Ramayan - What is original? - Page 3

Originally posted by: TheFaerieQueen

The research on MB is over and many good interpretations and translations are available. Translations because original critical edition is in Sanskrit. Some good reads would be Translation in English by Mr. Bibek Debroy (leading economist of this country) and a collection of essays by Ms. Iravati Karve called "Yuganta" (originally written in Marathi, English translation is available). Mr. Devdutt Pattnaik's Jaya is also a good read, it tries to put together various versions - it is not only derived from critical edition.

In case of Ramayan, Mr. Devdutt Pattnaik has tried to give a glimpse of various versions un " Sita - An illustrated retelling of Ramayan". He is an advisor of Siya ke Ram. Its a fun and easy read.

Now, Why we see similarities between our Epics and Illiad & Odyssey for example? or the Gods from various polytheistic religions. One possible reason could be the migration of mankind over a vast period of time. We have been migrating and spreading out since lakhs of years from our base in Africa. Earlier, nature was supposed to be on fierce, unfathomable entity and so we see that various elements of nature have been represented as Gods world over. It was one way of saying nature is supreme, because we as manking suffered a lot because of nature and we could survive only because of our adaptability (dinosaurs couldn't 😊). Slowly when we started to become more civilised - in other words we started farming and began to settle down on the coast of various rivers (ancient egyption civilisation on Nile river, Indus civilisation on Saraswati-Ghaggar river etc).

Now Rigveda, which is considered as our first book of knowledge, does not have mention of Brahma, Vishnu or Shiv. Even the mentions of Krishna and Ram as Vishnu avatars doesn't come in the earliest version of these Epics. This theory that they are incarnation of Vishnu is added during Bhakti Movement which began in 900 ACE (only some 1100 years ago, Epics are atleast 3000 years old and Rigveda 5000 years old).

Originally posted by: TheFaerieQueen

Thankyou @RamKiJanaki for posting your thoughts here. You know when I started the study of scriptures (as I mentioned this is my area of study right now), I also used to think that the Valmiki Ramayana is the original one. And I used to believe that there would be the "Original text" written by him available somewhere. To my utter shock and surprise, I encountered following facts -

1. Valmiki Ramayan is supposed to be written in 4th or 5th century BCE. but the oldest text that we have found so far is dated 11th Century CE (written in Gupta dynasty period). So we really don't know if what is written in it is the "original story" because as you see some 1500 years have passed in between.

2. The Valmiki Ramayan is supposed to be composed of 24000 versus. Shiva narrated the story in 1,00,000 versus. Narada narrated it in 60,000 versus and what Valmiki could remember and put down was 24,000 versus. Now we don't really know whether Shiva and Narada has actually narrated or not, but the point of this is that Valmiki did first written it down. Please note he wrote it down, but the story is not his!

3. Ramayan and Mahabharata are part of "Smriti" Tradition and Valmiki is the first person to write it down, but the story has been a part of oral tradition much before that.

So we really can't say that version we think as original Ramayana is "The Original" or not.

Originally posted by: shruthiravi

@fairequeen this is a very nice post from you. I also know many versions of Ramayana and Mahabharata exists. Even the so called Valmiki Ramayan that is popular as you rightly said need not be authentic.

Second is the message part. If you look at Ramayan it deals with 7th incarnation of Vishnu and Mahabharata is incomplete without Krishna Lord's 8th incarnation. Whatever be the story, first and the foremost we need to understand is that Ram and Krishna are avatars. They happened because there was adharma and to restore dharma they took incarnation.

So we have to these characters understanding the socio economic conditions of those days and arriving at a better way of doing things keeping the fundamentals intact. And actually their journey is the message to human kind if we consider them Gods.

They came to give life lessons to mankind. And the visual depiction taking into account various interpretations can deliver the right message for the present generation that itself we can say tribute to God. And if I understand correct both Valmiki and Vyasa have created grey characters, not black and white which I guess happened later.

Originally posted by: Muggle_Diaries

Hi,

Thanks for the list. I have already read 'Jaya' . The idea behind Jaya and Vijaya was well explained in his book. I am currently reading 'Sita'. 😊 I watched the Mahabharat which came two years back and now watching Siya Ke Ram because of Devdutta Patnayak.

I will however try to read the other two books you have mentioned.

Yes, most of the Vedic gods or deities like Indra, Varuna, Agni etc are all part of the nature. This seems to be the theme of most of the polytheistic or pagan religions. I too have read (mostly from recent books) that the trinity gods were not part of the early form of the religion. And that they came into prominence during the popularity of other major religions of our land.

Thanks for the book suggestions though. I will definitely take a look.

Love

Kshithi

Originally posted by: TheFaerieQueen

Study of Monotheistic and Polytheistic religions is an interesting one. there are other translation of Critical Edition as well but the one from Mr. Bibek Debroy is more recent one.

Another reason of some similarity could be trade, we were the most enterprising lot and contributed to 33% of world's GDP (compared to 6-7% right now). And another reason ...language. Language evolution is also an interesting study.

Originally posted by: shruthiravi

Guys you should never miss the translated version of Randamoozham by MT Vasudevan Nair( Second Turn name of transalated version). It is Mahabharata from Bhima's perspective. If you are a Keralite or know Malayalam please read the original as the effect might be less in translated version.

He literally makes MB upside down, but believe me you will enjoy the book to the core. I heard it is going to be a big budget movie next year and trilingual in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. So if it happens you should never miss it. It is a classic in its own right for all the lovers of Indian Mythology

Originally posted by: Asgard_Nim

👏

Awesome post. Wonderfully penned. It shows the author is one who is well read and possesses an open mind.