Versions of Uttarkand

Originally posted by: Khalrika

My source for all this is the book Sanskrit Ramayanas other than Valmiki's The Adbhuta, Adhyatma, and Ananda Ramayanas by Dr. V. Ragahvan. Dr. Raghavan was a very renowned scholar in Sanskrit of yester years and he was the Head of the Department of Sanskrit at Madras (Chennai) University.

Ananda Ramayan has Uttarkand. Ananda Ramayana is very confused about Uttarkand.

Ananda Ramayana:

1. Rama splitting himself into many Rama's and hugging everyone as shown by Sagars is from Ananda Ramayan. " Rama took as many formas as the people there and embraced everyone."

2. It is Ananda Ramayana that says that Rama had 3 things only once: wife, word, and arrow.

3. According to Ananda Ramayana, Janaka comes to Ayodhya to take Sita to Mithila for the birth of the children. Rama is unable to bear even the thought of the separation. So he is said to devise a plan. He uses the gossip of the washer woman and sends Sita to Valmiki ashram. He then asks Janaka to come and live with his daughter in Valmiki ashram. Janaka brings a large retinue with him and then builds a palace for Sita near Valmiki ashram.

4. Rama also tells Sita about the events that will happen after the birth of the children before sending her away. Also, in Ananda Ramayan there is a story that Kaikeye is the reason for the banishment of Sita in her 8th month of pregnancy. Kaikeye is plotting against Rama again. She aska Sita to draw a picture of Ravana. Sita draws only the toe because that is all she has seen. Kaikeye finishes the picture and then tells Rama that Sita drew it. Her idea is Rama will not survive the banishment of Sita and he will die. Lakshmana will also go away if Rama dies and the kingdom can go to Bharata.

5. Rama is forced to banish her and he uses the gossip of the washer woman as the pretext. He asks Lakshmana to cut off Sita's arm 😕😕 and bring it him as proof. Lakshman is unable to do that and he asks Vishwakarma to produce an exact replica of Sita's arm.

6. Ramji then takes to an ascetic way of life. According to Ananda Ramayana, Ramji visits his wife in the ashram secretly on the day of the birth of the children and performs Namakaran ceremony. (I guess this was the inspiration for the Sagars "brilliant" idea of using Vishuji visit Sita. 😆😆😆)

7. It is in Ananda Ramayana that Valmiki creates Lava. So, according to this Ramayan only Kusa was born and Lava was a creation of Maharishi Valmiki.

Birth of the children of the brothers:

I guess the Sagars followed the Ananda Ramayana here. According to Ananda Ramayan, the brothers all had twins and were born at the same time.

Ananda Ramayana, also has a very elaborate story of Lava Kusa. In Ananda Ramayana, Ramji does not allow Sita to go into the earth. He brings her back and they live happily together after that.

The Adhbuta Ramayan also had Uttarkand. The book I have does not discuss Adbuta at all. When I have the time I will do some research and post it.

Somehow, I don't think that Ramayans that paint such an ugly picture of our Rama belong there with the more reputed versions of the epic. Even Sharath Rocha couldn't write such a vile account of Rama if he wanted to - Rama asking Lakshman to cut off Sita's hand?😲😲😲

And while I don't like Kaikeyi any more than the next person, does it sound even sane that somebody who was ostracized by her own son for at least 14 years would try to re-do the plot, and this time targetting Sita? Too bad they didn't have drug testing when people wrote such excrement.😡😡😡

I used to think the Sagars loved Rama. I'm stunned that they dug up this debris and are displaying it as 'the' version they're going with.