Ramayan - What is original?

There are various version of Ramayan written in different context and environment. IT is matter of scholarly research, archeologically we have so far not found a single evidence to suggest that characters in Epics (ramayan and mahabharat) are real and that the story is based on real events. We have found archeological evidences of places mentioned in these Epics but that only proves that the many writers of these epics had very good knowledge of geography of indian subcontinent.

As far as Valmiki Ramayan is concerned, it starts with Valmiki asking Narada that is there any man on this earth who has god like quality?" He is human in Valmiki Ramayan who tried his best to set an example for exemplary behaviour by men and suffered in his personal life so that he could create a perfect world for his citizens.

I came to know many new things abt Ramayan from your post😊

Thank u so much.

If you try to understand the nature of God, you will realize that God is neither male nor female. He has no form, but he assumes a form through various incarnations in order to help his devotees. Yes, some Gods have more than one "wife" but are they really more than one? All our scriptures say the same thing. All the forms of God are different aspects of Him/Her. All the forms of Devi are one, so it doesn't matter how many forms she takes. Take Lord Krishna for example. People say very wrong things about him because he had 16, 1008 wives, but have they ever tried to understand the secret behind his many marriages? His first eight wives, his principal queens, are the incarnations of Ashta Lakshmi. They may have had different forms, different names, and born to different people, but they are all Mahalakshmi only. As for the 16,100 wives, they were wives in name only but not in action. They were women who were kidnapped by Naraksura and lived a life of hell in his kingdom. Lord Krishna killed him and married them all to give them a secure home, because back in those days an unmarried woman was not safe on her own, particularly a woman who had already lived with another man for many years.

You may ask why did Mahalakshmi take birth to many people, only to marry Lord Krishna over and over again, but that's because many people wanted her as their daughter, and God grants every one of our wishes, so Mahalakshmi was born multiple times in dwapar yuga, and in every one of her forms as Rukmini, Jambavathi, Satyabhama, etc she married the Lord. So no, Lord Krishna was not preaching polygamy in his incarnation. In fact, Bhagavatham describes him as a yogi who had no earthly desires. Everything he did was to make his devotees happy.

Understand the concept of God first before pointing fingers at him. No, God can't be wrong because he is not human. To assign fault with God is to give him the same status as us, and honestly we have no right to do that. Who are we to judge God? Our status is much much, much lower than his.

Not saying we can't read other versions and widen our knowledge on their stories, but in the end of the day, we can't deny Valmiki is the original one.

You have put across points which I have myself been thinking about since many years.

I consider Ramayana and Mahabharata as a story, a great ones at that. But it is still a story. A story of mankind.

There have been many versions of this story. As you mentioned about Uttarakand and many versions of Ramayana, a similar theory has been going around for Mahabharata too. Some experts think that many stories and parva's were written over the years by various people.

Story telling is a part of every culture, existed even before the advent of written languages. This is great way to pass on the knowledge, philosophical concepts of that era, customs and rituals and or anything for that matter, to the next generation. The stories are easier to remember than dry verses of teachings, stories make things interesting and easier to understand.

Coming to Mythology, the stories were changed or interpreted according to the socio-cultural norms of that era. That is why they are interesting to read and see different points of view, reflecting the thoughts of that age and time.

There is really no 'correct' or the 'right' or the 'original' versions of them.

And Ramayana stories are not limited to India alone. There are versions of it in Burma, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and so on. All these countries have their own Ramayana which developed over centuries.

Love

Kshithi

PS: I believe we have briefly met in KY2 forum? 😊

Thankyou @Madhu_4u for appreciating 😊. This is my current scholarly interest - Scriptures,History, Geography, Indology and Archeology.