RAMAYAN AND HISTORY

 
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In view of the fact that with the growing popularity of TV
channels , lot of serial on Ramayan are being made, people want to know, how
much of this can be classified as facts .One of the possible reason for this is
the continuing debate in most of the Hindi channels regarding historical
veracity of the episode. This has created interest in Ramayan Era and the
viewer is interested in knowing how Ramayan is related to history. Since the
period of Shri Ram is at least 5.00 Lacs yr old by some and much older as per
Surya Siddantha the result is confusion. The other problem is that the entire
story or History, as we know today, is based on Bhakti and not edited (with
facts contained in the story itself) to suit the modern day viewers. This
reduces the involvement of a large part of viewers who do not get
interested/involved.

 

For instance, no one tells an average Hindu believer why
Shri Ram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, came on this earth and what Dharm he
established? All we are told, after lot of jugglery of words, is that he came
to kill Ravana. What was the Dharm he established – no clear answer - in fact Shri Ram  is wrongly blamed for supporting Agni Pariksha
which he has opposed.

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Some of the questions that a modern
viewer asks are?

 

·       

What
was so important about Yagna that King Dashrath was persuaded to send his sons
to assist Sage Vishwamitra?

 

·       

Why
did Shri Ram proceeded to Janakpuri after the Yagna?.

 

·       

How
could Kakaee manipulate the entire royal family of Ayodhya for awarding vanvaas
to Ram? The answer is important since Hindus worship Shri Ram to ward off such
untimely obstruction, and there Ram was present in person yet the manipulation
succeeded.

 

·       

Why
did Bharat after making so much of noise, return empty-handed from forest and
could not bring back Ram?

 

·       

Later,
when Hanuman was bringing Sanjeevni & when Bharat comes to know about it,
why he did not send any help or assistance to Shri Ram?

 

·       

Where
is Vibhishan now? He is supposed to live till the end of KALP.He is not in Lanka.

 

Once again – and this being recent(only 5000 yrs old) is
very important - why Shri Krishna came on this earth & what Dharm he
established and how? They even ignore the fact that Mahabharata war, which
involved the entire civilized societies/kingdoms around the world, was so
massive and so destructive that it totally weekend the fabric on which the
civilized societies of that period were based. They became susceptible to
attack from barbarians both from within and outside the societies. This coupled
with natural disasters totally destroyed the entire civilized life, slowly but
surely, within a period of 500-1000 years. As a result, Kalyug started with
Stone Age which no known history.

 

Post Mahabharata, even Shri Krishna was instrumental in
killing his kins who were involved in barbarianism. And the evidence presented
by Indus Valley Civilization, that cities which were MUCH older were more
advanced than those which were LESS old is physical evidence of the same.
Interestingly if one beliefs in Shri Krishna as a historical figure, one has to
believe in above. No other conclusion is possible.

 

Getting back to Shri Ram let us go through briefly, the
historical facts till his marriage, as I understand them:

 

“After the birth of Shri Ram and when he was about 16 yrs
old, Sage Vishwamitra came to meet King Dashrath and requested assistance to
bring around Rakshas headed by Ravana to some sort of arrangements so that
human being evolved from the animal kingdom through the long process of humanization may get a chance to survive
and grow as civilized societies all around the world. At present they were
being eaten up as other animals by Rakshas and were called VANARS. Sage
Vishwamitra requested that for his efforts (Yagna) to succeed Shri Ram be
allowed to accompany him as he was the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. After much
persuasion King Dashrath agreed.

 

Lakshman along with Shri Ram accompanied Sage Vishwamitra in
a forest where Tadaka lived along with her follower. They succeeded in enticing
her for war where Shri Ram easily killed her and destroyed her fortress. They
also incapacitated Marichi another fearsome Rakshas who was an uncle of Ravana
and persuaded him to bring Ravana for negotiation otherwise further devastation
will take place.

 

Without going into details, the following decisions were
taken during negotiation with Ravana in which King Janak also participated as
representative of all kingdoms:

 

1. Shiv Dhanush, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction,
which could totally destroy all sort
of life on earth, if used, has outlived its purpose & is to be dismantled.

 

2. Ravana shall have no objection for fighting a decisive
battle with Shri Ram and in case he
is killed in battle his followers will return to Pataal Lok after a specified
period of time(this is important- because Bali , the earlier Rakshas king has
gifted the entire earth to VAAMAN ,an incarnation of Vishnu and at that time it
was agreed that Rakshas can stay in Pataal Lok) . He also assured that under no
circumstances civilized life as existing in various kingdoms will be touched
provided Shri Ram did not receive any help from them in his battle. It was also
decided that this fact will be made public before dismantling Shiv Dhanush.

 

3. Shri Ram will stay as Vanvasi for a period of 14 years in
forest to educate these new evolving human beings about civilized life and
earmark the specific areas in the forest which will be suitable for them for
proper growth. The 14 years period can start as per the convenience of Shri Ram
and towards the end of this period only, the decisive battle will be fought.

 

4. Ravana blessed Shri Ram for success in his endeavor.

 

 After that they
proceeded to Jankpuri where Janak has already publicized the important details
of negotiations and arranged a  Swambar
in which any worthy  person who could
dismantle Shiv Dhanush would be awarded with marriage with Sita. Here after all
the kings and worthy nobles have failed, Shri Ram dismantled Shiv Dhanush and
claimed Sita’s hand in marriage.”

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Now the above narration simply edits the story in such a way
that it answers all the question a modern day viewer may ask. The story can now
proceed with some minor editing here and there. It accepts the geographical earth
and life as existed in Treta Yug and fills in the void that exists because of
Bhakti mode in which the epic has been written. Ramayan, becomes more credible,
as part of ancient history. 

 

Lot of people have started feeling that Hindu Religion has
totally moved away from the cherished path and is now completely moving in a
different direction as a result that Hindus, by and large, although being
highly religious, are not getting desired result as a society. Lack
of education for girls, dowry deaths, suicides among farmers, increase in court
cases among relatives, mistrust and discontent, are all physical parameters to
measure the effectiveness or success/failure of religion in a society. This
compiled with fact that religious shops ( no. of Gurus) have increased, the
spending on religion by Hindus have increased drastically-- speak of disastrous
misadventure. All this need to be corrected– at least sincere effort has to be
made.

 

 There are people who
would like to be associated in this endeavor. However they do not know how. But
there has to be something which can be done. There are lots of other problems
involving masses at large which need to be highlighted properly.

 

 

 

---------------- Note: Content of this blog post is writer's personal opinion and may not be SanghParivar.org or Sangh's view.