Ramayana: Ancient Indian Epic

Who was better?

  • Rama (and his cohorts)

    Votes: 18 81.8%
  • Ravana (and his cohorts)

    Votes: 2 9.1%
  • I cannot pick a side.

    Votes: 2 9.1%

  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .

AsuraKiller203

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I have heard a legend about Mandodari this way:

Ravana did an intense tapasya to please Lord Shiv and Bholenath granted Ravana a boon. Ravana asked Shiv for his wife Parvati, Bholenath said tathastu. Bhagwan Shiv never denies his true devotees demands no matter what they are.

Mata Parvati was bathing in a lake nearby when her maids informed her of this. Paravati got angry at her husband for granting this boon. But decided to test Ravanas worthiness before before passing judgements and reaching pre-mature conclusions. She decided to make a beautiful woman that looked like her out of a frog (mandek). And placed her in another lake that was on the way.

Ravana having won the most desired woman was completely lost in his own tune and drunk on pride and power on the way to the lake. And upon seeing a very beatiful parvati look-alike assumed her to be the real deal and took her home with joy without doing any necessary fact-checking. This woman revealed herself to be made from a frog when in Lanka. Thus Mandodari means made from a frog. Mandodari is admired and counted among the 5/9 ideal women of hinduism along with Draupadi. Because she had many good qualities of Goddess Parvati.

A theory I have regarding ape-men and Vaanar is that Jamvantji and Vaanars may have been another species of homos that co-existed with homo sapiens in asia at that time. Till last year scientists believed there was a species of very short humans 4 feet tall and possibly another hybrid species that was made up of exceptionally tall humans living 25000 years ago. Now, last year new evidence came out proving that they existed as late as 8000 years ago in south asia. Greatness of Hinduism is that it continuously evolved and absorped new elements in it to give space to everyone. When reaching new lands and cultures, it blended them with pre-existing elements to give them their due rather than wiping them out like abrahamites. Story of Shri Rama (arya) might be a story of the modern homo sapiens immortalizing the contribution and memory of other human species (such as vaanars) in the human gene pool and society.

I know Vaanar literally means forest man and JamvantJi is the Bear-king or Bear/Man. Thus they could be just a different kind of human tribes as well. But the Kishkindha Kingdom of which hanumanJi was prime minister is thought to be a cave-dwelling civilization and those caves still exist in Karnataka today.

There are so many interesting ways to view and analyze our scriptures and history and there are so many Indian schools of thought. One thing is certain, any Indigenous school of thought is more genuine and useful than the western garbage we have been taught in the past.
 
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Haldilal

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I have heard a legend about Mandodari this way:

Ravana did an intense tapasya to please Lord Shiv and Bholenath granted Ravana a boon. Ravana asked Shiv for his wife Parvati, Bholenath said tathastu. Bhagwan Shiv never denies his true devotees demands no matter what they are.

Mata Parvati was bathing in a lake nearby when her maids informed her of this. Paravati got angry at her husband for granting this boon. But decided to test Ravanas worthiness before before passing judgements and reaching pre-mature conclusions. She decided to make a beautiful woman that looked like her out of a frog (mandek). And placed her in another lake that was on the way.

Ravana having won the most desired woman was completely lost in his own tune and drunk on pride and power on the way to the lake. And upon seeing a very beatiful parvati look-alike assumed her to be the real deal and took her home with joy without doing any necessary fact-checking. This woman revealed herself to be made from a frog when in Lanka. Thus Mandodari means made from a frog. Mandodari is admired and counted among the 5/9 ideal women of hinduism along with Draupadi. Because she had many good qualities of Goddess Parvati.

A theory I have regarding ape-men and Vaanar is that Jamvantji and Vaanars may have been another species of homos that co-existed with homo sapiens in asia at that time. Till last year scientists believed there was a species of very short humans 4 feet tall and possibly another hybrid species that was made up of exceptionally tall humans living 25000 years ago. Now, last year new evidence came out proving that they existed as late as 8000 years ago in south asia. Greatness of Hinduism is that it continuously evolved and absorped new elements in it to give space to everyone. When reaching new lands and cultures, it blended them with pre-existing elements to give them their due rather than wiping them out like abrahamites. Story of Shri Rama (arya) might be a story of the modern homo sapiens immortalizing the contribution and memory of other human species (such as vaanars) in the human gene pool and society.

