Happy to be writing a post on Rama on Rama Navami, Nandana Samvatsara...this is less about the Ramayana itself than it is about cultural impact and political issues today.
Rama was born to king Dasharatha of Kosala (capital: Ayodhya) in the Treta Yuga, the third avatar of Vishnu in that yuga - after Vamana and Parashurama. Interestingly, this is the first yuga where Vishnu incarnates as normal humans, the Satya yuga having included Matsya, Koorma, Varaha and Narasimha.
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| Rama breaking the bow to win Sita. Nobody else was able to even lift the bow. Raja Ravi Varma. |
The story of Rama, by and large, is familiar to most of us from India, and the reason is probably because the Ramayana is such an important part of our culture that the story is familiar to everyone cutting across faiths and subcontinent cultures. In fact, not so long ago many a village in the subcontinent would have a local legend about Rama having passed through on way to Lanka, or Sita having dropped some jewels when being flown by Ravana to Lanka, etc. Whether these were true or not in each case, the pride in being somehow related to Rama can be infectious. Rama is still the benchmark for a man, and comparative references to Rama's eka patni vratha are common even in contemporary conversations.
There are various estimates for the time period of the Ramayana, ranging from 20,000 years ago to much earlier. Dating events in the previous yugas becomes tricky due to several reasons, including the ages of people and other frames of references being very different. I read some accounts of Rama rajya having run for a period of 11,000 years. Again, I'm unsure of whether this is a time period comparable to 11,000 years in kali yuga. Another aspect to consider is that some schools of thought propose yuga sandhis between different yugas, periods of dormant metamorphosis of the earth where changes in environment, species, continents, etc. take place. Going by this theory, the age of the ramayana would have to account for 2 yuga sandhis.
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| Javanese Ramayana play. Courtesy hinduyuva.org |
What amazes me is the spread of the legend of Rama beyond the seas, to countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. In fact, the Indonesians do plays to this day depicting the Ramayana.
The Javanese (Indonesia) version of the Ramayana may not mirror the mainstream Indian versions exactly. Still, that this is still a part of their culture is inspiring.
Rama has become a major flashpoint in India in recent times. The Babri demolition and subsequent riots are an example. The issue however is not as recent as the 1990s, but appears to have been simmering for at least 2-3 centuries, during the Mughal and then British rule of India. I will not go into this issue here, but a more recent 'academic' controversy is worth noting. Delhi University decided to include (and subsequently revoked, after protests) an essay by AK Ramanujam describing several different versions of Ramayana. There do exist perverted versions of the Ramayana that depict Rama and Sita as siblings, for example, but I don't believe that these versions were at all part of the culture of the land. The differences in the credible versions are much more subtle. I haven't read Ramanjuam's essay, but going by media accounts, what he attempted was likely just a collection of the different versions. When in no way reflective of the culture or beliefs of the people, it would have been wise on the part of the history department to leave this essay out, or present it in the right light to students.
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| Allama Iqbal. Courtesy: opinion-maker.org |
I was surprised to see a post floating around on Facebook a few weeks ago, about poet Mohammad 'Allama' Iqbal having written a poem on Rama. Iqbal was initially an Indian nationalist, and a secular person (much like Jinnah, but they of course ended up supporting the two nation theory eventually). Iqbal of course wrote the famous Sare Jahaan Se Acha Hindustan Hamara before he took a u-turn. Still, I am happy that when he was saner, he saw Rama through the prism of culture and nationhood, and not via religion or faith. On the other side of the political spectrum (of the 1940s), MK Gandhi was also a famous proponent of Rama rajya. I am not entirely sure what he meant when he used the term, but I'm certain it had no particular religious connotation.
Like many others, I wait for the day that a temple for Rama will stand tall again in Ayodhya, where he administered Rama rajya from.
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