Mahabharata is usually described as ‘Itihasa’, but Ramayana is always described as an epical poem (kavya). This most influential poem is thought to be written by a single poet, Valmiki, as the colophon explains. However, the present epic of seven cantos is surely the work of multiple poets and interpolators. It can be said that the main theme of the poem was extant either in the form of a ballad or folklore in various forms and was popular that was improvised, adding imaginary and real heroic events that already took place in the lives of now unknown heroes as well as marvelous and supernatural elements in a flow by dousing elements of religious morals and a religion-specific cultural values that were preferable to the poet (or interpolator) of the main body of the epic poem.
It is a matter of debate whether the story of the Ramayana is a historical narrative, an allegory, or fiction. The internal inconsistencies of the Valmiki Ramayana make us believe that the work of Ramayana has passed through many interpolations made by full hardy sectarians to propagate their religious ideologies through a popular story. This applies to the other religious versions such as Paumachariya by Vimal Suri, a Jain Ramayana. The Valmiki Ramayana has been used as a tool to force Aryan Vedic values over non-Aryans, whereas the Paumchariya is aimed at propagating Jainism through the Rama story.
Let us examine the Ramayana in a new light to understand when it was originally written, what era of the story appears in the Ramayana, and the cultural ethos it represents, at least in the present versions. Also, let us examine the societies appearing in the text to understand to which era the poet might have belonged. And lastly, let us try to find out whether Rama and Sita were historical personalities or works of fiction.
The Ramayana is attributed to poet Valmiki, who is considered to be Adikavi by tradition, though he is not the first to narrate Rama's story. Let us try to understand this character who appears to be an active participant in major events in the Ramayana. The colophons claim that the Rama story is based on the Vedas and Smritis. It is claimed by Ananda Guruge that “by not refuting the authority of the Vedas, it ensures the appreciation of the orthodox sects.” 1 However, this seems like a lame explanation because the Ramayana is not only written to gain appreciation from the orthodox sects, but it also aggressively propagates the Vedic values and world views throughout the text, many times at irrelevant places. Though Macdonell states that in originality the text is secular, since the boundaries between original and present text have been blurred it cannot be said emphatically that this work is secular. Valmiki’s life story is also obscured by the myths. Agni Sharma, original name of Valmiki, was a Brahmin who on Narada’s guidance started to perform penance and chanted “Mara” (die) which in the course of repetitive chanting became Rama, a holy word. An anthill formed around Agni Sharma, and thus he acquired the name Valmiki.2 This story appears to be fictional and just an explanation for the name Valmiki. Whenever Ramayana was first written there was no tradition of surnames in India, hence the name Agni Sharma also certainly is imaginary. To show such a great poet was from the Brahmin class this concocted story seems to have been created. There also are legends that Valmiki was a robber before he turned into a sage.3 The mythical accounts of Valmiki are fantastic. However, though we do not know the history of this legendary poet, we have to consider him real, with no historical account. The mythical stories created around him are an attempt to blur his original character and ethnicity, as is done in the main story of the Ramayana, to suit the narrative of the newly formulated Ramayana by some poet/s. The main storyline of the poem is thus loaded with Aryan (Vedic) and Vaishnavite elements, which in the original must have been absent because the cult of Vishnu has a very late origin. For example, considering Rama as the incarnation of the Vishnu theme is interpolation, as is proved by the scholars. The first and seventh cantos are later additions, and in these cantos, the supernatural element such as the divinity of Rama appears.4
The stories in which Rama accompanied Sage Vishvamitra to defeat the Rakshasas to safeguard fire sacrifices appear in Balkanda, which are naturally also fictional but were created and annexed to the original Valmiki Ramayana to show Rama as protector of the Yajnas (fire sacrifices). Balakanda and Uttar Kanda, both the cantos differ in language and spirit from the rest of the Kandas.5 There are interpolations in the main body (five cantos) where Rama, during exile, is shown hopping from one hermitage to another. Before going into exile, he meets with Vishvamitra, a sage from the Rig Veda, or namesake. The hermitages Rama visits are shown to belong to Atri, Gautama, Bharadvaja, Agatsya, etc., which are the names that are borrowed from the Vedas to show the connection of Rama with the Veda. But since Rama does not appear anywhere in the Vedic corpus, we can conclude that these stories of seers being present in Rama’s time are clearly fictional. They seem to have been mentioned with high respect because the main objective of amplifying the Rama story in the form of the Ramayana was to propagate the Vedic religion.