I know Vaanar literally means forest man and JamvantJi is the Bear-king or Bear/Man. Thus they could be just a different kind of human tribes as well. But the Kishkindha Kingdom of which hanumanJi was prime minister is thought to be a cave-dwelling civilization and those caves still exist in Karnataka today.

There are so many interesting ways to view and analyze our scriptures and history and there are so many Indian schools of thought. One thing is certain, any Indigenous school of thought is more genuine and useful than the western garbage we have been taught in the past.
During the battle between the Devas and Ravana, Lord Indra, king of heavens accompanied by all other devas captured Ravana. To rescue his father, Meghanada attacked Indra and his elephant Airavata, and defeated all the Devas, even Indra. Meghanada tied and mounted Indra onto his celestial chariot and brought him to Ravana in Lanka. Ravana and Meghanada decided to kill Indra. At this juncture, Lord Brahma intervened and asked Meghanada to free Indra. Meghanada obliged and was granted a chance to ask for a boon from Brahma. Meghanada asked for immortality, but Brahma remarked that absolute immortality is against the law of the nature. Instead, he was then granted another boon that after the completion of the Yagna (fire-worship) of his native goddess Prathyangira or the "Nikumbhila yagna" would be completed, he will get a celestial chariot, mounting on which, any enemy can't kill him in a war and become invulnerable. But Brahma also cautioned him that whosoever would destroy this yagna, would also kill him. Brahma was highly impressed by Meghanada's valor in this war and it was Brahma who coined him the name Indrajit ("the conqueror of Indra"). It is also believed that Meghanada was granted another boon by Brahma in which it was promised to him that he would only be killed by a common man who hadn't had sleep for 12 years continuously.

Copy Paste. :)
 

cereal killer

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During the battle between the Devas and Ravana, Lord Indra, king of heavens accompanied by all other devas captured Ravana. To rescue his father, Meghanada attacked Indra and his elephant Airavata, and defeated all the Devas, even Indra. Meghanada tied and mounted Indra onto his celestial chariot and brought him to Ravana in Lanka. Ravana and Meghanada decided to kill Indra. At this juncture, Lord Brahma intervened and asked Meghanada to free Indra. Meghanada obliged and was granted a chance to ask for a boon from Brahma. Meghanada asked for immortality, but Brahma remarked that absolute immortality is against the law of the nature. Instead, he was then granted another boon that after the completion of the Yagna (fire-worship) of his native goddess Prathyangira or the "Nikumbhila yagna" would be completed, he will get a celestial chariot, mounting on which, any enemy can't kill him in a war and become invulnerable. But Brahma also cautioned him that whosoever would destroy this yagna, would also kill him. Brahma was highly impressed by Meghanada's valor in this war and it was Brahma who coined him the name Indrajit ("the conqueror of Indra"). It is also believed that Meghanada was granted another boon by Brahma in which it was promised to him that he would only be killed by a common man who hadn't had sleep for 12 years continuously.

Copy Paste. :)
Meghanada was indeed very powerful & I guess the most powerful mortal to ever walk on Earth. He possessed three ultimate weapons of Trinity that no one had.
Indrajit was a master of sheer dint since he was the only warrior as per Hindu texts who performed all the seven supreme sacrifices.

The names of these sacrifices are Agnishtoma, Ashwamedha, Bahusuvarnaka, Gomedha, Rajasuya, Vaishnava and Maheshwara.
No other warrior whether mortal or immortal ever performed all the seven sacrifices together.
Add to that he learned sorcery( maya) from guru Shukra himself & had special boon from Shiva which made him invincible.
 

