very happy.
According to the Agni Purana, Jamwant was born from Agni and his mother was a Gandharva woman. His wife's name is said to be Jaywanti. At many places in Ramayana, they have been called monkeys only. Jamwant's life was very long. It is believed that Jamvant was more than six Manvantars at the time of Shri Ram Avatar. Except the Matsya avatar, he had darshan of everyone from Kurma avatar to Shri Krishna avatar. That is, he was present during the seven incarnations of Sri Hari. He also participated in the first Devasur Sangram.
He has been described as very learned, intelligent, Vedapathi and always studying. He had all the Vedas, Puranas, Shastras by heart. He was the oldest and wisest in Shriram's army and that is why Shriram also respected him a lot and used to consult him. His size is said to be huge. He was only slightly smaller than Kumbhakarna in size. When Laxman got power, it was he who told Hanuman about four rare herbs, one of which was Sanjivani.
When Sugriva sent the monkey army in all the four directions in search of Mother Sita, then under the leadership of Angad, Jamwant, Hanuman etc. went to the south. Sugriva specially sent Jamvant with Angad so that he could safely lead the party with his experience. When everyone gets disheartened after seeing the huge sea after reaching the ocean shore, it is Jamwant who makes Hanuman aware of his powers, after which Hanuman crosses the sea.
More details have been given about Jamwant in Lanka Kand. He cleverly operated the army and played the role of a guide. According to Ramcharitmanas, he killed a demon named Yankoop in the war. He also fought with Ravana and kicked him, due to which Ravana fainted. There is also a description of his battle with Meghnad when he caught Meghnad's thrown power in the air and left it on him. In the same war, Meghnad also fainted due to Jamwant's attacks.
In Bhagavata Purana and Vishnu Purana, the power of Jamwant has been told. His power is said to be equal to the power of 10000000 (one crore) lions. According to Ramcharitmanas, when the monkey group was consulting to cross the sea, then everyone was talking about crossing that sea by their respective abilities. At that time everyone prayed to Jamwant that being the eldest, he should tell some way to cross that sea. Then Jamwant told everyone about his strength.
Jamwant said that at this time I have become very old, yet I can go up to 90 Yojana at a time. I had seen the churning of the ocean when I was young. At that time I had so much strength that when the gods and demons were tired, I single-handedly turned the entire Mandarachal mountain. Seeing him, my father Brahma himself praised me.
I was there when Sri Hari took the Vamana avatar and the demons came to Bali. When he took his huge form to measure the three steps of land given by Bali, then at that time I did seven parikramas of the earth along with Lord Vamana in just seven moments. When I returned after circumambulating, Lord Vaman could not even bind the demon King Bali completely. Somewhere it has been written about him doing 21 orbits of the earth.
Hearing this, everyone asked that you were so powerful, so how did your strength become weak? On this, Jamwant says that while measuring the earth of Lord Vamana, when I was circumambulating him at a very fast speed, at the time of the last circumambulation, the nail of my toe touched the Mahameru mountain, due to which its peak was fragmented. Meru took this as an insult and cursed me to lose my strength.
When the Lanka war ended, Shri Ram was praising everyone's strength. At that time Jamwant came to Shri Ram very disappointed and said to him that Lord! I had thought that after ages I would enjoy this war but the whole war ended and not even a drop of sweat fell from my body. Looks like I'll have to wait a little longer for the real battle.
Seeing him saying this, Shriram understood that Jamwant's mind had become arrogant. Then he told Jamwant to wait, I myself will fulfill your war desire in Dwapar. When Shri Krishna incarnated in Dwapar, Satrajit accused him of stealing the Samyantak gem. Actually that gem was taken by the brother of Satrajit who was killed by a lion. Then Jamwant killed that lion and gave that gem to his daughter.
When Shri Krishna went out to find that gem, he reached Jamwant's cave. When he saw the gem there, he wanted to take it. There was a fierce war between Shri Krishna and Jamwant on this. According to Bhagwat Purana, that war continued for 28 days. According to the same Vishnu Purana, this war lasted for 21 days. At last Jamwant was drenched in sweat and exhausted.
When he started getting defeated, he remembered Shri Ram. While doing this, Shri Krishna appeared to him in the form of Shri Ram. Jamwant understood that because of his promise, Shri Ram himself had incarnated as Shri Krishna. His pride dissolved and he recognized the form of Shri Krishna and apologized to him. Later he married his daughter Jambavanti to Shri Krishna and himself took Nirvana.
It is believed that Jamwant had established the city of Jamthun which is today in Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh. There is a cave here which is known as Jamwant cave. Apart from this, there is also a cave named Jamwant Tapogufa in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. It is believed that Jamwant waited here from Treta to Dwapar. There is also an ancient cave in Ranavav of Gujarat which is believed to be the cave of Jamwant.
Hari Om Tatsat !
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