Ramayan is not a text it's an evolving tradition ( do read plzzz )

This brought to my memory another article by devdutt pattanaik that I read some time back where he says that Ramayan is not a text it's an evolving tradition. In one of his episodes on epic channel he says that a Ramayan told to a child by his mother is as important as Valmiki's Ramayan. Ramayan is not really telling a story but it is giving us some characters who form our benchmark. Ram , Sita Lakshman Urmila Bharat sumitra and many more who form ideals for us by telling us how to excel in different roles in our lives. It is through their pain, hardships , decisions and sacrifice that they teach us lessons in life.

Each author changes something about story which he doesn't like or feels can make better. Tulsidas removes every detail he feels can tarnish lord Ram's image even slightly. He infact removes entire uttar kand and doesn't include it. In Telugu ramayan we have the story of Urmila going to sleep maybe bcoz that writer didn't really like the whole pain of exile falling on her. Coz if we really see Ram is in the company of two ppl who love him the most. Sita and Lakshman are with Ram. It's really Urmila who suffers the biggest loss unnecessarily. So the writer lessens her pain.

The famous pushp Vatika scene never appears in valmiki or tulsi Ramayan. It is agn the idea of south authors. Mahavircharit is the from which Siya ke Ram adapted the first meeting of ram and Siya. I liked it the best though it's not very popular. Not only it gives more room to Sita ma's character but what I found queer was that in serials they showed Ram and Sita seeing each other and falling in love. I know they recognise each other's soul and are not just attracted to outer beauty but that can be more easily explained in writing. In Skr they falll in love without even seeing each that is their soul recognised each other.

Similarly many other stories which we take for granted never really appear in a single version. Ramayan we know today is a khichdi 😆. Point is as Devdutt Pattanaik says take or choose the Ramayan you like best , which appeals to you the most. What is important is it delivers the same values and ideas. ( literally to say don't distort it like Skr at times does) but don't be rigid.

Actually, the pushpa vatika glimpse is from Ramcharitmanas (Tulsidas Ramayana), and it's not about Ram-Sita falling in love with each other's physical beauty, it's about Lakshmi Narayan taking birth in different places and finding each other again. That moment in the pushpa vatika in which they see each other is them recognizing their soul mate. Lakshmi recognizes Narayan in Ram, and Narayan recognizes Lakshmi in Sita. It describes Sita's elation at finding her soulmate (for she had always wanted to marry Vishnu even as a child) and her consequent anxiety at the thought of her swayamvar. She prays to Gauri Ma to grant her Vishnu as her Lord, just as she married Lord Shiva, and when Gauri blesses her she feels at peace.

Some translations of Valmiki Ramayana have Ram and Sita glimpsing each other when Ram enters Mithila and Sita sees him from her balcony. That meeting too is similar to the pushpa vatika one from RCM, with Lakshmi Narayan finding each other at last. Other translations have them meeting for the first time during their wedding.

In neither version do Ram-Sita meet and talk to each other. In that era, communication with men and women was very restricted, particularly royalty. As a princess, Sita would not have had opportunity to meet and talk to Ram, as she was always protected by her sakhis, maids and bodyguards. Likewise, as a prince and moreover of the Raghukul clan, Ram would never have crossed his maryada and talked to a woman who had no relation to him, even if his soul recognized her as his divine consort. After breaking the shiv dhanush, Ram specifically says to Janaka in Valmiki Ramayana that without his own father's blessings, he cannot even contemplate marriage to Sita as until his father approves the match, Sita is unrelated to him. This is not disrespect for Sita, but respect for his father. This is why Ram is called maryada purushotham.

I have read several versions of meetings between Ram and Sita, and I find them all beautiful and sweet to contemplate, but I discard any version which shows Ram and/or Sita breaking their maryada in the name of love. They were both ideal in every way and honored the rules of their era, they honored their parents, and never crossed their boundaries.