indiatester

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During the battle between the Devas and Ravana, Lord Indra, king of heavens accompanied by all other devas captured Ravana. To rescue his father, Meghanada attacked Indra and his elephant Airavata, and defeated all the Devas, even Indra. Meghanada tied and mounted Indra onto his celestial chariot and brought him to Ravana in Lanka. Ravana and Meghanada decided to kill Indra. At this juncture, Lord Brahma intervened and asked Meghanada to free Indra. Meghanada obliged and was granted a chance to ask for a boon from Brahma. Meghanada asked for immortality, but Brahma remarked that absolute immortality is against the law of the nature. Instead, he was then granted another boon that after the completion of the Yagna (fire-worship) of his native goddess Prathyangira or the "Nikumbhila yagna" would be completed, he will get a celestial chariot, mounting on which, any enemy can't kill him in a war and become invulnerable. But Brahma also cautioned him that whosoever would destroy this yagna, would also kill him. Brahma was highly impressed by Meghanada's valor in this war and it was Brahma who coined him the name Indrajit ("the conqueror of Indra"). It is also believed that Meghanada was granted another boon by Brahma in which it was promised to him that he would only be killed by a common man who hadn't had sleep for 12 years continuously.

Copy Paste. :)
I read that part of the story to my kids. Not sure if they will remember it though.
 

AsuraKiller203

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During the battle between the Devas and Ravana, Lord Indra, king of heavens accompanied by all other devas captured Ravana. To rescue his father, Meghanada attacked Indra and his elephant Airavata, and defeated all the Devas, even Indra. Meghanada tied and mounted Indra onto his celestial chariot and brought him to Ravana in Lanka. Ravana and Meghanada decided to kill Indra. At this juncture, Lord Brahma intervened and asked Meghanada to free Indra. Meghanada obliged and was granted a chance to ask for a boon from Brahma. Meghanada asked for immortality, but Brahma remarked that absolute immortality is against the law of the nature. Instead, he was then granted another boon that after the completion of the Yagna (fire-worship) of his native goddess Prathyangira or the "Nikumbhila yagna" would be completed, he will get a celestial chariot, mounting on which, any enemy can't kill him in a war and become invulnerable. But Brahma also cautioned him that whosoever would destroy this yagna, would also kill him. Brahma was highly impressed by Meghanada's valor in this war and it was Brahma who coined him the name Indrajit ("the conqueror of Indra"). It is also believed that Meghanada was granted another boon by Brahma in which it was promised to him that he would only be killed by a common man who hadn't had sleep for 12 years continuously.

Copy Paste. :)
There are many Deva - Asura Sangrams in Indian history. Think of it as a conflict spanning 1000s of years.

The Original Deva-Asur Sangram may have been the war of 10 kings that is mentioned in vedas and took place in pre-Vedic times. Scriptures say as a result, the defeated Indian kings got pushed westward into what is now Iran, Turkey.

King Dashrath fought a war which can be called mini DevaSur Sangram with Ravana on the other side. Indrajit's story stems from here.

Before Dashrath there are many mentions of other mighty kings of the same SuryaVansh involved in Devasur sangram as well. There are many stories of Devatas (like Lord Indra) being attacked by Asuras at various times and asking for Mighty Arya Kings or Avatars of ShriVishnu for help. They can be classified as Devasur Sangrams as well.

In Vishnu Puran we find mention that MahaRishi Kashyap gave birth to two lineages Dev and Danav(daitya) from his two wives Aditi and Diti. Aditis sons became Adityas and Devas and Ditis sons became Datiyas and Asuras. Thus from this PoV Devas and Asuras were half brothers fighting for supremacy. But I think this was a re-branding of the Dev and Asura concept as these terms go much further back. Rishi Kashyap earned the earth because Parashurama donated it to him after conquering all Kshatriyas. And we know there is 1000s of generations of hindu history before Lord Parshurama and terms Dev and Asura are mentioned in much earlier texts as well.

The original war between Dev and Asura was about which side would get to drink the Amrit nectar and get immortality. This prophecy came true and still holds today after 1000s of years. The Devtas side won that DevaSur Sangram and drank the nectar and made themselves immortal. Ad they are still immortal today because we still know about them and worship them today like Lord Indra Lord Surya etc. But we dont remember the asuras. Isnt it Amazing?

From my understanding, After asuras got pushed back westwards some asura dynsaties still thrived in small packets in various parts of india. Thats why we still find their mention in Ramayan and Mahabharata etc. Even Lord Krishna fought and killed kagasur Bakasur etc. So over time asuras became a marked lineage that was hunted down thru many generations. And there was another westward push of the remaining asuras at this time. The Sanskrit-Persian split and asuras becoming ahuras and rulers and gods of iran may have occured from this later split or the earlier original split.

