The mystery of Lord Rama!
Rama is a hero of ancient epic Ramayana and is worshiped by the masses as the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Valmiki is credited with authorship of Ramayana. The Ramayana suggests Valmiki being contemporary of Rama. Seeta, the wife of Rama, had secured shelter at his hermitage of Valmiki when Rama had abandoned her doubting her character.
It seems that story of Rama has evolved in at least four phases. In the earliest period, before 10th century BC, it was just a heroic ballad detailing war between Rama and Ravana. Rama originally belonged to the race of Sun, which meant originally Asura. There couldn't be any Vedic seer or Vedic elements present in original story because Vedic religion had not been introduced here, forget its spread and conversions. We have to see the time when Vedic entered India and found some space in north India. Ramayana happened long before the entry of Vedic religion. So the first phase must have been devoid of any Vedic element.
In the second phase, it was turned to a small epic “Paulatsya Vadh” (killing of Ravana) in which war was the major subject. It is said that it was the elaborative version of the original balladic germ.
The third phase consisted composition of second to sixth parts of the Ramayana in which the most of the story was shaped, right from exile of Rama till his victory over Ravana. This body of the epic shows Rama mostly in human form.However, it was contaminated with the Vedic elements in an order to boost Vedic religion.
In the fourth phase, that might have been sometime between second to fourth century AD, first and last parts were composed and annexed to the original body of Ramayana. These two parts portray Rama in divine form.It is loaded with the Vedic propaganda thus spoiling the original Asura (Anarya) character of Rama.
The heavy interpolations make it impossible to determine whether Rama was a historical figure or not. In all probabilities, Rama seems to be a real person on whom the original ballad was composed. However, traces of the originality have become too obscure in present Ramayana. Still, the epic has its historical role in present Hindu religion. Rama is revered by most of the Hindus for his ideal character and divine qualities.
However, Ramayana has been a subject of criticism as well as the debate over construction and the character of Rama that has many contradictions and humanly flaws. Even purpose of interpolations and additions to the original body of Ramayana has given ways for many speculations. Let us discuss some of them from a new angle:
Was Valmiki contemporary to Rama?
If we look at the present Ramayana, it contains many contradictions. The first part of Ramayana, Balkanda, narrates us a story how Valmiki was inspired to compose this epic. The story goes like this:
“When Seer Narada visited hermitage of Valmiki, Valmiki asked him a question: ‘O great sage Narada, who is most virtuous, valiant, religious, truthful and able to cause terror in the hearts of the Gods when angry on this earth?’ Narada answered, ‘The virtues you have mentioned are hard to find in any single person. However, there is Rama of Ikshvaku clan who is an ideal person.’ Valmiki requested to Narada to narrate deeds of Rama. Narada happily did so and later Valmiki composed Ramayana in lyrical form.”
The beginning of the story itself is baffling. It shows Valmiki did not know Rama at all! Had it been the case there wouldn’t be any need to ask Narada to recite biography of Rama.
Ramayana in later parts makes him an active character in Rama story, being a patron of Seeta and her twin boys. Thus making him contemporary to Rama!
This makes one speculate that either story is false. And yes, not only one, but both the stories are created in later times by incorporating new two parts (first and last part) to original 5 parts of Ramayana. Linguists and scholars in the majority have accepted this addition.
The latter addition was done with following secret purposes:
1. To adorn Rama with divinity that hardly can be found in the main body of original five parts.
2. By fabricating a story of Rama's birth, showing he was born from the semen (Payas) of Vedic Seer Rishyashringa, thus suggested biological father of Rama was a Vedic Brahmin. (An old stupendous idea of the Vedics.)
3. To propagate supremacy of the patriarchal social order that Vedic adhered where women were treated secondary to the male counterpart. Seeta was abandoned only on a doubt over her purity expressed by an ordinary citizen. Chastity of the women should be beyond doubt or could be expelled by the husband was the message this story delivered.
4. In the first part, Rama is shown protecting fire sacrifices conducted by Vedic seers from destructive Asura’s and Raksasa’s, thus making Rama savior of Vedic religion.
5. The story of Shambuka, a shudra, appears in last part in which Rama is shown assassinating him just because he was conducting Tapa , a Vedic ritual reserved only for the Vedic people. The story was created to prohibit Shudra’s from practicing any Vedic ritual. The story even demeans the Shudras (Hindus) when Rama was indeed part of their culture and religion.
6. Through Ramayana, it was attempted to establish that Vedic culture extended to southern parts of India because of the advent of Rama.
There are many other points in the whole story that can be discussed on similar grounds.
