Ramayana

[Guest guest]

Dear Guruvayurappan Group Satsang Members,

Yesterday I was reading one Ramayana book and it said that Rama had a daughter. But no name was given. Out of curiosity I searched and could not find. Then requested through our group and received one reply (Thanks to member Indu).

Today when I was searching again, I got a good article and wants to share with you all. It was written by Mr. V.V. Raman in the website:

http://www.siddha.com.my/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000053-6.html

I give the details provided Mr. V. V. Raman below:

AFTER READING THIS I FEEL PITY (AND ANGRY TOO) ABOUT THOSE WHO SAY THERE IS NO RAMA AND THOSE WHO WANT TO BREAK THE SETHU.

Dear Members, Pl. give your opinion, after reading.

"A version of Ramakien was written by King Rama I who ruled the land from 1782 to 1809. Theodora Bofman has translated it into English. In this epic, King Tosarot of Ayutthya has three wives who, as a result of special rituals, give birth to Phra Ram, Phra Prot, Phra Lak and Phra Satarud. They are all incarnations of Phra Narai. Phra Isual had a gate-keeper by the name of Nontuk (Nandi). It is Nontuk who incarnates as the ten-headed Tosakanth, king of Longka. Tosanath's wife Monto gives birth to Sida. His astrologer predicts that she would destroy the demon race. So the infant is put in a jar which is left in the ocean. She is discovered by King Chanok of Mithila. Phra Ram once ridiculed Queen Kaiyaket. So, years later, she reminds king Tosarot of a pledge he had given her, and asks for a 14 year exile of Phra Ram. There are some adventures here. Tosakanth's sister Samanakha tries to seduce Phra Ram, Lak cuts off her ear, Sida is abducted, a race of monkeys of whom Pali, Sukreep and Hanuman are important members, come to the aid of Phra Ram and there is a climactic war.

I found this version interesting in its own way, but it lacked (for me) the moral majesty of Valmiki. But remarkably, its impact on Thai culture - which is Buddhist - seems to have been considerable. Like other permeations of the Rama story in South East Asia, it has served to propagate the name of Rama beyond the shores of India.

Temple carvings in Kampuchea going back to the 10th century have the Rama theme. Characters of the Ramayana are deified there. In the Khmer version, Reamker, the hero is called Preah Ream, and his wife is Neang Seda. Ravana is known as Reap. Bali has a Ramayana Monkey Chant. In Java there is a Ramayana in the Kawa language, and so on.

The Rama story has traveled to more distant lands and climes, as far as Siberia and Mongolia, cultural historians say. It has undergone regional metamorphoses, no doubt. In one, Hanuman is the child of Rama and Sita, and he is fond of women. Even after Muslim conquests and conversions, the spirit of Rama lingered for long in the culture of many peoples. As if all this is not enough, there are department stores called Ramayana, and a Thai restaurant in The Hague has the name Ramakian. Valmiki must be smiling.

Within India too, the saga of Ramayana is impressive. Whereas Valmiki has been translated several times into English, there is perhaps no translation of his work in any Indian language. Whether it is Madhava Kandali in Assamese or Krittivasa in Bengali, whether Narahari in Kannada or Ezuttacchan in Malayalam, the great poets of India's vernaculars have trans-created rather than translated the original masterpiece, realizing that the message of the epic is more important than details of the specific episodes, and translations of a master-poet can never transmit the grandeur in the original. There are also other Ramayanas in Sanskrit, besides Valmiki's, such as the Adbhuta, the Adhyatma and the Bhushundi Ramayanas.

In one Jain version, Lakshmana is punished because he breached the rule of ahimsa when he killed Ravana.

Versions of the Ramayana have also been published in Persian and Arabic. Most European languages have some version or other of the Ramayana. Gaspare Gorresio was one of the first to bring out a complete translation of Valmiki in several volumes in Italian, already in the 1840s. In 1864 Hippolyte Fauche brought out a French translation of the epic. More recently an abridged version, Le Ramayana, was published by Charles Le Brun. A Spanish El Ramayana has been published In Mexico, and Claudia Schm?rs has written Das Ramayana in German. In the political rancor against the colonizing West, many modern Indians tend to forget the commitment of European scholars to bring to their own people the richness of Indic literature and culture.

Few names in history have spread so far and wide as Rama's. As with Christ and Buddha, his name has become a household world in many nations and cultures. It has inspired great painting, poetry, music and places of worship. But unlike Buddha and Christ, Rama's existence is clouded in the mist of mythic history, in a timeless realm, as it were, making the Rama Principle historically eternal. It is on this that I meditate."

VERY VERY THANKS TO Mr. V.V. RAMAN

Om SanthiDr. Hari Krishna