Fun Facts

Another Sanskrit word for Sangram/battle is summer and that is where summerkhand name of the tajikistan/turkmenistan/kazakhastan region comes from. Some ancient vedic battles happened here so this area came to be known as land of battles = summer khand

Asura word got adopted to mean the title of "The Great" Thus Kagasur means the Great Crow and Dino + Asura means Dinosaur 🦖 / The Great Lizard.

King Raghu of SuryaVansha dynasty conquered areas as west as southern Russia and Caucaus and there were many places named in honor of him in this region as late as 16th century. He was the most famous king of this dynasty before Lord Ram. Bhagwan Rama is called Raghav in his honor. And Lineage of Lord Ram is called Raghuvansha.
 
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Peter

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Yes, this is correct.
My personal belief is Ramayan is at least 8000 (possible much more) years old. Hindu historians and scriptures have an accurate and unbroken list of kings spanning hundreds of generations beginning from Brahma/ Manu and also have lists starting around famous rulers such as Ishvaku, Raghu and many other path breaking souls associated with various vanshas.

Whole confusion in minds of deracinated Indians is because they start calculating from a false/westerner made starting point and go backwards from there.

For example all these "pivotal historic moments of humanity" are currently taught as gospel and are false:

Agriculture was first created around 8000 years ago in Middle East - false
The Wheel was invented around 5000 years ago in ME - false
Written Language came to India only 2500 years ago - false
Proto-Indo-European language 3000 years old - wrong
Sanskrit flowing from PIE language 2500 years old - false
Thus sanskrit literature such as Mahabharat, Ramayan, Puran created 2000 years ago - false

All these human milestones are actually 3-4 times older than presently accepted by the western academia. They will gradually accept human civilization to be much older over next 20-30 years as western propaganda and western dominance decreases.

Have a look at the laughable fairytales they passed on as truths in the past:

Till 1920s British taught that Budha and Mauryan Kings like Asoka did not historically exist and were mythical creations despite the evidence to contrary. This made it easier for them to impart the idea that only british united India and India never existed as a nation before.
Then a few decades later, in face of mounting pressure they accepted Asoka existed but dated it to 5th century ACE to fit all Indian history into their 2000 year biblical view.
Then a few decades later they grudgingly accepted Asoka date as 3rd century BCE.

Same exercise is being done with Lord Rama and Krishna now by the "unbiased and scientific" historians.

All current stakeholders in the world barring Hindus have a vested interest in forcing a wrong view of human civilization as true history on global population.

Christians and Muslims: Their holy books tell them a;; that is good in the world is only world is 2000 years old thus if something older exists it invalidates their god and religion. Grudgingly some christians and muslims over time accepted jewish old testament as part of their canon which pushes back their known history to 4000 years old. Anything older than 4000 years can not be allowed to be shown in good light. Thus till 1990s every Indian related history, be it indus valley, vedas, ramayans etc was forced to fit into 2000 BCE timeframe by the western historians.

Second, for them all major human inventions such as farming, animal domestication, invention of wheel, formation of city states happened in middle east. Because it is holy land for them. Israel/Palestine for jews n christians and arabia for muslims. Thus excessive focus on Mesopotamian and Egyptian history. All mesopotamian and egyptian civilizational achievements are accepted as true while Indian civilizational achievements face difficulties being accepted by westerners.

Other strong groups in the world that have a stake in teaching wrong human history:

Western Non-Religious "liberals" "atheists" & commies :
This groups is more fanatic and bigoted than the above group and has a deep vested interest in maintaining false human history. The whole modern liberal mental make up is founded on the fundamental false belief that time is linear and human progression happens in a straight line over time. So, for them something old is by default bad and unworthy and something older is even worse.
This is different from Hindu Dharmic worldview that time is circular and unending and human civilizational development is rhythmic. It is a wave-form. Our scriptures tell us of many universes created and destroyed before this one. They tell us of Yugas and Manus that come and go. Life and creation is a story of ups and downs where people and civilizations follow a cyclic journey of rise and fall based of their karmas while the total divine creation is infinite. So from point of views of Hindus, it is possible for human civilization to have risen in 10000 BC , peaked in 8000 BC and then plateaued and fallen down and then rise again in 2000 AD. This is blasphemy to others. These close-minded "progressives" need everything old to be primitive to validate their own sense of present superiority and progress.

