RAMAYAN AND HISTORY

विष्णु अवतार श्री राम, पृथ्वी पर क्यूँ अवतरित हुए थे, तथा उन्होंने क्या क्या धर्म स्थापित करे? इसका कोइ स्पष्ट उत्तर आपको नहीं मिलेगा, उल्टा आपको शब्दों के जाल से भ्रमित करके, फिर यह बताया जाएगा, कि  श्री राम, रावण का वध करने के लिए अवतरित हुए थे| यह बिलकुल गलत है| ~~Why Shri Ram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, came on this earth and what Dharm(s) he established? All we are told, after lot of jugglery of words, is that he came to kill Ravan.No this is WRONG.

In view of the growing popularity of TV channels , lot of serials 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.

Some of the questions that a modern viewer asks are? 

1. What was so important about Yagna that King Dashrath was persuaded to send his sons to assist Sage Vishwamitra? 
2. Why did Shri Ram proceeded to Janakpuri after the Yagna?. 
3. How did Kaekai 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. 
4. Why did Bharat after making so much of noise, return empty-handed from forest and could not bring back Ram? 
5. Later, when Hanuman was bringing Sanjeevni & when Bharat came to know about it, why did he not send any help or assistance to Shri Ram? 
6. Where is Vibhishan now? His tribe 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 could 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 Ravan to some sort of arrangements so that human being evolving 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 the 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 Ravan and persuaded him to bring Ravan for negotiation. 

Without going into details, the following decisions were taken during negotiation with Ravan 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, had outlived its purpose & was to be dismantled.
2. Ravana would have no objection for fighting a decisive battle with Shri Ram, and in case he got 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 had gifted the entire earth to VAAMAN, an incarnation of Vishnu and at that time it was agreed that Rakshas could stay in Pataal Lok). He also assured that under no circumstances civilized life as existing in various kingdoms would be touched provided Shri Ram did not receive any help from them in his battle. It was also decided that this fact would be made public before dismantling Shiv Dhanush.
3. Shri Ram would 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 would be suitable for them for proper growth. The 14 years period could start as per the convenience of Shri Ram and towards the end of that period only, the decisive battle would be fought.
4. Ravan blessed Shri Ram for success in his endeavor.

After that they proceeded to Janakpuri where Janak had 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.” 

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 voids that exist because of Bhakti mode in which the epic had been written. Ramayan, becomes more credible, as part of ancient history. 

Lot of people have started feeling that Hindu Religion had 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.
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