20 Secrets of Ramayana that no one knows - Page 2

Another SHerlock Holmes / Conan Doyle fan here. 😎

@ Vrish - Your example makes perfect sense and I don't disagree with you, but to quote all the annoying high school teachers we've ever had, I think we're comparing apples to oranges here. While you're talking about authenticity of the texts to the actual events they describe, I'm referring to the authenticity of current versions of those text versus what the authors originally wrote while or soon after the events occurred. I definitely wouldn't say that Ramcharitmanas is more authentic than whatever edition of VR we have access to today, but it is more likely to be the same RCM that Tulsidas wrote than VR is to be what Valmiki had actually written.

For instance, we've often discussed the speculation by historians that there were multiple Vyasas who were responsible for the texts we attribute to Krishna Dvaipayana, and it's not even likely that all of those contributors belonged to the same generation of authors. In light of that speculation, I would still trust our current versions of Valmiki's and Vyasa's texts for an overall picture of what society was like during the Vedic Era, what codes guided politics and war and relationships, what values people held dear, etc. However, for specific incidents under scrutiny like the ones that make up Uttar Kand, I can't help but wonder what elements from them were part of Valmiki's original writing.

So to sum it up, while I believe that the texts of Valmiki and his contemporaries must have been changed over time and for that reason I wouldn't say it trumps other retellings in every single instance in which it differs from them, I certainly would not give Tulsidas's writing more credibility from a historical standpoint just for that reason. To give it a contemporary analogy, it's just a really nice biopic that makes me emotionally connect with/care about the character but can't necessarily be read for factual accuracy, while VR is the black and white movie that has been edited and spliced for the DVD with scenes reshot for various reasons - kinda like the mytho DVDs out there, especially SK! - but I still acknowledge that it does a better job of portraying the world the subject lived in b/c the director is simply filming it, not attempting to recreate it.

Edited: Another issue I forgot to acknowledge is the unreliability of translations. Aside from later authors potentially tampering with texts like VR, we have generations of translators who took the wrong connotation of a word or phrase and completely changed the meaning of entire portions of the story. I think in various threads (from the DBSK forum for example), Varaali has pointed out the implications of some of these mistranslations. Online translations sometimes don't even differentiate between the literal translation and the translator's additional commentary on the text. Earlier in this forum we came across that issue when someone posted an excerpt from VR in which Sita has a dialogue with Ravan just before he abducts her, and the translator has her saying a lot more than Maharishi Valmiki's verse literally has her say. Ever since then I've been a bit wary when reading excerpts of translations that people post that seem longer than the original verses themselves; the translator could very well trying to be telling us how to interpret it instead of merely giving us the translation and letting us think for ourselves. It's stuff like this that makes the currently available texts/translations questionable for me, without questioning the scripture itself.

Also if we're going to keep this discussion going should I maybe move it to doubts & discussions since it doesn't directly relate to the thread?
Edited by lola610 - 10 years ago