If Hindu view of the world and true history reaches the masses, it will unravel the foundations of the current evil, materialistic, hedonistic, power-hungry elite. That is why all power centers except hindus oppose true learning of human roots. It will undo their centuries-old house of lies built over millions of dead bodies.
Valid points but I would like to barge in on this thread and remind you that most of the archaeologists use Radio carbon dating techniques or radio isotopes to determine the age of historical sites and events. Radio Carbon dating is pretty much a reliable tool to measure the age of events. Ramayana probably occurred in 2000 BCE to 1000 BCE. It did occur before the birth of the Buddha and the Jain Tirkantharas. However claiming humans to have an advanced culture in 10000 BCE and to have fallen to a primitive state are unproven claims.

These claims are on par with Abrahamic(Jewish,Christian and Islamic) Creationists claiming the earth to be 6000 years old. Unless there is evidence supporting the religious claims such ideas are to be avoided. I would desist from going the way of Young Earth creationists and Flat earthers who justify their holy texts using nonce. They end up using pseudo scientific arguments about Noah`s flood and use irrational arguments to justify the events of the Torah,the Bible and Quran.

On a personal note I do believe that Ramayana did occur and Rama is indeed admirable for keeping his father`s words and sacrificing his rights to kingship and going to exile. This is an exemplary action and highlights the strong emphasis on filial relationships in our culture. However aping Creationists and claiming the age of Ramayana to be older than 10000 BCE is silly. Humans as a species came out of Africa about 150,000 years ago and only began to develop state cities and civilization around 5000 years ago. The first civilizations were in Sumer/Mesopotamia,Indus Valley,Egypt and Greece. Most of the historical basis for these is established using scientific methods like C-14 dating.




 

Peter

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Prologue:
Ramayana is one of the oldest epics of the world and it enjoys the rare distinction of having enjoyed popularity even after thousands of centuries. Ramayana is a story of King Rama who ruled Khosala, one of the ancient Indian kingdoms. Ramayana, over the years has been translated into different languages, both Indian and foreign. Some authors used their creative license to change certain scenes slightly to suit the tastes of their audience or to make some scenes dramatic. But the widely acknowledged original version is written in Sanskrit by Valmiki. Sanskrit is an old Indian language which is today not spoken widely. Sanskrit is still considered the mother of most Indian languages, that is one reason why many indian languages share many similar words. Because they are all derived from Sanskrit.

Ramayana has been very popular in India and many characters are widely famous. But interestingly some popular scenes are absent or different in the original Srimad Ramayanam written by Valmiki.

I am attempting to write briefely the original Srimad Ramayana story to the best of my knowledge and ability in a simple and modern way to those who are interested in Indian ancient epic. The Ramayana gives us a window to the exceptionally rich, mature and kind of culture of India whose roots are in the saying " Vasudaiva Kutumbakam(World is a family)". This saying is millenias old but is refreshingly modern and similar to the latest buzz word "global village". Similarly, the Ramayana though an old story is surprisingly strikes a chord in our modern lifestyle. It not only teaches us ancient values of India, its riches, its heritage, its culture but also its history...
The topic of the thread(as polling is closed) about which side being the righteous one is quite easy to choose(at least from my perspective).

Rama and his side did have many problems(like that of Sugriva and Bali, Bibhisan being a traitor,taking Ravana`s knowledge about martial plans and then killing him et al) but they were the righteous one. If your wife is kidnapped it becomes a duty to protect her honour and rescue her. Rama also showed great love and affection towards his father Dasaratha and went to exile to keep his father`s vows(pitri satya palan) to Kaikeyi. His selflessness and courage are traits one needs to inculcate even in these cynical modern day world we live in today.

As for Ravana there are some issues justifying his angst at the Rama camp like the cutting of Soorpanakhas nose but as a whole they are evil and filled with avarice. Most of their actions like kidnapping a married woman is reminiscent of the 80s and 90s movies of woman being kidnapped by goondas.


For those interested about learning about Ravana`s side and a different nuanced take on Ramayana I would recommend having a look at the magnum opus of one the doyens of Bengali literature Michael Madhusudan Dutta. His seminal work Meghnad Bod Kavya is a piece justifying Ravana`s actions and worth a read.



