Dr. Karunesh Gupta
We should be clear in our minds that any scientific discussion on the historicity of Ramayan, has to be centered around Valmiki Ramayan only. While social, religious, and cultural contributions of later Ramayans can not be undermined, Adi kavi Mahrishi Valmiki wrote as a contemporary admirer, not as a devotee. This great sage has described everything in such great detail as is impossible in a work of fiction. Luckily, much of this internal evidence can now be corroborated by modern research tools. We shall have a brief overview of some of them.
ASTRO ARCHAEOLOGY: While in the 16th century, Galileo was punished and condemned to eternal hell for advocating heliocentrism instead of geocentrism of our planet system, our ancestors had unravelled mysteries of the universe thousands of years ago. This fact is being recognised increasingly by modern astronomers like Karl Sagan, writer of ‘Cosmos’. Now, some Indian scholars, computer scientists, and mathematicians with an Indic vision have started utilising this knowledge of celestial bodies to date various historical events just like archaeological remains are subjected to carbon dating. A wonderful software Planetarium developed thus is capable of picturising the planetary details described in the literature and date them. French software Stellarium and Sky guide software by Fifth Labs also show similar results with variations of 38 to 42 days, which is because of Gregorian modifications in the western calendar in 1582.
Valmiki Ramayan has close to 600 reference points to date various events that match perfectly with their described sequence and timing. For example, the birth of Ram is thus described in Bal kand : In the month of Chaitra on the ninth day of the bright fortnight, with Aditi as presiding deity when the star Punarvasu was in the ascendant and the five planets Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus, were exalted in their own house in karkata lagna, when Brihaspati was in conjunction with the Moon, Kaushalya gave birth to a son. This can be timed as 10th January, 5114 BCE 12.30 p.m. The timing of birth of Bharat, Lakshman, and Shatrughan too match the astronomical details described. The planned coronation of Ram falls on 4th January, 5089 BCE, solar eclipses at the time of fight with Khar Dushan (7th October, 5077 BCE), lunar eclipse when Hanuman first sees Sita in Ashok vatika (12th September, 5076 BCE), the detail of various constellations seen by Hanuman while going to Lanka and back, are some of the numerous astronomical references verifiable by the modern softwares.
Can a fiction writer take such pains for this kind of precision in astronomically dating various events?
FAMILY TREE: The lineage of Ram can be traced up to 63 generations before him and 32 after him in Ramayan and other ancient Indian literature without any mutual contradiction. Surya vansh starts from Rishi Kashyap and Aditi and can be traced up to Bahugreev, a warrior in Mahabharat. Some of his ancestors like Ikshvaku, Harishchandra, Dilip, Bhagirath, Raghu have separate references in other ancient texts. Bachittar Natak traces Bedi vansh (Guru Nanak Dev jI) to Kuch and Sodhi vansh (Guru Ram Das ji onwards) to luv. ‘Bansavali’ present in many Sikh libraries besides endorsing this, traces lineage of second guru Angad Dev ji to Lakshman.
The Mystery of Ram Setu
GEOGRAPHY: The places mentioned in Ramayan still exist at their described locations and have matching local fables and commemorative temples. Valmiki has taken lot of pains to describe the topography, flora and fauna of every place mentioned in great detail, be it the places visited by Ram during vanvas or by troupes of Sugreev in search of Sita. When Bharat and Shatrughan start their journey back from Kaikeya Pradesh (maternal house of Kaikeyi) constituted by parts of present day Afghanistan and Kashmir, the rivers (including Saraswati), mountains, trees, animals encountered on the way are detailed. After Sita’s abduction by Ravan, the places mentioned en route Lanka are all in a straight line (aerial route). Much of the geography remains unchanged even today. Even the river Saraswati as per recent researches is known to have existed till about 4500 BCE.
PALAEOBOTANY: Valmiki has not missed mentioning vegetation of any place that falls in the storyline. Some of the trees mentioned still grow in those places, or there is palaeobotanical evidence of their being there in the past.
OCEANOGRAPHY: Various Oceanography instituters of the world have been able to estimate the rise in sea levels since the initiation of deglaciation in about 18,000 BCE, resulting in ending of ice age about 9700 BCE. The Holocene sea level curve planted by them fully explains the geography described in Vedic period, Ramayan and Mahabharat.
SUPPORTING LITERATURE: No fiction can be rewritten 300 times by different authors in different time periods, cutting across boundaries of region and religion. It may be interesting to know that even Akbar commissioned a Ramayan, which is available in the Sawai Maan Singh museum of Jaipur. His mother, Hamida Banu wife of Humayun, got a pictorial Ramayan prepared, which is housed in Rietberg Museum of Zurich. It is said that moving from place to place along with his husband for fear of Sher Shah Suri, she could relate to suffering of Ram and Sita in exile.
ETERNAL RESPECT: No fictional character can command such deep respect for such a long period even by those who don’t worship him as God. Most of the East Asian Budhist countries hold Ram in high esteem. The king of Thailand with ‘Ayuthya’ its former capital, dons the title of Rama. Muslim Indonesia holds Ram Lilas on a grand scale. Lanka ‘invaded’ by Ram has preserved all the spots mentioned in Ramayan. The statue of Vibhishan (NOT Ravan) in their parliament complex showcases their faith in historicity as well as the spirit of Ramayan.
Even then, if some people insist on Ramayan being a piece of literature only, at least the writer (Valmiki) was real. He himself being a character in the epic, why doubt reality of others in the same story. Interestingly, many of those depicting Ram as myth shower abundant praises on greatness of Ravan, again a character from the same epic.
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