However, it makes clear Ramayana was used solely to elevate Vedicism to ultimate conquerors over Non-Vedic people through the fabricated epic. This also was to establish protection of Vedic rituals was a divine duty of all other ordinary people.
Valmiki couldn’t have been contemporary of Rama looking at the various phases Ramayana has undergone through the centuries. However, Valmiki himself bears all the characteristics of Anarya (Hindu) personality, though Vedic created many stories to erase his origin. The original ballad or first phase of Ramayana seems to be composed by Valmiki, but later versions are creations of the Vedic poets of the later era.
If looked carefully we can clearly see the main purpose of Ramayana is to show a cultural conflict of those times between Vedic’s and non-Vedic Shaivait people.
Ramayana as a tool helped Vedic people to play a great psychological warfare showing the victory of Vedic over Non-Vedic at the hands of Divine. And this worked out well!
Some ancient obscure Rama of ballads was so cleverly used to play a divine role in epic to successfully spread moral supremacy of the Vedic religion is a thing highly hard to achieve otherwise!
If we carefully study the story of present Ramayana there is actually nothing special about it. In a way it is one liner. How exiled prince frees his abducted wife from the custody of enemy. That’s it!
But the overall portrayal goes in such a clever manner that it makes one overlook lacunae’s forcing one believe Rama, an incarnation of the Lord and all his deeds morally correct!
The story of Rama was used by Jains, Buddhists to propagate their religion too! This is art of the staunch followers of the religion to somehow connect the famous personalities with their religion. Vedics had been too successful in this attempt.
Where was Ravana’s Lanka?
It is a faith of Hindu’s that present Sri Lanka and Ravana’s Lanka are one and the same. Setu Samudram project is stalled by Hindu activists by raising a serious objection that Government will be destroying the man-made ancient heritage, the bridge, built by Lord Rama and his monkey aides if the project started!
But the main question needs to address is where was Ravana’s Lanka, if at all it existed?
Unbiased scholars have given due thought to this question in recent past. I too have my little contribution to support their theory that can be put down as under:
1. If studied Ramayana carefully, a startling truth appears that Lanka of Ravana was not present Sri Lanka, as the course of Rama’s entire travel by every count does not cross over 450 kilometers from his capital to so-called Lanka.
Present Sri Lanka is thousands of miles apart from Ayodhya.
2. According to Sardar Madhavrao Kibe, Lanka must have been situated in the Vindhya mountain ranges somewhere in Chattisgarh region. He has meticulously compiled the scattered references left in Ramayana itself to make his theory.
3. According to Dr. H. D. Sankalia, a famous archeologist too supports Mr. Kibe stating Lanka was in Vindhya mountain ranges. He also states that Lanka was not an island, but a land beyond some lake.
4. There is no mention anywhere of sea-shore in Ramayana while describing Lanka. Also, Lanka is not called an island anywhere in Ramayana. There also is no mention of Rameshvaram anywhere at all.
5. There still are tribes in Chattisgarh region those identify them as descendants of Ravana and worship him.
6. The trees mentioned in the epic are only found in Vindhya region and not in southern India at all!
Considering above points present Sri Lanka could not be Lanka of Ramayana. The myths have been created to achieve major but hidden objectives those are explained above.
It clearly seems that the later composers of the Ramayana, did not south Indian geography at all! Still, they tried to connect with Rama through a concocted fictitious story!
So Ramayana, no matter how sacred it is labeled, the story has a base of certain socio-religious objective downplayed but so obvious! The objective so far has been a tremendous success. Through Rama, a culture was forced and preached that never ever was a part of the majority of the people. People fell for the ideal character that so innocently was being presented before them…they overlooked what was being preached and stressed through him and his story!
The cultural war was fought by Vedic’s through this epic to achieve superiority over non-Vedic, i.e. Shaivait people, real Hindu’s.
Here let us not forget Ravana is shown as a great devotee of Lord Shiva who was killed at the hands of, protector of fire sacrifice of Vedic’s, Rama!
Ramayana heavily corrupted Hindu minds through the superficially innocent story! Vedic religion got attached to Shaivait religion keeping Vedic supremacy intact!
Not that all religious wars are fought on battlegrounds or in preaching rooms…just write a wonderful epic like Ramayana and you have won them!
Rama is a hero of ancient epic Ramayana and is worshiped by the masses as the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Valmiki is credited with authorship of Ramayana. The Ramayana suggests Valmiki being contemporary of Rama. Seeta, the wife of Rama, had secured shelter at his hermitage of Valmiki when Rama had abandoned her doubting her character.