There seems to have been no Vedic Aryan expansion in the east, extreme north, and south till the beginning of the Common Era. The early Vedic Aryans despised city life and preferred villages for residence. Apastamb Dharmasutra states, “Let us avoid going into towns.” (1.32,21). Bauddhayan Dharmasutra states, “No salvation to town dwellers” (2:3,6,33) and Gautama Dharmasutra clearly states, “Never recite sacred verses of Veda’s in the towns.” However, in contrast, Ayodhya appears to be a well-organized and planned city. Even if it is considered that after writing such commands in Sutra literature, after some duration, Vedic Aryans changed their stance towards urban life, and if the time of Sutra literature being the 8th to the 6th century BC, Rama or Sita does not appear in Jaina or Buddhist literature as a personality of recent past.
Rather, the names Viniya, Ikkhagu, or Saketa repeatedly occur in both of the religion’s canons, whereas the name Ayodhya starts appearing prominently only in the Gupta period, i.e. after the third century AD. This was the period when Vedic religion got royal patronage which Vedic Aryans used to spread their religion throughout the Gupta Empire. In Ramayana, we find a strange mixture of ancient and contemporary social elements. The poet had to jumble the Vedic principles with indigenous ideals which makes it very difficult to ascertain the exact time of Rama's story.
Almost every scholar has tried to connect the time of Ramayana to the Vedic Age, which itself is questionable. Though Ramayana is loaded with Vedic doctrine and social values, society in Ramayana appears as if non-existent. It is because relating the original social life of Ayodhya or to be precise Viniya or Ikkhagunagari with the newly characterized Rama would be a mismatch. This is why the poet/s seems to have deliberately avoided the description of people’s lives in detail; it provides just details of houses and palaces and not human life. Mostly it is because though urbanization was a fact even in the time when the Ramayana in its present form was composed; the city life had changed drastically from what it might have in the times of the original Rama story. Even rural life is not much depicted in detail. The life of the forest dwellers also appears as figments of imagination. The poet either was not familiar with forest life or it was not at all a major part of the original Rama story.
Any theory that seeks to trace the story of Ramayana to the Vedic Age remains only conjectural. The myth of the Vedic Age remains predominant and glorified in India, but there never was such an Age. The original story of Rama belongs to the pre-Vedic age as is evident from the left-out original traces of Rama's story. Urban life has existed since 3000 B.C. in Gangetic plains as various excavations conducted by ASI reveal. There also were villages and forests and the people delved into them using farming, hunting, and food gathering for their livelihood. The social statuses were already demarcated far before the Vedic Aryans stepped on Indian soil. It is a well-nourished myth that the Aryans brought civilized culture to India or from Veda began the religious history of India. The various excavations carried out throughout India do not agree with these preconceived false ideas.
It is because except for the name traces of a few characters of Ramayana, there is nothing to be found in Vedic literature related to their stories. The same thing applies to the Mahabharata since neither a single character nor the battle of Mahabharata finds any place in the Vedic corpus. However, C.V. Vaidya argues that because the other contemporary or later literature does not mention such, it does not mean that the entire incident didn’t take place.6 However, we find many subtle wars and incidents mentioned in the Vedic literature, including the Battle of the Ten Kings; it is improbable that the Vedic literature wouldn’t have mentioned such celebrated wars like the Rama-Ravana war and the annihilative Bharata war.
However, surprisingly we can find numerous Vedic seers actively participating in the events taking place in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The explanation that there could be schools run in the names of ancient sages is a lame answer because they appear in both works as original ones. If the geography of Rig Veda is considered, the seers mentioned in Ramayana couldn’t have been inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent. Even if considered they were namesakes, their distribution of hermitages throughout India is improbable because the textual and archeological history doesn’t support it.