P.S. For those having paucity of time I quotemine from the wiki

Meghnad was a tragic hero in Ramayana. He was slayed by Lakshmana brutally, while he was worshiping Shiva, known as Nikumvilla yagna, in the royal temple of Lanka, because of betrayal by Vibhishana, who is an uncle of Meghnad. Meghnad asked Lakshmana not to fight with an unarmed person, rebuking him as a coward; but Lakshmana did not hear him. This unfortunate hero twice endangered Rama as well as Lakshmana but could not survive himself in this unfair battle. This is the central theme of this epic. Meghnad was a patriot, a loving husband, a caring son and a friend to his countrymen.

Here are some comments of a few pioneers of Bengali literature:


  1. "...to Homer and Milton, as well as to Valmiki, he is largely indebted, and his poem is on the whole the most valuable work in modern Bengali literature." -Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
  2. "The Epic Meghnad-Badh is really a rare treasure in Bengali literature. Through his writings, the richness of Bengali literature has been proclaimed to the wide world." -Rabindranath Tagore
  3. "MeghnadBadh is a supreme poem." -Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
 

Haldilal

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The topic of the thread(as polling is closed) about which side being the righteous one is easy.

Rama and his side did have many problems(like that of Sugriva and Bali, Bibhisan being a traitor,taking Ravana`s knowledge about martial plans and then killing him et al) but they were the righteous one. If your wife is kidnapped it becomes a duty to protect her honour and rescue her. Rama also showed great love and affection towards his father Dasaratha and went to exile to keep his father`s vows(pitri satya palan) to Kaikeyi. His selflessness and courage are traits one needs to inculcate even in these cynical modern day world we live in today.

As for Ravana there are some issues justifying his angst at the Rama camp like the cutting of Soorpanakhas nose but as a whole they are evil and filled with avarice. Most of their actions like kidnapping a married woman is reminiscent of the 80s and 90s movies of woman being kidnapped by goondas.


For those interested about learning about Ravana`s side and a different nuanced take on Ramayana I would recommend having a look at the magnum opus of one the doyens of Bengali literature Michael Madhusudan Dutta. His work Meghnad Bod Kavya is a work justifying Ravana`s actions and worth a read.
There is no such things as a perfect good and perfect evil. Which side is more retious matters the most. Mata Aeta could be the ravanas daughter and suparilaka was the one who started this and filled the thoughts of the ravana. Even the destruction of sea life was going to happen if not Varun deva appeared and pleaded. Who was the most evil ravana and his Lanka who was good to his people but extreme bad for others and the adohyavashi and langurs Sena.

Ok that is it. I told you to keep Sri Lanka out of this nonsense.
What ever happens do not drag Sri Lanka into this mess.
Why dont like Heinz Gaffurbhai. :troll:
 

Haldilal

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Lanka was originally ruled by a yaksha named Sumali. Kubera seized control of Lanka and established the Yaksha Kingdome and his capital was guarded by Rakshasas. His half-brother Ravana, son of the sage Vishravaya and Sumalis daughter Kaikeshi, fought with Kubera and took Lanka from him. Ravana ruled Lanka as king of the Rakshasa Kingdome.
 

Haldilal

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In the Indian epic Ramayana, the mythological island Lanka is been often identified with Sro Lanka. The inhabitants of Lanka were mentioned as non-humans, mainly referring to the Rakshasas and Yakshas, but also mentioning the Nagas. Indrajit, the son of Ravana was married to Sulochana, a Naga princess.
 

Haldilal

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The forest of Dandaka was the biggest forest in ancient India, Dandakaranya. It stretched from Vindhyq ranges in central Indian to the banks of KrishnaVenna and Tungbhadara in the south. Mention of this forest is found in Mahanbhatra at (3-85). The sacred forest of Dandaka is mentioned here along with its possible boundaries and the rivers flowing within it. Surparaka probably formed its western boundary. Mahendra Mountains in Orissa formed its eastern boundary. The rivers Ghodavari, and KrishnaVenna run through this forest. the river or lake Payoshni is mentioned at the northern entrance of this forest. In epic Ramayana no kingdom except the Dandaka kingdom and KishKinda Kingdome is mentioned as lying within this forest. Dandaka Kingdom was a kingdom of Rakshakas in the midst of the Dandaka forests.
 

