How fast do monkeys fly -- in Ramayana?

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http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1075939,00110004.htm

 

How fast do monkeys fly - in Ramayana?

Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, October 27

 

Ten-headed demon king Ravana of the Hindu epic Ramayana actually had

one

head and the other nine were its reflection on the nine large

polished gems

that he wore around his neck, an American scholar of Sanskrit has

reasoned.

 

According to Berkeley professor RP Goldman, ancient scholars who

delved deep

into Hindu mythological texts like the Ramayana, tried

to "rationalise"

several of the seemingly improbable tales -- like Ravana's 10 heads,

or how

fast could Hanuman the monkey god have flown to get the sanjivani, or

elixir, for Laxmana, or even how long would Kumbhakarna - Ravana's

brother -

have slept.

 

In a lecture in New Delhi titled aptly, "How fast do Monkeys Fly?

How Long

do Demons Sleep?" where he read commentaries on Sanskrit epic poetry,

Goldman said ancient scholars like Nagoji Bhatta, Govindaraja,

Maheshwara

Teertha, Satyateertha and Madhava Yogendra tried to "track down the

narrative" and explain through "scientific reasoning" the seeming

exaggerations in the works.

 

Goldman, who is professor of Sanskrit at the University of

California at

Berkeley, said the Sanskrit scholars, who lived between 1200 and

1800 AD,

were not "prepared to swallow anything" and went through the texts

carefully.

 

Reciting extracts of Sanskrit couplets in a singsong manner from the

works

of these scholars, Goldman explained the meanings and the finer

nuances of

the language to the audience at India International Centre.

 

According to him, the commentators have painstakingly chronicled day-

to-day

events of the Battle of Lanka, the 6th book of the Ramayana. They

have done

meticulous calculations of the lunar calendar to explain how many

hours

could have elapsed between the slaying of Kumbhakarna to the

vanquishing of

Meghnad, or even if the war with Ravana lasted just one night

or 'sapta

ratras' (seven nights).

 

One important question that these scholars raised was how long could

Hanuman

have taken to fly to the Himalayas - to the Mahodaya mountain to

fetch the

life-giving herb for Lakshmana - from Lanka, where the battle was

raging?

 

"How fast do monkeys fly? It was a matter of scholarly reasoning for

the

commentators," said Goldman. Some of them worked it down to a speed

of

roughly 660 km an hour considering Hanuman first brought the

mountain to

Lanka and then flew back all the way to put it back in its

place. "Hanuman

was quite ecologically conscious," said Goldman.

 

Even the duration of Kumbhakarna's prodigious sleep in

the "Yudhakanda"

(story of the battle) has been a matter of great study, with the

scholars

"expending considerable ingenuity to explain" whether Ravana's

brother slept

for six months, seven, eight or nine months. Goldman said there were

four

different calculations to explain Kumbhakarna's duration of sleep.

 

Goldman said he fell in love with Indian culture and history when he

was a

20-year-old student at Columbia University, New York.

 

"I was studying chemistry and took up a course on Indian history,"

he said.

 

"I became fascinated. Indian history and culture was so rich," said

Goldman,

now 60.

 

He took to studying Sanskrit, which he found "very tough and

complicated".

But he mastered it.

 

Goldman said though he likes both the Ramayana and Mahabharata, he

is "more

involved" with the former.

 

He said, the Ramayana and Mahabharata are "living texts" since they

are part

of the Indian way of life - they are shown on TV, the "Ramlila" is

enacted

every year and on Dussehra, the effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and

Meghnad

are burnt.

 

Goldman has written a book on the Mahabharata and has come out with a

five-volume translation of the Ramayana with his colleagues with two

more

volumes to be released.

 

His wife is also deeply into the study of Sanskrit texts, he said.

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