Hindu Scripture - Ramayana

from Hinduism, Ancient and Modern

The Itihasas or the epics are, unlike the epics of other nations, are, in India, looked upon as authorities in matters of religion. Of these the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the most popular. The former does not contain rules of morality or religion, but the life of each of its chief characters is itself a rule of conduct for all who care to profit by it. Rama, as described by Valmiki, is a perfect man physically, intellectually and morally. Truth and duty are his watch-words. Nothing ever induces him to depart from his ideals. Sita is a type of perfect womanhood, Lakshmana and Bharata of brotherly devotion, and Hanuman of the duty which a servant owes to a master. Valmiki describes his heroes as they are, and the picture he has presented is one of great beauty and grandeur, at least for the Hindus.

Rama is as happy when living in Ayodhya in the midst of kingly prosperity as in the forest with Sita and Lakshmana by his side. He does not feel the slightest pang in giving up his claim to the heir apparent-ship in favor of his brother Bharata. "I am not," says he, to his step-mother, "desirous of wealth, nor do I care to live in the world. Know me to be, like the rishis, devoted to the path of pure duty." And the poet, in describing the state of his mind in giving up his claim, says "The loss of kingly prosperity does not disturb him, like the moon, which does not lose its beauty even when it is on the wane. It was meet that he did not leave his usual cheerfulness of temper, just as the autumnal moon its splendor." Lakshmana out of love for Rama urges him to disregard his promise to his father, but the hero tells him that to him life in the forest is as agreeable as ruling a kingdom. And what can be sweeter than the picture of Sita passionately appealing to Rama to let her accompany him to the forest. "Devoted to thee, distressed, and considering pleasure and pain equal, thou shouldst take me with thee, the companion of thy pains and pleasures." And how firmly does she preserve her devotion to Rama in the midst of the allurements offered to her by the king of Lanka, and how indignantly she repels his advances!

"The wise live in the world, devoted to duty, in the company of the good,
making gifts to others as the chief object of their lives, injuring none,
pure in conduct and ever worshipped by the good." (Ramayana)

Bharata is also as great in his devotion to Rama as Lakshmana. He not only renounces his proffered heir apparent-ship, but tries to induce Rama to return, and when told by the latter that he shall not depart from the vow he has taken, offers to rule the kingdom in his name during the period of exile. One of the ministers, who appeals to Rama through worldly argument, meets with a rebuff in the shape of a most powerful discourse on truth and duty. "Truth, duty, exertion, charity, mildness of speech, worship of the gods and the twice-born and the guests," says Rama, "constitute, according to the wise, the path of heaven. The wise live in the world, devoted to duty, in the company of the good, making gifts to others as the chief object of their lives, injuring none, pure in conduct and ever worshipped by the good."

And Hanuman, what a figure of courage and wisdom have we in this non-Aryan hero! He is as great in war as in council. Undaunted he enters Ravana's kingdom, openly rebukes him for his meanness in carrying off Sita. Had it not been for his boldness in crossing the sea, Rama would not have heard of Sita, and the course of the Ramayana would have been otherwise. Ravana, Indrajit and Kumbhakarna all stand out as examples of indomitable courage and force of character, which, because it was directed more towards personal gratification than the protection of virtue, brought upon Ravana the ruin of his kingdom and his family.

The poem consists of about 24,000 slokas, mostly in the Anustup meter which Valmiki for the time popularized in India. It comprises seven books, the last of which, the Uttara Kanda is, however, apparently an interpolation, for the poem concludes with a benediction at the end of the sixth canto.

The question of the date of the Ramayana which puzzles European thinkers does not puzzle the Indian reader. The orthodox belief is that Rama flourished in the Treta Yuga described above. European writers make out the kernel of the poem to have been composed about 500 BC, and the later additions to be as late as 200 BC, and even later. It is also thought that the Ramayana is merely an allegory representing the Aryan invasion of the south or the spread of Aryan culture in Ceylon. The internal evidence furnished by the poem is, however, very clear, and shows that Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Ravana, Hanuman, Sugriva and others were all historical personages; that Rama, with the aid of Sugriva and his adherents, invaded Lanka, killed Ravana and brought back Sita, but that he left no mark of Aryan civilization either in Lanka or in Sugriva's kingdom.

The poem also shows that Ravana ruled a kingdom as highly civilized as any in the India of those days, and that he was even a more powerful monarch than any Indian king of his time. As Hanuman told him, "had it not been for his iniquitous proceeding in carrying off the wife of Rama, he would have long enjoyed his kingdom." The theory that Sita represents the furrow, Rama, Indra and Ravana Vritra of Vedic mythology, Hanuman the Maruts and the abduction of Sita, the stealing of cows by Indra, is also a little far-fetched, and owes its origin to the reluctance of European writers to give the Hindus credit for any history. Valmiki deals with Rama's adventures as with those of a contemporary hero, and it would be too much to conclude that they are all a creation of his imagination. But all these theories, however attractive to a European reader, are not so to an Indian who loves and follows Rama and Sita, repeats their names in life and in death all the same, caring little whether they may, or may not, have been historical personages in the European sense of the term.

Source: Nath, Rai Bahadur. Hinduism, Ancient and Modern.

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