The Vedic Aryans entered India sometime between 1200 BC and 1000 BC. They spread gradually in the East and then the South India over a long period. Early Vedic Aryans were confined in the region of Aryavarta till the 2nd century BC as Manismriti and Patanjali’s Ashtadhyayi confirm. 7 Having Vedic seers or namesakes hermitages in regions like Vindhya, Maharashtra, and southwards was impossible at the time when Rama's story was shaping. However, as per some scholars, the Rama story took place somewhere between the 8th to 6th century BC also is doubtful because Jain and Buddhist literature nowhere mention Rama being a personality of the recent past. This only means that the Rama story, whether historical or fictional, was more ancient than what is thought by modern scholars.
The ancient version of the Rama story appears in Sutta Pitaka, a canonical Buddhist scripture that was compiled fully in Sri Lanka before the first century B.C. In this Pitaka, Rama's story is narrated in the Khuddaka Nikaya, under the title of ‘Dasharath Jataka’. The Rama story here has taken a very different shape which is not traceable in the Rama story of the Pumchariya or Valmiki Ramayana.
The second most ancient version of the Rama story appears in Paumchariya, a Maharashtri Prakrit epic by Vimal Suri that belongs to the 1st century A.D. This story is primarily aimed at propagating Jainism; hence Rama's character in this epic is contrary to what is depicted by Valmiki, though major incidents are common in both the epics.
Valmiki Ramayana is the composition of the 4th to 5th century AD. It used ancient versions as a main plot. The seeds of the story must be lying in a remote past, before entry of the Vedic Aryans in India. The nucleus of the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata are of non-Aryan origins, which can be proved from the main plot. Non-Aryan elements are scattered in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. 8 Sending any prince in exile because of family intrigue is unknown to the Vedic literary world. No such parallel can be found in the Vedas, Smritis, or Sutras, let alone Brahmana literature where the religious principles are detailed. Had there been such examples, the commentary would have been expected in the literature where almost every ethical and moral question is discussed.
The family intrigue and banishing of the son because of the stepmother is a common theme floating throughout the world mythology and folklore. Most of the ancient poets have drawn germs of their themes from such stories. It cannot be said that the theme of the story was brought by the Vedic Aryans from their original home and when in India expanded the theme in the poetic form of Ramayana. The timeline doesn’t match because a question arises as to why Vedic Aryans could have taken so a long time to compose this epic. Why not a trace of Rama's story to be found in the Vedic corpus?
The answer lies in the circumstances which might have prompted Valmiki to compose Ramayana. It was not a poetic urge that we would like to assume. When Vedic Aryans entered India and started propagating their religion they needed to fictitiously establish local connections so that the indigenous people would not think the Vedic religion was alien. They selected Rama and Krishna and they wove around their already popular stories the Vedic concepts of an ideal person. Connecting local heroes to the Vedic origin made their task of propagating their religion easy. Jainas and Buddhists already had done a similar exercise long before Valmiki wrote Ramayana. Sensing that no opposition came against them they boldly wrote Ramayana to promote Vedic religion. They highly succeeded in this mission as is apparent from the present euphoria erupted in the name of Rama.
Coming back to Valmiki Ramayana. The Ramayana’s five cantos which are considered to be mostly composed by Valmiki, clearly show its propagating nature in disguise of telling an ancient myth of a noble and heroic personality. The importance of the Vedas, fire sacrifices, and Aryan values predominantly are expressed throughout the text while depicting various indigenous clans like Rakshasas, Yakshas, and those all whom the considered Anaryas (Non-Aryans) as representatives of the substandard and aboriginal culture whose values are primordial. Their portrayal many times is as supernatural villains.
