J-zine - Ramayana

Ramayana

The Ramayana stands together with Mahabharata as one of the great pillars of Indian literature. It is the story of Rama, prince, hero and god. It is the story of the honourable wife, Sita. It is also the story of Hanuman, monkey and deity.

The Ramayana, as written by Valmeeki, portrays Rama as a princely super-hero. Through centuries of retelling, The prince, Rama grew into a god -- an incarnation of the Lord Vishnu. The seeds for deification lay in Valmeeki's work itself. By the time of Tulsidas, whose retelling is the basis of most modern versions, the worship of Rama was firmly established. Rama was Vishnu and vice-versa.

What you understand when you read the Ramayana, depends on your cultural background. It is difficult for a non-Indian to put aside reality and take the verses literally. It is simply a charming story of an army of monkeys and bears, led by a fairy tale prince, fighting a ten-headed demon king. For a hindu and devotee of Rama, these stories are real events from an fantastic epoch where such things could (and did) happen.

The core of the story relates that Rama was banished to live in the forest (interestingly, banishment to the forest is a key event in the Mahabharata, too). Rama, his wife Sita and Rama's brother Lakshmana get along fine until they stray into the domain of the Rakshasas, or demons. Rama and Lakshmana get the better of the rakshasas, but at the cost of agrevating Ravana, the demon king. When Ravana hears how beautiful Rama's wife is, he decides that kidnapping Sita is good revenge.

Thus Rama must besiege Ravana's stronghold on the modern island of Srilanka. He collects an army of monkeys and bears. They cross the sea on a magic bridge and battle begins. All the while Sita has been kept prisoner in a grove. Ravana desires her as a wife and tries all his wiles to win her over, but without avail.

The battle is as wondrous an affair as you would imagine. On the one side an army of monkeys and bears. On the other demons, led by Ravana and his son Indrajit, master of illusion and deception. When things go against Rama's forces, all are slain except Hanuman and Jambavan, the leader of the bears. Hanuman makes a gigantic leap to the Himalayas and brings back a whole mountain, on which grow magic herbs that have the power to heal any hurt and restore life to the dead.

In the end, good triumphs over evil. Rama and Ravana meet in mortal combat. Ravana is unslayable by gods or anyone from heaven or hell. The Lord Brahma had granted him this, but in his arrogance, Ravana omitted to demand immunity from mortals. Rama, as a mortal man has the power to kill this demon that no god or demon can defeat. All but blinded by the false illusion of the god Indra, Rama drew his bowstring and shot the fatal arrow that ended Ravana's life.

The end of the story seems a little contradictory. Initially, Rama will not take back Sita. A Kshatriya [Warrior] could not take back a wife who had lived so long in the house of his enemy. Sita proves herself chaste by emerging unscathed from fire. Rama accepts this as a sign of her purity and takes her, saying that the test was not for him, but required in accordance with the customs of his people.

What does the Ramayna mean to the people of India today? Children learn its stories from comic books and television series, not from elders reciting its verses. Rama is firmly established as an incarnation of the Lord Vishnu. Sita, as the incarnation of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi, is a rôle model for Indian women. Ramayana is, among other things, a love story.

The story of Rama has also been used by modern-day politicians to sow communal discord. Rama's place of birth, Ayodhya, was the arena for some of the ugliest events in India's recent history. A mosque, supposedly built on the site of an earlier hindu temple, was torn down by a crowd of devotees. Their rage and anger was whipped up by cynical people for political gains. The riots that followed the desecration of the mosque exposed the depth of religious hatred that lies underneath the uneasy peace of everday life in India.

Krishna