It seems that story of Rama has evolved in at least four phases. In the earliest period, before 10th century BC, it was just a heroic ballad detailing war between Rama and Ravana. Rama originally belonged to the race of Sun, which meant originally Asura. There couldn't be any Vedic seer or Vedic elements present in original story because Vedic religion had not been introduced here, forget its spread and conversions. We have to see the time when Vedic entered India and found some space in north India. Ramayana happened long before the entry of Vedic religion. So the first phase must have been devoid of any Vedic element.
In the second phase, it was turned to a small epic “Paulatsya Vadh” (killing of Ravana) in which war was the major subject. It is said that it was the elaborative version of the original balladic germ.
The third phase consisted composition of second to sixth parts of the Ramayana in which the most of the story was shaped, right from exile of Rama till his victory over Ravana. This body of the epic shows Rama mostly in human form.However, it was contaminated with the Vedic elements in an order to boost Vedic religion.
In the fourth phase, that might have been sometime between second to fourth century AD, first and last parts were composed and annexed to the original body of Ramayana. These two parts portray Rama in divine form.It is loaded with the Vedic propaganda thus spoiling the original Asura (Anarya) character of Rama.
The heavy interpolations make it impossible to determine whether Rama was a historical figure or not. In all probabilities, Rama seems to be a real person on whom the original ballad was composed. However, traces of the originality have become too obscure in present Ramayana. Still, the epic has its historical role in present Hindu religion. Rama is revered by most of the Hindus for his ideal character and divine qualities.
However, Ramayana has been a subject of criticism as well as the debate over construction and the character of Rama that has many contradictions and humanly flaws. Even purpose of interpolations and additions to the original body of Ramayana has given ways for many speculations. Let us discuss some of them from a new angle:
Was Valmiki contemporary to Rama?
If we look at the present Ramayana, it contains many contradictions. The first part of Ramayana, Balkanda, narrates us a story how Valmiki was inspired to compose this epic. The story goes like this:
“When Seer Narada visited hermitage of Valmiki, Valmiki asked him a question: ‘O great sage Narada, who is most virtuous, valiant, religious, truthful and able to cause terror in the hearts of the Gods when angry on this earth?’ Narada answered, ‘The virtues you have mentioned are hard to find in any single person. However, there is Rama of Ikshvaku clan who is an ideal person.’ Valmiki requested to Narada to narrate deeds of Rama. Narada happily did so and later Valmiki composed Ramayana in lyrical form.”
The beginning of the story itself is baffling. It shows Valmiki did not know Rama at all! Had it been the case there wouldn’t be any need to ask Narada to recite biography of Rama.
Ramayana in later parts makes him an active character in Rama story, being a patron of Seeta and her twin boys. Thus making him contemporary to Rama!
This makes one speculate that either story is false. And yes, not only one, but both the stories are created in later times by incorporating new two parts (first and last part) to original 5 parts of Ramayana. Linguists and scholars in the majority have accepted this addition.
The latter addition was done with following secret purposes:
1. To adorn Rama with divinity that hardly can be found in the main body of original five parts.
2. By fabricating a story of Rama's birth, showing he was born from the semen (Payas) of Vedic Seer Rishyashringa, thus suggested biological father of Rama was a Vedic Brahmin. (An old stupendous idea of the Vedics.)
3. To propagate supremacy of the patriarchal social order that Vedic adhered where women were treated secondary to the male counterpart. Seeta was abandoned only on a doubt over her purity expressed by an ordinary citizen. Chastity of the women should be beyond doubt or could be expelled by the husband was the message this story delivered.
4. In the first part, Rama is shown protecting fire sacrifices conducted by Vedic seers from destructive Asura’s and Raksasa’s, thus making Rama savior of Vedic religion.
5. The story of Shambuka, a shudra, appears in last part in which Rama is shown assassinating him just because he was conducting Tapa , a Vedic ritual reserved only for the Vedic people. The story was created to prohibit Shudra’s from practicing any Vedic ritual. The story even demeans the Shudras (Hindus) when Rama was indeed part of their culture and religion.
6. Through Ramayana, it was attempted to establish that Vedic culture extended to southern parts of India because of the advent of Rama.
There are many other points in the whole story that can be discussed on similar grounds.
However, it makes clear Ramayana was used solely to elevate Vedicism to ultimate conquerors over Non-Vedic people through the fabricated epic. This also was to establish protection of Vedic rituals was a divine duty of all other ordinary people.