The geographical knowledge of the poet/s seems to be vague having no accuracy in any detail. Many geographical details, especially of South India, are vague and inaccurate. Due to the lack of positioning information, it appears that the place names are just fictional or based on hearsay. For example, in the first Canto, the travel of Dasharatha from Kosala to Anga region is mentioned which was to bring Rishyashringa seer is confined to just two stanzas where Dasharatha passes through the forest and crosses rivers. If the Anga state is considered to be the Anga Janapada of Magadha, it is evident that since Vedic civilization hadn’t reached those regions, there is no question of Seer Rishyashringa being present there. The distances and directions mentioned in Ramayana do not coincide with the various places, like Panchavati, Kishkindha, etc.9
Five journeys are mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana. 1. Ayodhya to Mithila accompanied by Vishvamitra. 2. Ayodhya to Girivraja, 3. Girivraja to Ayodhya, trip of Bharata. 4. Wandering of Rama from Ayodhya to Lanka during exile. 5. By Air, from Lanka to Ayodhya.
Though the starting and end locations are somehow identifiable, the places where they halted are ambiguous. For example, during the journey with Vishvamitra from Ayodhya to Mithila, it is mentioned that they halted at Vidarbha and Sankasya. Sankasya has not been identified with any region or city. Vidarbha is located far south (in Maharashtra) so it is unlikely that the same Vidarbha is mentioned in Ramayana, as it could not fall on the way to Mithila from Ayodhya. The second journey mentioned also poses the same difficulties where the messengers had traveled from Ayodhya to Girivraja taking different paths while returning. The account of both to and from travels is divergent and not complimentary. The mention of the Drishadvati River poses more problems because no such river has been yet identified in north India, though attempts to locate Sarasvati and Drishadvati are being made. To show affinity with the Vedic Age, the composers of Ramayana artificially used these river names, when the rivers in question were absent in the Indian sub-continent.
When in exile Rama is said to be residing at Chitrakuta, a place three yojana away from Prayaga. We do not know what distance a yojana is covered. Various mountains have been attempted to identify with Mount Chitrakuta, but no conclusive agreement has been reached as yet. Dandakaranya also appears to be a fictional forest as the existence of a stretch of forest covering a vast area, from Chitrakuta in the north to Krishna River in the south is improbable. The archeological findings do not support this idea.
The mythical story of Danadaka and his kingdom being prosperous and as he ill-treated an ascetic, his curse destroyed the kingdom is created to establish that the Vedic ascetics should be honored or such calamity can befall. Panchapsara Lake, where Rama, Sita, and Laxmana lived for almost 9 or 10 years also as yet has not been identified, though it is believed to be in Ramgadh hills on account of probability. The location of Kishkindha is rather strange. CV Vaidya observes that “…the geography given in Kishkindha Kanda, strangely enough, takes for its center a point somewhere near Delhi.” 11 Vaidya tries to cover this anomaly by stating that this may be a mistake of a compiler. However, there is no uniformity or sequence, and the directions also are misquoted in all major three recessions of the Ramayana making it doubtful whether Kishkindha was situated in south India.
The characters, such as Kabandha, Jatayu, and many others who meet Rama in the Dandaka forest are supernatural creatures. Sugriva, Vali, Hanumant, and other associates are portrayed as monkeys having human tendencies. Their culture is shown as primordial though they possess supernatural powers. Ravana, his siblings, and his people are portrayed as Yaksa and Raksasa (demigods and demons) while the father of Ravana is a Vedic sage and his mother is an Anarya, Raksasi. This seems to have been done purposefully because the marriage between Vedic Aryans and non-Aryans couldn’t have existed when the original story emerged. Even if considered that this had become an acceptable norm to assimilate both cultures, the character of Ravana is intriguing and therefore confusing. Possibly composers of Ramayana couldn’t distort the image of Ravana to the darkest extent, hence they artificially tried to imbibe Aryan elements in his character.
It would appear from careful analysis of Valmiki Ramayana that the original Rama story did not cover such a vast region. To show the Vedic spread, Valmiki had to expand the horizons of Rama’s travels when he was ignorant of the geographical details of the subcontinent. He mostly seems to have solely depended on the hear-say from the travelers and traders and applying his poetic imagination he wrote Rama’s sojourn which poses difficulties in determining the historicity and time of the original Rama story.