Haldilal

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Raghava Rama lived for some time in the forest of Dandaka, from desire of slaying the Rakshasas. At Janasthana the capital of Dandaka Kingdom he cut off the head of a wicked-souled Rakshasa, his name was Khara with a razor-headed shaft of great sharpness (9,39). Raghava Rama, that foremost of bowmen, taking his bow and in company with Mata Sita and brother Lakshamana, with the view of compassing his father’s welfare, began to reside in the Dandaka forest. From Janasthana the capital of Dandaka Kingdom, that mighty Rakshaha monarch, the wicked Ravana, carried away Rama’s queen. (3,146). A southern path through the Dandaka woods existed during the time of Raghava Rama. He travelled through this path in search of his wife, abducted by Ravana. Many uninhabited asylums of ascetics, scattered over with seats of Kusa grass and umbrellas of leaves and broken water-pots, and abounding with hundreds of jackals were seen along that path.(3,277).
 

Haldilal

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There was a place sacred region called Dandaparna (also known as Danda) near the city called Champapuri, in Anga Kingdomd, on the banks of river Ganga. (3-85,275). A king by the name Danda ruled the outskirts of Magadha Kingdome which was close to the Anga Kingdome.
 

Haldilal

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Dandaka-aranya, means the Dandak Forest, the abode of the demon Dandak is the name of a forest mentioned in the ancient India. It is also known as Dandakaranya, aranya being the Sanskrit word for "forest". It was the location of the Danda Kingdome, a stronghold of the Rakshasa tribes. It was state of the Lanka Empire under the reign of Ravana. Ravana's governor Khara ruled this province.
 

Haldilal

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Dandakaranya is considered sacred, as many accounts of the region describe ancient Hindu peoples and Hindu deities living together in refuge there. The Dandakaranya zone was the location of the turning point. The plot for the divine objectives of the to uproot the Rakshasa from the land was formulated here. According to the holy Ramayana, it was home to many deadly creatures and demons. Exiled persons resided here and sages had to cross it in order to reach the Vindhya Mountains.
 

Roshan

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Valid points but I would like to barge in on this thread and remind you that most of the archaeologists use Radio carbon dating techniques or radio isotopes to determine the age of historical sites and events. Radio Carbon dating is pretty much a reliable tool to measure the age of events. Ramayana probably occurred in 2000 BCE to 1000 BCE. It did occur before the birth of the Buddha and the Jain Tirkantharas. However claiming humans to have an advanced culture in 10000 BCE and to have fallen to a primitive state are unproven claims.

These claims are on par with Abrahamic(Jewish,Christian and Islamic) Creationists claiming the earth to be 6000 years old. Unless there is evidence supporting the religious claims such ideas are to be avoided. I would desist from going the way of Young Earth creationists and Flat earthers who justify their holy texts using nonce. They end up using pseudo scientific arguments about Noah`s flood and use irrational arguments to justify the events of the Torah,the Bible and Quran.

On a personal note I do believe that Ramayana did occur and Rama is indeed admirable for keeping his father`s words and sacrificing his rights to kingship and going to exile. This is an exemplary action and highlights the strong emphasis on filial relationships in our culture. However aping Creationists and claiming the age of Ramayana to be older than 10000 BCE is silly. Humans as a species came out of Africa about 150,000 years ago and only began to develop state cities and civilization around 5000 years ago. The first civilizations were in Sumer/Mesopotamia,Indus Valley,Egypt and Greece. Most of the historical basis for these is established using scientific methods like C-14 dating.




the 2 things you mentioned is a case of glaring false equivalence. the age of most civilizations was set like you mentioned in keeping with the timeline of abrahamic creationism. the saraswati river study and a lot of other anecdotes is pretty definitive proof that this dating is not hokum. no historical site of the ramayana has been carbon dated btw, the dates you gave for it are the ones the marxist historians claim.
 

Hijibiji

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Once i saw in a temple in TN that a reasonably sized stone was floating on water.
I saw it, everyone else saw it.
It was there for demo.
Everything happens by the will of God.
Sawbi tnaar ichchha, sawbi tnaar kripa.
 

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