Throughout my life I have heard people wondering whether the Ramayana and Mahabharata are just stories or whether they are real events which have been recorded in a story form. Throughout ages, the history of the world has been recorded in various forms like sculptures, books, paintings, etc. In most parts of the world, one has been able to fathom the past history of the region chronologically. If one were to see Greek or Roman history, one would be able to put a date to most events excepting those which related to mythology or Gods.

But in India, our history was never recorded chronologically. So much so that one does not even know whether the Chandragupta Maurya of our history books was the same as the legendary King Vikramaditya! We do not know for sure whether the great poet Kalidasa was a poet in the court of Vikramaditya or Chandragupta or Raja Bhoj (This is so because his lifetime is described as being a courtier of Vikramaditya but stories of his death say that Raja Bhoja was inconsolable on his death). If one looks at the various temples and water tanks all over India, one would be sure that Rama existed and was a great king. Similarly there are various places which are associated with Sri Krishna and the Pandava’s life. But still the Ramayana and Mahabharata are considered to be just myths. We are not even able to say with surety the date of the birth of Adi Shankaracharya, though He was born after the birth of Christ. Why this confusion regarding our history?

The answer lies in the way we recorded our achievements throughout the ages. If one were to look at the shlokas in the Vedas, one can see that they were the work of many Rishis and Sages. But the Vedas themselves are considered to be words of God. Then again, they are not the words of only one God form. Why? This is because we consider Mantras as not just words. They are words which are formed from our collective consciousness which exist beyond the physical plane; every Mantra brings out a subtle form, each different from one another and this is visible only to those who have experienced going beyond the physical and mind consciousness.

For those who are skeptical about what I have written, I request you to go through the science of Cymatics – a sample link for the same on YouTube

What I am trying to say is that these Rishis did not give much credit for their findings because they thought that it was the grace of the God of the Mantra which they saw during their meditation trances. Thus they neither took any credit for it nor recording their findings date-wise. They also thought that this was the property of all beings through the ages and thus did not waste time copyrighting it and they shared their knowledge freely with all those who were sincere seekers of knowledge.

It has been famously said: “Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” How true! That was the reason probably why our history was recorded not as the reign of a particular king from this date to that, but as what one could learn from the reign of that particular king. Thus we learn about King Bharata as the ruler who spread his empire and ruled from the mighty ocean to the mighty Himalayas. The reign of Sri Rama was recorded as the age of Maryada (living within rightful limits). Ravana’s rule was recorded as one of lust and loot reigning in the land of a very educated man. The Mahabharata recorded the rule of Dhritharashtra as what the situation would be if one was blinded with love for one’s progeny.

Every story in the Mahabharata talks about the achievements or mistakes of a ruler. Yayati’s story tells us about insatiable desires and how one’s children are not exactly eager to shoulder the burdens of a parent’s sin. Nala’s story talks about love and fidelity on one side and about losing a kingdom to treachery and gambling on the other. The theme of disrespect to women and the ill consequences that follow are the theme of so many stories in Mahabharata – Keechaka, Jayadratha, Duryodhana & Dushasana, Yayati and so on. At the same time other stories also speak of the mental strength of women and respect given to them in those days – Kunti, Sage Parashar & Satyavati, Shantanu & Ganga, Shantanu & Satyavati, Rukmani, Draupadi, etc. The basic idea behind the way these reigns have been recorded is that people should learn from these events the way to rightful living. Mistakes of the past have the habit of recurring and therefore the future generations should be aware of the consequences of such mistakes.

When we talk about the tales in the Ramayana too, one notices a recurrent theme – the high moral stand taken by all the kings in the Ikshavaku clan or the Suryavanshis. Every ruler of this ‘Vansh’ (clan) has shown fortitude, adherence to truth and sacrifice of family for the sake of his ‘Praja’ (subjects) and to uphold Dharma.

If one compares this to the recording of history in the other Nations of the World, one will see a marked dissimilarity – more importance and respect was given to conquering more land, more wealth and more slaves in other parts of the world. In India, more importance was given to the welfare and happiness of the people, sacrifice and donating of wealth, freedom of expression and life of the common man was of paramount importance. Our ancient historians felt that it was more important to record the achievements in various fields such as science, health, astrology, astronomy, fine arts, music, dance, playwrights, etc. than achievements of gathering of wealth, building monuments with their names on it or copywriting knowledge. Contrast this to today’s Forbes list of the top 100 wealthy persons or the top 100 companies in the world. What one understands immediately is the impermanence of this achievement to the achievements recorded in our ancient historical stories.

Even the reign of not so ancient kings like Harshavardan, Vikramaditya, Raja Bhoja, the Chola and Pandian kings, the kings of the Gupta Empire are not free from miscalculations in the dates and their historic achievements. The birth dates of some of our famous Sages and Gurus born after Christ too are debatable. This is so because here again, their teachings and works were considered more important than their lineage or dates as per the Gregorian calendar. But this should not be held as an excuse to call our ancient history as Mythology as is wrongly supposed in the case of the Ramayana, Mahabharata or even Vikramaditya’s reign.

Our history as is taught in the schools wrongly inculcates in us the thought that our ancient tales of valor and truth are myths. It also encourages us to learn from history of the rest of the world where wrong values of loot and land grabbing are considered powerful and thus correct. Is it any wonder then that we have slowly forgotten our values and have embraced values of other cultures? When we do not show pride in our own culture and history, how can we expect the future generations to have pride in it? While we have forgotten our values, we are learning every day the mistakes that modern history has to offer us and that too in a form that can be said to show how might is right! Is it too late to recognize our ancient history, even if it is without dates and learn from it the correct way? We owe it to our future generations.