Even so, Valmiki has taken poetic pains to compose this epic (five cantos) only because he wanted to propagate religion and certainly, he was successful in these efforts. In Valmiki Ramayana, we find a clash of cultures throughout. Those who did not belong to or adhere to the Vedic principles are called Anaryas (non-Aryans). Anarya term is used in a derogatory form signifying their despicable race and customs. The term Anarya is used for those Aryans also whose conduct was not according to the Vedic morals. Kaikeyi was reproached by Dasharatha and Bharata as ‘Anarya’. Interestingly, Indrajit, a Raksasa, blames his uncle Bibhishana as Anarya. The ambit of the term Arya was not limited to just the ethnicity of a person but it also necessitated the sense of being adherent of Vedic principles. The term Arya was used to show how Aryans were ethical and noble and those who deviated from those principles were also called Anaryas. Anarya term naturally got a derogatory sense, the way it happened with the terms Asura and Shudra. This was a purposeful cultural attack on the sovereignty of folk religion for which the Rama story was used and expanded though the composers of Ramayana knew very little of Indian society and its geography.
The original story of Ramayana, as we have seen, must have been shaped long before the advent of the Vedic Aryans. It was sung almost everywhere in different forms in local languages. The Vedic Aryans needed a hero to appropriate through whom they could propagate their religion, enforce their supremacist principles, and proclaim the indigenous culture backward. Through this amplified epic, the poet/s skillfully did the job though they lacked necessary geographical and historical details. The social conditions appearing in the Valmiki Ramayana cannot precede the 4th century BC and cannot be later than the second century AD, as described by Anand Guruge. 12 Even if considered that this timeframe is near the truth, it is clear from the descriptions of Ramayana that the poet was not familiar at all with the social conditions of north and south India, even during this time. He used the original story as a germ and constructed a fictional and flimsy narrative from it to propagate the Vedic religion. Various alterations and modifications have blurred even the original work of Valmiki.
This is why the Ramayana cannot be considered the mere imagination of a poet but a purposeful narrative that divides Indian societies into two categories, viz., Aryans and non-Aryans. Only those non-Aryans are considered to be characters of virtue who have offered some help to the Aryans or were humble to them. The principles of equality adhered to by the indigenous people are mocked and insulted. The story of Surpanakha, Ravana’s sister, is evidence of this. What Rama says to Sita when Ravana is vanquished and Rama goes to see Sita in Ashokvana for the first time after her abduction clearly shows the intoxicated pride of patriarchy and the subordinate position of Sita in Rama’s life.13
In short, the Ramayana that we have today was intended to glorify and enforce Vedic Aryan values and social systems on the indigenous people. The character of Rama, who appears in this version, is heavily criticized by scholars like Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and many others. However, it is not possible that Rama, in his original form, represented a patriarchal society and adhered to the Vedic value system.
-Sanjay Sonawani
Ref.:-
1. The Society of the Ramayana by Anand Guruge, Abhinav Publications, 1991, p. 2.
2. History of Ancient India (a New Version): From 7300 Bb to 4250 Bc. By JP Mittal, Atlantic Publishers & Dist. 2006.
3. The Skanda Purana, Part 17 (Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythological Series, Vol. LXV), Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2002, p. 506
4. The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300, Romila Thapar, 2015
5. The Society of the Ramayana by Anand Guruge, Abhinav Publications, 1991, p. 33.
6. The Mahabharata: A Criticism, CV Vaidya, JA Cambridge & Co., 1905, p. 94.
7. Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India by Johannes Bronkhorst, Brill, 2007, page 2
8. Epic India or India as Described in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, by C. V. Vaidya, page 300
9. Geography of Ramayana by Jijith Nadumuri, Notion Press, 2023.
10. The Society of the Ramayana by Anand Guruge, Abhinav Publications, 1991, Page 64.
11. The Riddle of the Ramayana by C. V. Vaidya, p. 40.
12. The Society of the Ramayana by Anand Guruge, Abhinav Publications, 1991, page 49.
13. Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddhkand, Sarga-118, 16–24.