Valmiki couldn’t have been contemporary of Rama looking at the various phases Ramayana has undergone through the centuries. However, Valmiki himself bears all the characteristics of Anarya (Hindu) personality, though Vedic created many stories to erase his origin. The original ballad or first phase of Ramayana seems to be composed by Valmiki, but later versions are creations of the Vedic poets of the later era.
If looked carefully we can clearly see the main purpose of Ramayana is to show a cultural conflict of those times between Vedic’s and non-Vedic Shaivait people.
Ramayana as a tool helped Vedic people to play a great psychological warfare showing the victory of Vedic over Non-Vedic at the hands of Divine. And this worked out well!
Some ancient obscure Rama of ballads was so cleverly used to play a divine role in epic to successfully spread moral supremacy of the Vedic religion is a thing highly hard to achieve otherwise!
If we carefully study the story of present Ramayana there is actually nothing special about it. In a way it is one liner. How exiled prince frees his abducted wife from the custody of enemy. That’s it!
But the overall portrayal goes in such a clever manner that it makes one overlook lacunae’s forcing one believe Rama, an incarnation of the Lord and all his deeds morally correct!
The story of Rama was used by Jains, Buddhists to propagate their religion too! This is art of the staunch followers of the religion to somehow connect the famous personalities with their religion. Vedics had been too successful in this attempt.
Where was Ravana’s Lanka?
It is a faith of Hindu’s that present Sri Lanka and Ravana’s Lanka are one and the same. Setu Samudram project is stalled by Hindu activists by raising a serious objection that Government will be destroying the man-made ancient heritage, the bridge, built by Lord Rama and his monkey aides if the project started!
But the main question needs to address is where was Ravana’s Lanka, if at all it existed?
Unbiased scholars have given due thought to this question in recent past. I too have my little contribution to support their theory that can be put down as under:
1. If studied Ramayana carefully, a startling truth appears that Lanka of Ravana was not present Sri Lanka, as the course of Rama’s entire travel by every count does not cross over 450 kilometers from his capital to so-called Lanka.
Present Sri Lanka is thousands of miles apart from Ayodhya.
2. According to Sardar Madhavrao Kibe, Lanka must have been situated in the Vindhya mountain ranges somewhere in Chattisgarh region. He has meticulously compiled the scattered references left in Ramayana itself to make his theory.
3. According to Dr. H. D. Sankalia, a famous archeologist too supports Mr. Kibe stating Lanka was in Vindhya mountain ranges. He also states that Lanka was not an island, but a land beyond some lake.
4. There is no mention anywhere of sea-shore in Ramayana while describing Lanka. Also, Lanka is not called an island anywhere in Ramayana. There also is no mention of Rameshvaram anywhere at all.
5. There still are tribes in Chattisgarh region those identify them as descendants of Ravana and worship him.
6. The trees mentioned in the epic are only found in Vindhya region and not in southern India at all!
Considering above points present Sri Lanka could not be Lanka of Ramayana. The myths have been created to achieve major but hidden objectives those are explained above.
It clearly seems that the later composers of the Ramayana, did not south Indian geography at all! Still, they tried to connect with Rama through a concocted fictitious story!
So Ramayana, no matter how sacred it is labeled, the story has a base of certain socio-religious objective downplayed but so obvious! The objective so far has been a tremendous success. Through Rama, a culture was forced and preached that never ever was a part of the majority of the people. People fell for the ideal character that so innocently was being presented before them…they overlooked what was being preached and stressed through him and his story!
The cultural war was fought by Vedic’s through this epic to achieve superiority over non-Vedic, i.e. Shaivait people, real Hindu’s.
Here let us not forget Ravana is shown as a great devotee of Lord Shiva who was killed at the hands of, protector of fire sacrifice of Vedic’s, Rama!
Ramayana heavily corrupted Hindu minds through the superficially innocent story! Vedic religion got attached to Shaivait religion keeping Vedic supremacy intact!
Not that all religious wars are fought on battlegrounds or in preaching rooms…just write a wonderful epic like Ramayana and you have won them!
You are right. Vedic arya people follow vedas. Shaivites follow puran and tantra.
ReplyDeleteThe last chapter of ramayana was added after the death of Rishi Valmiki.
Mahabharata was written earlier than Ramayana.Mahabharata has many stories like Sati savitri,shakuntala-Dushyant,Yayati-Damayanti etc.Ramayana was also one such story.Before Valmiki,Ramayana was known to the people from Mahabharata,Valmiki rewrote Ramayana in detail.Uttar Ramayana was later created and Valmiki was made part of the Ramayana
ReplyDeleteCould u share the dates on which mahabharat and ramayana were written ?
Delete