The West as
usual has a culturally biased view and tends to label non-western
scriptures as mythical while its zealots swear fealty to the literal
truth of the Bible. In fairness, it subjects its own ancient books to
independent verification by acceptable standards, but devotes more time,
intellectual effort and talent to the biased purpose. The archeological
efforts by Schliemann at Troy and Rawlinson at Beheshtun lend credence
to parts of the Iliad and the biblical story of the Assyrian destruction
of Israel respectively. There are other ways than archeology, for
example human nature, the parallels of selective memory and its fading
with time and social relevance and geography and common horizons that
can be used to analyze ancient stories.
Let me begin with the Ramayana. There seems to me be little doubt that
the Ramayana is an idealized myth to appeal to the better nature of
humanity. It is rife with too many characters behaving idealistically
and contrary to human nature to be plausible or true. To begin with is
the killing of Shravana by Dasratha.
Shravana, a
dutiful son opts to carry his blind and infirm parents in the two pans
of a balance over his shoulders while walking. The four divine places of
pilgrimage form a diamond with the four sides constituting over 4000
miles. At a rate of fifteen miles a day, without paved roads and passing
through jungles with rest times, the journey would take years. The story
is hyperbole to promulgate reverence to aging parents at the cost of
Bhagirathian sacrifice.
The next
hyperbole is the sacrifice of Kaikeyi, who inserts her fingers as a
fulcrum to prevent the wheel of Dasratha’s chariot falling off during
battle and ensures his victory in combat. The dutiful wife with infinite
capacity for sacrifice for her husband is rewarded by the grant of one
wish which she exploits by demanding the throne for her son Bharata and
exile for Rama, thus emphasizing that a mother’s love should exceed all
bounds of propriety.
Then comes the hyperbole of the acceptance of the poetic justice of the
curse of Shravana by Dasratha with his willingness to fulfill a promise
even if it leads to death. "Raghukul rit sadaa chali aai, prana jaai
per vachan na jaai". Rama speaks not a word of dissent or protest
and rejects any rebellion by advisors for acting with filial respect.
Not only he has no anger towards his scheming stepmother but he bows his
head at her feet with the same reverence that he has for his mother and
dutifully thanks her for her boon of exile and love.
Not to be outdone, Lakshamana insists that he must accompany Rama in his
exile and leaves his wife Urmila on his wedding night with the marriage
unconsummated without a word of protest from her. The ideal fraternal
love and wifely devotion are the new hyperbole. Bharata, not to be
outdone chastises his mother and refuses to accept the throne and when
forced to do so by Rama, asks for his shoes and enthrones them while
reluctantly accepting the role of a caretaker.
The only irrational behavior in the epic is ascribed to women like
Kaikeyi and her maid who instigates her and Sita with her desire for the
skin of the golden deer and her imputing base motives to Laxmana when he
refuses to leave her unguarded to attend to the false cries of help of
the demon mimicking Rama’s voice. Then comes the piece de resistance of
Lakshmana drawing the circle of Lakshmanarekha and swearing that if he
has lived without sin then no power on earth or in heaven will be able
to step over the circle of his integrity that will serve to protect Sita.
His integrity is upheld when the mighty Ravana, conqueror of the gods
and heaven, winner of the boon of Shiva is stopped cold by the
invincible might of Laxmana’s integrity.
After Sita is taken away by Ravana in his airplane, she drops her
various ornaments as signposts to direct Rama and Lakshmana on the
ground to her flight path. The frantically searching Rama finds her
ornaments from her head, neck, wrists, girdle serially and shows them to
Lakshmana to confirm that they are on the right trail. Lakshmana is
unable to identify them and recognizes only her anklets when they are
found. Rama questions him why he could only identify the anklets and the
epitome of integrity gives a simple reply, "My eyes never looked beyond
her feet".
After the
defeat of Ravana, Sita who has spent time in captivity of an alien man
is forced to prove her chastity by a literal passage through fire, once
again the hyperbole of a devoted and obedient wife. The victorious Rama
having completed his long exile sets out on his return to Ayodhya. He
knows that much time has elapsed and time is the corruptor and destroyer
of all, including the good. He worries that Bharata may have been
transformed from regent of his shoes to the real king. He does not wish
to deprive his brother of anything and reminiscent of Tennyson’s poem
"The Lotus Eaters" return as stranger to the old home to upset the
prevailing order. He thus sends Hanuman in his newly acquired airplane
to see if Bharata would still welcome him. Hanuman finds the shoes on
the throne and Bharata living in utter simplicity without arrogance or
intoxication of power, as a humble regent.
Rama returns and is crowned. The finale is that a good king has duties
to his subjects that override his personal desires. Not only justice
must be done, but more importantly it must be seen to be done. Thus a
chance derogatory remark by a washerman while Rama tours his city
incognito leads to the second exile of Sita on the allegations of being
unchaste. She commits the ultimate sacrifice of appealing to her mother
earth whose furrow she was and the ever loving mother opens up her bosom
or womb to accept her daughter irrespective of public, legal or regal
opinion. Thus the final hyperbole at the end.
My ideal myth list is comprehensive but not complete, but nevertheless
improbable, nay even impossible collection of such ideal characters to
be anything but an idealized myth. It is interesting to add that despite
all the idealism, it is tinged with a male chauvinistic bias prevalent
then and even now.
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